# Unfortunately, python does not provide a useful way to determine
# if the underlying Windows OS is 32-bit or 64-bit. Worse, whether
# the Python itself is 32-bit or 64-bit affects what it returns,
- # so nothing in sys.* or os.* help. So we go to the registry to
- # look directly for a clue from Windows, caching the result to
- # avoid repeated registry calls.
+ # so nothing in sys.* or os.* help.
+
+ # Apparently the best solution is to use env vars that Windows
+ # sets. If PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE is not x86, then the python
+ # process is running in 64 bit mode (on a 64-bit OS, 64-bit
+ # hardware, obviously).
+ # If this python is 32-bit but the OS is 64, Windows will set
+ # ProgramW6432 and PROCESSOR_ARCHITEW6432 to non-null.
+ # (Checking for HKLM\Software\Wow6432Node in the registry doesn't
+ # work, because some 32-bit installers create it.)
global _is_win64
if _is_win64 is None:
- _is_win64 = has_reg(r"Software\Wow6432Node")
+ # I structured these tests to make it easy to add new ones or
+ # add exceptions in the future, because this is a bit fragile.
+ _is_win64 = False
+ if os.environ.get('PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE','x86') != 'x86':
+ _is_win64 = True
+ if os.environ.get('PROCESSOR_ARCHITEW6432'):
+ _is_win64 = True
+ if os.environ.get('ProgramW6432'):
+ _is_win64 = True
return _is_win64