How to check if Win 7 disk is 64bit and what version?

Question

I've got a DVD that I've burnt from an MSDN ISO. I'm not entirely sure if its Windows 7 64bit or 32bit.

How can I be sure?

Answer 1

Quickest way is to go to the drive root. If you have a file named Bootmgr.efi you are running a X64/64-bit version.

Next way is disk size, the x86/32-bit version comes out at ~2.32GB whilst the x64/64-bit version comes out at ~3.0GB.

Lastly, you can go to the drive root and open the autorun.inf file.

In notepad, the 64 bit version shows:

[AutoRun.Amd64]
open=setup.exe
icon=setup.exe,0

[AutoRun]
open=sources\sperr32.exe x64
icon=sources\sperr32.exe,0

The 32 bit version shows:

[Autorun]
open=setup.exe
icon=setup.exe,0

Answer 2

The way would be to see if the disk contains x64 images. Just looking at an MSDN Windows 7 Ultimate x64 DVD and I see the file <DVD>:\sources\actionqueue.dll is x64.

To check that it is x64 I used dumpbin /headers <file> (dumpbin is a Windows SDK tool):

Microsoft (R) COFF/PE Dumper Version 10.00.30319.01
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation.  All rights reserved.


Dump of file .\actionqueue.dll

PE signature found

File Type: DLL

FILE HEADER VALUES
            8664 machine (x64)
               5 number of sections
        4A5BE044 time date stamp Tue Jul 14 02:32:52 2009
               0 file pointer to symbol table
               0 number of symbols
              F0 size of optional header
            2022 characteristics
                   Executable
                   Application can handle large (>2GB) addresses
                   DLL
[...]

Note highlighted line (a x86 executable would have 14C machine (x86)).

---

I can't see any file that lists the bit-ness directly, so this is the quickest way (if you have the SDK tools). Might just be easier to burn a new DVD from the required ISO.

Answer 3

If you have administrator access to a system already running Windows 7 (this feature is not in Vista):

1. Open a command prompt as an administrator
   • Start, cmd, Ctrl+Shift+Enter
2. Insert the Windows 7 DVD, and close any autoplay popup.
3. Type dism /Get-WimInfo /WimFile:X:\sources\boot.wim where X is your DVD drive's letter.

4. You should see something like the following:

   Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool Version: 6.1.7600.16385

   Details for image : h:\sources\boot.wim

   Index : 1
   Name : Microsoft Windows PE (x86)
   Description : Microsoft Windows PE (x86)
   Size : 806,390,831 bytes

   Index : 2
   Name : Microsoft Windows Setup (x86)
   Description : Microsoft Windows Setup (x86)
   Size : 881,382,947 bytes

   The operation completed successfully.

If your disk is 32-bit, it will look like above where it says (x86). If it's 64-bit, it should say, (x64).

If you don't have a computer with Windows 7 already installed, then try installing the operating system in a virtual machine such as VirtualBox. This should work on any computer, even a Mac. If it fails, then you have the 64-bit version and your computer doesn't support/have enabled Hardware-accelerated virtualization. If it installs successfully, then check the System Properties inside the virtual machine.

If you don't want to do that, then download and burn the Windows 7 Automated Installation Kit, and install it (it will work on Vista SP1 or newer). Be warned, the download is 1.7GB, so it's not exactly the ideal way to check this if you have a slow or metered internet connection. Once you have the WAIK installed:

1. Open the Deployment Tools Command Prompt as an administrator.
   • Start, Deployment Tools Command Prompt, Ctrl+Shift+Enter
2. Insert the Windows 7 DVD, and close any autoplay popup.
3. Type: imagex /info X:\sources\boot.wim where X is your DVD drive letter. If the output contains the line <NAME>Microsoft Windows PE (x86)</NAME>, then it's 32-bit. If it says (x64) then it's 64-bit.
   • Alternatively, type imagex /info X:\sources\install.wim, and check for a line starting with <ARCH>. If that line lists <ARCH>0</ARCH> then it is 32-bit, otherwise it is 64-bit.

Answer 4

If you get a listing of the root directory on your installation disk, you can see difference in filesizes:

• Only in the 64 bit version there is bootmgr.efi file
• The 64 bit has an autorun.inf filesize of 122 bytes and 32 bit autorun.inf is 43 bytes.
• The 64 bit has a setup.exe filesize of 106,760 and 32 bit setup.exe is 111,880.

At least, that's what I have for the downloaded/original ISOs from the Microsoft Store.

Answer 5

To know wich edition see the ei.cfg file located in the Sources directory on the installation DVD