How to know for sure what Windows version I have.

[martienne]

I'm using an "old" gaming PC that originally belonged to someone else but that is nagging about upgrading to Windows 10. I want to get this done before the cutoff for free license and use it for multimedia since it has some great multimedia programs installed already. However he has messed around with this darn computer so much that it's impossible to know what's what. It's multilingual and hacked worse than even I could manage. The previous owner said it was Windows Ultimate but the version info I'm seeing says Pro. It ought to be the N version since this is the EU - but the version info isn't saying anything about that. Language ought to be British since it's spelling colour and the like in the British way. But the version info isn't saying that either. I want to run DISM on it but I think it will only work if I know exactly what version of Windows I have and get the iso image to match. I.e. I believe I need to know whether it's UK or US version, whether it's Ultimate or Pro and whether it's N or the Standard version.

Is there a good command prompt query I could use to get a definite answer about exact version?

 

[MilesAhead]

You can try the command
ver
in a cmd prompt and look for the build info here

Also you could search microsoft.com for the build number.

Edit: as alternative to the command prompt you can press Winkey r
then enter
winver

to get a Gui window with hopefully the same build info and maybe a bit more detail such as Windows 8 at the top. Not much more though.

 

[TrustMe]

ShowKeyPlus will tell you everything you want to know. It will tell you what version is installed now and what version is in the BIOS. The version in the BIOS is the one you will want to reinstall.

Showkey - Windows 10 Forums

 

[MilesAhead]

If you want more system info a tool recommended on the forum is Speccy