Resolving “Can't load IA 32-bit .dll on a AMD 64-bit platform” error (Windows 64bit OS)

[Doug]

I've experienced a relatively trivial problem with my GWT installation
which took a little time to resolve, so I thought I'd post the
solution here in case someone experiences the same problem. I'm very
new to Java and GWT so if there are any experts who can correct or add
information out there please do.

Basically the GWT development tool kit is currently 32bit only (as of
1.5 RC1), and I don't know of anyone who's made a 64 bit version of
the tools. So if like me you have installed the 64 bit version of the
Java JDK, you'll find that it's incompatible with the 32bit dll's
provided.

The solution is to uninstall the JDK (I uninstalled all of Java,
including the runtime), and re-install the 32 bit version. At the time
of writing this is done by going to:

https://cds.sun.com/is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfinity/WFS/CDS-CDS_Developer-Site/en_US/-/USD/ViewProductDetail-Start?ProductRef=jdk-1.5.0_15-oth-JPR@CDS-CDS_Developer

and choosing the Windows OS (not the Windows x64 OS).

You'll then need to repair the paths for your development environment
if these have changed, as the JDK should now be in the “Program Files
(x86)” directory rather than the “Program Files” directory. For
NetBeans development I found that the change was picked up (I actually
had JDK 6 installed before) by the IDE, but not by the Glassfish
installation. To alter the Glassfish configuration edit the config
\asenv.bat file (default location on a 64 bit system is “Program Files
(x86)\glassfish-v2ur2\config\asenv.bat”) and change the line for “set
AS_JDK_HOME” to the correct directory, which is probably:

set AS_JDMK_HOME=C:\Program Files (x86)\glassfish-v2ur2\lib\SUNWjdmk
\5.1

Note that if you run Vista you'll need admin rights and you'll need to
run your editor as administrator before you can change this file.

If you want the 64bit JDK then you can probably set up your
development environment paths so you can co-exist with this.

Hope this helps speed up the fix for anyone experiencing the same
problem in future.