How to find out how many bits the operating system. How to find out the bitness of the operating system
Any computer needs an operating system, because without it it is not at all capable of performing any tasks. A common OS that has already been used, and most users are ready to use, is Windows.
However, even such familiar Windows for some PC owners remains not fully explored, because it is fraught with some "secrets". In this regard, it does not bother every PC owner to know how to determine the bit depth of the system.
Such information helps in some cases to solve technical problems. Especially if you plan to perform actions on your own, relying on the tips of technical support.
To find out the digit operating system a couple of clicks will be enough
Determining the bit depth of an already installed operating system is not difficult. Each user can follow the indicated steps to find out the bit depth of the system and the processor as well.
Definition in Windows XP
At present, it is almost impossible to find computer equipment on which a 16-bit processor is installed. They were replaced by more successful and faster ones, the bit depth of which is 32 and 64.
Windows XP, which was very popular a few years ago, was almost always accompanied by 32-bit processors. Only after a short period of time, their already 64-bit "colleagues" appeared.
Wanting to be aware of their computer technology, PC owners are actively interested in how to find out the bit depth of the system in Windows XP. It is not difficult to answer such a question.
The PC user must call up the context menu by right-clicking on the "My Computer" shortcut. A list of submenus will be displayed there, select "Properties". After you click on this submenu, an information table will open, in which, next to the name of the system, its bit rate will be indicated.
If the user finds one of these inscriptions "x64 release", "x64 edition", then the OS has a 64-bit bit depth. If only the type of operating system is indicated - Windows XP, without any numerical indications, then the system bit depth is 32.
Many experienced users know another option, how to find out the bitness of the system. But, if you use their recommendations, you will have to deal with the command line, which is not always clear to beginners.
Definition in Windows 7 and 8
If Windows 7 and 8 are installed on the computer, you should do almost the same steps as in the above case. The user should right-click on the "Computer" shortcut, go to "Properties" and read the information that opens on the screen.
Among several parameters, the user will be able to detect the line "System Type", it is in it that the bit depth is indicated.
Also, the user can determine the bitness of the system by viewing "System Information". We click on “Start”, a search-oriented line opens, the word “system” should be entered into it, after the search is completed, the “System Information” item will be displayed. It will indicate the bitness of the OS.
By the way, there are several more ways that are simple, but at the same time allow you to understand how to determine the processor bit depth - 32 or 64.
It is enough to go to "My Computer", go to local disk C and look at "Program Files". If there is only one designated folder, then the processor bit rate will be 32. If there are two folders, one of which is “Program Files (x86)”, then the processor bit rate is 64.
From the foregoing, it is easy to understand that there are several ways to easily find out the bitness of the processor, so even a beginner is able to cope with this task, designating the most acceptable option for himself.
Advantages and disadvantages of Windows of different bitness
Bit depth experts consider as a property of the OS, which allows you to simultaneously operate with a certain amount of information. Beginners, having familiarized themselves with this concept, decide that a 32-bit processor is significantly inferior to a 64-bit one. However, not everything is so simple, each OS has a number of its advantages, which keep pace with the disadvantages, so it doesn’t hurt to know which OS to give preference to in each case.
Benefits of 64-bit Windows
A 64-bit processor is able to work twice as fast, respectively, to process twice as much information as a 32-bit one.
Another significant advantage of a 64-bit processor is that it has no limit on the number of random access memory at 4 gigabytes - there can be much more memory in a computer with such a processor.
However, such an OS is also endowed with disadvantages. Experts consider it quite "gluttonous" in relation to RAM. The installed memory of 4 GB will not be fully available, since about 1 GB is required to ensure the operation of the OS itself, a small part is required for the video card, so sometimes only about 2 GB is left to ensure the performance of programs, which is instantly accompanied by some problems.
For correct and fast work processor, experienced users equip computer equipment with additional RAM.
