How does Windows 2008 R2 run 32-bit applications?
If 32-bit processor support is disabled in Windows Server 2008 R2, how does the operating system run 32-bit programs?
Solution 1:
x64 CPUs can actually run 32-bit (x86) code in parallel to 64-bit code. The WOW64 layer of Windows translates the system calls of 32-bit programs to the 64-bit system routines.
Solution 2:
The lack of 32-bit processor support simply means that Server 2008 R2 will not ship with a 32-bit edition, which means it requires a 64-bit processor to run.
It still runs 32-bit applications through the WOW64 compatibility layer.