There are times when, to install the necessary drivers, you need to know the "bitness" of Windows 7 or later. If you do not know what bit depth your Windows is, then installing the driver may result in additional problems. This is required in order to correctly select the version of software you need for your operating system.
Usually, when a particular program or driver has the opportunity to select a version, you can be given the choice of the system bit size on which the software will be installed before loading: 32 or 64 bits. If bit depth cannot be specified, then the program is most likely 32-bit and it is suitable for absolutely any bit depth of the system. And usually on sites with software not provided information on how to find out the "bit" of the Windows 7 system.
Windows 7
To answer the question about how to see the bitness of a Windows 7 system, you need to perform the following simple steps:
- On your desktop, right-click on the "My Computer" shortcut.
- Select the "Properties" section.
A menu of generalized system information will open for you, where, among other properties, there will also be bit depth.
Windows 8 and 8.1 start menu
In the special "Start" menu there is an object with the name "Computer". Next, you need to point at this object with the mouse, right-click on the computer mouse. A context menu will open before you, where you need to select "Properties", after clicking on which you will be presented with information about the bit depth of your operating system.
How to know the bit depth of Windows 10
You can use the previous methods or use the "System" menu. To do this, just go to the Start menu. Among the various applications that are installed on your computer, there will be a section "System". Click on it. The window that appears will contain all the most relevant information about your computer and operating system, as well as various settings.
Windows XP
Windows XP was almost always installed on older computers that do not support the x64 version. So this bit depth of the Windows operating system was practically not in demand. If Windows XP x86 version is installed on your PC or laptop, then this parameter will not be in the requested system properties. But if you have the x64 version installed, then the information will be presented to you in this section.
Other ways if you didn’t succeed
If these methods didn’t help you know the bit size of windows, then here’s another option:
- go to the "Start" menu;
- we find the search string into which we drive in: "system";
- select the appropriate section.
Another option:
- go to the "Start" menu;
- go to the "Control Panel" section;
- select the section called "System".
Both of these methods are suitable in order to find out the bitness of windows 7; 8; 8.1; 10. With their help, you can see a window with the properties of your system. Here is another good method, it is also suitable for previously listed versions of Windows:
- go to the "Start" menu;
- we find the search line into which we drive such a query: "system information";
- open this section in the search results, where we find the string "Type".
There are two options for what will be written there: "x64" - if you have an x64 system, or "x86", everything is quite simple and clear.
x64 or x86 - which is better?
You already know how to find out the “bitness” of Windows 7, as well as 8 and 10, now it’s worth figuring out which is better. Quite a lot of people have this question before installing the operating system, because a lot depends on the bit depth of your system. The capacity of the system affects the way your PC or laptop interacts with the processor and RAM. The x64 version of the system is capable of processing 8 bytes (this is 64 bits) per clock cycle, x86 - two times less, respectively.
Whether your PC or laptop is capable of running on an x64 system depends entirely on whether your processor supports this architecture. If the system is 64-bit, and the application that is installed there is 32-bit, then this application will work twice as slow as the 64-bit analogue.
x86 version of Windows does not support more than 4 GB of RAM. Accordingly, if you have more RAM installed on your PC or laptop, then installing the 64-bit version of Windows will be the right solution. If Windows is installed with a bit capacity of 64 bits, then when installing software or drivers, you should choose a version specifically for 64 bits. If you are going to install drivers, then compliance with this rule is mandatory.
We hope that this article helped you in solving the issue of how to find out the bit system of Windows 7 or later.