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What is the difference between the "Program Files (x86)" and "Program Files" folders in Windows

Program Files is a folder in the Microsoft Windows operating system where applications are stored that are not part of the operating system installed by default. Each application is located in its own folder, the name of which usually contains the name of the developer company and the actual name of the program itself.

Standard folder location - %SystemDrive%\Program Files. It can be changed before installing the system by making a change to the answer file (winnt.sif) included in the distribution, but in practice it is rarely changed. The installed operating system stores the folder path in the registry key - HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ProgramFilesDir and sets the environment variable %ProgramFiles%. Application programs should perform expansion of this environment variable to obtain the location of the folder on the target system rather than relying on the default, most commonly encountered location. However, some unscrupulous developers violate this agreement and hard-code the location of the Program Files folder into their products.

The folder name is often criticized because it is shortened to Progra~1 when using legacy file allocation tables and the 8.3 recording format. In addition, there are problems adapting programs to other environments. For example, in 64-bit versions of Windows this problem is solved by adding additional folders - in ProgramFiles 64-bit files are stored, and in ProgramFiles (x86)- 32-bit programs.

Beginning with Windows NT, the Program Files folder is tamper-proof and can therefore only be edited by administrators, preventing accidental modification or deletion of the folder.

see also

Links

  • Microsoft Windows

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See what "Program Files" are in other dictionaries:

    Program Files- is a folder in Microsoft Windows operating systems where applications that are not part of the operating system are installed by default. Each program is put into its own subfolder where all of the related binary files can be stored, this sub... ... Wikipedia

    Program Files- Le nom Program Files désigne sous Windows le dossier où sont rangés par défaut les fichiers (notamment les exécutables) des logiciels installés. L emplacement de ce répertoire est défini par la variable d environnement %ProgramFiles%. La valeur… … Wikipédia en Français

    Program Files- (in Computers) files that are part of applications or programs (as opposed to document files) … English contemporary dictionary

    Files-11- Files 11, also known as on disk structure, is the file system used by Hewlett Packard s OpenVMS operating system, and also (in a simpler form) by the older RSX 11. It is a hierarchical file system, with support for access control lists, record... ... Wikipedia

    Program database- Infobox file format name = Program database icon = caption = extension = .pdb mime = type code = uniform type = magic = owner = Microsoft released = latest release version = latest release date = genre = Debug container for = contained by =… … Wikipedia

    Program Information File- PIFs, or Program Information Files, define how a given MS DOS program should be run in a multi tasking environment, notably to avoid giving it unnecessary resources which could remain available to other programs. TopView was the originator of... ... Wikipedia

    program- ▪ I. program pro‧gram 1 [ˈprəʊgræm ǁ ˈproʊ ] noun 1. COMPUTING also computer program a set of instructions used to make a computer perform a particular task; = SOFTWARE...Financial and business terms

    Files transferred over shell protocol- FI les transferred over SH ell protocol is a protocol to use SSH or RSH to transfer files between computers and manage remote files.The advantage of FISH is that all it requires on the server side is an SSH or RSH implementation, Unix shell and a ... Wikipedia

    Program Manager- infobox software name = Program Manager caption = Program Manager in Windows 3.0 developer = Microsoft latest release version = latest release date = operating system = Microsoft Windows genre = File Manager license = MS EULA website = Program… … Wikipedia

    program, computer- Set of ordered instructions that enable a computer to carry out a specific task. A program is prepared by first formulating the task and then expressing it in an appropriate programming language. Programmers may work in machine language or in… … Universalium

Books

  • Future 3: English for Results (+ CD-ROM), Schoenberg Irene E.. People who worked with this program were with the belief that English is best learned when used for meaningful communication; consequently FUTURE has it all it is a six-level dynamic program…

Remember, not so long ago I wrote an article - “Do you still save documents and programs on the system drive?” Well, this particular note will be a continuation of the first! So let's begin.
You can read the first note (if you haven’t read it) several times below on my blog to keep up to date with events. There I told you that you do not need to install programs on the system drive in the Program Files folder. The system drive is where the operating system is installed. However, there are programs that are installed only on the system drive, and it is impossible to reassign their installation path manually. What to do then? And everything is very simple, we will use the system registry of the operating system. To put it simply, the system registry is a kind of database that stores the parameters of the entire computer, operating system and installed programs. For example, even when we change the screensaver on the desktop, all changes to the change of this screensaver occur in the system registry. It’s just that the operating system provides us with a convenient graphical interface for its convenient and fine-tuning.
Here is the system registry itself. It has a tree structure, with each heading expanding.

