[python-win32] Is there a _simple_ way to find out what version of Windows you are running?

[Tim Golden]

On 08/10/2015 10:56, Laura Creighton wrote:
> Hi, I am one of the python.org webmasters.  We get people -- often children
> who want to install python on their computers but don't know what OS they
> are running.  Nearly all of these people are running Windows, though I
> did get somebody who was running FreeBSD the other day. :)
> 
> Microsoft tells you to do this:
> http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/which-operating-system
> 
> This is asking an awful lot of the people who are mailing webmaster
> and who don't know what OS they are running.  It is futile to tell
> these people methods to find out what OS version they are running that vary
> depending on what OS you have, so  I am looking for a thing you can do on
> any version of windows which will reliably spit out the correct
> answer.

Windows + Pause/Break [*] will produce the system info window showing
the Windows version, including Service Pack, and bit-ness, for any
recent version of Windows.

It does look slightly different on each version, but the Version
string/name is always at the top in a section called something like
"Windows edition". I'll see if I can get screenshots up somewhere.

I've just confirmed this on:

WinXP
Win 7
Win 8.1
Server 2003
Server 2008 R2
Server 2012 R2

TJG

[*] That's using the Windows key like a shift and tapping the key
usually labelled Pause/Break. You can get to this window in other ways,
but those *do* vary from system to system, while the keyboard shortcut
works everywhere AFAIK.