I need a way to find out what version of windows I'm running in using simple command line tools (no powershell). I need it to work from a non-privileged user, and I need to be able to parse out the difference between Windows XP, Vista, server 2008, and 7. I'm currently using:
wmic os get Caption but that fails when the user doesn't have permissions to run wmic.
Update:
To clarify, I need this command to not break with different service pack levels, etc. which probably rules out parsing a specific version number. Also if you look at this list of windows versions, you'll see that the numbers reported on Windows 7 and server 2008 r2 are the same.
I solved this problem by parsing the output of:
reg query "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion" /v "ProductName"
systeminfo command shows everything about the os version including service pack number and the edition you are using.
C:\>systeminfo | findstr /B /C:"OS Name" /C:"OS Version"
OS Name: Microsoft Windows 7 Enterprise
OS Version: 6.1.7601 Service Pack 1 Build 7601
Reference: Find Windows version from command prompt
You can use ver. I'm on a school computer with a non-privileged command prompt, and it gives me Microsft Windows [Version 6.1.7601]. I'm sure you'd be able to sort out Vista and XP from the number you get.
cmd displays the Windows version when started:
Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7601]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
C:\Users\Joey>_
This is also a similar line as the one ver spits out, indeed.
One option then might be
echo exit|cmd|findstr Windows
another
cmd /c ver
depending on whether you have a pipeline or not.
if not CMDEXTVERSION 2 (
echo Error: This batch requires Command Extensions version 2 or higher
exit /b 1
)
FOR /F "usebackq tokens=4 delims=] " %%I IN (`ver`) DO for /F "tokens=1,2 delims=." %%J IN ("%%I") do set WindowsVersion=%%J.%%K
if "%WindowsVersion%" LSS "6.1" (
echo Error: This batch requires Windows 7 SP1 or higher
exit /b 1
)
You can get the SysInternals and install onto your C:\ directory. After that you can then go to a command prompt and use the command PSINFO.
It is great because it lets me query any PC on the network (that I have access to). At the command prompt you type: PSINFO \exactnameofcomputer
(PSINFO whack whack exactnameofcomputer)
Then hit enter. It will take a moment or two to report back, depending on where that computer is located at.
Related
I am trying to run a batch file that includes some WMIC queries on multiple versions of Windows. Windows 2003 causes the script to hang. It is most likely due to the first time that wmic is being run. The computer will normally output "Please wait while WMIC is being installed.."
Is there anyway to check if wmic is installed and if it is not, do not run it? I do not want to install WMIC on the computers I am running this on if it is not already installed. Should I just skip this query on all Windows 2003?
May be I'm wrong, but I think wmic is present at least from XP
This may help
#echo off
where /R c:\windows\ wmic.exe >nul 2>nul || (echo/ wmic.exe not found & exit/B)
rem wmic queries here
exit/B
I'm writing a batch script to update a software package (uninstall old
version/ install new one). This needs to be done over the network as
there are 500 PCs to update. One of the first steps before uninstalling is checking wether that software is installed or not. In order to check that
I query the registry:
reg query "HKLM\SOFTWARE\A.E.T Europe B.V."
This query gives adecuate results when running in local (for testing purposes), but when I run it remotely (they way it will be
ran) returns wrong results.
reg query "\\I301\HKLM\SOFTWARE\A.E.T Europe B.V."
returns 0 if i run that line locally. But if I log into I301 and run the
query locally returns 1, being the truth that A.E.T Europe B.V. shows up under the Wow6432Node branch in the windows registry.
Why is that???
Thanks in advance!
If there is on 64-bit Windows just the key
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\A.E.T Europe B.V.
but no key
HKLM\SOFTWARE\A.E.T Europe B.V.
the reason for the different result is caused most likely by which version of reg.exe is executed from batch file or command line.
The key is not found if 64-bit %SystemRoot%\System32\reg.exe is executed on processing the batch file or running the command by 64-bit %SystemRoot%\System32\cmd.exe on using the line
reg query "\\I301\HKLM\SOFTWARE\A.E.T Europe B.V."
But the key is found if 32-bit %SystemRoot%\SysWOW64\reg.exe is executed on processing the batch file or running the command by 32-bit %SystemRoot%\SysWOW64\cmd.exe on using the line
reg query "HKLM\SOFTWARE\A.E.T Europe B.V."
because for the 32-bit applications the registry access to HKLM\SOFTWARE is redirected to HKLM\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node by registry redirector.
Check both possible key locations:
#echo off
%SystemRoot%\System32\ping.exe -n 1 I301 >nul
if errorlevel 1 (
echo Computer with name I301 is not available in network.
goto :EOF
)
%SystemRoot%\System32\reg.exe query "\\I301\HKLM\SOFTWARE\A.E.T Europe B.V." >nul 2>&1
if not errorlevel 1 goto Installed
%SystemRoot%\System32\reg.exe query "\\I301\HKLM\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\A.E.T Europe B.V." >nul 2>&1
if not errorlevel 1 goto Installed
echo A.E.T Europe B.V. is not installed.
goto :EOF
:Installed
echo A.E.T Europe B.V. is installed already.
