Easily Determine Windows Uptime in Windows 7, Vista or XP
If you leave your computer running on a 24/7 basis you might be interested in determining the amount of uptime that has accumulated since the last reboot. We can find this information in both XP and Vista and will take a look at both.
Track Uptime In Win7 or Vista
To find Vista’s uptime the graphical way just open up Task Manager by right clicking the Taskbar and selecting Task Manager.
Now with Task Manager open click on the Performance tab and you will see the amount of uptime listed under the System section.
For a more geeky method we can use the Command Line. Just enter CMD into the search box in Vista and hit Enter.
This brings up the command prompt where you can enter in “systeminfo” (no quotes) and hit enter. This does not bring up the actual uptime of the system but it does show the last time the computer was booted up.
For Vista there are also several gadgets on Microsoft’s Site that will allow you to monitor the uptime of your system.
Track Uptime In XP
To easily find the uptime in Windows XP go to Start \ Run type in CMD then click OK.
This will bring up the command prompt where you will need to type in “systeminfo” without the quotes and hit enter. It will take a couple of moments for the analysis to complete and get the results. In the list you will see the uptime listed in days, hours, minutes, and seconds.
There are also several free third-party utilities for all versions of Windows that will calculate the amount of uptime and a lot more such as WinAudit.
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here is a nice trick ..in windows XP or vista u can write in the cmd
(systeminfo | find "System Up") without the brackets…
this will display only the uptime to avoid looking for it in all the other information..
thanks..
we can find UPtime in XP through cmd systeminfo | Find “Up Time” ,we can also find uptime through upitme utility from Microsoft,we can find uptime through eventviewer by caluculating from stat time to till the working time I writtena rticle sometime back check this http://computersservicing.blogspot.com/2008/09/how-to-find-system-uptime-and-shutdown.html
On my XP system, the uptime shows as "N/A".
Original Install Date: 3/29/2007, 11:40:22 AM
System Up Time: N/A
System Manufacturer: Dell Inc.
System Model: Latitude D620
System type: X86-based PC
If I run UPTIME, it tells a very large untruth.
H:\>uptime
\\ has been up for: 435 day(s), 2 hour(s), 51 minute(s), 6 second(s
)
Estimate based on last boot record in the event log.
See UPTIME /help for more detail.
Win XP more easy:
Start
Run
cmd /k systeminfo | find "Up Time"
Show only the up time.
A nice tool for tracking just the uptime is Windows Uptime 1.6 from December 2002. Available to download from here: ftp://ftp.komputerswiat.pl/AkcesoriaINarzedzia/Inne/WindowsUptime/WU-Setup.exe
As usual I find I am missing something when trying this.
I have tried the commands a couple of way, but I keep getting the same error message;
I get this:
E:\Documents and Settings\Brian>systeminfo | find System Up
'systeminfo' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.
E:\Documents and Settings\Brian>systeminfo | find system up
'systeminfo' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.
E:\Documents and Settings\Brian>cmd /k systeminfo | find "Up Time"
'systeminfo' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.
cmd /k systeminfo | find "Up Time"
'systeminfo' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.
I would appreciate if anyone can see what I am doing wrong and point me in the right direction.
Thanks,
BRIAN
@Brian just copy this systeminfo | find "Up Time" and paste in your cmd prompt and press enter you will find uptime.
I'm w/Brian. Unable to get system to recognize systeminfo or any of the variations in the comments above.
thanks in advance
jeff
venkat,
Thanks for the reply.
That is exactly what I did but, I can't get it to accept the command.
This is the exact detail of my steps in case it may reveal my mistake:
1. I High lighted the text and Right clicked on it and copied it: systeminfo | find "Up Time"
2. Opened DOS
3. Right clicked on the address bar
4. Selected: edit>paste
5. It entered systeminfo | find "Up Time" after C:\>
6. So the actual display was: C:\>systeminfo | find "Up Time"
7. Pressed enter and it displayed:
C:\>systeminfo | find "Up Time"
'systeminfo' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.
Since the E: is my boot drive I tried another way but, again got the same message:
E:\Documents and Settings\Brian>systeminfo | find "Up Time"
So the only thing I can think of is maybe I have to paste the command in front of E:\> but since I am not real proficient with DOS I can't find a way to change the the display to just the E:\>
OK, I just found a way.
But again this is what is displayed:
E:\>systeminfo | find "Up Time"
'systeminfo' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.
I hope this detail may help one of the forum members to see what I am doing wrong.
BRIAN
systeminfo is located in the system volume (c: for most people) in the windows folder (windows for most people) in the system32 folder.
typically, this is C:\windows\system32\ , but if your environment variables are set correctly, that's %windir%\system32
You'll need to be sure that system32 is in your path (type PATH at command prompt) and that systeminfo.exe is in your system32 folder.
mercury00,
Well I am getting a little closer!
I could not find systeminfo.exe in my System32 folder; so I did a search for the file on all my HDDs.
Nothing turned up!!
I entered PATH at the DOS prompt and found this:
E:\Documents and Settings\Brian>path
PATH=E:\WINDOWS\system32;E:\WINDOWS;E:\WINDOWS\System32\Wbem;E:\Program Files\Ex
ecutive Software\Diskeeper\;E:\Program Files\QuickTime Alternative\QTSystem\
Not sure what all that means.
So I did a search for systeminfo on the E: drive and found that the only .exe file was this one:
E:\Program Files\Auslogics\AusLogics System Information\systeminformation.exe
Since that is my defraging program it looks like I don't have a systeminfo.exe file!!!
Finally I did a search for %windir%\system32 and found nothing.
Does this seem right?
BRIAN
Just use uptime.exe, the free command-line tool from Microsoft.
http://search.live.com/results.aspx?q=uptime.exe&go=&form=QBLH
Joe,
Thanks for that link; it sure explains why I could not get it to work: it wasn't installed!!!
Now the basic commands works but, when I try to get some info I get this:
E:\Documents and Settings\Brian>uptime /s
UPTIME was unable to connect to host: \\BRIANSPC-XP
I suspect that I don't have a web page or a server hooked up to my computer this won't do anything for me. If so what is the easiest way to find a server to check.
Or is it that I have to activate the heartbeat? I installed heartbeat and rebooted but still can't get any basic info.
I just wondered if I can just put in some server name and get some information?
Thanks for offering your help to a newbie about this topic.
BRIAN
****************
Interesting. I always used the command "net statistics workstation" to get the uptime. Thinking about it now, that probably isn't the real date and time the system started but rather the date and that the workstation service started.
on XP SP3, I get this:
C:\Documents and Settings\stinky>systeminfo
Loading Network card Information …
ERROR: Provider load failure.
Wireless is working right now
local area connection-cable unplugged-bluetooth PAN
local area connection-cable unplugged-broadcom netXtreme 57XX gigabit controller
I think Windows XP Home doesn't have the systeminfo.exe file. I checked 3 machines and none had it.
Dood!!
once again you came through for me. hmmm i wonder if "howtogeek " will work in google? or "serverfault "? it works for gsmarena, imdb and wikipedia. please look into this.