why to put 32 behind thr regsvr32 while registering component object model?

Question

I am excited to know that what is the specific purpose to put 32 behind regsvr. why not regsvr64 ? In explain what is the significance of this 32 here ?

Answer 1

It's just the same historical name, but you actually have two versions of regsvr32.exe on your 64-bit system:

C:\Windows\System32\regsvr32.exe - can register both 32 and 64 bit COM DLLs C:\Windows\SysWOW64\regsvr32.exe - can only register 32 bit COM DLLs

Answer 2

COM already existed back in the days of 16-bit Windows. The "32" got appended to distinguish the 32-bit version of regsvr.exe, which is only capable of registering 32-bit COM servers.

They didn't do it the same way for the 64-bit version, that was solved another way by keeping the 32-bit and 64-bit components strictly separate. Both in the registry and the file system. The 32-bit version is in c:\windows\syswow64, the 64-bit version is in c:\windows\system32.