Hi all. Recently, a friend of mine asked me to reinstall the operating system on his laptop, but unfortunately the OS would not boot and it was impossible to determine which version of Windows was installed on the laptop. And knowing this is very important! For example, if Windows 10 Home for one language was installed on a computer device from the store, then it must be installed, only in this case the operating system is activated automatically immediately after the installation process. I asked my friend if he remembered the version of his system, but he shook his head and said that he mainly used the browser.The laptop was not new and had absolutely no stickers, pAccording to my data, even Windows 7 could be installed on it.

How to find out the Windows version if the system does not start

Friends, if you need to know Windows version, but you cannot get into the system itself, then you need to boot the computer from Live CD. You can use my Live CD program, created by me personally, Dmitry Malyshev with some selection of programs, or you can use a more powerful emergency Live CD from Sergei Strelets. But, let's talk about everything in more detail.

Live CD from Dmitry Malyshev

Download Live CD in my cloud storage, then create from it bootable USB flash drive, from which you can boot a simple computer with a regular BIOS, as well as the most new laptop with UEFI interface. Friends, if you don’t know how to create such a bootable USB flash drive, then here’s a very. T Now we boot our laptop with Windows from a flash drive, the version of which we need to install.Select in boot menu laptop flash drive and boot from it.

Click "OK".

The Live CD desktop appears.

Go to the "Software" folder.

Go to the WinNTSetup3 folder.

Run the executable file WinNTSetup_x64.

The main window of the WinNTSetup3 program opens.

Click right click mouse on the top of the program window.

And the following window opens, in which we see the version installed on our laptopWindows 10 Home Single Language (Windows 10 Home for one language), also visible license key systems.So in a simple way, using the program WinNTSetup3, we found out Windows version. But that is not all.

I'm sure you'll like another way. We return to the "Software" folder. Go to the ProduKey folder.

Launch the ProduKey program.

As you can see, ProduKey named the version incorrectly, but this is not a problem, you just need to configure the program correctly.

Click File-->Select Source.

Check the box "Load the product keys from external Windows directory" and click "Browse".

In the explorer that opens, you must indicate to the program Windows folder with the operating system installed. Expand the disk in the Explorer window(C:) and select the Windows folder with the left mouse, then click OK.

It is important to know that all LiveCDs confuse the drive letters and they are almost always different from those that we see in the running operating system. In simple words, the disk with the installed system may not be (C:), but (D:) or (E:), etc., but in In our case, everything turned out to be correct and Windows 10 ended up on the drive (C:), since we see the folders of the installed OS here: Program Files, C:\Program Files (x86) and Windows.

Now the program correctly showed us the version of installed Windows.

LiveDisk by Sergei Strelec

Friends, you can burn a powerful emergency

Doesn't matter for what, but you might want to know which version operating system installed on the computer or what is the bus width. The main thing is that it is necessary. There are quite a few ways to find out about the operating system version. Some of them are accurate, others not so much. Well, let's start figuring out how to find out the version of Windows. For ease of understanding, what follows is a short theoretical introduction, looking at the most popular operating systems today.

What you need to know

It should be said that the versions (with sufficient experience) can be distinguished even visually. But there are two concepts of this word in relation to computer technology. The first relates to the operating systems themselves. They have improved along with the development of technology, and the article will discuss the most popular ones. The second concept mutually follows from the first and relates to bit depth. The operating system version can be 32-bit or 64-bit. Conventionally, this means how many actions occur in one unit of computer working time, which is negligibly small. In general, it should be noted that there are a number of signs that can be used to determine the version and bitness of a computer. You may notice the differences yourself or be able to find out about them in other ways. But in this case we are interested in accurately establishing the data.

Windows XP

How can I find out the Windows version in this case? Click on the start menu. A window will open, find the “My Computer” button. If you find it, it means you really have this version of the operating system. But how do you find out the bit depth? Right-click on “My Computer” and in the action menu that opens, select the “Properties” option. Next, a window will open, you need to find the “System” section. In this section, look for the line “x64 edition”. It is located at the top, closer to the right side of the window. If, after a detailed inspection, you cannot find such words, you can say with confidence that you are the owner of a 32-bit system. If your search is successful, congratulations! You have a 64-bit system. The sequence of such actions is determined by Windows XP versions.

