Third-party installations may require certain system specifications to install their applications. These system specifications can range from a certain operating system to a specific service pack of an operating system. This article provides instructions on finding the operating system and service pack level on your computer.

1. Select Start > Run.
2. Type winver.exe in the Open field and press OK. This launches the About Windows dialog, which contains operating system information.

   

   The above dialog shows the name of the operating system and service pack level. In this case, the operating system is Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 1 installed on it.

   Note: Not all operating systems display a similar dialog as the above. Older operating systems, such as Windows 95 and NT 4.0 display old style dialogs, such as the following:

   

   As indicated in the above dialog, the operating system installed on the machine is Windows NT with Service Pack 6.