If you need to run a 64 bit system command, or a system command that requires access to the 64 bit system folders you may need to turn off File System Redirection.
To turn off File System Redirection call the snappily named Wow64DisableWow64FsRedirection function and remember to turn it back on with the equally memorable function Wow64RevertWow64FsRedirection.
For example:
//turn off File System Redirection LibFunc>kernel32,Wow64DisableWow64FsRedirection,result,0 Let>RP_ADMIN=1 let>RP_WAIT=1 DeleteFile>%TEMP_DIR%\vss.txt Run>"cmd.exe" /c vssadmin list shadowstorage >> "%TEMP_DIR%\vss.txt" ReadFile>%TEMP_DIR%\vss.txt,vss MessageModal>vss //revert File System Redirection LibFunc>kernel32,Wow64RevertWow64FsRedirection,result,0
Recently someone running the 64 bit version of XP was having a problem running this innocuous looking code:
Run>c:\windows\system32\mstsc.exe
mstsc.exe is the remote desktop client. Macro Scheduler returned an error saying that c:\windows\system32\mstsc.exe could not be found, yet using Windows Explorer we could see mstsc.exe clearly in the system32 folder. The same code worked perfectly fine on a Win7 x64 system.
Eventually I realised what was happening. Because the OS was 64 bit and Macro Scheduler is 32 bit, Windows was redirecting “c:\windows\system32\” to “c:\windows\syswow64” – the 32 bit system folder. There should be a 32 bit version of mstsc.exe in there, but on this particular system it was missing (it may be that earlier versions of Remote Desktop on x64 did not install a 32 bit version). Hence the error that Macro Scheduler could not find the file. We quickly resolved this by turning off File System Redirection using the code above.
Although the current 32 bit version of Macro Scheduler runs on and is compatible with all 64 bit versions of Windows, a 64 bit version of Macro Scheduler is in the pipeline. Until then calling some system level functions may need the above treatment if those commands need to access the 64 bit subsystem. Macro Scheduler can happily execute and interact with 64 bit applications, but Windows will redirect references to some locations such as system32 unless File System Redirection is disabled.
