Ask Leo! by Leo A. Notenboom

How do I tell if I have 32 bit or 64?

Search First! Then browse: Categories | Full Archive | By Date | Newsletter

Home » Windows

Summary: Determining whether or not your process or operating system is 32 or 64 bit is very easy with the aid of a tiny tool, and knowing where to look.

How do you tell if an operating system is a 64-bit or 32-bit?

I'm going to expand that to include both hardware and software.

In other words, how to tell if you have a 32 bit or 64 bit capable system, and then whether or not you have a 32 bit or 64 bit operating system running.

You could, of course, download and run the Windows 7 upgrade advisor, I suppose, and it'll tell you a lot about your system, including whether or not it'll support the 64 bit version of Windows 7.

But that's overkill.

Download, instead, Securable, a tiny little utility from grc.com. Run it, and you'll get the answer about your hardware. Here's mine:

Securable results on my desktop

As you can see, my CPU can handle 64bits even though I'm currently running a 32 bit version of Windows XP.

To find out what your operating system supports, right click on My Computer, in Windows XP and click on Properties:

System Properties for my computer

If it doesn't say "64 bits", then it's 32.

In Windows 7 right click on "Computer" in your start menu, then click on Properties:

System Properties for Windows 7

The resulting screen shows exactly which version you're running.

Related:

Helpful? Get new articles weekly by email in my FREE newsletter!

Your Name:
Your Email:


Why Subscribe?

Article C3916 - October 30, 2009

Recent Comments
4 Comments

Regarding how to know whether it is 32-bit or 64 bit, you mean to say that when we right click on My Computer, in Windows XP and click on Properties and if it doesnt show the readings we can 100% confirm that it is running on 32-bit . Correct me If I'm wrong

Posted by: RoshanAshraf at November 3, 2009 6:08 AM

Slight correction for opening system properties: 1... open start menu...2...Right click "my computer in the start menu! (works in XP too!)

Posted by: Joe F at November 3, 2009 6:53 AM

in Vista Home Premium I do this:
Start
Computer
System properties

Posted by: Ken Laninga at November 3, 2009 8:23 AM

I ran "Securable"; it did say my processor was capable of running 64 bit, but I have heard that my mother board has to be compatible with 64 bit also. How can I determine that? I currently have Vista Home Premium 32 bit and would like to switch to Windows 7 64 bit.

Posted by: Kitty Ashenbrenner at November 3, 2009 1:56 PM

Post a comment on "How do I tell if I have 32 bit or 64?":






(Email Address will not be published.)

Remember Me?

By popular demand...
my tip jar
Cuppa Joe
Buy Leo a Latte!

(you may use HTML tags for style)

RSS feed Subscribe to the RSS Feed specifically for comments on this article.

Before commenting, please...

  • Read the article at the top of this page. If your comment shows you didn't, it'll be deleted and ignored.

  • Comment only on this article. Use the Google search box at the top of the page if you have a question about something else.

  • Don't include personal information in the comment. No email addresses. No phone numbers. No physical addresses.

  • Don't spam. Excessive links to unrelated sites within a comment or across multiple comments will cause all such comments to be removed.

  • Don't ask me to recover lost passwords or hacked accounts. I can't, and those comments will be deleted.

  • I can't respond to every comment. And I can't vouch for the accuracy of others who do.

Please wait. Your comment is being processed ...


Question? Ask Leo!