How to check if your system can support 64bit OS? + other questions...

[bk_7312]

I'm not sure if this is the correct place ask this but my question is that is there a way to check whether your computer can support a 64bit OS?

I know how to check if your OS is 64bit. I was just wondering about this, but what are the requirements of running a 64bit OS?

Also, is there a way to check what architectures/processors your computer has? Be it ARM, i386, i686 and etc. I don't really understand the difference between architectures/processors but I'm interested in at least knowing what they are and what they do and what their differences are, but not how they work (it's too complicated).

Thanks

[Jojoyee]

Holding Windows-key and press the "Pause/Break" key will bring up the info about the type of processor and OS you're running, apart from others.

Here're are two articles which might be helpful about the 32/64-bit OS and apps. etc.

32 bit and 64 bit explained

How Windows 7 / Vista 64 Support 32 bit Applications

My understanding is that: to run 64-bit OS, the processor must be 64-bit, but the 64-bit processor can accept either 32 or 64bit OS.

[rikmayell]

The easiest way to check if you have a 64 bit processor is to download CPU-Z from http://www.cpuid.com.

CPU-Z is made available as a zip file, unzip it and then run the exe it contains. The program will collect information about your processor and then under the CPU tab, in the instructions column, see if you have any of these AMD64, x86-x64 or EM64T. if you have any of these then your processor is 64 bit.

If your PC has a 64 bit processor then you will be able to run the 32 or 64 bit version of the operating system of your choice. Currently there aren't a huge number of free 64 bit applications for Windows. Details of those that are available can be found here.

Rik

[bk_7312]

@Jojoyee

Thanks for the articles, I didn't know there were such a thing as 16 bit softwares and I also didn't know that 'Windows-key' + 'Pause/Break' is a short-cut for right-clicking my computer -> Properties. The 'Windows-key' + 'Pause/Break' pop-up didn't directly tell me whether my processor was 32 or 64 bit though, found out that if you don't see the number 64, it's probably not 64 bit.

@rikmayell

CPU-Z was great, it showed me lots of stuff except AMD64, x86-x64 and EM64T, indicating that my processor isn't 64 bit. Oh well, and I was hoping it was 64 bit.

[Jojoyee]

Originally Posted by bk_7312

The 'Windows-key' + 'Pause/Break' pop-up didn't directly tell me whether my processor was 32 or 64 bit though, found out that if you don't see the number 64, it's probably not 64 bit.

Give Check My Specs a try.