I was thinking while organizing and throwing out 8 year old data and was looking at the root of my drive and wondering why Microsoft chose to do Program Files and Program Files (x86) for 32-bit programs on a 64-bit system. Maybe it's just me but I don't find the usefulness of having two folders virtually identical except for x86 at the end of the name. Why not just have the 32-bit program installed in Program Files\AppName\x86. Would reduce the folders in the root drive, just by 1, but it would be one step closer to being cleaner in my opinion.
Now, I wonder if there's a registry edit I could do to change %PROGRAMFILESDIR% or whatever it's called, I forget, so that it does just that.
What are your thoughts on what the real decision was for having two folders and not just a sub-folder in the main program files folder.