How Old is My Laptop? 6 Ways to Find the Laptop Age

Knowing the age of your laptop is necessary in case you want to see if it is compatible with the newer or even previous version of the software. There are a few ways of doing that. 

  • Finding the date of the OS installation 
  • Checking BIOS information 
  • By knowing when your CPU was released 
  • Checking the Serial Number 
  • Finding the model number and then searching it online 
  • Date of modification of folders in your C Drive

6 Ways to Find “How Old is My Laptop”:

If you want different ways to find the age of your laptop so here you get the best 6 ways that will allow you to easily find the laptop’s age.

1. Finding The Date of The OS Installation 

Windows installation in the first place tells you how old your laptop could be. However, use this method only when you know that you haven’t reinstalled any OS after you have bought the laptop. Meaning, that the Windows you’re using is still a stock OS. 

  • Search for Command Prompt in your Windows.
  • Right-click on it and select Run as administrator 
  • Type the command: wmic os get install date and hit Enter. 
  • You’ll see the date of installation of your Windows in the form of a long queue of digits. 
  • The first 8 digits denote the date. The first four are of the year, the next two denote months, and the further two show the date. For example, 20100910 means September 09, 2010.

2. Check Your BIOS Version 

Normally we don’t update our BIOS after buying the laptop or PC. But if you have done it recently or afterwards, you wanna skip this step. That’s because the moment you update the BIOS, it will show that exact date. By this logic, if your BIOS is still in stock, you could easily get the manufacturing date by checking its information. 

  • Type Command Prompt in the search bar. 
  • When you open the app, type systeminfo and hit Enter. 
  • A large array of data will be presented to you. Search for BIOS Version, which is normally under the Processor (s). 
  • In there, you’ll find the date when it was created/updated. The date will be visible in the DD/MM/YYYY format. 

There’s also another way of checking this. 

  • Type System Information in the search bar of Windows.
  • Open the app and click on System Summary.  
  • Under the Processor, view the BIOS Version/Date. The date will be given in the same manner as stated above. 

3. By Knowing When Your PC was Released 

The third method of finding “How Old is My Laptop” is to know when the exact model of your PC was released. Here’s how to get an idea:

  • To know when your PC was released, you first need to know about the processor. 
  • Find it out in Step 2 in System Information. 
  • Search for the processor’s manufacturing date online on your manufacturer’s website or any other website on Google. 

4. Checking the Serial Number 

To check the serial number, follow these steps:

  • Flip your laptop to reveal the sticker on the back. 
  • Look for the serial number there. It’s either written with this name or the P/N number. 
  • If you can’t find it there, turn off your PC, gently remove the battery and look for the serial number there. 
  • A third option for doing it is to unscrew the bottom of the chassis and find the information about your laptop in the bottom left corner. 

When you know the serial number, search for it on Google and find when it was manufactured. 

5. Find Model Number and Search Online 

  • From the System Information app, find the system model and manufacturer.
  • Search for the same on the official website of your manufacturer or simply Google the number to see when it was created. 
  • By this method, you may find out when the model was created but not exactly when your very unit was manufactured. That’s actually hard to know. 

6. Date of Modification of Folders in C Drive 

This one is as the other methods are – it shows when the files in your C Drive were created or modified. However, this one, too, does not tell the exact date when your PC or laptop was manufactured. 

To know about the ages of the files or folders, follow these steps:

  • Head over to the C drive. 
  • Under the Date Modified, look for the dates that are the oldest. 

Use this method only when you think that your laptop is eligible for certain software or its version a few years back. 

It was all about finding how old is my laptop.

How to find the laptop serial number?

Bring up Command prompt on your laptop and type in wmic bios get the serial number and press Enter, it will then display your laptop serial number onto the screen.

How to tell the age of the laptop?

Type “sysinfo.exe” into the search bar of your Windows which will bring about the “System Information” application. Now scroll down to the BIOS menu in the panel, which will most probably show the age of your laptop or computer.

How Old is My Laptop – Conclusion 

Normally we do know how old our laptop is. It’s not important to know when it was manufactured but when you unpacked it and started using it. That could be the year of its manufacturing or it could have been created before that. Either way, use the above-mentioned 6 ways of estimating the age of your laptop. If you think that it’s too old because it can’t handle some processes well, then it’s time to upgrade it. An example of the incompatibility of a laptop with new software or OS is Windows 11’s rollout to the newer series. 

Lisa Antonio
Lisa enjoys technology & has built many laptops and enjoys tinkering with technology!