Get Windows version in a batch file

Have you tried using the wmic commands?

Try wmic os get version

This will give you the version number in a command line, then you just need to integrate into the batch file.

_{These one-line commands have been tested on Windows XP, Server 2012, 7 and 10 (thank you Mad Tom Vane).}

Extract version x.y in a cmd console

for /f "tokens=4-7 delims=[.] " %i in ('ver') do @(if %i==Version (echo %j.%k) else (echo %i.%j))

Extract the full version x.y.z

for /f "tokens=4-7 delims=[.] " %i in ('ver') do @(if %i==Version (echo %j.%k.%l) else (echo %i.%j.%k))

In a batch script use %% instead of single %

@echo off
for /f "tokens=4-7 delims=[.] " %%i in ('ver') do (if %%i==Version (set v=%%j.%%k) else (set v=%%i.%%j))
echo %v%

Version is not always consistent to brand name number

Be aware that the extracted version number does not always corresponds to the Windows name release. See below an extract from the full list of Microsoft Windows versions.

10.0   Windows 10
6.3   Windows Server 2012
6.3   Windows 8.1   /!\
6.2   Windows 8   /!\
6.1   Windows 7   /!\
6.0   Windows Vista
5.2   Windows XP x64
5.1   Windows XP
5.0   Windows 2000
4.10   Windows 98

^{Please also up-vote answers from Agent Gibbs and peterbh as my answer is inspired from their ideas.}

It's much easier (and faster) to get this information by only parsing the output of ver:

@echo off
setlocal
for /f "tokens=4-5 delims=. " %%i in ('ver') do set VERSION=%%i.%%j
if "%version%" == "10.0" echo Windows 10
if "%version%" == "6.3" echo Windows 8.1
if "%version%" == "6.2" echo Windows 8.
if "%version%" == "6.1" echo Windows 7.
if "%version%" == "6.0" echo Windows Vista.
rem etc etc
endlocal

This table on MSDN documents which version number corresponds to which Windows product version (this is where you get the 6.1 means Windows 7 information from).

The only drawback of this technique is that it cannot distinguish between the equivalent server and consumer versions of Windows.