4GB Patch

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guinness
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4GB Patch

#1 Post by guinness »

I just discovered this tool: http://ntcore.com/4gb_patch.php

I haven't tested, but it appears it can patch an x32 EXE to be x64, thus utilising the increase from 2GB to 4GB of RAM.
Why things are this way on x64 is easy to explain. On x86 applications have 2GB of virtual memory out of 4GB (the other 2GB are reserved for the system). On x64 these two other GB can now be accessed by 32bit applications. In order to achieve this, a flag has to be set in the file's internal format. This is, of course, very easy for insiders who do it every day with the CFF Explorer. This tool was written because not everybody is an insider, and most probably a lot of people don't even know that this can be achieved. Even I wouldn't have written this tool if someone didn't explicitly ask me to.

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m^(2)
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Re: 4GB Patch

#2 Post by m^(2) »

guinness wrote:I just discovered this tool: http://ntcore.com/4gb_patch.php

I haven't tested, but it appears it can patch an x32 EXE to be x64, thus utilising the increase from 2GB to 4GB of RAM.
Why things are this way on x64 is easy to explain. On x86 applications have 2GB of virtual memory out of 4GB (the other 2GB are reserved for the system). On x64 these two other GB can now be accessed by 32bit applications. In order to achieve this, a flag has to be set in the file's internal format. This is, of course, very easy for insiders who do it every day with the CFF Explorer. This tool was written because not everybody is an insider, and most probably a lot of people don't even know that this can be achieved. Even I wouldn't have written this tool if someone didn't explicitly ask me to.
No, it doesn't change from 32 to 64 bit exe. As said, it just switches a flag in the exe header. Search for large_address_aware if you want to learn more.

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guinness
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Re: 4GB Patch

#3 Post by guinness »

Wow, I actually learnt something :D Thanks m^(2)

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