It is useful for you to know whether your computer is working on 32 or 64 bit version of an operation system. There are few ways to find such details. The method may be different depending on your operating system. However we will discuss the popular operating systems here.

Windows Vista

If your computer’s operating system is Windows Vista, follow the method below to find the details:

  • In the control panel you have the option to go to system window to see whether your system is 32 or 64 bit.
  • Click “Start”. In the search box for start, type system, and then “System” should be selected from the list of programs. Operating system specifics will be displayed. Under system type, it will appear whether your system is 32 bit one or 64 bit one.

There is another method to find the bit count of your system. For this method;

  • Click “Start”.
  • “system” should be typed in the search box for start and system information should be selected from the list of programs. Select system summary and you will find the details.

Windows XP

If your computer runs on Windows XP, there are two methods to find if your system is 32 or 64 bit version.

  • Go to Start, and then to Run. Type “sysdm.cpl” and click OK. Now click the general tab. Operating system specifics will be displayed with the details of the version.
  • The second method is to click Start, select Run and type winmsd.exe. After that, type OK. Select system summary. Now locate processor. For finding it, go to details and then to items. If the processor is starting with x86 it is 32. In case the processor has 64 in it, the system is on 64 bit.

Windows Server 2003

If yours is a system that uses Windows server you have two methods to find the bit count of your system. If you are unable to determine it with one method you can always use the alternative one.

  • Click start, go to Run and type “sysdm.cpl”.  After that, click OK. Go to the general tab. The system details will be displayed, whether it is a 32 bit or the 64 bit. In 64 bit systems it shows Windows Server 2003 Enterprisex64 and in the 32 bit systems it shows Windows server 2003 ENT Edition.

There is another method to find the detail. In this method;

  • Click start and go to Run. “andwinmsd.exe” should be typed. Click OK. Select system summary. Find “Processor”. In case the value for processor starts with x86 it is 32 bit, if it starts with EM64T or ia64 your system is 64 bit.

In addition to these methods you can find the bit count of your computer from the literature that came with it. At present, most computers that run on Windows are 32 bit and only a few are 64 bit versions. Only Intel Itanium based systems and AMD 64 based computers run on 64 bit systems.