What are bits?
A bit is a single zero or a one, the language of a computer. Your computer processor takes instructions either 32 bits at a time (older machines) or 64 bits at a time (newer machines). Your operating system, comes in one of two versions, 32 bit and 64 bit. 32 bit operating systems can be installed on machines with 32 bit processors or 64 bit processors, while 64 bit operating systems can only be installed on machines with 64 bit processors. Some programming languages, like C and C++, make assumptions about the size of an instruction, and as a result software written in these languages are distributed in 32 bit and 64 bit versions. Generally speaking, a 32 bit operating system can only run 32 bit programs, while a 64 bit operating system can always run 64 bit programs and can usually run 32 bit programs.