How can I determine if the current version of Windows is either 32-bit or 64-bit from the command line?

Question

What's the command line to find out if the OS is running a 32-bit version or 64-bit of Windows?

@AlixAxel, well they said *command-line*, so presumably, if anything, Batch. — Synetech, Jun 24 '12 at 15:27

score 37 · Answer 1 · answered Jan 15 '10 at 05:38

37

You can get this via WMI:

wmic OS get OSArchitecture

Example on my system:

C:\>wmic OS get OSArchitecture
OSArchitecture
32-bit

answered Jan 15 '10 at 05:38

ZoogieZork

495
3
5

I like this answer (gotta go learn me some WMI console :) ), but I gotta give it to "systeminfo" for keystrokes. ;) – Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 Jan 15 '10 at 05:45
XP? – Synetech Jun 24 '12 at 14:22

score 20 · Answer 2 · edited Jun 25 '13 at 19:23

20

Command line:

systeminfo | findstr /I type:

example output:

System type:               X86-based PC

X86 indicates a 32-bit system in this example.

(/I parameter indicates case-insensitive search)

edited Jun 25 '13 at 19:23

Dono

98
7

answered Jan 15 '10 at 05:38

I gave you a point for keystrokes, and then you made it longer. hehe :) – Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 Jan 15 '10 at 06:10
It's not my answer :P – John T Jan 15 '10 at 06:19
2

But is "X86-based PC" the same as OSArchitecture 32-bit? You can run 32-bit Win XP on an x64 processor. – Michael Caron Mar 27 '12 at 15:52
be careful if your OS language is german(or maybe any other than englisch)! I have to change to `systeminfo | findstr /I typ:` as the whole entry is `Systemtyp: x64-based PC` – CeOnSql Mar 31 '16 at 14:14
`systeminfo | findstr /C:"System Type"` also retrieves the same information, but I guess longer text so less preferred. – Abhijeet Jan 05 '17 at 10:08

score 16 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 20 '11 at 15:43

I can not attach answer to another post so here. Piping the result of systeminfo - is taking a quite good amount in time and writes to the console so is not the best solution for command files (batch scripts - anyhow You like to call them B-) ).

Even with the findstr - it does not find this on other language version of windows. On a central european language win7 os it also returns ..."X86-based"... on the result but something other on then the "type" were looking for. I am not sure that it can vary on other language variants of the os.

Probably the "wmic" method is the most reliable - it asks the os directly.

Other possible quick solution can be to examine a variable (at least working on win7 at me).

echo %PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE%

Ok - it is quite long to remember but possible a set | findstr ARCH can be remembered.

Sure - some can modify a system variable so not that reliable than wmic. But can be used quickly.

I hope I could help someone out.

I wasn't sure the echo command would work on my XP box because I've never seen this environment variable before (perhaps because I've never looked for it), but it does. +1 for a simple solution. — music2myear, Oct 20 '11 at 15:58

score 15 · Answer 4 · edited May 15 '21 at 06:19

There are numerous ways to check the processor architecture under Windows:

The fastest, easiest, and most compatible way to check the processor architecture in at least Windows 2000 and up is to examine the PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE environment variable:

echo %PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE%
However, this can give different results, depending on the way in which the command-prompt is opened. To avoid getting “unexpected results” due to WoW64, you can read it directly from the registry (Microsoft made no less than two typos in the key):

reg query "HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment" /v PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE
Microsoft also suggests reading the hardware information store from the registry:

reg query "HKLM\Hardware\Description\System\CentralProcessor\0" /v Identifier
You can also check for the existence of the x86 version of the Program Files directory (or the environment variable that points to it) since it would only exist on a 64-bit system. Unlike the PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE variable, this is not dependant on the way that the command prompt is run since the directory exists (or not) regardless of how the prompt is opened:
- ::via env-var
  if not defined ProgramFiles(x86) echo 32-bit
- ::via file-system
  if not exist "%systemdrive%\Program Files (x86)" echo 32-bit

These methods can be combined in a single batch-file (e.g., cpuinfo.bat) and provides a nice, lightning fast way to check the system from a standard Windows NT command-prompt without needing to resort to running other programs or frameworks.

