How can I tell what version of SharePoint a site is using, from the outside?

Question

how can I tell what version of SharePoint a site is using, without being able to see the admin panel?

Is there anything, perhaps in the source of the pages, that would give me a clue?

Unless it has been heavily customised it is usually pretty obvious from the UI, but perhaps you mean a specific version number, rather than WSS/MOSS 2003/7 or Sharepoint 2010 etc? — dunxd, Dec 16 '10 at 12:41
@dunxd 2003/2007/2010. Could you post screenshot examples of the different versions' UI? — C. Ross, Dec 16 '10 at 12:54
Unfortunately not - I only have one version of SharePoint and it is customised. You could always just ask the site administrator what version they use, although I think they would be suspicious (as am I) of why you want to know. Perhaps you can expand your question - people may sit on their hands if they think you are probing sites to discover potential to make mischief :-) — dunxd, Dec 16 '10 at 12:59

dunxd · Accepted Answer · 2016-01-21T10:15:13.030

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For sites that haven't been customised much, you can tell a lot from the design.

Typical default 2003 site

Default 2007 page

2010 page

2013 page

The tab style is generally a give-away of the version in use. If you want to know the sub-version, you'll have to ask the site admin.

There are probably also some clues in the dress of the corporate drones in the revolting stock images ;-)

edited Jan 21 '16 at 10:15

answered Dec 16 '10 at 13:04

dunxd

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A picture is worth a thousand words. :D – Jake Berger Oct 07 '11 at 17:38
Those pictures won't do any good if the site uses nicely-customized master pages and branding. – bgmCoder Jan 16 '16 at 01:32

RussMcGrindle · Answer 2 · 2011-03-07T23:34:54.973

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You can check the http response headers, e.g., with Firefox's Web Developer toolbar:

Information | View response headers

MicrosoftSharePointTeamServices: 12.0.0.6332

MicrosoftSharePointTeamServices: 14.0.0.4762

Fiddler, used with IE, will expose these headers as well.

v14 maps to SP 2010 v12 maps to MOSS 2007

Extensive list here of minor versions of 2007.

edited Mar 07 '11 at 23:34

answered Dec 17 '10 at 16:16

RussMcGrindle

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Under some circumstances, this header does not get updated. See more here: http://www.wictorwilen.se/sharepoint-mythbusting-the-response-header-contains-the-current-sharepoint-version I'm currently troubleshooting a case where it is not even after the psconfig he recommends. – Daniel Dec 15 '17 at 16:59

score 13 · Answer 3 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:13

You can see it in Chrome's dev tools too (similar to the Firefox answer):

In Chrome:

F12 (developer tools)
Click the "Network" tab
If there are no entries, refresh the page.
Select the main "aspx" page in the list of items.
Expand "Response Headers"
The value of "MicrosoftSharePointTeamServices" is what you're looking for.

There's also a Chrome extension which makes the process a little easier.

score 5 · Answer 4 · answered Dec 17 '10 at 21:37

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I realize you don't have admin or owner rights, but I'm going to throw this out for the general audience...

If you go to the Site Settings, it will tell you the exact version right at the top of the page.

answered Dec 17 '10 at 21:37

SQL3D

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I got 12.0.0.6421 - how do I know which year this relates to? Is it sharepoint 2007? – Allan Bowe May 08 '12 at 13:21
This does not appear to be true in Sharepoint 2003 – Michael Eakins Jan 20 '14 at 13:51

score 5 · Answer 5 · answered Aug 04 '11 at 20:53

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Just click on "Help" - it should be right there at the top!

answered Aug 04 '11 at 20:53

MadMac88

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In Sharepoint 2007, the help page does indeed say it is 2007! – dunxd Oct 11 '11 at 16:44
works in the Mysite but not a corporate customised main page. +1, thanks! – Allan Bowe May 08 '12 at 13:22
This is the Perfect Answer for those who do not have admin rights! – Sep 30 '14 at 13:26
This works for SharePoint 2010 as well. – Splaktar Feb 25 '15 at 19:10

score 5 · Answer 6 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:41

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You can do it with a little javascript like the examples here.

If you view the page source and see something like this in the html head - with corev4 in the css link - you'll know it's at least Sharepoint 2010.

<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/_layouts/1033/styles/Themable/corev4.css?rev=p63%2BuzTeSJc22nVGNZ5zwg%3D%3D"/>

My favourite way

If you take the domain from the url and add this to it: _vti_pvt/service.cnf it will send back a page with the version on it. So, if your site is this one: https://sp.towson.edu/default.aspx then you'd change the url to this: https://sp.towson.edu/_vti_pvt/service.cnf (You can try with both of those links). However, I tried this trick on Path to Sharepoint and I get a login box.

edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:41

Community

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answered Jan 16 '16 at 01:41

bgmCoder

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This is a great method. It works on every server I tried, even when I wasn't logged in, as long as I went all the way down to the root. – Tom Resing Jun 02 '16 at 17:12
This should be the first thing you try. If this fails then try the other slightly more involved Dev tool ways. – Joe Johnston Oct 30 '17 at 17:43

How can I tell what version of SharePoint a site is using, from the outside?

6 Answers6

My favourite way