从32位应用程序检查时，Windows 10 bash.exe（Linux用户空间）不存在

Question

When 32bit app like java or python is trying to open c:\\windows\\system32\\bash.exe this file simply not found.

How ever, it works perfectly if process ir 64bit. I've created a simple C app to check how it works.

#include <stdio.h>
#include <windows.h>

int main(int argc, char *argv[]) {
char* path;
OFSTRUCT junk;

if (argc  != 2) {
 printf("provide path to file");
 return 1;
}
path = argv[1];
if( fopen( path, "r")) {
    printf("OK: Runtime reports file exists");
} else {
    printf("ERR: Runtime reports file does not exist");
}

printf("\n");
if (OpenFile(path, &junk,OF_EXIST) != HFILE_ERROR) {
    printf("OK: Win32API reports file exists");
} else {
    printf("ERR: Win32API reports file does not exist");
}

return 0;

}

It reports OK/OK when compiled and linked as x64 and ERR/ERR when compiled as x86. How could it be? Does there is some way to "hide" file from 32 bit apps in Windows?

Answer 1

This is the file system redirector in action.

In most cases, whenever a 32-bit application attempts to access %windir%\\System32, the access is redirected to %windir%\\SysWOW64.

So, your 32-bit application is looking for C:\\Windows\\SysWOW64\\bash.exe instead, which presumably doesn't exist.

The recommended way to override it:

32-bit applications can access the native system directory by substituting %windir%\\Sysnative for %windir%\\System32. WOW64 recognizes Sysnative as a special alias used to indicate that the file system should not redirect the access.

Note that there are similar redirections for the registry as well.