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operating systems – How can I determine the OS of a remote computer? – Super User
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Asked 9 years, 7 months ago
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How can I determine the OS of a remote computer, given its computer name?
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asked Aug 15 ’11 at 3:13
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You can use nmap to probe the remote computer and based on it’s responses to TCP packets (valid or invalid requests) nmap can infer what operating system it is using.
This is not 100% accurate, but probably the best you can do in the general case.
If you’re limiting yourself to Windows only and you have credentials of an administrator account on the remote machine, you can use this method instead.
To perform this procedure on a remote computer, right-click Computer Management (Local), click Connect to another computer, select Another computer, and then type in the name of the remote computer. You can then follow the steps in this procedure, starting at step 2, and substituting Computer Management (remote computername) for Computer Management (Local). You must be a member of the Administrators group, or you must have been delegated the appropriate authority, on the computer that you specify for remote computername.
And further to this, if your computers are joined to a domain then you can look at the computer accounts in Active Directory. These should tell you about the machine.
answered Aug 15 ’11 at 3:25
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Systeminfo command shows os name and service pack number. you can run this command on the remote computer using psexec.
Source: Find Windows Version from command line
answered Aug 24 ’11 at 7:03
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Using cmd (Command prompt in windows Vista, XP, etc)
systeminfo /s IP.ADDRESS /u UserOnRemotePc
eg:
systeminfo /s 172.16.23.108 /u Student 
phuclv
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answered Feb 7 ’13 at 10:10
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Given then information you have given, the answer is you can not determine a machine’s OS by its name.
answered Aug 15 ’11 at 3:32
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5 WMIC /NODE:hostname OS
*you can supply alternative credentials as well.
wmic /NODE:hostname OS > C:OS.txt
answered Feb 7 ’13 at 10:28
Volodymyr MolodetsVolodymyr Molodets
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Quick and simple, you can use the Windows Inventory interface
wmic /node: HOST_NAME os get caption phuclv
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answered Nov 24 ’15 at 8:33
You can do this with Windows PowerShell, which is installed by default in Windows 7. You can get to it from the system menu, under Accessories.
The command that you can use is…
Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_OperatingSystem -Namespace root/cimv2 -ComputerName
You can run this against a local or remote system by specifying the correct value for the ComputerName property.
You can filter the output for specific info by specifying which properties to display…
Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_OperatingSystem -Namespace root/cimv2 -ComputerName
answered Aug 15 ’11 at 5:47
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EASIEST METHOD:
- Click the Windows Start button and type msinfo32 and press Enter
- Click View > Remote Computer > Remote Computer on the Network
- Type machine name and click OK
answered Sep 27 ’18 at 16:20
A non-comprehensive solution was to simply open the C drive of the remote computer in Windows Explorer. The presence of Documents and Settings showed it to be WinXP, as we have no Win2K.
answered Aug 15 ’11 at 3:37
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