Windows 7 or Vista

How to find out the Windows version in this case? Start again from the start. In the window that opens, just look for the line “Computer”. If you find it, it means you have this version. Call Then in the window that appears, look for the words “System type”. The bit capacity specific to your PC will be written next to them. Also next to it will be precisely indicated the one installed on this moment operating system of a computer or laptop. You may also notice “Release” at the top. This is the exact version you are using.

Windows 8 and 8.1 versions

How to find out the version of Windows, and what exactly is this instruction for you? If the initial screen type looks like it was designed for touch control, you are the owner of such an operating system. Here, in addition to the bit depth, you also need to determine what version of the operating system it is. With the eighth version everything is simple: first you need to enter home screen“Computer”, then right-click on the element that appears and select “Properties”. Next, in the window that opens, opposite “Release” and “System type” it will be indicated what’s what. If you can't use this advice, it means you have a different version of the operating system that is more suitable for touch technology.

With version 8.1 it’s a little more complicated: you need to move it to the lower right corner, then up. Click "Options" then "Change". Next, select “Computer and devices” and click on “Details”. The page that opens will indicate the version and bitness of the operating system.

But many users really do not know their version of the operating system. But is it really that important? Interesting question. If you are a proponent of installation latest versions operating systems, this can be really important. So let's talk today about how to find out which version of Windows OS you are using.

Windows 8.1 or RT 8.1

At the time of writing, these are the latest and most current versions of the operating system. Windows systems 8.

Move the mouse cursor to the lower right corner of the screen, then up and click “Settings” - “Change PC settings”.

Click on “Computer and devices”, and then select “Computer information” at the bottom of the section.

In under Windows section- “Release” you will see the version of the operating system, and in the subsection “Computer” - “System Type” you can find out the OS you are using.

Windows 8 or RT 8

If you are using earlier releases of Windows 8, then the instructions for you will be as follows.

On the desktop, click on the "Computer" icon, right-click, using context menu select "Properties".

A window will appear in front of you, which will collect basic information about your computer, including the version of the operating system.

Windows 7 or Vista

If your computer has Windows 7 or Vista installed, you can find out its version in several ways, which I would like to tell you about.

So, the very first and simplest one is using the same method described in the previous case (“Computer” - right mouse button - “Properties”).

The second method is not much more difficult. Click on the “Start” button, in the “Search programs and files” window, write the word winver and see this window.

The third method allows you to find out necessary information through the "System Information" section. To do this, click on the “Start” button, and then click on “All Programs” - “Accessories” - “System Tools” - “System Information”. In the window that appears, you can find out a lot of interesting things about your operating system.

Fourth method: command line. Click on the “Start” button, in the “Search programs and files” window write the word cmd, which will open the command line. Enter the systeminfo command and after collecting the information, the necessary data will appear in front of you.

Honestly, most of these methods are also suitable for other Windows operating systems, it’s just that at the moment the seventh version of this OS is the most popular, which is why I focused on it.

Windows XP

Click on the “Start” button, then “Run”, and then enter the winver command and press the Enter key. The necessary information will appear in front of you.

Many users do not know how to find out the Windows version.

And this is very important for those cases when it is necessary to understand, for example, whether the computer meets the system requirements for a particular game.

This is also necessary if the user wants to see some features of his system, the nuances of working with it, and so on.

Sometimes you need to find out not the version, but the bit depth - 32 or 64 bits.

In fact, finding out which version of Windows is installed on your computer is quite simple. Different versions have their own special methods for this, but there are also several universal ones.

Let's look at each way to find out the operating system version.

Using the My Computer shortcut

In fact, this is the simplest method that works in almost all versions of Windows, at least on one of the most popular ones now, Windows 7.

It consists of performing the following actions:

• Right-click on the “My Computer” shortcut.
• In the drop-down menu, select the item called “Properties” (highlighted in Figure “1”).

• In the window that opens, we can see all the operating system data, including its build version and other features. This window is shown in Figure 2.
  There, the place where you can see the system version is highlighted in red (as we see, in our case it is Windows 7 Home Basic).
  The assembly version is underlined in blue, the bit depth (32 or 64 bits) is in lilac, and the so-called performance index is highlighted in green. The latter involves rating the system on a scale from 1 to 10 depending on its performance.

Nuances

Advice! Actually, this method is applicable for a variety of Windows versions. .

To put it there, you need to click on free space desktop with the right mouse button, select “Personalization”, then in the window shown in Figure 3 go to the “Themes” tab (highlighted in green).

