The application is not a Win32 application: what to do in this situation?

Perhaps, it is not necessary to say that many users of modern PCs based on Windows operating systems often encounter problems when installing or launching a program file on the screen a message appears that some application is not a Win32 application. What to do? First of all, take it calmly. Nothing wrong with that.

What is Win32?

First, let us explain the very essence of the problem. The reasons for the occurrence of such a message can be quite a lot. Let's say that we have an error message related to the fact that the application is not a Win32 application. Windows 7, although it is a 64-bit system, still supports the launch of applications designed for 32-bit architecture.

Another thing is that this application, the driver or the program file may simply not correspond to such architecture due to damage or even the creation of a file from the very beginning in another OS. And this is not the only option when the system can get a message stating that the application is not a Win32 application. How to fix this situation, we now consider.

Incompatibility of applications of different OSes

First you need to look at the file type. Indeed, you can often find situations when, say, the same archive has an extension of .dmg or .tar, designed to be used exclusively in Mac OS X.

It is clear that no archiver, even if it is the most powerful, will not open such an archive in the Windows environment. Naturally, immediately the system displays a message that the application is not a Win32 application. What to do in this case? The easiest way is to download or search the World Wide Web for an archive file recognized by Windows. Note that no converter-converters will help here. These simply do not exist.

By the way, in many cases the same situation is observed when working with images of disks created in Linux or Mac OS X. As already understood, specific file types do not refer to the standard registered data that Windows can work with. Roughly speaking, the system simply does not know what exactly it is that you need to open files of this type. Even if you enter the registration information in the registry key, which is responsible for initializing extensions, the user will not achieve anything concrete. Yes, the extension will be registered, but the system will not be able to find the way to open the file.

Incompatible file systems and architectures

Quite often the problem is that a PC user tries to install a driver or a 64-bit program into a 32-bit system. Actually, even the compatibility of the NTFS (NTFS5) or ReFS file system for disks and partitions of FAT32 when installing a newer or higher version is simply not provided.

On the contrary - please, no problem. Programs designed to work in FAT32 file systems, easily work in NTFS. The only thing you should pay attention to is the moment when you receive a message stating that the application is not a Win32 application. How to fix this situation, even if the file system is the same, for example, NTFS in Windows 7 and Windows XP or Vista? The matter is that 64-bit versions of programs for 64-bit "seven" are not perceived by earlier versions of type XP or Vista. Here you will have to look for a 32-bit version for NTFS file systems.

Problems with installation distributions and archives

In some cases, this kind of phenomena can be observed even in standard situations involving damage to the installation distribution or an unpacked archive.

For example, when you open an archive created with the 64-bit version of WinRAR 5 in the archiver version below this one, you can easily get an error and a message stating that the application is not a Win32 application. What to do in this case? Yes, everything is simple. You just need to find the appropriate file, packed with the same archiver, but 32 bit version.

What if the application is not a Win32 application?

But this, all, as they say, flowers. Quite often it is possible to meet and unpleasant situations when the user is firmly sure that the program or driver file is not damaged or underloaded, and the system still issues a message stating that the application is not a Win32 application. What to do in such a situation is easy to understand with the example of entering specialized data into the system registry. To do this, you need to download the Win32.reg file and run it once. After that, the problem should disappear.

Sometimes this technique does not work. It is very likely that the error problem is related to the update of the Microsoft .NET Framework.

If the computer terminal is installed, say, version 2.0, it is highly recommended to update it either automatically or in manual mode. To do this, you can use the same "Windows Update" or download the distribution on the official Microsoft update support site.

The same goes for platforms like JAVA or Microsoft Visual C ++ Distributable Package (x86 or x64). The update is done in a similar way.