How to tell what version of Windows on a recover cd?

[Archivist]

My mother's pc came with recovery cd's.

Is there a way to find out what version of Windows is on it? Without having
to run it and maybe installing a version that is not wanted?

Is there a file for XP that will tell me by name what verion it is?

 

[sgopus]

Right click my computer and choose properties, it will show the current
version and service pack level.

 

[Patrick Keenan]

My mother's pc came with recovery cd's.

Is there a way to find out what version of Windows is on it? Without
having
to run it and maybe installing a version that is not wanted?

Is there a file for XP that will tell me by name what verion it is?

Typically, no. You might find a readme on it that mentions this.
Recovery disks are compressed images made in different ways and are not
based on the XP installer.

Otherwise, you pretty much need to look at the label on the recovery disk,
or contact the original manufacturer.

Actually, there is one other source of this information - the COA sticker on
the back or bottom of the PC. It will tell you what version the PC was
originally licensed with, and that will almost certainly be the version on
the recovery disks.

This will not mention service pack level, though, as that's not really
relevant. Unless the PC is pre-2004, I would suggest you assume the
recovery disk has at least SP1, and in the meantime download the entire SP3
file to a CD of your own, and update with that as soon as the recovery
portion is finished and you've uninstalled whatever bloatware you wanted to
remove from the base install.

HTH
-pk

 

[Michael T.]

My mother's pc came with recovery cd's.

Is there a way to find out what version of Windows is on it? Without
having
to run it and maybe installing a version that is not wanted?

Is there a file for XP that will tell me by name what verion it is?

I am not sure this applies to all recovery CDs.

If I examine the contents with Windows Explorer, there is a file named
SQ.TXT.

When I open it with Notepad I see the following:
ENG_XP2_HOME_SP2_V2

Perhaps this is something Dell Computer adds to the CD. I just never had a
reason to check on this.