Discussion: future support for Windows x86 builds

[cary-rowen]

Bookworm currently builds and publishes x86 and x64 installers, portable packages, and update bundles.

We are considering discontinuing x86 builds in a future release. No decision has been made, and this issue is intended to collect feedback before choosing a direction.

Current usage

Recent GitHub release downloads indicate that x86 usage is not negligible:

• In Bookworm 2026.1, x86 installers represented about 14.5% of installer downloads.
• The x86 portable package represented about 27% of portable downloads.
• Across the 2024.2 and 2026.1 releases, x86 files represented about 17% of architecture-specific binary downloads.

These numbers do not represent unique users and may include repeated or automated downloads. They should only be treated as an estimate.

Potential benefits

Discontinuing x86 builds would:

• Remove one architecture-specific CI build.
• Simplify packaging and release management.
• Reduce the number of architecture-specific binary assets maintained by the project.
• Make future Python and dependency upgrades easier.
• Avoid keeping older dependency versions solely because newer releases do not provide x86 wheels.

Potential impact

• Users running 32-bit Windows would not be able to use future Bookworm releases.
• Users running x86 Bookworm on 64-bit Windows would need to migrate to the x64 version.
• The current x64 installer does not automatically detect and replace an existing x86 installation.
• The automatic update format currently expects both x86 and x64 packages, so it would need a compatibility transition.
• The final x86 version would eventually stop receiving new features and dependency updates.

Possible transition

If x86 builds are discontinued, a possible approach would be:

1. Announce a final version supporting x86.
2. Publish one final transition release for both x86 and x64.
3. Update the automatic updater to handle unsupported architectures and show a clear message to x86 users.
4. Provide instructions for migrating an x86 installation to x64.
5. Keep the final x86 installer and portable package available for download.
6. Remove x86 CI builds and architecture-specific assets in the following release.

Feedback requested

• Do you currently use the x86 version of Bookworm?
• Are you using 32-bit Windows, or x86 Bookworm on 64-bit Windows?
• Is there a particular reason you need the x86 version?
• Would migrating to x64 be possible for you?
• How much notice would you need before x86 builds are discontinued?
• Are there organizational, educational, or accessibility deployments that still require x86?

[cary-rowen]

cc @mush42
@pauliyobo

[jkinnunen]

If the 32-bit version of Bookworm is discontinued, what will happen to the support for 32-bit SAPI 5 speech synthesizers? If at all possible, support for them should be added to the 64-bit version of Bookworm.