ProblemYou need to determine the installed service pack and any installed patches and fixes on a given machine. SolutionUsing a graphical user interfaceTo determine the current level of service pack, right-click on My Computer and select Properties. On the General tab, you'll see the current service pack. To determine any hotfixes that are installed, go to Control Panel and double-click on Add/Remove Programs. Click the Change/Remove Programs button in the left pane, and make sure the Show Programs checkbox is ticked at the top of the window. You'll see the hotfixes listed they are under Windows XP-Software Updates. Using a command-line interfaceTo determine the current level of service pack, run winver from the command line. A box will pop up showing the current service pack level at the end of the version string. To determine the installed hotfixes, run systeminfo from the command line, and look under the Hotfixes section. A sample report looks like the following: Host Name: JONLAPTOP OS Name: Microsoft Windows XP Professional OS Version: 5.1.2600 Service Pack 2 Build 2600 OS Manufacturer: Microsoft Corporation OS Configuration: Standalone Workstation OS Build Type: Uniprocessor Free Registered Owner: Jonathan Hassell Registered Organization: Jonathan Hassell Omnimedia Product ID: 55274-770-4137265-22643 Original Install Date: 12/28/2004, 8:52:38 PM System Up Time: 1 Days, 17 Hours, 14 Minutes, 17 Seconds System Manufacturer: Dell Computer Corporation System Model: Latitude D600 System type: X86-based PC Processor(s): 1 Processor(s) Installed. [01]: x86 Family 6 Model 9 Stepping 5 GenuineIntel ~597 Mhz BIOS Version: DELL - 27d40907 Windows Directory: C:\WINDOWS System Directory: C:\WINDOWS\system32 Boot Device: \Device\HarddiskVolume2 System Locale: en-us;English (United States) Input Locale: en-us;English (United States) Time Zone: (GMT-05:00) Eastern Time (US & Canada) Total Physical Memory: 511 MB Available Physical Memory: 80 MB Virtual Memory: Max Size: 2,048 MB Virtual Memory: Available: 2,002 MB Virtual Memory: In Use: 46 MB Page File Location(s): C:\pagefile.sys Domain: WORKGROUP Logon Server: \\JONLAPTOP Hotfix(s): 16 Hotfix(s) Installed. [01]: File 1 [02]: File 1 [03]: File 1 [04]: File 1 [05]: File 1 [06]: File 1 [07]: File 1 [08]: Q147222 [09]: S867460 - Update [10]: KB834707 - Update [11]: KB873339 - Update [12]: KB885835 - Update [13]: KB885836 - Update [14]: KB886185 - Update [15]: KB887797 - Update [16]: KB890175 - Update NetWork Card(s): 2 NIC(s) Installed. [01]: Intel(R) PRO/Wireless LAN 2100 3A Mini PCI Adapter Connection Name: Wireless Network Connection [02]: Broadcom 570x Gigabit Integrated Controller Connection Name: Local Area Connection DHCP Enabled: Yes DHCP Server: 192.168.0.1 IP address(es) [01]: 192.168.0.102 DiscussionYou can run the systeminfo tool remotely. To obtain the report on another computer, run systeminfo /s system and replace "system" with the name of the remote computer. You will of course need valid logon credentials for the remote system. See AlsoMicrosoft's "Take Command-Line Control of WMI," at http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windows2000serv/maintain/featusability/wmic.mspx, Recipe 2.13 for installing a hotfix, and Recipe 2.15 for installing a service pack |