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[Guardian G.I.]

I've noticed a strange thing lately - some applications that worked well on the 32-bit version of Windows 7, like certain installers, fail to load in the 64-bit version of that system. They appear in Task Manager's Processes window, but they can't be stopped and their RAM usage is always 96 KB.

Launching as administrator and setting compatibility modes does nothing. Oddly enough, trying to make a memory dump of those applications through the Task Manager throws up an error saying "Only part of a ReadProcessMemory or WriteProcessMemory request was completed".

How can I fix this problem? Does it happen due to malware or is it just a compatibility issue?

[Thief^]

16-bit software will run on 32-bit windows but not on 64-bit (Microsoft's compatibility layer only goes down one level). How old is this software? Even then though, it should just fail to run, not get stuck like that.

Otherwise it sounds like you have a fault somewhere, and I'd suggest the normal anti-malware scan / windows reinstall procedure.

[Guardian G.I.]

16-bit software will run on 32-bit windows but not on 64-bit (Microsoft's compatibility layer only goes down one level). How old is this software? Even then though, it should just fail to run, not get stuck like that.

Otherwise it sounds like you have a fault somewhere, and I'd suggest the normal anti-malware scan / windows reinstall procedure.

I'm talking about 32-bit software for XP/Vista (and newer).
I'll scan my PC for malware.

[Reelya]

Even then it might not be malware - you might have something glitched in some system files or a Windows Update that went pear-shaped, just something to keep in mind.

Either way, you need to weigh the time and effort of cleaning up malware or a glitched Windows vs just reinstalling (which of course nukes all the malware instantly).

[BigD145]

It happens. Sometimes it's just the software being too old for a modern OS no matter the bit-ness. Sometimes it's an incompatibility with a particular graphics driver. This is why you get a nice big hard drive to partition and make a 32bit install that works. Dual and triple booting is sometimes necessary. Or you can just keep a whole other older computer around for 32 bit.

[Reelya]

There's also the option of VirtualBox / VMWare / VirtualPC or the like. Then you can run a needed legacy app inside it's own environment without rebooting.