

This functionality again depends on the application. Windows will still maintain an additional folder named "C:\Program Files" which would hold the native 64 bit programs. It is to be noted that 'x86' is technically almost an standard to indicate the 32 bit version of the processors made by Intel. The additional 'x86' written in the brackets signify that this folder contains the '32 bit' programs.

So if you were to install a 32 bit application on a 64 bit OS, Windows 7 would happily allow you to do that! However it would do it a bit differently! While the default folder in which the applications get installed is C:\Program Files, in this case, the installation folder becomes "C:\Program Files (x86)". The WoW which comes with Windows Vista and Windows 7 is called as "WoW 64" because it allows 32 bit programs to run natively on the '64' bit OS. This WoW framework is also called as "Windows on Windows" which is also its expanded form for which it stands. Windows 64 bit edition comes with something called as a 'WoW' framework which allows you to run most of the 32 bit application made for Windows on the 64 bit OS. software like VLC media player, Firefox, Office packages etc are regularly distributed by the tech magazines and it would be a great headache if you had to download each and every software separately for the 64 bit version Windows. You would not like to select each and every software out there on the internet and then search for their 64 bit version. The biggest problem there is the availability of software. but having a 64 bit Operating System has its own caveats. It's usually said that 64 bit processing makes sense only with a 64 bit OS and that is right! A 64 bit processor along with the 64 bit OS will work as much as 150% faster because it can process more data. Windows Vista and Windows 7 come in packages which have DVDs instead of CDs and every package has got both the 32 bit and 64 bit DVDs so that if you want to have the taste of the faster machine which runs on 64 bit processor, a 64 bit Windows OS will help you to speed up things.

While working of the system was one thing which changed, a lot more had changed as well. Windows Vista was a jump from Windows XP, so much so that the users were not ready to accept that drastic change in the way things were going to work.
