Windows 32 or 64 bit using HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\WOW6432 Node

Posted by JimDel on Stack Overflow See other posts from Stack Overflow or by JimDel
Published on 2010-03-05T21:12:26Z Indexed on 2010/03/08 23:51 UTC
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Windows

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32bit

|

64bit

I'm looking for a very simple way of determining if the version of Windows the customer is using is 32bit or 64bit. I know there are ways using .NEt but I'm looking to avoid them. I simply want to use something similar the below pseudo code and want to know if this method can be reliable.

If Registry Key exists (HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\WOW6432Node)
   Then Assume 64bit
else
   Assume 32bit

Thanks!

EDIT: To be more specific, I know there a several different ways to accomplish the goal of finding out if the OS is 32 or 64bit. But I want to know if the above alone method would be reliable.

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