Error - not a win32 service

[The Young Ones]

I have downloaded a trialversion of Snoqualmie (a screensaver) but I cant
install it on my Vista x64 system because of an error (not a win32
service)....while my friend who has a Vista x86 labtop can install it.

 

[Rick Rogers]

Hi,

It's probably a 16-bit application, and they cannot be run in x64. Got a
link to the software?

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
My thoughts http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com

 

[cvp]

Sounds more like it's trying to install a 32-bit Service - Not valid on 64
bit Vista

 

[Andrew McLaren]

I have downloaded a trialversion of Snoqualmie (a screensaver) but I cant
install it on my Vista x64 system because of an error (not a win32
service)....while my friend who has a Vista x86 labtop can install it.

Goede Dag

The error message is probably "Not a valid Win32 application". This is the
message you get when Windows tries to load an file as a program (eg a *.EXE
or *.SCR file), but finds that the contents of the file cannot be executed.
This is usually caused by some of file corruption.

Try downloading the file again. Then, uninstall your existing version and
install the newly downloaded file.

Or, get a copy of the downloaded file your friend is running, and install
that instead (since we know it works).

As a quick test, I downloaded the Snoqualmie screen saver and installed it
on a 64 bit Vista machine here, and it ran fine. So the Snoqualmie screen
saver can run on 64 bit Vista, in general terms.

Tot ziens,

 

[Andrew McLaren]

Sounds more like it's trying to install a 32-bit Service - Not valid on 64
bit Vista

Huh? Sure you can run 32 bit Services, on 64 bit Windows!

You might be thinking of device drivers. It is certainly true one cannot run
32 bit device drivers on 64 bit Windows. Device Drivers run in kernel mode
and have no access to the WoW64 layer to do address translation.

32-bit user-mode Services can run in the WoW64.

Of course, specific 32 bit Services might have compatibility problems of one
sort or another, on 64 bit Windows. But there's nothing intrinsic about a 32
bit Service *per se*, which prevents it from running on 64 bit Windows.
Apart from being controlled by the SCM, a Service is just another Win32
process.

In any case, screen savers are not Services; they are executable *.SCR
files. An *.SCR is basically just a normal EXE file, with a different
extension.

 

[cvp]

No - I was merely trying to parse "because of an error (not a win32
service)" in the OP