Details

WinSQL is a 32-bit application, which can run on a 64-bit OS as well. There are two ODBC managers on a 64-bit Windows machine:

• One for 32-bit data-sources
• Another for 64-bit data-sources

If you access the ODBC manager from Control Panel, Windows will always display the manager for 64-bit, showing the drivers that are compiled for a 64-bit architecture. In order to access the 32-bit manager, you must spawn the ODBC manager from within WinSQL. This is done by clicking:

• File/Open ODBC manager from WinSQL's main menu, OR
• Click the ODBC Mgr. button in WinSQL's connection window.

ODBC drivers are built as DLLs on Windows. A 32-bit DLL can only be loaded by a 32-bit EXE file. Similarly, a 64-bit DLL can only be loaded by a 64-bit application. Therefore, you can only use 32-bit ODBC drivers with WinSQL.

Frequently asked questions about 64-bit platform

Question: I don't see DSN created from ODBC Manager in WinSQL, why?
Answer: You will only see those DSN that are created using the 32-bit version of the ODBC manager.

Question: Can I convert existing 32-bit DSNs to 64-bit DSNs or visa-versa?
Answer: Theoretically speaking, you can convert the DSN entries, which are specified in the registry. However, this conversion will most likely won't work. The DSN entries are tied to the ODBC driver DLL. Since the driver for 32-bit data sources is different from 64-bit, manually changing the registry entries won't work.

Question: Will I be able to access a database running on a 64-bit machine from WinSQL?
Answer: Yes. Accessing a database running on a 64-bit machine is not a problem at all.

Question: Are there any plans to port WinSQL to a 64-bit architecture? Answer: Yes. WinSQL is written using Borland C++ compiler. As soon as a compiler is available for 64-bit, we will make it available for that platform.

Question: Are there any disadvantages of using a 32-bit application on a 64-bit machine?
Answer: Not really. The most significant advantage of running on a 64-bit OS is the use of more memory. A 32-bit process on Windows can only use up to 2 GB of memory space, where as the theoretical limits on a 64-bit Windows OS is around 128 GB

WinSQL's memory footprint hardly goes above 100 MB, which is far less than the limits on a 32-bit machine. Therefore, using WinSQL on a 64-bit machine does not change anything.

Questions: Does this mean we should run our database server on a 32-bit platform as well?
Answer: No. Database servers typically need a lot more memory to run and therefore, can definitely take advantage of a 64-bit platform.

Keep in mind that WinSQL is a client - it takes user's query and passes the script as-is to the server. The server performs the actual work of acting on the query and finally returns the results back to the client.