See also the Microsoft documentation pages:
File System Redirector
WOW64 Implementation Details
Registry Keys Affected by WOW64
Good answer by Mofi. On 64 bit systems you might also consider using
/reg:32 & /reg:64
See REG QUERY /?
You can sometimes get into trouble if you are launching CMD.exe from another app. If that app is a 32 bit app it will launch the 32 bit version of CMD.exe
Thanks Mofi and RGuggisberg,
Found out about everything Mofi said (and RGuggisberg complemented) later on the day. Since I couldn't make it work I tried checking for the Uninstall entry in the registry, thinking it would be there and only there. After getting again similar results I did a bit more googling and found out about Windows having two trees in the registry: one for 32 bits applications and another for 64 bits. The hint was given by:
http://ss64.com/nt/reg.html
At the end it shows up the two options that RGuggisber mentions /reg:32 & /reg:64. Looked them up and found about the existence of both registries.
https://msdn.microsoft.com/es-es/library/windows/desktop/ms724072%28v=vs.85%29.aspx
Tried same query (for uninstalled) BUT using /reg:64 and found the key I was looking for. Tried with /reg:32 and indeed could not find it. The machine I was running the script from runs Windows 7 32-bits. The remote machine Windows 8.1 64 bits.
I am writing a batch script to use USMT to update computers from XP to 7. Because USMT has a scanstate component that needs to be run before the OS upgrade and a loadstate computer that has to be run after the OS upgrade I am trying to use an if statement to check what the operating system is and then run the proper commands. I am new to batch files but from everything I have been reading it seems like I am writing it properly but I am obviously messing up somewhere. I am getting a "Windows is unexpected at this time error." I also know that the variables are being set properly because of the pause commands that I included. I also tried using IF %WINVERSION% == %XP% goto XPTRUE/WIN7TRUE and enclosing everything within the brackets under a :XPTRUE/WIN7TRUE but that gives the same error.
::Don't have commands print...only outputs are printed
#echo off
:: Set constants
SET XP=Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
SET WIN7=Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7601]
SET XPUSMTLOCATION=C:\Program Files\USMT\Binaries\v4\x86
SET 7USMTLOCATION=C:\Program Files (x86)\USMT\Binaries\v4\amd64
SET BACKUPLOACTION=\\[SERVER IP]\z$\UserAccountBackUps\Backups
SET LOCALBACKUPLOCATION=C:\Backup\USMT
SET NASBACKUPLOCATION=S:\UserAccountBackUps\Backups
#PAUSE
::Get the current version of Windows batch file is running on and store it in WINVERSION
FOR /f "delims=" %%A IN ('ver') DO #SET WINVERSION=%%A
echo %WINVERSION%
PAUSE
::Get the MAC address of the computer and store it in MACA
FOR /F %%A IN ('getmac') DO #SET MACA=%%A
echo The MAC Address is: %MACA%
:: Tell user about script
echo This is a script designed to migrate computers with one network card from Windows XP to Windows 7 using USMT, this script should not be used with computers that have multiple network cards
echo Xp is %XP%
echo 7 is %WIN7%
::Check to see if the current version is XP
PAUSE
IF %WINVERSION% == %XP% (
echo This is windows XP
::Change directory to the location of USMT files
cd %XPUSMTLOCATION%
::Run scanstate to create backup
scanstate.exe C:\Backup /i:"\\[SERVER IP]\z$\UserAccountBackUps\USMT_XML_Files\MigApp.xml" /i:"\\[SERVER IP]\z$\UserAccountBackUps\USMT_XML_Files\MigDocs.xml" /i:"\\[SERVER IP]\z$\UserAccountBackUps\USMT_XML_Files\MigUser.xml" /o /v:2
::Change directory to the location of where the USMT backup is
cd %LOCALBACKUPLOCATION%
::Rename the backup to the MAC Address
rename USMT.MIG %MACA%.MIG
::Map the NAS to a drive because xcopy can not take IP addresses
echo Mapping NAS to drive
::NAS is mapped to drive S, if S is used for something else change s below to different letter
net use s: \\[SERVER IP]\z$
echo Prepairing to copy backup to NAS
::Use xcopy to transfer backup file the /v ensures the files are identical
::This must be done this way because if USMT tries to backup directly to the NAS it tries to overwrite all existing files
xcopy %LOCALBACKUPLOCATION%\%MACA%.MIG %NASBACKUPLOCATION% /v
echo The copy has completed, run this batch file again after OS Upgrade
)
IF %WINVERSION% == %WIN7% (
echo This is Windows 7
PAUSE
)
When I run this on my Windows 7 computer I get this:
I get the same output on my XP computer except it tells me the current version is xp instead. Help would be greatly appreciated.
