CODEWITHSUNDEEP
x86x86-64executable32bit-64bit
Poulo
Poulo

Reputation: 1651

How do I determine whether an application I am installing is 32-bit or 64-bit?

I want to be able to predict the default install location of an application. On a 64-bit machine, if it is a 32-bit application, it would install in "Program Files (x86)" and if it were a 64-bit application, it would install in "Program Files".

My goal is to install the application with its default location and validate if the install was fine. But for this I need to know where it would be installed. If I know what architecture the application is built for, I think it would serve my purpose.

Upvotes: 1

Views: 2034

Answers (2)

phuclv
phuclv

Reputation: 41753

If you can use external tools then GNU file is the most versatile solution. But it might be a bit overkill for this purpose. Other alternatives being Dependency Walker, Sysinternals' Sigcheck, MSVC's dumpbin or corflags... But the one that might surprise a lot of people is 7zip. It has a small file-like utility inside that can be used with l option

C:\>7z l "C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Photo Viewer\ImagingDevices.exe" | findstr CPU
CPU = x86

C:\>7z l "C:\Program Files\Windows Photo Viewer\ImagingDevices.exe" | findstr CPU
CPU = x64

If you have to check it yourself then read 2 bytes at offset 0x3C in the file. Then add 4 to this value and read 2 bytes at that offset, that'll indicate the architecture. For example in the below example the file contains 0x00E0 at offset 0x3C. At offset 0x00E0 + 4 = 0x00E4 contains 0x8664 which means a 64-bit binary. If it was a 32-bit x86 binary then it will contain 0x014C

PE file opened as text

There are more ways that you can find in the below links. There are also other PowerShell and VBS scripts available for that purpose

Upvotes: 2

leepowers
leepowers

Reputation: 38298

Download file for Windows to check the details of any file on Windows:

http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/file.htm

Then, via the Windows command line:

C:\> "C:\Program Files\GnuWin32\bin\file" name-of-file.exe
name-of-file.exe executable for MS Windows (GUI) Intel 80386 32-bit

You should be able to grab the return value of this command from whatever development platform your working with.

Upvotes: 1

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