What's my OS? |
Your OS is not known. Your a Search Bot.
|
What's an OS? |
OS is an abbreviation for the word Operating System. An Operating System
is the software that tells a computer how to operate. It controls
hardware, executes programs, manages tasks and resources, and
provides the user with an interface to the computer.
|
What's the version of my OS? |
Windows
- Windows 10 & 11 - Click Start (windows logo),
Settings-> System-> About, Look under
Windows Specifications to find out your version and
edition of Windows.
- Windows 8.1 or Windows Server 2012 R2 - Swipe in from
the right edge of the screen, tap Settings, and then tap
Change PC settings. (If you're using a mouse, point to the
lower-right corner of the screen, move the mouse pointer up, click
Settings, and then click Change PC settings.). Next,
Tap or click PC and devices, and then tap or click PC
info. Look under Windows for the version and
edition.
-
Windows 8 or Windows Server 2012 - On the Start screen,
type Computer, press and hold or right-click
Computer, and then tap or click Properties. Then
look under Windows edition for the version.
-
Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 - Click
Start or the Windows logo right click
Computer then click Properties. Look in
System.
-
Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 - Click
Start or the Windows logo depending on what you
have then click Control Panel->System and
Maintenance->System.
You could also try Clicking Start or the Windows
logo then if you have a "Start Seach" field type
winver then Double-click winver.exe from the
results. If you had a run box instead of search just click
Run type winver click OK.
-
Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 - Click Start
-> RunType winver then click OK.
You could also try typing msinfo32 or sysdm.cpl
or winmsd if
you like. Lastly you might try typing dxdiag. Windows
might prompt you to verify drivers click No.
-
Windows 95/98/ME - Click Start->
Settings->Control Panel double-click
System click General tab. Locate version
number under system heading.
-
Windows CE - Click StartSettings
Control Panelclick the System applet.
If that does not work you might just have to look in the
General Tab or somewhere in the System Tab.
You can also find out if your computer is running a 32-bit or
64-bit version of Windows in the same areas listed above.
Macintosh
-
OS X/Mac OS X/macOS - Click the Apple menu at the top of
your screen then click About this Mac. To get more
detailed information after that click More Info ->
Software. Note: Apple has changed the name of its OS a few
times in recent years. It went from OS X to Mac OS. Then in 2016
changed Mac OS X to just macOS.
-
iOS (iPhoneOS) - On your iPhone touch the Settings
icon (looks like a gear) -> General -> About. Look under version.
Note: Apple has changed the name of it's OS to iOS from
iPhoneOS.
Linux
-
Open a terminal program (get to a command prompt) and type
uname -a. This will give you your kernel version, but
might not mention the distribution your running. To find out what
distribution of linux your running (Ex. Ubuntu) try
lsb_release -a or cat /etc/*release or cat
/etc/issue* or cat /proc/version.
FreeBSD/NetBSD/OpenBSD/DragonFlyBSD
Android Phone
Blackberry (RIM OS)
Solaris (SunOS)
AIX
IOS (Cisco)
XOS (Extreme Networks)
IronWare OS (Foundry)
OpenVMS
|
Do I have a 32-bit or 64-bit OS? |
Windows
-
Follow the instructions above in the What's the version of
my OS? section to find out if your OS is 32-bit or 64-bit.
The page with the version info usually has something that says if
it is 32-bit or 64-bit. Only Windows XP and later could possibly
be 64-bit. If you don't see something that says "64-bit"
somewhere on the version page, it is likely you have a 32-bit
version of Windows.
Macintosh
-
Mac OS X - Click About this Mac from the Apple
menu at the top of your screen. Then click More Info ->
Software.
Mac OS X 10.5 (or greater) can run 64-bit applications. Any
processor that says: Intel Core 2 Duo, Intel Xeon, or PowerPC G5
are 64-bit processors. All currently shipping Macs ship with OS X
and a 64-bit processor. 10.6 still boots a 32-bit kernel by
default. It's possible to boot at 64-bit kernel. Read all about
it here.
