What are reasons to have separate folders besides to easily distinguish 32 bit images from 64 bit images?
Windows – \Program Files vs. \Program Files (x86) in 64-Bit Windows
64-bitwindows
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Best Answer
It's not just for human readability, there are many programmatic reasons to separate 32-bit apps from 64-bit. Consider the "Common Files" folder. If you have a 32-bit app and 64-bit app that use the Common Files folder for a file with the same name, you're going to hose whichever one was installed first. There are also differences in how Windows presents these folders to the apps themselves, though I'm not familiar enough with them to explain them well.
Finally, this is the first of many steps in the move to universally native 64-bit apps. Presenting the folders differently keeps the distinction visible to developers and users alike, and 32-bit "Program Files (x86)" is the odd man out.