how to detect OS architecture?

[Regan Heath]

On Tue, 17 Dec 2013 15:13:20 -0000, Marco Leise <Marco.Leise at gmx.de> wrote:

> Am Tue, 17 Dec 2013 13:30:25 -0000
> schrieb "Regan Heath" <regan at netmail.co.nz>:
>
>> On Mon, 16 Dec 2013 21:27:13 -0000, Hugo Florentino <hugo at acdam.cu>  
>> wrote:
>>
>> > On Mon, 16 Dec 2013 20:23:00 +0100, Jacob Carlborg wrote:
>> >> On 2013-12-16 17:46, Marco Leise wrote:
>> >>
>> >>> Hehe, I guess the whole purpose of the launcher is to run in
>> >>> 32-bit and detect at runtime if the 64-bit main executable can
>> >>> be run or the 32-bit version must be used.
>> >>
>> >> The only advantage of that is that only a 32bit launcher needs to be
>> >> distributed. Perhaps that's the whole idea.
>> >
>> > It is. :)
>>
>> "Process Explorer" by sysinternals, now distributed by M$ does something
>> similar.
>> http://technet.microsoft.com/en-gb/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx
>>
>> It is a 32 bit exe, which detects the OS bit width and if it's 64 bit
>> extracts a 64 exe from within itself to run.  When you quit that 64 bit
>> exe, it deletes the file it extracted from disk.  It's quite a neat
>> solution.
>>
>> R
>>
>
> Only if your executable is self-contained. If you already have
> external DLLs or assets you can as well have a launcher and 2
> actual binaries.

I don't see why that changes things?  Sure, you cannot extract your  
*static* dependent dlls (those linked at compile time with libs), those  
have to exist before you can execute your 32 bit launcher.  But, if you  
really wanted to, you could extract and runtime load dlls no problem.

R

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