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32bit crystal reports .net runtime discontinued in Dec 2025

apurugganan
Discoverer
694

Hello,

According to Mainstream Maintenance Dates site (photo attached below) the 32 bit CR .NET runtime will be discontinued in Dec 2025.  Looking for guidance as to what this specifically means for our application.  The recommendation says to move to 64bit runtime and implicitly this requires using Visual Studio 2022.  We are currently on VS 2019 and won't be in any position to upgrade to VS2022 anytime this year.  We definitely are going to perform this migration, however, this probably won't take place until 2026.

My question is will the 32 bit runtime still work into 2026+, assuming our application remains static and no further updates are made.  At least, this will give an idea that we can keep the current system in place while we make to effort to update the runtime.  The term "Discontinued" is interpreted by me to be no further support for the 32bit runtime by SAP but will continue to work assuming everything else systems-wise remains the same.

In addition out of curiousity and although probably costly, will SAP provide any paid support of the 32 bit runtime for those who cannot make the upgrade to 64bit this year?

@DonWilliams , you mentioned a little bit about the discontinuation here .  Is there any more information you can provide related to my query?

 

Thank you,

Alan

SAP Crystal Reports, version for Visual Studio 

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DonWilliams
Active Contributor

Hi Alan,

You don't need VS 2022+ to run your app in 64 bit mode.

All you need to do is go to your Project Properties and change the Platform to x64.

For WEB app's change the AppPool to not use x86 IIS.

DonWilliams_0-1737068677699.png

DonWilliams_2-1737068742091.png

Of course any third party dependencies you may be using will need to be upgraded to 64 bit also. But by now most of them have 64 bit updates/versions.

As for legacy support, no it won't be supported, CR for VS has always recommended to upgrade to the latest SP, not upgrading means your app will be susceptible to potential security issues and end of life 3rd party support.

FYI - typically CR is only supported current SP -2 SP's, but with CR for VS if issues are found only option is to upgrade to current versions and test again, if it's still an issue then it can be tracked to be fixed. R&D won't patch this product and BOE/CRS .NET runtime does have support but although it's not mentioned on the CR for VS page it too will end 32 bit support. It's all built on the same code each night.

So all you need to do is change your Project Platform to x64 and upgrade your Database Client to 64 bit.

You also will not need to upgrade Crystal Reports Design to 2020, it too is 64 bit, as CR 2016 is end of life now:

https://help.sap.com/docs/SUPPORT_CONTENT/crystalreports/3354088411.html

Please consult the file:
CR 2020 Data Access
Notes:
Crystal Reports 2020 is offered as a 64-bit native binary. It requires 64-bit data source middleware
connectivity on all operating systems.
Crystal Reports 2020 uses the 64-bit ODBC registry on all versions of Windows. To administer 64-bit
ODBC DSNs on 64-bit versions of Windows, run the 64-bit ODBC Administrator, located here:
C:\Windows\System32\odbcad32.exe

So you will need to update your Database Client to 64 bit as well but all do have 64 bit Clients available, if not they should.

FYI2 - You can't get Paid support for CR for VS, unless you are an OEM partner, so not an option. And for OEM partners that may be negotiable, up to Sales to decide that.

In short there is no reason to stay on 32 bit platform, all mother boards support 64 bit platform. CR for VS no longer supports 32 bit Windows and if you update your OS it will be 64 bit anyways since Microsoft will upgrade the users to Windows 11 eventually...

You will need to update each report by opening it in CR 2020 and update the Client, if it's ODBC all you need to do is create a 64 bit DSN with the same name as the 32 bit DSN and the report will continue to work. If using one CR's native Dll's nothing has to be done, except updating the Client. So if using ODBC you won't need to update the Report, maybe, depends on what the DB Client has done, there may be differences...

Hope that clarifies things for you?

Don

 

apurugganan
Discoverer
0 Kudos
Thank you, Don, for your response and it was very helpful in clarifying how to move over to 64bit using VS2019. We are definitely migrating but the issue for us is the timing. We may not be able to perform the conversion with ample time for implementation and testing this year, so we are really looking for some kind of assurance if we continue utilizing the 32 bit runtime into 2026 as we complete the conversion. In my experience, discontinued or out of support components can continue to function as expected assuming the runtime environment stays the same. I am assuming unless SAP has implemented a 'kill switch' for the 32bit runtime that will shut it down exactly in Dec 2025, the same can be said for this. However, also knowing how things work, SAP probably can't give any guarantees past Dec 2025 regarding the 32bit runtime. So what I'm looking for is a statement from SAP that says past Dec 2025 we cannot give any guarantees, however, there is no immediate kill switch on the 32bit runtime and as far as we know things should continue to work given your runtimes environments stay the same. With this statement, that would give us an additional time into 2026 where we can complete the conversion. Please advise and thank you again for your assistance, Don.
DonWilliams
Active Contributor
SAP doesn't have "kill switches", so you'll be able to continue using 32 bit as long as you want. Issues are third party end of life, security updates and potential DB Client issues. Good luck...