Can I get the Original Install Date of the Windows using C#?

Question

How can I get the Original Install Date of the Windows using C#?

its asked somewhere earlier please do search in this site only! — uday, Jun 21 '12 at 07:33
Yes this is a straight up duplicate. See your Question and answer here : http://stackoverflow.com/questions/170617/how-do-i-find-the-install-time-and-date-of-windows — gideon, Jun 21 '12 at 07:34
The creation date of windows/program files/user-folders is not the date of installation...my machine was installed 2011 and the folders where created 2009 — webber2k6, Jun 21 '12 at 09:29

score 9 · Accepted Answer · edited Mar 17 '22 at 10:46

9

From this website, using the registry rather than WMI (untested):

public static DateTime GetWindowsInstallationDateTime(string computerName)
{
    Microsoft.Win32.RegistryKey key = Microsoft.Win32.RegistryKey.OpenRemoteBaseKey(Microsoft.Win32.RegistryHive.LocalMachine, computerName);
    key = key.OpenSubKey(@"SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion", false);
    if (key != null)
    {  
        DateTime installDate = 
            DateTime.FromFileTimeUtc(
                Convert.ToInt64(
                    key.GetValue("InstallDate").ToString()));
 
        return installDate;
    }
 
    return DateTime.MinValue;
}

edited Mar 17 '22 at 10:46

Daniel Fisher lennybacon

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answered Jun 21 '12 at 07:34

Bridge

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@BillGim: the regkey was missing some backslashes. the current version should do the trick – Nuffin Jun 21 '12 at 08:07
@Nuffin Thanks - I did say "untested" ;-) – Bridge Jun 21 '12 at 08:15
the DateTime constructor lacks of a DateTimeKind.Utc flag to produce the exact same date as the one produced/represented by the Microsoft's systeminfo.exe command-line tool. I added the modification in the original answer. – ElektroStudios May 23 '18 at 08:08

Markus · Answer 2 · 2017-04-17T16:46:36.643

The HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\InstallDate is the Windows InstallDate using a Unix timestamp, but technically it's the wrong date.

Let me explain;

The definition of UNIX timestamp is time zone independent. The UNIX timestamp is defined as the number of seconds that have elapsed since 00:00:00 Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), Thursday, 1 January 1970 and not counting leap seconds.

In other words, if you have installed you computer in Seattle, WA and moved to New York,NY the HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\InstallDate will give you the date in NY timezone, not in Seattle timezone where Windows was original installed. It's the wrong date, it doesn't store timezone where the computer was initially installed.

Solution

Change you computer time zone (right-click on you clock->Adjust date/time->Adjust time zone) to the time zone where windows was installed, or first turned on. Then run systeminfo.exe find /i "Original Install Date"
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\InstallDate but you have add the time zone where windows was installed, or first turned on.

Can I get the Original Install Date of the Windows using C#?

2 Answers2

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