Discovering the Installation Date of Windows on Your Computer: A Quick Guide

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This post provides a guide for determining the date and time Windows was installed on a computer. Users can locate this information via the Command Prompt or the Windows Registry Editor. The post also highlights that upgrades can change the original installation date and that this feature can be useful for understanding a computer’s age…

This post shows students and new users steps to determine the date and time Windows was installed on a computer.

You’ll want to know the date and time Windows was installed on a computer, and when that comes, you can reference this post.

There are a few ways to determine the date and time Windows was installed on a computer. Check the installed date to know how old a computer is or if Windows has been reinstalled.

One thing to know is that the installation date may not be accurate. If you’ve upgraded to a newer version of Windows (e.g., upgraded Windows 10 to Windows 11), the original install date shown is the upgrade date.

This can be misleading since the original installed date has been changed to the date you upgraded.

Anyway, this might be something you may want to know, and if you do, know that it’s there when you wish to find out the Windows installed date.

How to know the date Windows was installed?

Check the Windows installed date if you want to know how old your computer is. It will tell you when Windows was installed or upgraded to a new version.

First, click on the Start menu, then search for Command Prompt. Under Best Match, select the Command Prompt app, as shown below.

When the command prompt app opens, type the commands below and press Enter.

systeminfo|find /i "original"

The result should be something similar to the one below.

Output:
Original Install Date:     6/29/2021, 8:09:01 PM

Alternatively, type in the commands below to show you the installed date.

systeminfo

The command should output something similar to the lines below:

....................
OS Build Type: Multiprocessor Free
Registered Owner: Richard
Registered Organization:Product ID: 00329-10280-00000-AA805
Original Install Date: 6/29/2021, 8:09:01 PM
System Boot Time: 11/18/2021, 3:29:03 PM
System Manufacturer: innotek GmbH
........................

How to find Windows installed date via registry

You can also find the date and time Windows was installed or upgraded from the Windows registry.

First, open Windows Registry Editor.

Browse to the path below.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\

Once in the folder above, locate the “InstallDate” key. Select Decimal to get the decimal value, the date in epoch time. Go to the site below and use the epoch converter to convert that value into a readable date and time.

That should do it!

Conclusion:

This post showed you how to tell the date and time Windows was installed. Please use the comment form below if you find any errors above or have something to add.

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