Get Windows version in a batch file

Question

I need to get the OS version with a batch file. I 've seen a lot of examples online, many uses something like this code:

@echo off  ver | find "XP" > nul if %ERRORLEVEL% == 0 goto ver_xp  if not exist %SystemRoot%\system32\systeminfo.exe goto warnthenexit  systeminfo | find "OS Name" > %TEMP%\osname.txt FOR /F "usebackq delims=: tokens=2" %%i IN (%TEMP%\osname.txt) DO set vers=%%i  echo %vers% | find "Windows 7" > nul if %ERRORLEVEL% == 0 goto ver_7  echo %vers% | find "Windows Vista" > nul if %ERRORLEVEL% == 0 goto ver_vista  goto warnthenexit  :ver_7 :Run Windows 7 specific commands here. echo Windows 7 goto exit  :ver_vista :Run Windows Vista specific commands here. echo Windows Vista goto exit  :ver_xp :Run Windows XP specific commands here. echo Windows XP goto exit  :warnthenexit echo Machine undetermined.  :exit 

The problem is when I execute this on Vista or Windows 7 I get the message

Machine undetermined

Is there any other way to do what I want?

Answer 1

It's much easier (and faster) to get this information by only parsing the output of ver:

@echo off setlocal for /f "tokens=4-5 delims=. " %%i in ('ver') do set VERSION=%%i.%%j if "%version%" == "10.0" echo Windows 10 if "%version%" == "6.3" echo Windows 8.1 if "%version%" == "6.2" echo Windows 8. if "%version%" == "6.1" echo Windows 7. if "%version%" == "6.0" echo Windows Vista. rem etc etc endlocal 

This table on MSDN documents which version number corresponds to which Windows product version (this is where you get the 6.1 means Windows 7 information from).

The only drawback of this technique is that it cannot distinguish between the equivalent server and consumer versions of Windows.

Answer 2

_{These one-line commands have been tested on Windows XP, Server 2012, 7 and 10 (thank you Mad Tom Vane).}

Extract version x.y in a cmd console

for /f "tokens=4-7 delims=[.] " %i in ('ver') do @(if %i==Version (echo %j.%k) else (echo %i.%j)) 

Extract the full version x.y.z

for /f "tokens=4-7 delims=[.] " %i in ('ver') do @(if %i==Version (echo %j.%k.%l) else (echo %i.%j.%k)) 

In a batch script use %% instead of single %

@echo off for /f "tokens=4-7 delims=[.] " %%i in ('ver') do (if %%i==Version (set v=%%j.%%k) else (set v=%%i.%%j)) echo %v% 

Version is not always consistent to brand name number

Be aware that the extracted version number does not always corresponds to the Windows name release. See below an extract from the full list of Microsoft Windows versions.

10.0   Windows 10
6.3   Windows Server 2012
6.3   Windows 8.1   /!\
6.2   Windows 8   /!\
6.1   Windows 7   /!\
6.0   Windows Vista
5.2   Windows XP x64
5.1   Windows XP
5.0   Windows 2000
4.10   Windows 98

^{Please also up-vote answers from Agent Gibbs and peterbh as my answer is inspired from their ideas.}