After this, all that remains is to click “OK” and restart the computer.

In Windows XP, the window shown in Figure No. 2 will look slightly different - as shown in Figure No. 5.

In Windows 8, this window looks like shown in Figure 6.

This method often does not work in Windows 10 and Windows 8.1, as well as RT 8.1. Therefore, let’s look at what users of these OSes should do.

For Windows 10

To find out which version of this operating system installed system, you need to do the following:

• Using the command line, launch the “Options” window. To do this, first press Win + R (without the plus sign) on your keyboard, enter “winver” in the input line and press Enter. After this, the window shown in Figure 7 will appear.
  The version there is underlined in red.

• Press the keyboard shortcut Win + I. In the window that opens, open the “System” item and in the menu on the left go to the “About the system” tab. After this, the user will see the window shown in Figure 8.
  It looks very similar to the corresponding window in previous versions Windows.

By the way, the first method (using command line) also works in most other versions of Windows.

For Windows 8.1

Here, to find out the version of the installed system, you need to do the following:

• In the menu that is located on the right (in most cases, for it to appear, you need to hover the mouse cursor over the right edge of the screen), you must select the so-called “Settings” charm button. Her appearance shown in Figure 9.

• In the window that opens, select the “Change computer settings” button (shown in Figure 10).

• In the next window, you need to select the “Computer and Devices” button, and then go to the “Computer Information” item (shown in Figure No. 11). There, in the “Windows” section, you can see the version of the installed operating system.
  The “Computer” section shows the most basic parameters of the device.

By key

This method is intended for those who are more or less well versed in computers and are, so to speak, “advanced” users.

Although in some cases the situation forces one to become one.

Indeed, the version of the operating system can be found out by the key, which is indicated on a sticker located on the case personal computer or laptop.

To do this, we need a program called Volume Activation Management Tool, which can only be downloaded (!) on the official Microsoft website, here is the link - www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=11936.

On this page you need to click the “Download” button. Unfortunately, there is no Russian language in it, but even without it it will not be difficult to understand.

No. 12. Volume Activation Management Tool download page

After this, you need to run the downloaded file, go through the standard installation process and launch the program itself. The user will see the window shown in Figure 13.

On the left side there is a section tree.

In it you need to select “Product Key” (highlighted in green).

After this, the version of your operating system will appear in the place highlighted in Figure 14.

BUT! This method does not work on Windows 10.

For users of this OS, it would be better to download the development of young enthusiastic programmers called ShowKeyPlus (link - github.com/Superfly-Inc/ShowKeyPlus/releases

Cheat sheet 1 How to see the version of the operating system Windows XP Vista 7 8/8.1

How to find out the version of Windows on a computer? Simple instructions

It's no secret that Microsoft's operating system comes in a huge number of versions. Moreover, each generation has several editions for different tasks.

For example, if you decide, then you will have several variations:

• monolingual;
• basic;
• professional;
• for tablets;
• corporate.

Of course, each of them has its own set of components and, of course, its own installer. In this regard, users who have licensed software often encounter the problem of determining the version. For example, they lost a disk and only had an activation code left. And they want to figure out how to find out the version of Windows 8 by key in order to download the appropriate distribution. Is there any way to do this?

Ways to determine Windows version

Fortunately, there are ways to implement this, although not very many. If there is any information about the distribution, for example, a number, then this may help. For example, Windows 8.1 SL is a single language version. And Pro is professional for business. But what to do if this is not the case, how can you determine the version of Windows 8 by the key and only by it? The simplest and effective way- This is to contact Microsoft support. To do this, call the Activation Center, wait for the operator to respond, and tell him your problem. He will ask you to dictate the activation code, which will determine the edition of the appropriate operating system.

If you can't call, you can do the following. Download the distribution kit from the official website for basic version operating system, install it, and then update to the required edition and activate using the product key. However, this method is not universal, because there are differences between versions and generations of the OS. Therefore, it should be left as a last resort.

Determining the version of Windows 8 installed

No less often, users are interested in how to determine the version of the OS that is already installed on the PC. For example, to find out if you can download updates or upgrade to more new system. In this case, it is much easier to determine which Windows is installed on the PC. To do this, just right-click on the computer shortcut and select “Properties”. Here you will get basic information about the version. If you need more detailed information, for example, revision number, then follow these steps.