Hi. If Sage are committed to investing in the product, at what point will you be moving onto 64 bit as 32 bit became obsolete and unsupported in 2004.  I appreciate that a WOW64 emulator bridges the gap, but it won't forever. No company is going to strip out their 64 bit  which makes everything else work in favour of deleting and reinstalling a 32 bit system, which I have been asked to do by several tech people at Sage.  

Hi. If Sage are committed to investing in the product, at what point will you be moving onto 64 bit as 32 bit became obsolete and unsupported in 2004.  I appreciate that a WOW64 emulator bridges the gap, but it won't forever. No company is going to strip out their 64 bit  which makes everything else work in favour of deleting and reinstalling a 32 bit system, which I have been asked to do by several tech people at Sage.  

There are no specific plans to move to a 64 bit version of Sage 50 Accounts currently, although there are various ongoing considerations and investigations so it may happen at some point but I am unable to provide any indication of timescales or guarantees if/when if might happen.

Having said that I think there may be some misinformation around what is and isn't supported as 32-bit has in no way become obsolete or unsupported. Whilst Microsoft no longer provide 32-bit editions of Windows this has only been since the release of Windows 11 in October 2021. Even then 32-bit applications continue to be fully supported, including on 64-bit editions of Windows. Microsoft have announced no plans for this to be retired or removed.

WOW64 is not actually an emulator, rather it is a subsystem of Windows. It is how Microsoft provides support for 32-bit applications running on 64-bit operating systems and deals with the architectural difference between the two. I have no insights in to Microsoft's plans, but I cannot see them removing WOW64 until they move to 128-bit Windows at some future point (this was similar to when they dropped support for 16-bit when moving to 64-bit Windows).

With all that in mind there is no reason why you cannot run Sage 50 Accounts on a 64-bit system, so there is no need to go stripping out a 64-bit system just to run the Accounts software. We fully test Sage 50 Accounts on 64-bit editions of Windows and ensure its compatibility and functionality. In fact, most of our testing takes place on 64-bit operating systems. This will continue to be the case for the foreseeable future.

Perhaps what you are referring to is the compatibility of the Excel Integrated Reporting component, which is currently only supported by the 32-bit versions of Excel. This is due to a fundamental architectural issue as 64-bit processes cannot load 32-bit components (specifically COM in this case) in-process, and we currently have a good few 32-bit components, including 3^rd party ones, that cannot simply be upgraded/removed/replaced. Again, there are ongoing investigations around what could be done here but no concrete dates or promises on this front.

Hope that helps to clarify things.

To some extent yes, but it doesn't really address the issue.  Microsoft officially withdrew from 32 bit a year after their 64 bit release.  You rightly reference the old 16 bit and Microsoft will be moving onto 128, but that is beside the point.  Sage relies on 20 year old tech and Wow 64 is classed as an emulator. 

I have been a user of Sage for over 20 years and features and functions continue to be stripped out e.g. layouts, being able to use basic shortcuts for symbols such as Ø which used to work (now needing to copy and paste from a Word document). Not great for an engineering company. 

New features usually don't address any real need and as seen by other comments, create new problems of their own.  The new layout on batch supplier invoices doesn't appear to be a listed change but removing the single invoice total from top right in favour of showing the VAT rate (why??) and having to check all boxes at the base of the window really isn't helpful. The eye is distracted by several figures rather than the quick single figure. Why would I need to see the VAT rate when it is a set amount unless specifically changed for an individual transaction.  No point. 

Basic features such as being able to see all the lines on a quote/invoice etc without having to save then print preview as a particular document just aren't available. There needs to be a preview button or actually just show all lines as the document is being created. Basic features on all other brands where the text will simply 'keep going' rather than being restricted by tiny data boxes with just a few characters. 

Returning to 32 bit - I have been repeatedly told a whole host of ridiculous excuses by the tech team over the years as to why Sage won't allow me to sent quotes, invoices etc direct to customers including telling me to strip out all Microsoft 64 bit and install 32 bit to enable Sage to perform this basic function, leaving other software incompatible, so clearly we won't do this.  

The latest updates still don't address the numerous basic downsides to Sage such as only providing supplier purchase orders on all but the most expensive package, as though businesses don't buy anything.  Staggering.  We are a small business paying nearly £100 per month and I usually spend hours every week on the phone dealing with new or repeat glitches on Sage. I have better things to do with my working day. 

I'm not entirely sure we are talking about the same thing here. Microsoft did stop shipping new versions of 32-bit Windows 10 back in 2020 but have continued to support existing 32-bit operating systems even as recently as January this year when windows 8.1 fell out of support. However that is entirely moot as you do not need to be running  32-bit operating system to be able to run Sage 50 Accounts. If you have been informed otherwise by anyone then that is entirely incorrect. 64-bit versions of Windows are absolutely supported and are in fact first class citizens as the software is developed exclusively on 64-bit operating systems and fully tested on both 64-bit and 32-bit operating systems.

32-bit is a lot older than that but really only became popular back with the release of Windows 95. But if the suggestion is that 50 Accounts is relying on old technology by supporting 32-bit, then you have to extend that to other 'old tech' that it relies on such as the mouse and keyboard. Old does not inherently mean bad or outdated. However that is again moot as per my above comment.

WOW64 is in no way classed an emulator. It is a subsystem of Windows that is used to deal with the architectural differences between 32-bit and 64-bit. 32-bit code runs natively within Windows. Emulation is a very different concept. This distinction probably doesn't matter  much anyway though as the important thing is that it is a fully supported technology in Windows and Microsoft have announced no plans to remove it. This means it is a perfectly reasonable thing to run any 32-bit application on 64-bit Windows.

I am unsure who has suggested that 64-bit is unsupported or why but this is simply incorrect. As per my above comments 64-bit Windows is fully supported with no restrictions. The only restrictions on any 32-bit software is when it comes to some of integration with of Microsoft Office. As mentioned above Excel Integrated Reporting (EIR) can only be supported on 32-bit versions of Excel and this is not something that can easily be changed. Having said that we did lay some groundwork back in v27 that has opened up some possibilities round supporting 64-bit, but I cannot say if/when we might change EIR to run on 64-bit Excel. The other 32-bit restrictions relating to Microsoft Office are with the calendar import/export wizard and mail merge functions, which unfortunately also can only work with 32-bit versions of Office at this time. However when it comes to sending quotes, invoices, etc that does work with 64-bit versions of Office, and has done for many years now.

There does appear to have been some clarity around this 'lost in translation' when it comes to the documentation of support for 64-bit versions of Office, with it suggesting that only 32-bit Office is supported full stop and not taking in to account the nuances I mention above. This seems to have resulted in the incorrect message that 64-bit Office is not supported. I suspect this might be the cause of the mis-information you have been given. I have been recently discussing getting the documentation updated to make it clear what is/isn't supported when it comes to 64-bit Office so it is hopefully clearer going forwards

So in summary 64-bit Windows is fully supported by the software, and 64-bit Office is supported for everything except EIR, Outlook Calendar and Mail Merge. I hope that helps. If anyone at Sage (or anywhere else for that matter!)  tells you differently then please let me know and I will do my best to stop the misinformation occurring.