How to detect if CPU is 32 or 64 bit

Question

I want to detect the capabilities op CPU's (especially if it is an 32/64 bit CPU)

The machines are running on a 32-bit OS (WinXP) and I want to detect if these machine are capable to get a 64 bit OS installed.

(BTW: At this point I know how to detect the number of cores...)

Maybe this [question](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2017409/right-way-to-detect-cpu-architecture) can help you to detect CPU architecture. — ahawkthomas, May 04 '13 at 10:02
Take a look [here][1] and [here][2], they are already answered [1]: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1542213/how-to-find-the-number-of-cpu-cores-via-net-c [2]: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1817268/how-can-i-determine-programmatically-whether-on-multi-core-hyperthreading-or-mu — Solaflex, May 04 '13 at 10:02
@ahawkthomas: I think that answers says something about the currently installed OS, not the CPU itself. — Martin Mulder, May 04 '13 at 10:05
Sorry Martin Mulder, you are right. Maybe this [WMI solution](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/689228/how-to-know-my-processor-is-32-or-64-bits-in-c) will help? It is based on [Win32_Processor class](http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa394373%28VS.85%29.aspx). — ahawkthomas, May 04 '13 at 10:20

Amer Sawan · Accepted Answer · 2013-05-04T10:49:05.687

2

You can use WMI to get more details about each CPU, the following properties are available in the Win32_Processor class

You can Use the following code to get the value of each property :

ManagementObjectSearcher searcher = new ManagementObjectSearcher("root\\CIMV2", "SELECT * FROM Win32_Processor");
ManagementObjectCollection cpus = searcher.Get()
foreach (ManagementObject queryObj in cpus)
{
    Console.WriteLine("AddressWidth : {0}", queryObj["AddressWidth"]); //On a 32-bit operating system, the value is 32 and on a 64-bit operating system it is 64.
    Console.WriteLine("DataWidth: {0}", queryObj["DataWidth"]); //On a 32-bit processor, the value is 32 and on a 64-bit processor it is 64
    Console.WriteLine("Architecture: {0}", queryObj["Architecture"]); //Processor architecture used by the platform
}

I'm not sure if the AddressWidth is the correct property that you need to determine if the CPU is capable with 64 bit OS or not

edited May 04 '13 at 10:49

answered May 04 '13 at 10:20

Amer Sawan

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Well... that "bit" part is the one that I am bothering with... As I mentioned: I know how to find the #cores. – Martin Mulder May 04 '13 at 10:20
as I told you, you may use the `AddressWidth` property to get whether if the CPU can support 64-bit OS or not, sorry I added `NumberOfCores` as example in my code, I just edited it to write the `AddressWidth` – Amer Sawan May 04 '13 at 10:31
The `AddressWidth` represent the operating system architecture, but you can use the `DataWidth` property to get the CPU architecture, check the [MSDN documentation](http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa394373%28v=vs.85%29.aspx) – Amer Sawan May 04 '13 at 10:42

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered May 04 '13 at 11:02

0

Or if you want to play around with all WMI Classes you could use the WMI Code Creator

I've used it before and it helped me a lot.

answered May 04 '13 at 11:02

DeMama

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How to detect if CPU is 32 or 64 bit

2 Answers2