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Is it possible to find out what version of Windows 7 I have installed (for example Home Premium 64-bit) by looking at the files on the disk?

The disk I have is a MBR installed Windows 7 copied to a GPT formatted disk, and the bootloader is kind of out of order, so I can't verify.

Also, for whatever reason I have not been able to open the registry on the disk, so a method that does not need it is preferred.

Is the version string stored in any file?

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2 Answers 2

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Look in the %SystemRoot%. There should be an .xml file with the name of the installed edition (eg. HomePremium.xml). For the architecture, the easiest is to check for the presence of the SysWOW64 folder.

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  • There are two, starter and ultimate, what next?
    – Gizmo
    Aug 4, 2015 at 19:07
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To find the installed edition and licence type (retail/OEM), you can check the licence agreement, which is found at X:\Windows\System32\license.rtf (replace "X:" with the drive letter assigned to the Windows partition).

To find the architecture (64-bit vs. 32-bit), there are some files and folders you can check for the presence of:

  • X:\Program Files (x86)

  • X:\Windows\SysWOW64

  • anything with "64" in the file name in X:\Windows\inf (that's where Windows keeps driver setup files, and a 32-bit system is not going to have 64-bit drivers)

Those files/folders only exist on a 64-bit Windows installation.

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  • This works pretty nice!
    – Gizmo
    Aug 4, 2015 at 19:07

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