How to launch 64-bit powershell from 32-bit cmd.exe?

Question

I know it\'s a weird question but I am locked into a third party vendor which launches a 32-bit cmd.exe on a target 64-bit Windows Server 2008 R2 clustered server. From here

Answer 1

This script will check as see what version of powershell you are running and will relaunch itself to 64-bit if you are running in 32-bit. When the relaunch occurs it will also pass in any parameters used in the original call.

#############################################################################
#If Powershell is running the 32-bit version on a 64-bit machine, we 
#need to force powershell to run in 64-bit mode .
#############################################################################
if ($env:PROCESSOR_ARCHITEW6432 -eq "AMD64") {
    write-warning "Y'arg Matey, we're off to 64-bit land....."
    if ($myInvocation.Line) {
        &"$env:WINDIR\sysnative\windowspowershell\v1.0\powershell.exe" -NonInteractive -NoProfile $myInvocation.Line
    }else{
        &"$env:WINDIR\sysnative\windowspowershell\v1.0\powershell.exe" -NonInteractive -NoProfile -file "$($myInvocation.InvocationName)" $args
    }
exit $lastexitcode
}


write-host "Main script body"

#############################################################################
#End
#############################################################################    

Answer 2

syswow64 lets you run 32 bit system executables from 64 bit code. sysnative lets you run 64 bit system executables from 32 bit code.

So, you need to run:

%SystemRoot%\sysnative\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe