As described earlier, in order to run a 64-bit version of CentOS, you need to have the following:

• a processor that can handle 64-bit
• 4 GB RAM

I’m assuming that you are Windows user. Let’s face it, it is a Microsoft world out there. You Mac OS X users please do not bother putting down your Starbucks beverage and type a hastily reply.

So, in order to check if your computer can run a 64-bit version of CentOS. You should go to Microsft Support and type in the search box ”How to determine if I can run 64-bit Windows X”.  Replace “X” with the Windows version you are currently using; i.e. Vista,  7, or 8. In the search results you’ll find instructions in how to determine wether you can run 64-bit or not.

I would like to point out something in the ”determining” process you might see the following dialogue box:

Don’t let “32-bit Operating System” in this dialogue box fool you!  It doesn’t mean that you can’t run 64-bit, it means that the current Operating System is 32-bit. Don’t be ashamed, it fooled me too   and quite a few times I might add

In this specefic case, the dialogue box is not from my system, this user could run a 64-bit Operating System if he added 1 GB of RAM His processor can run 64-bit, as you can read here.