Easiest way to find out if user has either Windows 7 or Vista (through telephone support)?

Question

If you have to provide some initial troubleshooting support by phone [or email], and you don't have access to the user's PC itself, what is the easiest and most foolproof question one can ask of the user to find out if the 'dumb' user is using either Windows 7 or Windows Vista?

For example: determining if the user has either Windows XP or Windows Vista/7 is easy. Just ask the user if the button at the left bottom corner is (a) either square with the word 'Start' on it, or (b) it is a round button.

But how do you determine the difference between Vista and 7?

Edit: For all the existing answers the user has to type something, and do it correctly. Sometimes even that is already hard for a computer illiterate user. My XP example just requires looking. If it exists (although I am afraid it doesn't), I think a solution that is just based on something this is visually different between Vista and 7 would stand above all others. (Which makes Dan's suggestion to turn over the box and look at the label" not so stupid). Perhaps the small 'show desktop' rectangle at the right side of the task bar (was that present in Vista)?

Answer 1

Press CTRL + ALT + DEL it says so in the bottom and most people are aware of this shortcut (especially in corporate environments where people have to press CTRL + ALT + DEL to login).

vs

Answer 2

Press Win+Pause (if you can explain to people where those keys are).

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For reference, here are screenshots of the resulting dialog under various versions of Windows:

Windows XP

Windows Vista

Windows 7

Answer 3

The quickest visual way to tell the difference between Windows Vista and 7 is the taskbar by the clock. In windows 7 there is a box that can be clicked to show the desktop. Vista:

Seven:

This might look different if a user has changed the theme or something weird, but if they can change a theme, hopefully they should be able to manage one of the other methods suggested.

Answer 4

Ask them to run 'Winver', either by typing it into the start menu 'search programs and files' field, or into the 'Run' dialog (Windows key + R, if it isn't visible on the start menu).

Here's an example of the two different dialog screens:

Answer 5

You: Please look at the bottom right corner, right of the time. Is there a transparent square that shows the desktop when you click on it?

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if(Client.Response == "Let me see.. Where did my windows go???")
    return Win7();
else
    return Vista();

Answer 6

The date in the bottom right corner gives a big clue, but it isn't foolproof. You can see it without typing anything.

Assuming the default single-height taskbar, then Windows 7 has two lines: time and date, where Vista has just the time.

As you increase the available height, Vista adds day not date.

Warning: Customisation will break this:

• Once you increase the taskbar height enough, both have the same format again.

• Clocks can also be turned off.

Answer 7

I find there are two problems with phone support

• getting people to type what you want without error
• getting people to find on a cluttered screen exactly what you want them to read-out you.

Oliver's answer addresses the first problem very well.

If you can get them to open a command prompt and type a command, ver gives reasonably simple and unambiguous output that the user can easily find.

• hold down the Windows Start key on the keyboard and press the R key, release both keys.
• type C (for Charlie) M (for Mike) D (for Delta) and press the Enter key
• type V (for Victor) E (for Echo) R (for Romeo) and press the Enter key
• read out the line it displayed under the stuff you just typed
• type E X I T (which spells "exit") and press the Enter key

This is a lot more for them to type accurately but may help with some people.

C:\Documents and Settings\A Novice>ver

Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]

C:\Documents and Settings\A Novice>

For Windows Vista

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.0.6002]

For Windows 7

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7601]

Answer 8

Send them to:

http://whatsmyuseragent.com/

Your User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; rv:10.0.2) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/10.0.2

and have them read what's in the parentheses.

EDIT: From the comments-- http://whatsmyos.com -- Eliminates the next step.

Then have a printout of this table handy: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms537503%28v=vs.85%29.aspx

(scroll down to platform tokens)

I can be handy to put a like to the user agent site somewhere on your own site, as anything but the most simple URL is almost impossible to communicate over the phone.

Answer 9

If you're looking for the best solution for the computer illiterate (as an example, traversing computer -> properties), think the easiest way would to have them 'lock' their account (from the start menu).

It could go like this:

• Please click the icon in the bottom left
• See where it says "Shutdown?" on the right of the menu just popped up? Click the little arrow to the right of it.
• Choose "Lock"
• Centered near the bottom, it should say "Windows 7" or "Windows Vista," which is it?

There are plenty of ways to tell, but I think that's the quickest when dealing with people that would have problems traversing multiple menus.

Answer 10

• Go to start;
• Right click on the computer;
• Go to properties;
• If there are "Windows 7" in windows edition, you have Windows 7 installed...

Answer 11

Obviously, dependent on an Internet connection and users skill at typing URLs:

Go to: www.thismachine.info or google for "machine info"

Answer 12

Another option would be to ask them to open one of the accessories that come with windows (calc, notepad) and use the About command from the Help menu. If they know how to get to notepad or calculator then this will be rather easy.

If they don't, getting them to open it might not be as simple, so go with some of the other answers here.

Answer 13

Send them to http://fmbip.com/

In fact, if you have an account on there, you can send them to a custom link and it will automatically give you a detailed report - they don't even have to read stuff out to you over the phone.

Answer 14

Without restarting...

1. Press Control+Shift+Escape , these are common keys that the user would know.

2. Select Help -> About, what does it says?

Answer 15

I'll post this as a separate answer - Unfortunately I don't have the rep to make a comment on the above post regarding use of "winver".

Pressing the windows key ("button in bottom left"), or the start button, the user can then be instructed to type "winver" and press enter. [W, I, N, V, E, R, enter normally works for me]

Both Vista and Windows 7 have the option to search for programs from the start menu.

Answer 16

1. Click Start.
2. Type "Version" (without the quotes).
3. Click on "Show which operating system your computer is running".

Answer 17

What about

• Open My Computer (start > my computer or double click on "my computer" on the desktop)
• click on the help menu
• click on "About Windows"

the help menu should be available from any window

Answer 18

(If possible) Ask them to reboot and to describe the boot screen animation. Windows Vista has a pulsating Windows orb (like the Start button, only pulsating.) Windows 7 has the four colors of the Windows flag fly together (see Youtube examples below.)

These two boot screens are, I believe, the most visually distinct feature between the two versions.

Examples:

• Windows Vista Boot Animation
• Windows 7 Boot Animation

Answer 19

Since you are looking for a visual distinction, perhaps the most notable is the task bar. In default Windows 7, the task bar buttons are squares and have no text but big icons. Windows Vista has rectangular task bar buttons and text besides the icon.

Perhaps if you could ask the user to try to do what he's usually doing with the computer (browsing, reading mails, ...), and then ask him to read the text in the task bar if there is any? Or ask about the shape of the newly appeared button?

Answer 20

The simplest way is to lock at the buttom of the screen. The open windows bar. On Vista there are the old long windows, but on windows 7 there is boxes with open programs. If less you have modified windows, but then I think you know if you use Vista or 7.