How do I know if my system is 32-bit or 64-bit?

This question pops up quite a lot in online forums nowadays. Before I could quite honestly tell somebody if you need to ask, you have 32-bit. That's not true anymore, you can buy machines with 4GB of RAM in them, and increasingly they are being loaded with 64-bit Windows Vista, so the system can make use of all the memory.

You can find out by going to Control Panel -> System and Maintenance -> System.

Alternatively you can search for System on Start Search, the search will return a few results, but one should just be the word System, with a computer icon next to it with a white tick on a blue monitor. That's the one you're after.

Clicking on that will launch the following.

How do I know if my system is 32-bit or 64-bit?

System type displays if the system is 32-bit (often referred to as x86) or 64-bit (also known as x64 or x86-64).

5 comments

Comment from: Stabbeh [Visitor]
What does this stuff mean anyways?
Like what bit operating system it is.
And whats better?
5th October 2007 @ 01:36
Comment from: Betty Hannam [Visitor]
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I've been trying to find out if my computer is running off a 32 bit or 64 bit operating system so i didn't get much help.Thanks Betty
29th January 2008 @ 02:46
Comment from: Blue Checks [Visitor]
*****
Thank you! I've been looking at so many answers to this question but they all involve typing a code somewhere. I was becoming more frustrated with every page that speaks 'techie'. What I really needed was a simple, direct, comprehensive guide. Thank you for giving that to me and others.
9th February 2008 @ 06:10
Comment from: Kenneth [Visitor]
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How do I check if I am running Xp Sp2, I am trying to find out which version of Vista to buy that will be best suited to my system?
Thanks
2nd March 2008 @ 14:25
Comment from: vivek [Visitor]
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...but, in my computer, "tune up utilities" anlyzed and showed that my computer(processor-intel Q6600) is of 64bit type n i'm using 32bit OS, (so, if i upgrade to 64bit OS vsta ,it'll be of good performance,..)
29th March 2008 @ 15:36

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