No 32 bit apps work

[Afrikaaner]

hey, im running a FRESHLY installed copy of XP 64 bit, and for some reason, unbeknownst to me, starting this morning, all 32 bit programs give me this error:

this application has failed to start because the application configuration is incorrect. reinstalling the application may fix this problem

and all i can do is click ok and obviously the app never starts...i tried system restore to no avail, im only able to post this because of internet explorer 64. and now i cant even run windows update b/c it requires the 32 bit version to actually open...im waiting for firefox to finish dl and im gonna reinstall it

 

[Afrikaaner]

and nope, i cant even run the installer program...its an exe

 

[TheLastWolf]

You need to install the 64 bit versions of whatever your downloading.

 

[Kage]

So, on a 64 bit OS, it can't support 32 bit programs?...

I thought that may be the case, but if so, thats pretty bad

 

[Afrikaaner]

no no no they worked fine before...things like trillian and internet explorer 32bit (which is included with XP 64) and ran fine until something happened...what i want to know is what happened and how to fix it