Excel 32 Bit Vs 64 Bit on x64 Bit machine (Processor) and VBA

Dear All,

Firstly, I would like to express my thanks and acknowledge those who have gone before me and learnt the hard way so that I may learn the easy way. This forum (and others such as Mr. Excel) are an absolute and complete resource for all things VBA (and Excel).

I make robotic parts and use VBA for some of the code to control stepper motors and it is nice to be able to open the proverbial 'Online VBA Dictionary-with answers' to get me through some of my adversities.

This post, whilst a little off-topic, is to say to those who dare venture into the world of For Next, Do While etc etc Loops with databases whilst attempting to do this on a 32 Bit machines.....be aware! You will not always get the results you desire.

I struggled for a little over two years with what I thought was a fairly upmarket and powerful desktop 32Bit machine with 4Gb RAM, Intel Quad Core Processor blah blah.....how wrong I was. If you are playing with SQL, Large Databases, Powershell or running very large Excel databases whereby your looping code enacts new pages to be created enmasse (Myrna Larson Permutations Code comes to mind, try link here: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/o...1-522bfe373d25),
Trust me - DON'T DO IT!!!!! I can liken it to just cutting one leg off before you start a 100m Sprint.

Splurge, spoil yourself, go out and buy yourself a decent machine (with current architecture/technology) that uses x64 Bit technology, using a x64 Bit processor, AND an 64 Bit OS.....then start with a minimum of 4Gb of RAM (preferred 8Gb) or indeed more RAM if you can afford it. Then install the 64 Bit version of Office. Office during installation defaults to 32 Bit, so don't let it autorun....Stop it, open the folder (CD) and look for the 64Bit Office Setup.exe version and run that.

I re-ran some old problematic code on my new machine that I prviously ran on my old 32 Bit machine, and WOW!!....What a difference! Like a new V8 engine under the hood!!! Sure, you have to append your VBA code to run on 64 Bit machines (go here for moreinfo on that: Link: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/lib...fice.14).aspx)

So, the moral to the story.....I thought I had dodgy, poorly written code. Alas, a new lease on life with a new machine and it made all the difference. Coding is now more of a joy than ever.

For those who are interested in learning more of my coding and/or successes, my inbox (through Forum) is always open.

All the best.

H.

....as an aside note;

For those of you who have experienced trouble trying to install the 64 Bit version of MS Office, here's why and the solution is posted below.

The Link up at Microsoft's website shows some very vague instructions as to 'how' to install the 64 Bit version of Office. i have contacted MS and asked them to rectify this. They received the information positively which is great.
Link: ""Removed for security reasons - just google 32 bit/64 bit office and go to MS webiste""

On that page where it says, 'Ready to Install?'.....read on and you'll see that you won't find the details they speak of. Well, at least I didn't. Not to say that the instructions they offer are incorrect, rather....just incomplete. Everyone's situation and individual PC setup will be different (MAC too)...

I recently bought an OEM version of Office 2013 Professional (said on back cover 'Included 64 Bit Version'). When I got home, I opened the little box and there was an inner-leaf in the box that I read. It stated that if I was running a 64 Bit OS, that the autoexec.bat file would auto-detect that I was running a 64 Bit OS and that the 64 Bit version of Office would self-install.....WRONG!!!!!!!!

In fact, the 32 Bit version was installed (some 1.5 hours later) and I was not informed that it was the 32 Bit version until I tried to run some heavy code that errored. I researched the installation only to find that the 32 Bit version had installed!!! Grrrrrrrr

So, here are my additional instructions to install the 64 Bit version of Office;

If you currently have a 32 Bit version of Office installed (regardless of version), you'll need to uninstall it first....do NOT select 'Remove Personal Files' unless you wish to loose all your work.

How to Install the 64 Bit Version of Office on your PC 'GENUINE OFFICE Professional 2013'

Step One – Are you running a 64 Bit OS? Yes / No?
If No….! Errrrghcht Start over – go get 64 Bit Windows, then come back here…..
Continuing……

1. If trying to install the 64 Bit version of Office from DVD-ROM, then insert your Office 2013 DVD and STOP IT from auto-installing.
2. Navigate to your DVD-ROM Drive, right-click it, then click on ‘Open’.
3. Navigate to the ‘Office’ folder, open it, then navigate to ‘setup64.exe’
4. Double-click ‘setup64.exe’ to run the application and install the 64 Bit version of Office.
5. Follow all prompts ensuring you have your Licence Key and a valid online MS account (makes sharing easier)
6. Voila!

H.

Originally Posted by Hawko1973

(MAC too)...

Just as an FYI, there is currently no 64 bit version of Mac office.

...no announcements to bring Office for Mac into the 1990's by

They have a bit of catching up to do there...

Originally Posted by Hawko1973

I didn't say that there 'is' a 64 Bit version of Office for Mac. You have taken me out of context.

Um, no. I didn't say you did say that. I merely pointed out that there isn't one - mentioning Mac in the context of a thread about how to install 64 bit Office might confuse some people.

So,....to rain on your parade, please see this email I just received from Microsoft.

I'm not really sure what parade you think you're raining on. I stated clearly that there is currently no 64bit version of Mac office. (As it happens I am fairly well in the loop as regards what may or may not be in the pipeline but not in a position to comment. )

MS will gradually pull the plug out on Mac. I do not know how many people noticed it, but VBA, has not been updated since when? VBA is now a legacy programming language. MS will move in the entire office in to cloud (Office-365).

That wouldn't be pulling the plug on Mac any more than it would be pulling the plug on Windows. The focus is very much cross-platform.

I can't speak for you, but I'm not sure I've ever taken myself particularly seriously.

I just addressed a comment so I'm not sure what you mean?

Sitting here watching a spinning cursor / database error / slowly loading pages can occasionally feel like that...