How to find out the bit depth of a Windows system – 12 ways

April 2, 2022 Henry Jackson 0 Comments

On a computer running Windows, there is a concept – the bitness of the system. Depending on the bitness of Windows and the model of the central processor, the way information is processed differs.

Computer hardware that supports a certain bit depth interacts with software running in the corresponding bit depth. The functioning of the operating system and programs installed on the computer depends on this.

Therefore, users are looking for an answer to the question of how to find out the bit depth of the system. Many points in the operation of a computer depend on this indicator:

on which PC hardware you can install this or that version of Windows;
support by the central processor bit depth (32 bits or 64 bits).
how much RAM will be available on the PC;
which applications, having a certain bitness, will be able to run in the operating system.

Table of Contents

Features of choosing a bit depth for Windows OS

Based on the information described above, you could be convinced that these are important points that affect the operation of the computer. There are many nuances in these parameters.

For example, modern GPT hard drives cannot install a 32-bit Windows operating system, only a 64-bit OS is suitable. Legacy CPUs only support 32-bit systems, while modern CPUs support instructions for both 64-bit and 32-bit systems.

On 32-bit systems, only up to 4 GB of RAM is detected, even if a much larger amount of RAM is physically installed on the computer. 64-bit operating systems do not have this limitation.

Some resource-intensive modern programs are released only in 64-bit version. On a PC with 64-bit Windows, you can run applications of both bit depths (32-bit and 64-bit). In a 32-bit operating system, only programs of the appropriate bit depth work, there is no compatibility with 64-bit applications.

At this point in time, device manufacturers are installing 64-bit systems on laptops and desktop PCs. Modern programs use more RAM in their work than before, use more computer resources that a 32-bit system cannot provide due to the described limitations.

At the same time, 64-bit Windows and installed applications take up more disk space and RAM when running on a PC. On older computers, this system may be slower than 32-bit.

In computer descriptions, the architecture of the Windows operating system is indicated by the following designations:

32-bit; 32-bit; x86; x32 is a thirty-four bit OS.
64-bit; 64-bit; x64 is a sixty-four bit system.

Designations: “x86”, “x32” and “32-bit” are identical, they correspond to the 32-bit version of Windows.

If the user independently reinstalls the OS on the computer, he can choose the bitness of the system, taking into account the support for a particular version of Windows by the hardware of a particular PC.

There are several points that affect the choice of system, in which the 64-bit version of Windows is preferred:

The latest hardware released for computers may not support 32-bit systems.
The CPU only supports more cores on 64-bit systems.
Some software developers have stopped releasing 32-bit versions of applications.

How to find out the bitness of the system: 32-bit or 64-bit, if outwardly Windows does not differ in any way? There are several ways to get the information you need.

In this guide, you will find instructions on how to find out the bitness of Windows in different versions of the operating system: Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows XP, as well as universal ways to solve this problem. You can perform this task using third-party Speccy or AIDA64 programs, as well as their analogues.

How to find out the bit depth of Windows 10 – 1 way

In Windows 10, there are several ways to find out the bitness of the operating system.

Go through the steps:

Right-click on the Start menu, from the context menu, launch the Settings application.
Select the “System” setting, and then open the “About” section.
In the “Device Specifications” option, in the “System Type” parameter, information about the bitness of Windows is displayed

In this case: “64-bit operating system, x64 processor.”

How to find out the bit depth of a Windows 10 system – 2 way

To determine the bitness of the operating system in Windows 10, use this method:

Enter the start menu.
In the list of programs, find the Windows Administrative Tools folder.
Launch the System Information app.
In the “System Information” window, in the “Type” element, the computer is indicated based on the corresponding bit depth.

This method can be used in all versions of Windows, in Windows 7 you must first open the “Standard” folder, and then “System Tools”.

How to find out the bit depth of Windows 8 (Windows 8.1)

To find out the bit depth of a Windows 8 or Windows 8.1 system, use this method:

On the Start screen (Metro interface), right-click on the computer tile.
In the context menu that opens, click on the “Properties” item.
In the View basic information about your computer window, in the “System” section, there is an item “System type”, which indicates the bit depth.