However, along with these advantages, there are also disadvantages of this capacity. In particular, not all programs are adapted for it, so before downloading applications and programs to your computer, you should first find out if they are suitable for installation. It is also quite difficult to find the appropriate drivers, therefore, before switching to a new OS bit depth, it does not hurt to familiarize yourself with the list of available drivers and make sure that there are those without which it is impossible to subsequently ensure the normal operation of the computer.
So, before taking actions aimed at changing the bitness of the operating system, you should weigh all the pros and cons, find out about the presence of the most necessary drivers, without which the performance of the equipment will be reduced to zero. Only after such balanced reflections, the owner of the PC can begin to change the bit depth of the system.
Many PC users when installing drivers, programs, new Windows versions or, under other circumstances, they encounter such a concept as the bitness of the system. How to determine it, what does x32, x64 and x86 bit system mean? All these questions will be considered in this article.
The first thing every user needs to know is that x32 and x86 bit systems are the same thing. To be more specific, x86 is the second designation for the x32 bit system. Now there is a new question, what is the difference between x32 and x64 bit systems. An x32 system only works with 3GB of RAM. If your system has more than 4 GB of memory, then they will not be used. The x64 system, in turn, works with all the computer's RAM and is the fastest. Applications designed for x32 system will run without problems on x64 bit system, but vice versa - programs for x64 on x32 bit system will not be able to run. Now let's look at how you can check which system the user has installed. This can be done in several ways. The most popular method is to determine the bitness of the system through the "Control Panel". To do this, go to the "Control Panel" and select the "System" tab.
Thus, in order to find out how many bit systems you have, you can use any of the methods described above. In any case, each of these methods is correct and can be used to solve such a problem as determining the capacity of the system.
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At the moment, there are two bit depths of the operating system:
32 bit;
64 bit.
How are they different, because they look the same ?! Their main differences are "hidden" in the processor architecture. If to speak in plain language, then 64-bit systems can use twice as much operational data per cycle, which does not play any role for ordinary users. There is another difference that already deserves the attention of users. The fact is that a 32-bit system supports a maximum of 3 GB of RAM, and a 64-bit one will see 16 GB of “RAM”.
My personal advice, if you have no more than 3 GB of RAM on your computer, then don't even "bother" and use a 32-bit system. It works more stable, at least Windows XP. Well, if you have 4 GB of “RAM” and higher, then you should already think about switching to a 64-bit system.
In this case, you will have the question "how to find out if the system is 32 or 64 bit"? There are a lot of ways, so we will consider only a few of the simplest ones.
Click Start - Run. In the window that opens, type the command "cmd" and press the "Enter" key.
A window will open on a black background with a command line. There, type the command "systeminfo" and press the "Enter" key. You will see a set of system information about your computer, there will be quite a few interesting things, up to the date of installation of your operating system! In the upper half, look for the line System type. It is in it that the answer to your question "how to find out a 32-bit or 64-bit system" lies. If there is an x86 number, then you have a 32 bit system. Well, if you see x64, then you are using a 64-bit operating system. The photo below shows that I use a 32-bit "piggy" on my computer. 
It's even easier here. Click Start. There you will find the item "My Computer". Right-click on it and activate the "Properties" menu. The window will load as shown below. 
Look again for the line "System Type". And a 32 or 64 bit system will be written in it.
When installing Windows, many people have a question, which version to install - 32 or 64 bits? Consider the differences between the 32 and 64-bit versions, which one is better, and whether it is possible to change the version after installation.
Differences between 32 and 64 bits
The main difference between a 32-bit system is that it does not support more than 4 GB of RAM. 64-bit versions of Windows support up to 192 GB of RAM. There are a few caveats here: not all motherboards allows you to use such a large amount of RAM and on Home versions of Windows there is a limit of 16 GB.
Sometimes even when installing the OS, you can see the designations x64 and x86. x64 is 64-bit versions of the OS, x86 is 32-bit. All modern processors support both architectures - x64 or x86.
Of the minuses of a 64-bit system, one can name more high flow random access memory. Therefore, it makes no sense to put it on old computers. In addition, it may simply not be supported by the processor.