Linux
OpenBSD/FreeBSD/NetBSD
Solaris (SunOS)
-
Open a command prompt and type isainfo -v. This will
show you if your OS is capable of running 32-bit and 64-bit
applications. If that does not work you can try typing uname
-a. This will show you the version of Solaris your using. All
versions after 5.7 are 64-bit compliant.
Sun's platforms transitioned to 64-bit over a period of time,
which makes identifying the platform for 64-bit compliance
tricky.
AIX
OpenVMS
|
How do you know what my OS is? |
Black magic. Just kidding. When you visit a site with your web
browser it sends a little nugget of information to that site called a
"User Agent". The user agent has a few minor pieces of information
about your browser, platform, and OS version. Using this information
a guess can be made about what Operating System your using.
Why is it a guess? The user agent your browser sends to the
website can be changed very easily. It's not to be trusted in any
way, shape, or form as the truth, but most people generally use
browsers who's user agents have not been changed.
Why is it only generally? Sometimes the people that provide your
internet access will modify this user agent so the website can not
tell what your browser is or will set the user agent to a general
browser type so the site will render the same for everyone. This is
not the norm so don't fret to much.
|
Why does the site not display my OS version
or displays the wrong version? |
Most browsers do not put the version number of the OS in the user
agent string but some do. Apple products are a good example. The
browsers that put OS version information in the user agent string are
usually the browsers come with the OS or are created (compiled) by
the vendor. The vendors built-in browser will provide the most
information to this site for it to render the most accurate guess.
For example Apple's built-in browser Safari provides the full version
of the OS in the user agent string, but Firefox on the same Apple
computer only provdes a portion of the version number.
|
Why does it say my OS is "Unknown"? |
First, read the section called "How do you know what my OS is?".
Now that you know how we go about guessing your OS you might have an
idea on why we can't. The most likely answer is that there might not
be enough information in your user agent string to render a good
guess or since the user agent is so easily changed yours could have
been changed to something that is not normal or is so obscure that a
guess could not even be rendered. It's a good chance it's nothing you
did so don't worry. Go through the "What's the version of my OS"
section above and see if you notice anything mentioned there. It's
likely you have an idea what OS your using your just not sure.
|
Why did the site guess my OS
incorrectly? |
Guessing an Operating System by just using a user agent is not as
easy as it looks. There are so many little differences between each
one. Words are not always in the same spot. Some things are spelled
differently. The list goes on and on. This site is constantly being
monitored, updated, and tweaked to fix errors. If it got your OS
incorrect one day come back later and it might be correct in the
future. If your OS was guessed incorrectly submit your user agent and
your correct os to o|s|1|@|w|h|a|t|s|m|y|o|s|.|c|o|m (remove |'s).
It will be looked into and if possible fixed.
The most recent problem with trying to guess an OS through the
user agent is that major browsers have started to cap the version
of the OS given by the browser. This means most version information
is now going to be useless for many Operating Systems like Windows 11
or the most recent versions of macOS. Now more then ever your going to
have to rely on the instructions above to verify your Operating System.
|
What is up with the "or possibly Windows
..." in some of the windows lines? |
Microsoft decided that they would share OS user agent versions between
multiple desktop and server releases of their Operating Systems. That means
there are some server and desktop user agents look almost exactly the same. It
is possible that you are using a server version of Windows, but very
unlikely if you are just a regular home user. Usually if your running
Windows server you know it. Use the ways above to help you verify
your Windows version.
In Microsoft's infinite wisdom they have decided to share user agent versions
between Windows 10 and 11. Which means now you really should check your
versions in the instructions above, and not rely on this site telling you
if your running Windows 10 or 11. Thanks M$.
|
What does my user agent look like? |
CCBot/2.0 (https://commoncrawl.org/faq/)
|