How do I check the OS architecture(32 or 64 bit) using Powershell?

Question

I am writing a Powershell script which will be integrated into a product designed for 32 bit Windows machines. So on invocation it will by default run on the x86 Powershell even on 64 bit machines. I tried using [System.IntPtr]::Size but the output differs with the Powershell version on the same machine.

Powershell(32 bit) -

PS D:\powershellScripts> [System.IntPtr]::Size 4

Powershell(64 bit) on same machine-

PS D:\powershellScripts> [System.IntPtr]::Size 8

I need an independent solution which helps me distinguish the address size of the underlying machine.

Does this answer your question? Determining 32/64 bit in Powershell — Lance U. Matthews
– Lance U. Matthews, Commented Apr 23, 2020 at 20:47

mklement0 · Accepted Answer · 2020-04-23 21:44:11Z

Thanks to BACON's link to a closely related question with this answer, the following concise solution is possible, which works from both 32-bit and 64-bit PowerShell sessions:

$pointerSizeInBytes = (4, 8)[[Environment]::Is64BitOperatingSystem]

^{A [bool] value interpreted as an array index ([int]) maps to either 0 ($false) or 1 ($true), which is used here to select the appropriate value from array 4, 8.}

Here's the original form of the answer, which may have some related information of interest:

A simple test, assuming that you're always running from a 32-bit PowerShell instance:

$is64Bit = Test-Path C:\Windows\SysNative

^{32-bit processes (only) on 64-bit systems see the 64-bit SYSTEM32 (sic) directory as C:\Windows\SysNative}

However, the following works from both 32-bit and 64-bit sessions:

$is64Bit = Test-Path 'Env:ProgramFiles(x86)'

^{Only on 64-bit systems does an automatically defined ProgramFiles(x86) environment variable exist alongside the ProgramFiles variable.}

To get the OS-native pointer size in bytes:

$pointerSizeInBytes = (4, 8)[[bool] ${env:ProgramFiles(x86)}]

^{${env:ProgramFiles(x86)} uses namespace variable notation to return the value of env. var. ProgramFiles(x86) directly; casting a string value to [bool] returns $true only for non-empty strings; a [bool] interpreted as an array index ([int]) maps to either 0 ($false) or 1 ($true), which is used here to select the appropriate value from array 4, 8.}

Theo · Accepted Answer · 2020-04-24 10:22:27Z

Another approach is to wrap it inside a small helper function:

function Get-Architecture { # What bitness does Windows use $windowsBitness = switch ([Environment]::Is64BitOperatingSystem) { # needs .NET 4 $true { 64; break } $false { 32; break } default { (Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_OperatingSystem).OSArchitecture -replace '\D' # Or do any of these: # (Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_ComputerSystem).SystemType -replace '\D' -replace '86', '32' # (Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_Processor).AddressWidth # slow... } } # What bitness does this PowerShell process use $processBitness = [IntPtr]::Size * 8 # Or do any of these: # $processBitness = $env:PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE -replace '\D' -replace '86', '32' # $processBitness = if ([Environment]::Is64BitProcess) { 64 } else { 32 } # Return the info as object return New-Object -TypeName PSObject -Property @{ 'ProcessArchitecture' = "{0} bit" -f $processBitness 'WindowsArchitecture' = "{0} bit" -f $windowsBitness } } Get-Architecture

This will return both the 'bitness' of the currently running PowerShell process aswell as the bitness of the OS like:

 ProcessArchitecture WindowsArchitecture ------------------- ------------------- 64 bit 64 bit

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