This computer is running Windows 8.1 32-bit. The processor supports 64-bit, so, if necessary, a 64-bit OS can be installed on this PC.

How to find out the bit depth of a Windows 7 system

Quite a lot of computers still work on the Windows 7 operating system with different bitness.

You can find out the bit depth of Windows 7 by following certain steps:

Left click on the start menu.
Right click on “Computer”.
Select “Properties” from the context menu.
In the View basic information about your computer window, in the System Type item, the OS bit depth is displayed.

This PC is running Windows 7 64-bit operating system.

How to find out the bit depth of Windows XP

Now we will see how to find out the bit depth of a Windows XP system. This operating system has a 64-bit version.

To find out the bit depth in Windows XP, follow these steps:

Right-click on the “My Computer” icon.
In the context menu, click on “Properties”.
In the “System Properties” window, in the “General” tab, the operating system is indicated.

If there is no mention of bit depth, then a 32-bit OS is installed on this computer. If Windows XP is 64-bit, there will be information about it in this window.

How to find out the bitness of a Windows system

You can not go to the Start menu to run the “msinfo32” – “System Information” utility.

Launching the System Information application in different versions of Windows is carried out in the following way:

Press the “Win” + “R” keys.
In the Run dialog box, type “msinfo32” (without quotes).
Press the “Enter” key.
The System Information window opens.

How to find out what bitness Windows is on the command line

You can determine the bitness of Windows of different versions using the built-in tool – the command line.

Follow these steps:

In the command line interpreter window, enter the command: “systeminfo” (without quotes), press the “Enter” key.
The “System Type” node indicates the OS bit depth, in this case, “x64-based PC”.

How to find out the bitness of Windows in PowerShell

Similar to command line actions, you can get similar information using another built-in tool – Windows PowerShell.

Go through the following steps:

Start Windows PowerShell on the computer.
In a PowerShell window, run the command: “systeminfo”.
The shell window will display information about the bitness of the system.

Find out the bitness of Windows in the DirectX Diagnostic Tool

The DirectX Diagnostic Tool allows you to get basic information about the system, including its bit depth.

You will need to do the following:

You need to press the “Win” + “R” keys
In the Run window, run the “dxdiag” command (without quotes).
In the “DirectX Diagnostic Tool” window, in the “General” tab, in the “System Information” section, information about the bitness of Windows is placed.

Determine the bitness of the OS in Explorer

There is a fairly simple way to determine the bitness of Windows. The built-in file manager, Windows Explorer, will help us with this.

Finding the information you need is very simple:

Open the “Local Disk (C:)” in Explorer, on which the Windows operating system is usually installed.
If there are two folders on the disk with the same name: “Program Files” and “Program Files (x86)”, then this is a 64-bit system, and if there is only one folder “Program Files”, then this PC has 32-bit Windows installed .

This computer is running 64-bit Windows.

Viewing Windows Bit Information in Speccy

If for some reason it is inconvenient for you to use the built-in tools of the Windows operating system, you can use the services of third-party software. In this example, we will use the free Speccy program , which is designed to obtain various information about the computer’s hardware.

You need to do the following:

Launch the Speccy program on the computer.
In the main window of the application, in the “General Information” tab, basic information about the PC will be displayed, including the version and bit depth of Microsoft Windows.

How to determine the system bit depth in AIDA64

AIDA64 is the most powerful tool for gathering information about computer hardware and installed software. The AIDA64 program will help us obtain the necessary information.

You will need to do the following:

Open the AIDA64 program on your computer.
In the main window of the application, in the “Menu” tab, click on the item “Operating system” to go to the desired section.
Click on the next item or on the “Operating System” icon.
In the “Operating system properties” section, in the “OS kernel type” option, the bit depth of Windows installed on this PC is indicated.

Article Conclusions

Computers use the Windows operating system of different bitness, which depends on the computer hardware or the time the system was installed on the PC. If the user is faced with the task of determining the bitness of the system: 32-bit or 64-bit, you can use the built-in Windows tools or third-party software.