The batch-file below was tested on 32-bit and Intel 64-bit systems (please test on AMD64), giving correct results in <1 second:

Test results

@echo off

echo PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE var:
echo %PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE% | find /i "x86" > nul
if %errorlevel%==0 (
    echo   32-bit
) else (
    echo   64-bit
)
echo.

echo PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE reg:
reg query "HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment" /v PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE | find /i "x86" > nul
if %errorlevel%==0 (
    echo   32-bit
) else (
    echo   64-bit
)
echo.

echo CentralProcessor reg:
reg query "HKLM\Hardware\Description\System\CentralProcessor\0" | find /i "x86" > nul
if %errorlevel%==0 (
    echo   32-bit
) else (
    echo   64-bit
)
echo.

echo ProgramFiles(x86) var:
if not defined ProgramFiles(x86) (
    echo   32-bit
) else (
    echo   64-bit
)
echo.

echo ProgramFiles(x86) dir:
if not exist "%systemdrive%\Program Files (x86)" (
    echo   32-bit
) else (
    echo   64-bit
)
echo.

score 6 · Answer 5 · edited Jun 24 '12 at 15:01

6

I could not find the OSArchitecture property (as per phoebus' answer) so I would suggest using the SystemType property in ComputerSystem instead.

Running the command wmic computersystem get systemtype from a command prompt gives

C:\Windows\system32>wmic computersystem get systemtype  

SystemType x64-based PC

edited Jun 24 '12 at 15:01

Mokubai

89,133
25
207
233

answered Jun 24 '12 at 14:16

SPiRiTS

61
1
1

score 4 · Answer 6 · answered Jan 15 '10 at 05:42

4

Regular command line: wmic OS get OSArchitecture (IIRC)

PowerShell: (gwmi win32_computersystem).SystemType

answered Jan 15 '10 at 05:42

phoebus

3,921
1
18
15

1

I get `Invalid Query` in XP. – Synetech Jun 24 '12 at 14:23

score 1 · Answer 7 · edited Mar 28 '12 at 14:23

Go to Start » Run and then type cmd. Now you will be in command prompt. There you can type systeminfo and then press enter. It takes a few seconds to get all your system information. You can find the processor data too.

 Processor(s):              1 Processor(s) Installed.
                           [01]: x86 Family 15 Model 4 Stepping 10 GenuineIntel

x86 Family means, your processor is 32-bit.
x64 Family means, your processor is 64-bit.

C:\Documents and Settings\mr85464>systeminfo

OS Name:                   Microsoft Windows XP Professional
OS Version:                5.1.2600 Service Pack 3 Build 2600
OS Manufacturer:           Microsoft Corporation
OS Configuration:          Member Workstation
OS Build Type:             Multiprocessor Free
Product ID:                76487-640-3658033-23932
Original Install Date:     3/16/2012, 2:03:44 PM
System Up Time:            5 Days, 21 Hours, 35 Minutes, 51 Seconds
System Manufacturer:       Dell Inc.
System Model:              OptiPlex 210L
System type:               X86-based PC
Processor(s):              1 Processor(s) Installed.
                           [01]: x86 Family 15 Model 4 Stepping 10 GenuineIntel
~2992 Mhz

Takes a few seconds indeed! And running it again won’t help because it doesn’t cache the information. Also, the Windows updates cause the part about the architecture to quickly scroll off-screen, so unless you have a large enough buffer, you need to pipe it into `more`. — Synetech, Sep 20 '12 at 05:14

score 1 · Answer 8 · answered Jan 15 '10 at 05:38

if you are referring to windows OS, you can use vbscript with WMI

strComputer = "."    
Set objWMIService = GetObject("winmgmts{impersonationLevel=impersonate,authenticationLevel=Pkt}!\\" & strComputer & "\root\cimv2")    
Set colSettings = objWMIService.ExecQuery("SELECT * FROM Win32_Processor")

For Each objProcessor In colSettings
Wscript.Echo "System Type: " & objProcessor.Architecture
Wscript.Echo "Processor: " & objProcessor.Description
Wscript.Echo "Address Width: "& objProcessor.AddressWidth
Next

score 1 · Answer 9 · answered Jan 15 '10 at 06:35

1

You can find that Information using "System Information"

Start-> Run -> winmsd.exe

Under "System Summary"/ System Type you can find the OS version

X64 -> 64 Bit
X86 -> 32 Bit

JohnT's answer in GUI ;)

answered Jan 15 '10 at 06:35

ukanth

10,660
11
43
60

score 0 · Answer 10 · edited Jun 25 '13 at 16:25

0

Simple code I used:

:arch
set p | findstr /i AMD64 > nul
if not errorlevel 1 goto no64
goto eof
:no64
code to execute
:eof

edited Jun 25 '13 at 16:25

Oliver Salzburg

86,445
63
260
306

answered Jun 25 '13 at 16:19

Dion

1

How can I determine if the current version of Windows is either 32-bit or 64-bit from the command line?

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