So, let's move on to reassigning the program installation folder. All this works in both Windows XP and Windows Vista.

Attention, strictly follow the instructions described below! Do not change any other registry settings. This can lead to the operating system crashing.

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By default, the Windows operating system installs all programs in the “Program Files” folder located on the system drive (where the system is located). If you want programs to be installed in another folder, for example the “Programs” folder located on a nearby drive where there is no operating system. So, three steps.

Step 1. Open the registry editor (“Start” – “Run” – “regedit”). That is, sequentially - first Start, then click Run and enter “regedit” in a special field and OK.

P.S If the “Run” command is not displayed, then right-click on the “Start” button, go to properties and on the “Start Menu” tab, click the “Customize” button.

Then check the box next to “Run Command”

All settings are identical to both Windows XP and Windows Vista.

Step 2. Go to the branch - HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE then SOFTWARE then Microsoft then Windows then CurrentVersion

Step 3. Open the “ProgramFileDir” key (double click), in the “Value” field there will be an entry “your drive:\Program Files” (for example, your drive H:\ is the system one. Enter in this field the address of the desired folder for installing programs, for example – “D :\Programs". Click “Ok” and restart the computer. It is better to give the name of the folder for the programs in English.

Now all programs will be installed in a new folder by default! All of the above settings work in Windows XP and Windows Vista.

Strong knowledge to you with respect Artyom Yushchenko!

More than a year passed, I had no intention of switching back to XP (although I carefully kept it on the second hard drive) and decided to delete it. But it turned out to be not so simple. When I tried to delete the Program files and Documents and Settings folders, despite the fact that I did it with administrator rights, the message appeared every time:

The Unlocker utility also failed to cope with this task. It was not possible to delete the windows system folder in safe mode:

How to delete the Program files folder? I turned to a programmer friend with this question, who explained what could be done in this case. And he didn’t just explain it, but wrote it down with the help of , which helped a lot in the future.

In order to delete the windows system folder, in our case this is the Documents and Settings folder, you need to right-click on it, select Properties and go to the tab Safety . Next, select an account and click Advanced:

A new window opens, in which, on the Owner tab, click the Change button

In the window that opens, click the marked items and click Apply:

We confirm the changes:

And we become the rightful owners of the folder we need:

But that's not all, now you need to change the permissions on the corresponding tab:

Click on the marked items:

Another submenu opens (but when will they end already) - select the one marked, click OK:

Return to the previous Permissions window, check the required boxes and click Apply:

I hope this note helped you answer the question: how to delete the program files folder? In the same way, you can delete the windows old folder after “rolling” the new Windows over the old one.

When you start looking at your drive on which the operating system is installed, you can find a lot of things. For example, some time ago I talked about. Today we’ll talk about a folder called Program Files (x86): what’s in it and can it be deleted?

You can find a folder called Program Files (x86) in the root of the system drive, usually drive C. You probably know that the Program Files folder itself is necessary for installing various programs - by default, programs are installed in it. But this is a folder without any annotations, but here we are talking about a folder with the additional name x86. Moreover, if you have a folder with this name, then in the root you will find the Program Files folder without any additional additions.

The casket, as they say, opens simply. There are two versions of the Windows operating system - . In short, the difference between them is that in one clock cycle of processor time the system can process a command of 32 or 64 bits, respectively. In addition, a 64-bit operating system supports a much larger amount of RAM, while a 32-bit operating system supports no more than 4 GB (in fact, even less).

If we talk about the 32-bit version of Windows, then it only supports 32-bit programs. Accordingly, if you want to run a 64-bit program on a 32-bit system, you will receive an error. True, in many cases such an application can still be launched, but only by “dancing with a tambourine.” The 64-bit operating system supports both 32-bit and 64-bit programs and applications. Accordingly, 32-bit programs and applications are installed in the Program Files (x86) folder, and 64-bit ones are installed in the Program Files folder. It is for this reason that you see two folders with virtually identical names in the root of the folder. And this is not a bug or a system glitch, as some users believe. By the way, the Program Files (x86) folder takes its name from early Intel processors: 8086, 80186, 80286, etc. So, in any case, it is believed.

How to delete the Program Files (x86) folder?

This folder can be deleted just as easily as other folders. Administrator rights may be required. Another question is why do this if 32-bit applications are installed in this folder? In addition, already installed applications will be deleted along with the folder. Why do you need all this?

I believe that this folder should not be touched at all. After all, she doesn't bother anyone.