Finding Windows edition from filesystem

I have switched laptops recently, and I decided I want to make the switch from Windows to Linux (and have gone with Ubuntu for now).

I have the "old" SSD from my previous machine, which has a Windows 7 installation on it. I'm trying to install Windows 7 on VMWare so I can run some of the programs that are only available on Windows (that Wine can't handle).

I also have my Windows 7 key, but I don't know which "edition" it is (Home vs. Premium vs. Ultimate, etc.)

The furthest I've gotten is looking at explorer.exe's attributes to find this:

Product Version: 6.1.7601.17567

But I couldn't find what that means.

I have the SSD mounted and am able to read/access the old filesystem. How can I find out what Windows edition I need to install on VMWare?

Chris

Posted 2014-02-26T21:18:57.887

Reputation: 157

@techie007 Nope. I already know it's Windows 7, (see the question). The problem is figuring out the "edition," which none of the answers in the question you linked to talk about. – Chris – 2014-02-26T21:27:23.307

This answer: http://superuser.com/a/363068/23133 points to this SO post: Determine Windows Version, Edition and Service Pack OF AN OFFLINE DISK IMAGE

– Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 – 2014-02-26T21:30:44.610

The product version is the same regardless of the Windows 7 edition. – and31415 – 2014-02-27T10:54:40.290

Answers

You may use regedit.exe in Wine to Load hive of SOFTWARE registry. It's located at Windows\System32\config\SOFTWARE, then look for value of ProductName and EditionIDunderHKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion`

There is also open source offline registry editor for linux at http://pogostick.net/~pnh/ntpasswd/.

week

Posted 2014-02-26T21:18:57.887

Reputation: 3 128

1The HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE hive is located at X:\Windows\System32\config\SOFTWARE. Also, the values you should look for are ProductName and EditionID. – and31415 – 2014-02-27T10:52:41.813

Open the X:\Windows folder on the SSD, and list all .xml files inside which are named after a Windows edition. If there's more than one, consider the highest edition available.

Example:

X:\Windows\HomeBasic.xml
X:\Windows\HomePremium.xml
X:\Windows\Starter.xml

In this case the edition would be Home Premium.

and31415

Posted 2014-02-26T21:18:57.887

Reputation: 13 382

From the windows website: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/which-operating-system

Click on the Start button

Right click on Computer

Select Properties

Look under Windows edition

You should see "Windows 7 Enterprise" or "Windows 7 Home Premium" ...

Axe

Posted 2014-02-26T21:18:57.887

Reputation: 11

He's not able to boot Windows. – Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 – 2014-02-26T21:36:08.997

He has his old SSD. Plug in the SSD and pull the info. – Axe – 2014-02-26T21:52:18.070

1You can't just plug in a drive from one laptop in another laptop and expect Windows to start up. Even if you get past any encryption, Windows is very likely to crash due to hardware differences.. Even if hardware is similar, it could still crash or go wonky - or may not even start up because of hardware fingerprint change. – ADTC – 2014-02-27T10:54:35.430