Windows 10 - 32 bit. Worth supporting?

I’m thinking of moving my app from 32 bit to 64 bit on Windows, and only supporting Windows 10 or later. If I do this, is there any serious reason to support 32 bit builds also? I’m guessing the market share of 32 bit Windows 10 installations is pretty small.

7 years ago MS claimed 50% of users were running 64 bit
https://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2366300,00.asp

but they also in 2015 explained why a 32 bit version of windows 10 was needed
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Microsoft-Explains-Why-Windows-10-32-Bit-Is-Still-Needed-469563.shtml

steams stats (which WILL be skewed as gamers tend to be running very recent & more powerful machines than the average) are always an interesting read
http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey?platform=pc
but even there windows 64 bit is < 50%

On Steam, if you count all the 64-bit windows versions, it’s at around 94% overall, which is pretty solid. Probably no reason to support 32-bit in this day and age really.

Those people who had 32-bit Windows 7 or 8.x and who upgraded (or will upgrade) to 10 could only do so with a 32-bit version of Windows 10. As the still numerous Windows 7 32-bit users upgrade, I would expect a steady influx of new 32-bit Windows 10 instances.

The number should indeed diminish over time, when people change computers. New computers run mostly the 64-bit version.

If you need the memory space, go for it.
I can tell you that of hundreds of sales in the last year, not one person has demanded or even enquired about whether the app is 64 bit.
I ship 32bit and say nothing. It saves me doing two builds or alienating 32bit customers.

Good points, thank you. For Mac it’s a no-brainer: 64 bit is the way to go (and as apple seems to be deprecating support some 32 bit APIs, it’s even more wise).

For Windows, it’s not so clear - 32 bit is the “works everywhere” solution, but my app is one that runs into 3GB (ish) memory limits, so 64 bit would be nice, and I’d probably be willing to lose sales to the small % of 32 bit customers.

I see there are some other pros & cons for 64 bit windows as well, e.g. https://forum.xojo.com/43602-cluttered-64bit-builds-folder

Don’t underestimate the installed base. It is absolutely not as fast upgrading as Mac.

It also depends on the location of the world your application is used. If you want your application be used by everyone, then 32 bit is the only solution. I create solutions in 32bit because most of them are used in Africa or remote areas in the world.

Like another member already mentioned; don’t mention 32 or 64 bit. If the application does what the user expected it to do, you are fine with 32bit.

The Mac is another story, but that market is not our target.

I sell corporations and SLED (State/Local Government/Education) a LOT of 32bit windows licenses. even today. A lot of them dont have hardware that needs 64bit so they are staying on a platform that they know and trust. I try to get them to upgrade to 64bit but that sometimes it talking to a wall.

Plus some of them have custom apps that run on 32bit windows but has issues on 64bit. So they have to look at upgrading or replacing those apps.

Small companies are faster to upgrade to 64bit that larger ones.

My type of application does not need 64 bit, but I verified it is perfectly possible in the installer to detect which version of Windows it is running under, and install the corresponding exe, 32 or 64 bit. That can be a solution if you want to distribute both.

It depends what your app is used for. Some of the very cheap desktops (think TV set top boxes) only run 32-bit.

Initially when I released my apps to the Windows Store, I had the assumption that the majority would be using 64 Bit and thus only submitted the 64 bit binaries to the store.

Two months back, I got an email from the Microsoft Developer which reads

So it appears that the new ARM based desktops would be using 32 Bit Windows and thus it would seems that 32 Bit is here to stay at least for Windows. Definitely worthwhile to support.

ARM isn’t Intel codeset. The ARM machines are currently Windows RT and wont run your 32bit builds anyway.
Like iPads, they are phones with ambition. :slight_smile:

[quote=354433:@Jeff Tullin]ARM isn’t Intel codeset. The ARM machines are currently Windows RT and wont run your 32bit builds anyway.
Like iPads, they are phones with ambition. :)[/quote]

I believe the keyword is “upcoming”. Microsoft is working with Qualcomm to release version of Windows 10 for the ARM processor which comes with a x86 emulator. We are not talking about the prior Windows RT which is pretty much dead.

https://www.theverge.com/2016/12/7/13866936/microsoft-windows-10-arm-desktop-apps-support-qualcomm

This should run Win32 apps via this emulator.

Let’s not forget the quantity of Windows tablets around, which apart of the Surface Pro, are mostly 32 bits.

Interesting.
Looks like 32bit isnt going away anytime soon, then.

Release for 32bit unless your app wont work in 32bit (large file/memory requirements). But if the users OS is 64bit, just install your 64bit version during setup.