Win11 no longer has 32-bit builds, neither for OEMs or consumers (although there were/are internal 32-bit-only compiles of 22000...).. However, the OS currently still sports the WoW64 emulator, and thus is still capable of running pure 32-bit binaries... How many years or decades, until any and all 32-bit app support is completely stripped out of Windows (e.g. no more WoW64, full 64-bit only). NTVDM for example is no longer included by default on 32-bit Win10, but is an optional component and can be installed on-demand... Maybe by 2025, or early 2030s?
Trashing 32bit is the most pointless move ever. Except for some math intensive tasks an some video conversion SW there isn't a single real reason to waste the increased HDD space and RAM using a 64bit OS. Then there are functionalities available on 64bit only flavors, (hyper-v, wsl, deduplication) but those are mostly artificial barriers. But 99% of the people don't need such features.
The single biggest advantage Windows has over every other operating system is its long native support backwards compatibility. It's not that you couldn't run 32-bit programs in an emulator or a virtual machine. You can, obviously. It's just a big hassle.
It's not gonna happen as Windows will always be backward compatible with everything and it's actually not really needed.
Whatever kids that can't live with wow64 can just use windows server and remove it from the server manager.
One if not the most important strong point of Windows is the backwards compatibility. So microsoft would think it twice before trashing the WoW64 layer. Also, i think the internal compiles of 32-bit 22000 means that they wasn't sure of dropping 32-bits after the announcement, but needed something else to support the TPM req.
Windows 11 may only have a x64bit build but Windows 11 still supports 32-bit software, people are getting this all confused. People think because Windows 11 only comes as 64bit that it must only support 64bit software, not the case. Might be in the future but not right now. The people in the above posts may understand that but just throwing it out there so there is no confusion.
Hell about 30% of the software i ran on my Windows 10 64bit is 32bit software, same with the Windows 11 I'm running right now and everything seems to be seamlessly fine.
When kids will stop thinking that 64 is better than 32 just because the bigger number? People must think if a tool does it work well not about what's under the hood. Perhaps as today is not just matter of compatibility with the past, is matter of compatibility with the present. As today even big SW like VMware Workstation 16 are still 32bit programs with a small section running natively on 64bit Last but not least, even the 16 bit support wasn't removed from x64 bit Windows because MS wanted to, it's a CPU limit. AMD designed the x64 CPUs to be able to run 16+32 bit SW OR 32+64 but NOT 16+32+64, and AMD itself was almost forced to do so because the cruft left to the x86 standard,by Intel, across two decades of patchy upgrades.
When MS does this they will drop it from the OS and move compatibility to some kind of virtualization or emulation layer. 32bit apps will run one way or another for quite some time still.
Yep but will be something like forcing to use electric cars only, and providing a gasoline generator to power them. In my country we have jokes about the "office for complication of simple things" I think MS can talk to them if want to do so.
A big issue is drivers. Many of the big players only offer 64bit drivers, now, and drivers, unlike software, MUST match the architecture of the underlying OS. Is it next to the "Ministry of Silly Walks"?
Yep. Killng 32 is the today trend, and although the situation in Linux is really different (there is little difference between x64 and x86 there and little point to stay on x86), most distros are becoming x64 only. I guess
It will happen overtime as more compiler will be 64bit as default especially that there won't be a 32bit Windows 11.