Find Windows 10 Original Install Date and Time  

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    Find Windows 10 Original Install Date and Time

    Find Windows 10 Original Install Date and Time

    How to Find Windows 10 Original Install Date and Time
    Published by Category: General Tips
    06 Dec 2021
    Designer Media Ltd

    How to Find Windows 10 Original Install Date and Time


    This tutorial will show you different ways on how to find the original date and time for when your current Windows 10 was installed on your PC.


    Contents

    • Option One: Find Windows 10 Original Install Date and Time using systeminfo Command
    • Option Two: Find Windows 10 Original Install Date and Time using WMIC Command
    • Option Three: Find Windows 10 Original Install Date and Time in PowerShell
    • Option Four: See History of Previous Windows 10 Version Install Dates and Times in PowerShell






    OPTION ONE

    Find Windows 10 Original Install Date and Time using systeminfo Command


    1 Open a command prompt.

    2 Copy and paste the command below into the command prompt, and press Enter. (see screenshot below)

    systeminfo | find "Original Install Date"

    Find Windows 10 Original Install Date and Time-windows_original_install_date_command.png






    OPTION TWO

    Find Windows 10 Original Install Date and Time using WMIC Command


    1 Open a command prompt.

    2Copy and paste the command below into the command prompt, and press Enter. (see screenshot below)

    wmic os get installdate

    The results will be returned with a string of digits. The first section of theses digits represent the Windows 10 original install data and time in the format below, with a 24 hour time format.

    YYYYMMDDHHMMSS

    For example: 20160707132247.000000-300

    Translates to:

    2016/07/07 13:22:47

    OR

    July 7th 2016 1:22:47 PM

    Find Windows 10 Original Install Date and Time-windows_original_install_date_wmic_command.png






    OPTION THREE

    Find Windows 10 Original Install Date and Time in PowerShell


    1 Open PowerShell.

    2 Copy and paste the command below into PowerShell, and press Enter. (see screenshot below)

    ([WMI]'').ConvertToDateTime((Get-WmiObject Win32_OperatingSystem).InstallDate)

    Find Windows 10 Original Install Date and Time-windows_original_install_date_powershell.png






    OPTION FOUR

    See History of Previous Windows 10 Version Install Dates and Times in PowerShell


    1 Open PowerShell.

    2 Copy and paste the command below into PowerShell, and press Enter. (see screenshot below)

    Code:
    Get-ChildItem -Path HKLM:\System\Setup\Source* | ForEach-Object {Get-ItemProperty -Path Registry::$_} | Select-Object ProductName, ReleaseID, CurrentBuild, @{n="Install Date"; e={([DateTime]'1/1/1970').AddSeconds($_.InstallDate)}} | Sort-Object "Install Date"

    Find Windows 10 Original Install Date and Time-windows_10_install_history.png


    That's it,
    Shawn






  1. Posts : 301
    Windows 10 Enterprise x64 (Insider)
       #1

    Though there's "original" and there's "original."

    If someone originally started with 8.0 and have since upgraded to 8.1 (or 10), this command will only reflect the date you went to 8.1 (or 10).

    The only way that I've found to find the "original" date is to look in Program Files(x86), sort the folders by date, and look at the dates of the oldest folders. You'll probably find at least a couple with the same date, signifying the first day you started installing programs on the system.
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 68,654
    64-bit Windows 11 Pro for Workstations
    Thread Starter
       #2

    Yeah, previous builds or OS you upgraded from is not counted.

    I suppose it's more accurate to say the original install date of your current Windows.
      My Computers


  3. Posts : 4,173
    Windows 11 Pro, 22H2
       #3

    @Brink,

    I know that this tutorial is several years old, but I found some great info that might be worth adding to the tutorial. The information presented in the tutorial shows when the LATEST version of Windows was installed. However, if Windows was installed as an upgrade over previous versions, it might be nice to also get a history of previous version install dates.

    The following registry key contains this information:

    Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Setup

    To get a nice clean output of the information in the registry, you can do this:

    Open a PowerShell prompt.
    Copy the code below and paste into PowerShell, then hit ENTER:

    Code:
    Get-ChildItem -Path HKLM:\System\Setup\Source* |
    ForEach-Object {Get-ItemProperty -Path Registry::$_} |
    Select-Object ProductName, ReleaseID, CurrentBuild, @{n="Install Date"; e={([DateTime]'1/1/1970').AddSeconds($_.InstallDate)}} |
    Sort-Object "Install Date"
    So as a sample, here is the output on one of my systems:

    Find Windows 10 Original Install Date and Time-image2.jpg

    Note that if I had upgraded multiple times, each of the previous Windows installations would also be show in the output of the second section.
      My Computers


  4. Posts : 68,654
    64-bit Windows 11 Pro for Workstations
    Thread Starter
       #4

    hsehestedt said:
    @Brink,

    I know that this tutorial is several years old, but I found some great info that might be worth adding to the tutorial. The information presented in the tutorial shows when the LATEST version of Windows was installed. However, if Windows was installed as an upgrade over previous versions, it might be nice to also get a history of previous version install dates.

