x32 (32bit) vs x64 (64bit)

[Bedford]

In order to use a MS Access program we're told we need to ditch Office 365 64bit, and reinstall 32bit, that's fine.
Question; what is the downside of converting back to Excel 32bit on our new machines running Windows 11, can anyone weigh in on this.

 

[6StringJazzer]

I'm surprised someone told you that you need to do this. At this point you should install 64-bit on any machine capable of it. Do you have any idea what is the technical reason that you have to downgrade? Does the Access program use any VBA? Some VBA is dependent on 32 vs. 64 but this is not very common for the average user. It is better to the fix the VBA than to downgrade your whole Office install. If you have Excel files with VBA that depend on 64-bit you will have the opposite problem after a downgrade, although again, that's not common for the average user.

Other than that you could potentially lose addressability of large address spaces. Office will also require you to downgrade all your apps, not just Access, so you will have to do analysis for impact on everything else.

 

[Bedford]

I'm surprised someone told you that you need to do this. At this point you should install 64-bit on any machine capable of it. Do you have any idea what is the technical reason that you have to downgrade? Does the Access program use any VBA? Some VBA is dependent on 32 vs. 64 but this is not very common for the average user. It is better to the fix the VBA than to downgrade your whole Office install. If you have Excel files with VBA that depend on 64-bit you will have the opposite problem after a downgrade, although again, that's not common for the average user.

Other than that you could potentially lose addressability of large address spaces. Office will also require you to downgrade all your apps, not just Access, so you will have to do analysis for impact on everything else.

Well, the gentleman, programer writing the program for us using Access is doing so on a 32bit version. We just moved from using Mac's to Dell with Windows 11, these are brand new machines capable of using Access based programs whereas Mac isn't. Until now, we've used a fairly complex excel workbook to do our invoicing, quotations, data gathering and inventory on, but it is cumbersome, and not all staff can use it confidently, so, moving to an access program based on advice from 2 accountants, and other professionals. Quandary, do we, can we, ditch 365 in 64bit from the new machines and bring on 32bit to accommodate the new access based program, or, what can be the alternative from the programers side, confused.

 

[6StringJazzer]

The places in VBA where it matters is when it calls a system API, in which case declarations of pointers have to be changed from Long to LongPtr, functions have to be declared with PtrSafe. Here is some info from MS

64-bit Visual Basic for Applications overview

Office VBA reference topic

docs.microsoft.com

 

[Bedford]

The places in VBA where it matters is when it calls a system API, in which case declarations of pointers have to be changed from Long to LongPtr, functions have to be declared with PtrSafe. Here is some info from MS

64-bit Visual Basic for Applications overview

Office VBA reference topic

docs.microsoft.com

Hey, thank you very much for weighing in, as it turns out, shortly after I responded to you previously, the kind programer wrote me and told me; "
I have recreated the file in 64 bit Access on another machine. Just putting it through tests and making sure that it's all OK and I'll send it to you shortly.
All my development from now on will be on 64 bit Access so it will be fully compatible with your systems." I am very pleased, and I'm certain I'll be very pleased with the results of his work.
Thank you again for responding.

 

[smozgur]

It is better to the fix the VBA than to downgrade your whole Office install. If you have Excel files with VBA that depend on 64-bit you will have the opposite problem after a downgrade, although again, that's not common for the average user.

Post #2 clearly answers the original question, as the programmer also chose the right way before it is too late.

Therefore, I switched the marked solution post accordingly to help future readers with @6StringJazzer's short but certainly correct description.