Another difference is that separate versions of programs often go to 32 and 64 bits. Up to 20% performance increase for 64-bit versions of programs. At the same time, when running 32-bit applications on a 64-bit system, there is a slight drop in speed of 2-3% due to the WoW64 subsystem, which emulates a 32-bit environment.
If you have more or less modern computer and RAM costs 4 GB or more - feel free to install the 64-bit version. If the RAM is less than 4 GB and is not planned to be expanded - put 32-bit.
How to determine the version of Windows
You can find out what version of the OS is currently using the properties of the computer.
Right-click on "My Computer" and open its Properties. On Windows XP, information about the operating system will be on the General tab, on Windows 7, 8 and 10 the window looks a little different, but information about the system is there.
Windows XP x64 
Windows 7 32-bit (x86)
How to determine if a processor supports 64-bit
You can find out if the processor supports 64-bit using free program Speccy https://www.piriform.com/speccy/download.
Open Speccy and look at information about the central processing unit.
In the "Instructions" line, find the mention of 64-bit. For example, if there is:
- intel 64,
- AA-64,
- AMD 64,
- EM64T.
So your processor supports 64-bit instructions. Even some x86 processors can understand 64-bit instructions.
Another way without installing programs is to find out the name of your processor (for example, in the Device Manager, you can open it by pressing Win + R and entering the command devmgmt.msc) and look for its specification through a search engine: architecture and command set.
How to upgrade from 32 to 64 bit OS
If you find that you have more than 4 GB of RAM or want to expand it, you can upgrade the system. To do this, download the image Windows installation and do bootable flash drive, or run the installation via Daemon Tools.
Run the OS installer and when choosing installation settings, in order to save the old data, select the following items:
- Getting important updates to install - Do not download.
- Select the operating system to be installed - x64 version.
- Select the installation type - Update.
If you do not know what bit depth of the operating system is installed on your computer, then this will be discussed in this article.
Usually, users do not often ask such a question. Most often, find out the bit depth of the operating Windows systems may be required if you want to install any program, game or driver on your computer.
Starting with Windows XP, operating systems may have different type bit depth:
– 32-bit OS - x32(can be designated x86);
– 64-bit OS - x64.
The main feature of 64-bit operating systems is that they are able to work with a large amount of RAM. Even if your computer or laptop has 4 GB of RAM, all running applications on 32-bit systems will use no more than 3 GB. Therefore, if you have 4 GB of RAM or more, it makes sense to install a 64-bit Windows operating system.
It should also be noted that if you download a program for a 64-bit OS, and you have a 32-bit one installed, you will not be able to install it on your computer. In the event that the opposite is true: you downloaded for a 32-bit OS, and a 64-bit OS is installed, the program will install and work.
Let's recap. A 32-bit operating system does not use more than 3 GB of RAM, no matter how much is installed on the computer. And secondly, programs for 32-bit Windows operating systems will work fine in 64-bit ones, but not vice versa.
Now let's move on to the main topic of the article, and consider, how to determine the bitness of the operating system Windows installed on the computer.
To find out the bitness of the Windows 7 operating system, on the Desktop, right-click on the "Computer" shortcut and select "Properties" from the drop-down menu.
If you do not have such a shortcut, go to the "Start" menu and right-click on the "Computer" button there. Go to "Properties".
A window will open in which you will see all the basic information about the computer. The line "System type" will indicate the bitness of Windows.
If you need find out the bit depth of the Windows 8 system, press the key combination "Ctrl + E", the window "Computer" will open. Right-click on an empty space in it and go to "Properties".
You can open the window with basic information about the system in another way. Press "Ctrl+I" to open the side popup panel. Select on it "Computer Information".
In the "System" window in the "System Type" field, the bit depth will be indicated.
An article about that is already on the site. You can view it by clicking on the link.
Most fast way, which will help you find out the bitness of the operating system is pressing the key combination Win + Pause. It works in all mentioned versions of Windows.
Now you know how to determine the bit depth of the Windows 7, 8, 10 operating system and you can choose the right software, applications and drivers that will match it.
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