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Simon Willison

Do Windows users generally know which out of the x86 and amd64 options they should pick? If people aren't sure, is there a command I can suggest they run or a program they can look in to figure out which one they should use?

(Earlier on I was trying to do this in a GitHub Actions workflow and I wasn't sure how to tell if it was x86 or amd64)

4 comments
Reilly Wood

@simon Many people won’t know off the top of their head, but vanishingly few users will be on 32-bit. Think you can safely recommend amd64 to most people.

Paul Hennell • Dev

@simon Honestly despite being a techy person and now a programmer, I've never been good knowing what download option to pick. Doesn't help you need to know if your system is 32 or 64 to choose between 86 and 64 🙄

These days most windows are 64 bit though, so unless your target audience is "people/businesses with very old machines" just heavily recommended the 64 (and have a clear error installer for people who need the 32!)

DJ Tent Mode

@simon Yes. Because it’s a trick question. There really aren’t enough AMD64 architecture Windows devices in the marketplace for it ever to be the right option. And while people like you and I are chatting about it here, most people aren’t getting software off of git. We are the corner case of this thought experiment.

Andrei Kucharavy

@simon pretty much all modern computers are amd64 - x86 is provided as legacy version, and will still work, but not benefit from modern cpu power.

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