“Windows 10” is apparently here to stay, and Microsoft won’t be bumping things up to Windows 11 any time soon. Here’s how to find out what “build” of Windows 10 you have — you can think of it like a service pack level — as well as which edition and version of the operating system you have.
Microsoft has hidden the build number in an attempt to make Windows 10 look always-up-to-date, and there are still different editions of Windows 10 with different features. Microsoft is also still offering both 64-bit and 32-bit versions of Windows 10, too.
Use the Settings App
The new Settings application also offers this information in a user-friendly form. To launch it, click or tap the Start button and select Settings.
Navigate to System > About and scroll down. You’ll see the “Version” and “Build” numbers here.
- Edition: The “Edition” line tells you which edition of Windows 10 you’re using — Windows 10 Home, Professional, Enterprise, or Education. If you’d like to upgrade to Windows 10 Professional, you can upgrade to the Professional edition from within Windows 10. Switching to Windows 10 Enterprise or Education editions will require a complete reinstall and a special key that isn’t made available to normal home Windows users.
- Build Number: Look at the “Version” and “OS Build” lines. If you have the original version of Windows 10, you’ll just see “OS Build 10240”. This was the initial release of Windows 10. If you have the “November Update” version of Windows 10 — Windows 10’s first big update — you’ll see a new version number scheme here. It’ll say “Version 1511 (OS Build 10576.29)”.
The “1511” is the key. This number identifies that you’re using the build of Windows 10 released in November (the 11th month) of 2015. If Microsoft were to release a build of Windows 10 in April (the 4th month) of 2016, its version number would be “Version 1604”. - 64-bit or 32-bit: The “System type” line tells you whether you’re using the 32-bit version of Windows 10 or the 64-bit version. It also tells you whether your PC is compatible with the 64-bit version or not.
For example, “64-bit operating system, x64-based processor” indicates you’re using a 64-bit version of Windows 10 on a 64-bit processor. “32-bit operating system, x64-based processor” indicates you’re using a 32-bit version of Windows 10, but you could install the 64-bit version on your hardware if you preferred.
Use the Winver Dialog and Control Panel
You can use the old standby “winver” tool to find the build number of your Windows 10 system. To launch it, you can tap the Windows key, type “winver” into the Start menu, and press Enter. You could also press Windows Key + R, type “winver” into the Run dialog, and press Enter.
The second line here will tell you which build of Windows 10 you have. Again, the version number is in the form YYMM, where 1511 means the 11th month of 2015.
You’ll also see the edition of Windows 10 you’re using displayed in the winver dialog. It states “Windows 10 Home” in the screen above.
The winver dialog doesn’t display whether you’re using a 64-bit or 32-bit version of Windows 10, but the Control Panel does. To open this screen, right-click “This PC” in a File Explorer window and select “Properties”. You can also open the Control Panel window, click “System and Security,” and then click “System”.
The “Windows edition” section at the top of the window displays which edition of Windows 10 you’re using, while the “System type” line here displays whether you’re using a 64-bit or 32-bit edition of Windows 10, and whether your computer’s hardware is 64-bit compatible or not.
This information is important if you want to know whether your Windows 10 machine has received an update yet, figure out if you have a feature available only in certain editions of Windows, or find out whether you should download the 64-bit version of a program or not.