Windows 10: This App Can’t Run On Your PC – Problem Fix

Often people get confused about whether to install Windows 10 32 bit version or 64 bit edition on their PC.  They end up installing 32-bit (x86) version of Windows on a 64-bit (x64) CPU or machine. The installation works fine on Computer but it does not permit execution of programs that require 64-bit edition. Windows 10 start giving errors such as “This app can’t run on your PC”.

Important information:


64 bit – It can run 64 bit programs smoothly and is backward compatible with 32 bit applications.

32 bit – It can only run 32 bit programs and won’t allow execution beyond that. But it can run 16 bit DOS 3.1 programs. Also, it does not support RAM more than 2 GB.

How do I determine if my CPU hardware supports 64 bit Windows:

1. Download and install CPU-Z program. It is a program that shows detailed information about your CPU, Ram, Motherboard and Graphic card all in one place. Every PC user must have it.

2. After installation, Run CPU-Z from programs, if your User Access Control warns you, click Yes. It will then scan your PC for a few seconds then it show detailed specifications of your machine.

3. If you see Instruction set like any of this, AMD64, x86-x64 or EM64T. Congratulations, your system is compatible with 64-bit operating system instructions. You can proceed with installation of new OS without any worry.

How to Upgrade Windows 10 32-bit to 64-bit:

Unfortunately, there is no upgrade tool or software that can change your Operating System instruction set. You will have to backup your data, format your drives and initiate a clean install of Windows 10 64-bit on your PC. You can easily create Windows 10 64-bit Bootable USB or DVD for clean installation. This process will take a while as you’ll have to download the required edition from Microsoft website.

• Once you create bootable media, insert USD/DVD on your Computer.

• Perform a machine restart.

• Access BIOS by Pressing DEL or F12 key (It varies on every motherboard)

• Set boot device to USB or DVD whichever you made earlier.

• Press F10 to save changes and exit, your PC will reboot.

• It will ask you to “Press any key to boot from USB….“, Do it.

• Windows Setup will begin, select your partition on which you want to install Windows.

• After the installation is done, Microsoft will automatically activate your Windows 10 64-bit license assuming you previously had 32-bit OS installed. Make sure you have active Internet Connection during the process.