Find the OS Version from the Command Line (Windows, Linux, CentOS)

On Windows

systeminfo

1. Press Win + R, type cmd and press Enter.

   

2. Type:

systeminfo

1. Look at OS Name and OS Version in the output. To show only these lines:

systeminfo | findstr /B /C:"OS Name" /C:"OS Version"

ver

ver

It prints the version number, for example Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.19045.3693].

On Linux

lsb_release

lsb_release -a

It lists the distributor, description, release and code name.

The os-release file

cat /etc/os-release

To show only the name:

grep PRETTY_NAME /etc/os-release

hostnamectl also shows the OS and the kernel:

hostnamectl

On CentOS

centos-release file

cat /etc/centos-release

rpm

rpm -q centos-release

redhat-release

cat /etc/redhat-release

On macOS

sw_vers

Quick recap

• Windows: systeminfo or ver.
• Linux: cat /etc/os-release or lsb_release -a.
• CentOS: cat /etc/centos-release.