diff --git a/dlls/ntdll/server.c b/dlls/ntdll/server.c
index 356d6319f15..25c6473a69d 100644
--- a/dlls/ntdll/server.c
+++ b/dlls/ntdll/server.c
@@ -1139,17 +1139,6 @@ static void setup_config_dir(void)
         mkdir( config_dir, 0777 );
         if (chdir( config_dir ) == -1) fatal_perror( "chdir to %s\n", config_dir );
 
-        if ((p = getenv( "WINEARCH" )) && !strcmp( p, "win32" ))
-        {
-            /* force creation of a 32-bit prefix */
-            int fd = open( "system.reg", O_WRONLY | O_CREAT | O_EXCL, 0666 );
-            if (fd != -1)
-            {
-                static const char regfile[] = "WINE REGISTRY Version 2\n\n#arch=win32\n";
-                write( fd, regfile, sizeof(regfile) - 1 );
-                close( fd );
-            }
-        }
         MESSAGE( "wine: created the configuration directory '%s'\n", config_dir );
     }
 
diff --git a/server/registry.c b/server/registry.c
index 97b16ed65e9..0731b22cacc 100644
--- a/server/registry.c
+++ b/server/registry.c
@@ -1805,6 +1805,7 @@ void init_registry(void)
     WCHAR *current_user_path;
     struct unicode_str current_user_str;
     struct key *key, *hklm, *hkcu;
+    char *p;
 
     /* switch to the config dir */
 
@@ -1821,7 +1822,12 @@ void init_registry(void)
         fatal_error( "could not create Machine registry key\n" );
 
     if (!load_init_registry_from_file( "system.reg", hklm ))
-        prefix_type = sizeof(void *) > sizeof(int) ? PREFIX_64BIT : PREFIX_32BIT;
+    {
+        if ((p = getenv( "WINEARCH" )) && !strcmp( p, "win32" ))
+            prefix_type = PREFIX_32BIT;
+        else
+            prefix_type = sizeof(void *) > sizeof(int) ? PREFIX_64BIT : PREFIX_32BIT;
+    }
     else if (prefix_type == PREFIX_UNKNOWN)
         prefix_type = PREFIX_32BIT;