The line below:
FOR /f "delims=" %%A IN ('ver') DO #SET WINVERSION=%%A
stores in WINVERSION variable a string that contain several words separated by spaces, for example:
SET WINVERSION=Microsoft Windows [Version 6.2.9200]
This way, the line below:
IF %WINVERSION% == %XP% (
is expanded to:
IF Microsoft Windows [Version 6.2.9200] == Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600] (
that, of course, cause a syntax error! Type: IF /? for further details.
The way to compare two strings that may contains spaces, is enclosing they in quotes:
IF "%WINVERSION%" == "%XP%" (
Microsoft Windows XP comes with a VBS script to manage local and network printers from the command line:
To Get the default printer details from command line:
cscript C:\windows\system32\prnmngr.vbs -g
To Get the list of printers added to the system from Windows command line:
cscript C:\windows\system32\prnmngr.vbs -l
Is there any equivalent commands for Windows 7? I just need to get the default printer details and get the list of printers attached to the system.
In Windows 7 these same scripts are found in
C:\Windows\System32\Printing_Admin_Scripts\en-US
List of all printers names and shows default one (You can get more details read documentation)
wmic printer get name,default
If you want output to file use:
wmic printer get name,default > D:\catalog\file.txt
Availability
The wmic command is an external command that is available in the below Microsoft operating systems as wmic.exe.
Windows XP professional
Windows 2003
Windows Vista
Windows 7
Windows 8
Windows 10
On Windows 10, the scripts are found in the same place as Windows 7.
Execute the following command to display the default printer.
cscript C:\Windows\System32\Printing_Admin_Scripts\en-US\prnmngr.vbs -g
Note if there is no default printer, the script will return nothing
i found mine in the sideXside folder...
C:\windows\winsxs\x86_microsoft-windows-p..inscripts.resources_31bf3856ad364e35_6.1.7600.16385_en-us_0e83b619ada3e7ed\
i ran the following:
cscript C:\windows\winsxs\x86_microsoft-windows-p..inscripts.resources_31bf3856ad364e35_6.1.7600.16385_en-us_0e83b619ada3e7ed\prnmngr.vbs -g
it worked.
To list active printer components on Windows 8.1:
c:>cscript C:\Windows\System32\Printing_Admin_Scripts\en-US\prnmngr.vbs -l | findstr "Printer name"
To remove printer in Windows 8.1:
cscript C:\Windows\System32\Printing_Admin_Scripts\en-US\prnmngr.vbs -d -p "Printer name"
I had trouble with a printer not showing in devices/printers so unable to remove it, although it was there when I pressed file > print in firefox. It was also stopping me from using the printer name for the actual installation (it bugged me having to append _1 at the end of the default printer!"
Using a batch file (no VBScript files):
#echo off
::Get printer CLSID
for /f %%a in ('reg query HKCU\Printers\Defaults') do (set regkey=%%a)
::Get printer name from the previous CLSID
for /f "tokens=3*" %%a in ('reg query %regkey%') do (set printername=%%a %%b)
echo Printer name is: %printername%
I wish that could help you
When you right click on a .inf file you have an option to "Install". I want to install a .inf file from the command line using a batch file. What is the "right" way to do this?
Thanks!
[edit]
I should clarify that I am trying to run this on Windows XP (and not Vista). Though I appriciate (and up-voted) the below answer mentioning InfDefaultInstall.exe, I believe that program was not shipped with XP.
You can find the command when looking at the HKCR\inffile\shell\Install\command registry key. On Windows XP this is
%SystemRoot%\System32\rundll32.exe setupapi,InstallHinfSection DefaultInstall 132 %1
on Windows Vista and later this would be
%SystemRoot%\System32\InfDefaultInstall.exe "%1"
To use the batch file across several Windows versions you would need some trickery. You could use reg.exe to query for the key and try parsing the output (I didn't find a quick way of getting only the value from reg). If you know what platforms you're running on you could also hard-code the command lines and switch according to the Windows version (which would need another hack to find that out. %OS% doesn't tell you more than "Windows NT", unfortunately.).
rem tested/works
:inf
ver | findstr /il "Version 6." > nul
if %ERRORLEVEL%==0 goto :vista
:xp
start/wait rundll32.exe setupapi,InstallHinfSection DefaultInstall 4 %_%
goto :eof
:vista
%SystemRoot%\System32\InfDefaultInstall.exe "%_%"
:eof
Should works on any Windows system that has IE 4.0+:
RunDll32 advpack.dll,LaunchINFSection <file.inf>,DefaultInstall