How does one find the date that their current Windows installation was made? I hear that the information is stored in the Windows registry someplace. I'm trying to figure out when I installed my current operating system ( I guess I should have wrote the information down someplace! :red ). Thanks for any information........
Hi cman,
I don't know of any way programatically to obtain the date however, when you extract the full version number you will get a BUILD number, there are a few places on the web that you can use to match that to a date:
http://www.gaijin.at/en/lstwinver.php
The install date is stored in the registry value:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\InstallDate
stored as a dword, UNIX (POSIX) time (32-bit value containing the number of seconds since 1/1/1970)
I seem to remember that the Operating System install date is an attribute obtainable with WMI (Windows Management Instrumentation (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa394582(v=vs.85).aspx)): Win32_OperatingSystem class (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa394239(v=vs.85).aspx)
WMI is kind of a pain in the ass to access (it loads as an out-of-process COM server),...reading a Registry entry would definitely be easier and quicker,...
Hi cman,
If you are using Windows XP, systeminfo.exe (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb491007.aspx) reports the installation date :
systeminfo|find /i "install"
Maybe I misunderstood I thought he was looking for the build date:
Quotecurrent Windows installation was made
Now that I look again at the topic I think you guys are right, the installation date is what he's looking for, it's just a registry key as Dave said.