# Plugin Host and Windows bitness (x64/x86)

**URL:** https://forum.juce.com/t/plugin-host-and-windows-bitness-x64-x86/24366
**Category:** Windows
**Created:** [September 25, 2017, 6:25pm UTC](https://forum.juce.com/t/plugin-host-and-windows-bitness-x64-x86/24366 "2017-09-25T18:25:54Z")
**Posts on this page:** 2
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![harryg](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/forum.juce.com/harryg/32/7_2.png) [@harryg](https://forum.juce.com/u/harryg)
#### Post date: [September 25, 2017, 6:25pm UTC](https://forum.juce.com/t/plugin-host-and-windows-bitness-x64-x86/24366/1 "2017-09-25T18:25:54Z")

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Hi all,

I updated Juce after some time and wanted to use the updated plugin host.  
But then, existing pluginhost (.filtergraph) files came up empty without any message and manually adding plug-ins failed with “Unable to load VST2 (resp. VST3) plug-in file”.

Reason is that the VS2015 and the new 2017 projects are now all defaulting to x64 platform.  
While it is clear that the x64 host is not working with x86/Win32 DLLs, it is not very obvious and took me some time to figure it out.  
Additionally, I think that most Windows plugins out there are still Win32…?

So what I like to propose is:

- set plugin host defaults for Windows back to x86/Win32 (as this still might be the more popular use case?)
- add a dialog box also when loading plug-ins from a .filtergraph file fails (best case one summarized for all plug-ins)
- if easily possible, extend the message “Unable to load…" to give a hint about wrong bitness
- if easily possible, also extend the plugin scan message “…files appeared to be plugin files, but failed to load correctly…" to give a hint about wrong bitness

I did not dig deeper for now, but I could help with a PR if desired (might need some hints though).

Cheers,

Harald

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![ttg](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/forum.juce.com/ttg/32/14456_2.png) [@ttg](https://forum.juce.com/u/ttg)
#### Post date: [September 25, 2017, 7:22pm UTC](https://forum.juce.com/t/plugin-host-and-windows-bitness-x64-x86/24366/2 "2017-09-25T19:22:08Z")

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64-bit is actually _should_ be more common.  
Cubase 9 completely dropped 32-bit.  
FL Studio is agnostic.

You should try using MSBuild to make a build workflow for 32-bit and 64-bit.  
On Windows plug-ins are a mess… you might end up with:  
AAX x32  
AAX x64  
VST2 x32  
VST2 x64  
VST3 x32  
VST3 x64

However, the suggestion of hinting within the JUCE loader on bitness could be useful.