Cliff Hobbs at myITforum.com

[Misc] How do I get BGInfo to display the machine's architecture?

I LOVE BGInfo as when you're working with several VMs/ remote machines it can provide a wealth of information right there on the desktop so I can see at a glance a) that I'm on the right machine and b) key machine configuration information without having to go delving for it.

But one thing in this ever changing world of 32-bit and 64-bit, being able to display the architecture of the machine right there in BGInfo. "Out-of-the-box" BGInfo doesn't include this but all is not lost as you can add this as follows:

1. Load BGInfo.
2. Click "Custom..."
3. Click "New..." on the "User Defined Fields" screen.
4. On the "Define New Field" screen type the name you want to know this field by in the "Identifier:" field (for example "Architecture").
5. Click the "WMI Query" radio button under the "Replace identifer with:" section.
6. Enter the following WMI Query in the "Path:" field: select AddressWidth select AddressWidth from Win32_Processor where DeviceID="CPU0"
7. Click "OK" on the "Define New Field" screen.
8. Back on the "BGInfo - Default configuration" screen scroll through the list of "Fields" until you find the new field added in Step 4.
9. Click "<- Add" to add the field to the list of those you wish to display on the desktop.
10. Click "OK" to close BGInfo.
11. Now you will see the Architecture displayed as either "32" or "64".