Okay, I had been trying to install a couple different distributions for a while now, and my installs always seemed to freeze at different points. I gave up for awhile but now came back to Ubuntu 8.10 through Wubi. I looked around on Google and some forums, but no one seemed to explicitly answer some of the questions I had (I think they may be to simple and most people just assume everyone knows them).

First of all, I downloaded Wubi from the official site and installed Ubuntu 8.10 through Windows. How can I tell if it was the 64 bit version? I have a 64 bit processor and would rather not running a 32 bit os.

Also, after I load up Ubuntu, it has the "install" icon on the desktop. Can I just simply click on this and fully install Ubuntu onto my system (as in, no longer just be a live user)?

I have no experience with the wubi as I have always installed to a hard drive [all or part] the easiest is to dig an old HDD from the parts bin and test on that [install from live CD choosing the whole drive]

second best is dual boot. IMHO the safest is to use a partition tool such as gparted, or from within vista its own partition utility, to reduce the size of the windows partition. [by 10 gig] then install from the live cd choosing "largest unpartitioned space."

these have always worked for me.
[but have a copy of super grub to be safe]

Well, I was planning to install Ubuntu as my sole operating system. The Wubi installer has the option to install, but it seems it would be kind of hard to install an os on a hard drive when the installer is on the drive itself.

And what about my other question? Does it say anywhere whether the installer is 64 or 32 bit. When I'm running Ubuntu as a live user, it says I only have 3.6 gigs of memory, so I'm thinking it is 32 bit.

What does "uname -a" return when issued from a terminal ?.
You have to specifically select the 64-bit CD on the download page - else you get 32-bit. My understanding is that Wubi is just a (small) Windoze installer exe

When I tried Wubi on my laptop (Intel Pentium Dual Core T2330) but running 32 bit XP, it installed the 64 bit. So I think it automatically installs whichever suits your architecture. As syg00 says, run uname -a, and see if it says x86_64 or i686.

accoridng to Paul G Sery, in hsi book "Ubuntu for Dummies" a 64 bit Ubunto from http://releases.ubuntu.com/6.10. Instructions for burning the CD can be found at http://help.ubuntu.com/community.

Bill