There are many editions, builds, versions, and SKUs of Windows operating system from Microsoft. From Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1 to Windows 10 for client Windows OS, or from Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2012 R2 to Windows Server 2016 server Windows OS, there are may variants that available. For example, beta 1, beta 2, beta 3, beta 4, beta 5, release candidate 1 (RC1), release candidate 2 (RC2), release candidate 3 (RC3), RTM escrow, RTM (release to manufacturing), technical preview, insider preview, incremental build releases, and more.

In addition, once a version of Windows is live, Microsoft may release service packs, patches, updates, hotfixes, and others that may alter the build version number of the installed Windows or Windows Server OS.

So how do you know which edition or which version, or more accurately which build number and revision number that you’re installing?

To find out the product edition, build number and revision number for Windows and/or Windows Server that is installed, follow these steps:

  1. Open Registry Editor by searching for and running Regedit or Regedt32.
  2. Navigate to the following registry key:

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion

  3. In the right pane, you will see lots of registry subkeys and its value data. Here’s how you read the value for some of the keys.

    ProductName

    The product name of Windows or Windows Server edition on the system. For example, Windows Vista (TM) Ultimate or Windows 10 Pro.

    EditionID

    The edition of the operating system. For example, Ultimate or Professional.

    BuildLabEx

    Contains build and revision number. For example, 6000.16386.x86fre.vista_rtm.061101-2205 where first portion will give the build number (6000) and the next set of number if revision number (16386).

Tip
You can open a Command Prompt window and run the following command to directly get the information you want. For example, to query and view the BuildLabEx, run:

reg query "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion" | findstr BuildLabEx

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