    The following registry key contains this information:

    Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Setup

    To get a nice clean output of the information in the registry, you can do this:

    Open a PowerShell prompt.
    Copy the code below and paste into PowerShell, then hit ENTER:

    Code:
    Get-ChildItem -Path HKLM:\System\Setup\Source* |
    ForEach-Object {Get-ItemProperty -Path Registry::$_} |
    Select-Object ProductName, ReleaseID, CurrentBuild, @{n="Install Date"; e={([DateTime]'1/1/1970').AddSeconds($_.InstallDate)}} |
    Sort-Object "Install Date"
    So as a sample, here is the output on one of my systems:

    Note that if I had upgraded multiple times, each of the previous Windows installations would also be show in the output of the second section.
    Thank you Hannes. I have added this as option 4 to help.
      My Computers


  5. Posts : 16,781
    Windows 10 Home x64 Version 22H2 Build 19045.4170
       #5

    hsehestedt said:
    To get a nice clean output of the information in the registry, you can do this:
    Code:
    Get-ChildItem -Path HKLM:\System\Setup\Source* |
    ForEach-Object {Get-ItemProperty -Path Registry::$_} |
    Select-Object ProductName, ReleaseID, CurrentBuild, @{n="Install Date"; e={([DateTime]'1/1/1970').AddSeconds($_.InstallDate)}} |
    Sort-Object "Install Date"
    I agree with hsehestedt and have a suggestion about the code. Since the output is in the form of a list, a csv output might be better. This code produces a csv output on the user Desktop.
    Code:
    $UserDesktop = (Get-ItemProperty -Path "HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders" -Name "Desktop").Desktop
    Get-ChildItem -Path HKLM:\System\Setup\Source* | 
         ForEach-Object {Get-ItemProperty -Path Registry::$_} | 
             Select-Object ProductName, ReleaseID, CurrentBuild, @{n="Install Date"; e={([DateTime]'1/1/1970').AddSeconds($_.InstallDate)}} | 
                 Sort-Object "Install Date" |
                     Export-CSV -Path "$UserDesktop\InstallDateList.csv"
    - The code copes with spaces and ampersands [&] in the output path.
    - The code copes with user folders that have been relocated.

    I do notice one odd thing about my Registry entry [and hence the output from this command].
    - It records my Version updates [and my Repair installs] up to Ver 1809.
    - I then updated to Ver 1903 and later to Ver 1909
    - The Ver 1809 entry remains the final one.
    - Perhaps these Registry keys are not used anymore and might therefore be removed at a future Version update [but remain useful in the meantime for that original Windows 10 installation date]

    Denis
      My Computer


  6. Posts : 18,044
    Win 10 Pro 64-bit v1909 - Build 18363 Custom ISO Install
       #6

    Hello @Brink, and a Happy New Year to you,

    I ran each of the Tutorial Options above and discovered something that I thought that I would post for others, just in case they come across the same slight difference in the output.

    Options 1 & 2 will give the same output, just in a different format.

    Option 3 gives the same Date, but there is an hours difference [+1] on the Time. This is obviously due to Time-Zone and Daylight Saving hours being in force.



    As a test, for Option 4, perhaps one of these Commands would also work . . .

    Code:
    
    PowerShell Get-ChildItem -Path HKLM:\System\Setup\Source* ^| ForEach-Object {Get-ItemProperty -Path Registry::$_} ^| Select-Object ProductName, ReleaseID, CurrentBuild, @{n="'Install Date'"; e={([DateTime]"'1/1/1970'").AddSeconds($_.InstallDate)}} ^| Sort-Object "'Install Date'"

    Code:
    
    PowerShell ("Get-ChildItem -Path HKLM:\System\Setup\Source*" | ForEach-Object {Get-ItemProperty -Path Registry::$_} | Select-Object ProductName, ReleaseID, CurrentBuild, @{n="'Install Date'"; e={([DateTime]"'1/1/1970'").AddSeconds($_.InstallDate)}} | Sort-Object "'Install Date'")

    It is a bit difficult for me to test because I do NOT get any output at all from the original PS Command in the Tutorial, but that might just be me, because it obviously works as per the output list in the Tutorial. Therefore, the two commands that I posted above are based on the original PS Command in the Tutorial.

    I will look into this further tomorrow.
    Last edited by Paul Black; 02 Jan 2022 at 19:46.
      My Computer


  7. Posts : 13,895
    Win10 Version 22H2 Pro and Home, Win11 Pro and Home
       #7

    @Paul Black, thought I'd try that command on my Win11 Pro, doesn't seem to work. I Copied and Pasted.
    Find Windows 10 Original Install Date and Time-image.png
      My Computers


  8. Posts : 18,044
    Win 10 Pro 64-bit v1909 - Build 18363 Custom ISO Install
       #8

    Berton said:
    @Paul Black, thought I'd try that command on my Win11 Pro, doesn't seem to work. I Copied and Pasted.

    Thank you. I have just updated the Command in my post. If that does NOT work I will remove that from the post and have another look tomorrow.
      My Computer


  9. Posts : 13,895
    Win10 Version 22H2 Pro and Home, Win11 Pro and Home
       #9

    Paul Black said:
    Thank you. I have just updated the Command in my post. If that does NOT work I will remove that from the post and have another look tomorrow.
    Sorry, nothing returned, no error given.
    Find Windows 10 Original Install Date and Time-image.png
      My Computers


 

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