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Wow64.dll, Wow64cpu.dll, Wow64win.dll files not found

Anonymous
2012-11-19T18:52:17+00:00

Hi all,

I'm running Windows 8 pro on a self-build.

I was looking through the tabs of Autoruns and under the tab KnownDLLS it is showing that 3 DLL's loading via the Registry are not in the folders addressed - details are:

HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\KnownDlls  

_Wow64  File not found: C:\Windows\syswow64\Wow64.dll

_Wow64cpu File not found: C:\Windows\syswow64\Wow64cpu.dll

_Wow64win File not found: C:\Windows\syswow64\Wow64win.dll

These DLL's can be found in C:\windows\system32.

Anyone know why the Registry entries are pointing to the wrong folder?

Should I copy the Wow62 DLL's to C:\Windows\syswow64\ or change the Registry entries?

Thx.

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Performance and system failures

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Anonymous
2012-11-24T19:10:19+00:00

Don't be concerned if autoruns reports these files as not found.   Just ignore it.  These three files are critical to (and invisible to) 32-bit processes running on a 64-bit processor.  

For a little fun you can see this by launching both the native and x86 versions of Windows PowerShell, type the following in both.   Somewhat surprisingly you'll get different results:

    cd $env:windir\system32

    dir wow*

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  1. Anonymous
    2017-07-04T18:25:58+00:00

    except the wow64.dll file is ACTUALLY not there, in the windows folder.  the registry key is not finding it, because IT's NOT THERE.   a search of the computer for the wow64.dll comes up with nothing.   so those three files are missing.  a manual hunt for them returns the SAME answer as autoruns gives.  has nothing to do with autorun as 32bit app. 

    so this answer is incorrect.  and that many people clicked that it was helpful.  because the answer they got, is you have nothing to worry about. 

    and what I NEED, for your "don't worry about it" to work for ME --- is an answer of, does windows 8.1 pro NEED the three wow64.dll's or not?

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  2. Anonymous
    2013-01-01T10:45:45+00:00

    Registry entries are pointing to the wrong folder (in Autoruns) because of the Windows File System Redirector and Autoruns being a 32-bit process running on a 64-bit Windows.

    "...whenever a 32-bit application attempts to access %windir%\System32, the access is redirected to %windir%\SysWOW64" so the files are there but not found.

    You can safely ignore these Autoruns "File not found" messages, think of it as an artifact.

    You should not copy the Wow62 DLL's to C:\Windows\syswow64\ or change the Registry entries.

    Regards,

    Itai Shaham

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-10-23T22:14:41+00:00

    Itai Shaham -  Thank you for explaining this. 

    This Autoruns problem *really* needs to be fixed.  I trust Sysinternals utils before practically anything else, and here is a major one telling me that important system files are missing (when they aren't) which could lead me to disable the registry starts for these (which I shouldn't).  I spent a couple of hours trying to figure out what was wrong, using System Restore and restoring a full Windows image etc.

    The problem is now at least 4 years old.  It's a black mark getting blacker.

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  4. Anonymous
    2012-11-24T19:24:13+00:00

    Thx for the info ....

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