Tip: Access 64-bit System32 with WOW64 enabled.

[TheQwerty]

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library ... S.85).aspx

The %windir%\System32 directory is reserved for 64-bit applications. Most DLL file names were not changed when porting to 64-bit, so 32-bit applications must use a different directory as their System32 directory. WOW64 hides this difference using a file system redirector.

Whenever a 32-bit application attempts to access %windir%\System32, the access is redirected to a new directory, %windir%\SysWOW64. Access to %windir%\lastgood\system32 is redirected to %windir%\lastgood\SysWOW64. Access to %windir%\regedit.exe is redirected to %windir%\SysWOW64\regedit.exe.

blah blah blah... what this boils down to is if you want to access a 64-bit application from XY that's in your System32 folder, you have to switch off the WOW64 Redirection. Sometimes this just seems like an unnecessary pain, like when wanting to use a 64-bit application in the catalog or PFA.

Thankfully Microsoft has provided an alternate way (assuming you have admin rights):
1) Navigate to %windir% in Windows Explorer (unfortunately this can't be done in XY).
2) Create a New Folder and name it "Sysnative"

This acts as a virtual path to the 64-bit System32, so now in XY you can reference "%windir%\Sysnative" to always have access to those items regardless of the WOW64 redirection setting.