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up vote 9 down vote favorite

How you can check if your computer

  • Has an x86 (32-bit) or x86-64 (64-bit) processor?
  • Is running a 32 bit or 64 bit operating system?
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what OS are you running? – KronoS Nov 8 '10 at 0:18
win xp professional – tintincutes Nov 8 '10 at 0:19
Use Linux and superuser.com/questions/208301/… (and I'm sure there's a duplicate for Windows as well). – Gilles Nov 8 '10 at 0:21
I don't have lInux – tintincutes Nov 8 '10 at 0:34
possible duplicate of OS version: 32-bit or 64-bit? – Mehper C. Palavuzlar Nov 8 '10 at 8:12

6 Answers

up vote 8 down vote accepted

If you are on 64-bit XP, under C:\ you will see a "Program Files" as well as "Program Files (x86)" folder.

System properties will also reflect a 64-bit OS:

alt text

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I did that but I didn't see where it says 32bit. So maybe I gather that my XP Pro is 32 bit if 64 bit is not listed. – tintincutes Nov 8 '10 at 1:01
1  
@tint, correct. – John T Nov 8 '10 at 1:15
up vote 4 down vote

If you are running Windows XP then you are most likely running a 32-Bit Operating System, since the 64-Bit WinXP Version is extremely rare (for a good reason since it's largely unsupported).

If the PC itself is 64-Bit compatible is trickier to find out in that case. Try downloading CPU-Z and check if Instructions lists something like EM64T, AMD64, x86-64 or similar. If in doubt, please post what CPU-Z displays for Name, Specification and Instructions.

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ok, so there is no way to check in PC if its 32 bit – tintincutes Nov 8 '10 at 0:35
There is, but not by simple command line. Using autoit, the @CPUARC macro will return 32-bit or 64-bit for the processor and @OSARCH will tell you if the OS is 32-bit or 64-bit. This will work on any windows machine. I could probably write a little script for this in a few minutes. – MaQleod Nov 8 '10 at 0:48
@MaQleod: That's nice of you. Would appreciate it. Is there a way to check without installing it? As much as possible I don't want to install because, it makes my PC slow – tintincutes Nov 8 '10 at 1:04
1  
the link to the compiled version doesn't require any installation. – MaQleod Nov 8 '10 at 1:10
up vote 3 down vote

Using autoit, run this script:

If @CPUARCH = "x86" Then
    $CPUARCH = "32-bit"
Else
    $CPUARCH = "64-bit"
EndIf

If @OSARCH = "x86" Then
    $OSARCH = "32-bit"
Else
    $OSARCH = "64-bit"
EndIf

MsgBox(64,"OS and CPU Architechure","The CPU is " & $CPUARCH & " and the OS is " & $OSARCH)

There is a compiled version here if you don't want to download autoit and compile it yourself. Note, this will work on 2K/XP/VISTA/7

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hmm, how to I run this script? Do I need to run this in the command prompt? I'm sorry as I'm a beginner in a programming world – tintincutes Nov 8 '10 at 1:06
the link for the compile version looks strange to me, but I have to download it from here. – tintincutes Nov 8 '10 at 1:08
Sorry about the spelling error I just noticed, was trying to do it quickly with kids screaming at me, I'll fix it when I have time, but it really doesn't make much difference in how the app works. – MaQleod Nov 8 '10 at 1:11
thanks MaQleod, I'm interested how to try this script. How do you run a script? Not really sure. – tintincutes Nov 8 '10 at 8:43
1  
If you got the compiled version, you just run it, like any exe, it'll pop up a message box with both the OS and Processor architecture. If you installed autoit first, you just paste the above script to a text file, save it as a .au3 file and right click and choose "run script". – MaQleod Nov 8 '10 at 8:51
show 4 more comments
up vote 3 down vote

Almost all processors produced since 2006 support the 64-bit instruction set, and can run either a 32-bit or a 64-bit operating system. Running a 64-bit OS requires an x86-64 CPU, but you do not need a 64-bit OS to use one of these CPUs.

Hardware

Almost all AMD processors since the Athlon 64 have supported 64-bit instructions. If you have an AMD processor, it probably can run a 64-bit OS.

Almost all Intel processors since the Core 2 series have supported 64-bit. If you have a Core 2, or Core ix processor, it can run a 64-bit OS. The only exceptions are a few of the Atom netbook processors. To check whether your processor version supports x64, look it up in Intel's processor database.

Software

Mac OS X has supported x64 since OS X 10.4 Tiger, and has been x64 only since 10.6 Snow Leopard.

There have been 64-bit versions of Windows since Windows 2000 Server, but did not enter mainstream until Windows Vista. Many computers sold with Windows today come with 64-bit Windows 7. You can check whether you have 64-bit Windows installed by going to My Computer and clicking on System Properties.

windows 64 bit

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up vote 2 down vote

Right click on My Computer and then click on Properties.

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I did that but there is no way here that says it's 32 bit – tintincutes Nov 8 '10 at 0:34
Are you using XP? Vista? 7? ME? – InBetween Nov 8 '10 at 0:41
1  
I'm using XP Professional – tintincutes Nov 8 '10 at 1:05
So in the screenshot above, (i.imgur.com/wJa5R.gif) when it says x64 Edition thats because he has the 64-bit version of Windows XP installed. What does yours say when you open up the properties? – InBetween Nov 8 '10 at 5:19
1  
nothing. Mine is quite old I guess. It just say: Microsoft Windows XP Professional Version 2002 Service Pack 3. So I assumed that this is only 32 bit – tintincutes Nov 10 '10 at 9:03
up vote 2 down vote

All the other answers don't actually prove that your system is 64bit. They simply tell you whether or not you have a 64bit OS installed. I can suggest you do that too. But, if your copy of windows isn't 64bit (because you can install 32 bit windows on 64bit systems) then I suggest you install CPU-Z.

Once you've install it, run CPU-Z and look for the EM64T under instructions on the CPU tab.

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EM64T only applies to Intel chips. AMD chips will show as "x86_64". +1 – Billy ONeal Nov 8 '10 at 1:36

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