How to Determine What Version of Windows is on a USB Bootable Device

In some cases, you’ve an USB bootable stick of Windows with a generic name. So, you cannot determine the language, architecture and edition of Windows in this USB stick.

Determine Windows version in a USB device

1. First, plug the USB drive into your computer then open it in Explorer.

2. Navigate to the Sources directory and find an installation file with a Windows image. The file is called install and may have one of the following extensions: install.wim, install.esd or install.swm.

3. Press and hold the Shift key then right-click install.xxx and copy the path to the file by selecting Copy as path.

4. Open the command prompt as administrator and run the following command (use the path from the clipboard as a file path):

DISM /Get-WimInfo /WimFile:"E:\sources\install.wim"

5. You will see a list of editions (Education, Home, Enterprise, Pro, etc.) available in this USB bootable drive. In our example, this iso file has 6 different Windows editions. Each edition has an index you can use to get detailed information about the image.

C:\Windows\system32>DISM /Get-WimInfo /WimFile:"E:\sources\install.wim"

Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool
Version: 10.0.19041.844

Details for image : E:\sources\install.wim

Index : 1
Name : Windows 10 Home
Description : Windows 10 Home
Size : 14,803,056,683 bytes

Index : 2
Name : Windows 10 Home Single Language
Description : Windows 10 Home Single Language
Size : 14,801,333,452 bytes

Index : 3
Name : Windows 10 Education
Description : Windows 10 Education
Size : 15,059,155,772 bytes

Index : 4
Name : Windows 10 Pro
Description : Windows 10 Pro
Size : 15,056,474,727 bytes

Index : 5
Name : Windows 10 Pro Education
Description : Windows 10 Pro Education
Size : 15,059,094,190 bytes

Index : 6
Name : Windows 10 Pro for Workstations
Description : Windows 10 Pro for Workstations
Size : 15,059,124,981 bytes

The operation completed successfully.

Additionally, you get information about the Windows version (build) and available languages in the WIM/ESD file in the image with the index 5 (Windows 10 Pro), run the command below:

DISM /Get-WimInfo /WimFile:"E:\sources\install.wim" /index:5

In our example, we have found out that it is Windows 10 Professional (Version: 10.0.19041) with an English (en-US) language pack available in the installation image under index 5.

C:\Windows\system32>DISM /Get-WimInfo /WimFile:"E:\sources\install.wim" /index:5

Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool
Version: 10.0.19041.844

Details for image : E:\sources\install.wim

Index : 5
Name : Windows 10 Pro
Description : Windows 10 Pro
Size : 15,056,474,727 bytes
WIM Bootable : No
Architecture : x64
Hal : <undefined>
Version : 10.0.19041
ServicePack Build : 1052
ServicePack Level : 0
Edition : Professional
Installation : Client
ProductType : WinNT
ProductSuite : Terminal Server
System Root : WINDOWS
Directories : 26445
Files : 98659
Created : 6/7/2021 - 3:05:54 AM
Modified : 6/7/2021 - 3:45:41 AM
Languages :
        en-US (Default)

The operation completed successfully.

As a result, we got a handy list of Windows version in the USB drive.