Comments on: How To Find Your Computer BIOS Version In Windows

By: Milan Pipersky

Milan Pipersky — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 23:05:51 +0000

Thanks … msinfo32.exe: exactly what I needed. Sharing is great: it helps everyone.

By: Umesh Mourya

Umesh Mourya — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 13:56:01 +0000

thank for information please add some new information

By: Umesh Mourya

Umesh Mourya — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 13:56:01 +0000

thank for information please add some new information

By: david

david — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 17:01:09 +0000

It looks like Systeminfo is only returning the first line in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\HARDWARE\DESCRIPTION\System\SystemBiosVersion, which can be incomplete.

For example, on one of our Dell Optilex 745s, that registry value is:

"DELL – 15
Phoenix ROM BIOS PLUS Version 1.10 2.6.3
Phoenix ROM BIOS PLUS Version 1.10 2.6.3
Phoenix ROM BIOS PLUS Version 1.10 2.6.3"

Which is a multi-string value.

Systeminfo only shows "DELL – 15", which isn't very helpful.

A more complete query of BIOS information can be done via WMIC.

At the command prompt, type:

wmic bios get /format:value|find "SMBIOSBIOSVersion"

The pipe command (|, above the Enter key) redirects the output from the wmic bios get /format:value command to find, which then filters it and shows only the line(s) that match SMBIOSBIOSVersion (the find command is case aware, meaning the correct capitalization is necessary to return a match).

That last command returns the following on the Dell machine in the example above:

SMBIOSBIOSVersion=2.6.3

To see everything in the Win32_BIOS WMI class, just remove everything after value, such as:

wmic bios get /format:value

For more information, see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa394077(VS.85).aspx and http://www.dmtf.org/standards/smbios/

By: sander

sander — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 15:20:43 +0000

thanks

By: roy lansom

roy lansom — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 14:40:52 +0000

how do i get my hard drive 2 work got no how 2 BIOS 2 sort it

By: Rohith

Rohith — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 15:30:21 +0000

Thank you for the help

By: Steph

Steph — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 18:43:45 +0000

Worked a treat for me on my Vista laptop. Thankyou very much for this! =)

By: Ic@dallas

Ic@dallas — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 19:26:44 +0000

Thanks a lot, This help me a lot.

Thank you for share = )

By: John

John — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 05:31:27 +0000

This method does not necessarily give the current BIOS version. I just verified that with a laptop that has an unknown setup password on the BIOS and a splash screen that conceals the POST information. The way to get the best BIOS info is to go to the registry (Start > Run > regedit) and look at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\HARDWARE\DESCRIPTION\System. I had a bid discrepency between the two methods and the regedit method result is consistent with the mfr's BIOS offerings.

By: MMG

MMG — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 05:02:44 +0000

Thanks a lot, very useful info, I needed it
God Bless you.