When the OS is installed and you try to see what is already installed:

-you can open the file ../Windows/System32/license.rtf with Wordpad. Guess what, it tells you EXACTLY what system is installed. On that same drive above, this file said “WINDOWS 8 PRO”.

When you know the OS version but you don’t know the architecture (x86/x64):

32-bit versions of Windows will only include a single Program Files folder, while the two folders you see above will be present on any 64-bit system. The Program Files (x86) folder is where applications that are meant to run on 32-bit systems are installed. The main Program Files folder is where all 64-bit applications reside.

When you have an installation DVD without knowing the OS, the build version or the language:

Assuming you can mount the image, run cmd as administrator and type:

dism /Get-WimInfo /WimFile:A:\sources\boot.wim

A is your iso mountpoint.

Alternative:

Open 7zip and go to Windows.iso\sources\boot.wim\[1].xml

n there you can find the exact build information similar to this:

<WINDOWS><ARCH>0</ARCH>
<PRODUCTNAME>Microsoft® Windows® Operating System</PRODUCTNAME>
<EDITIONID>WindowsPE</EDITIONID>
<INSTALLATIONTYPE>WindowsPE</INSTALLATIONTYPE>
<PRODUCTTYPE>WinNT</PRODUCTTYPE>
<PRODUCTSUITE/><LANGUAGES><LANGUAGE>en-US</LANGUAGE>
<DEFAULT>en-US</DEFAULT></LANGUAGES>
<VERSION><MAJOR>6</MAJOR><MINOR>1</MINOR><BUILD>7601</BUILD>
<SPBUILD>17514</SPBUILD><SPLEVEL>1</SPLEVEL></VERSION>
<SYSTEMROOT>WINDOWS</SYSTEMROOT></WINDOWS>

 

The <version> tag is what tells you the built version. for above example: V 6.1.7601 SP1.17514

sources:

https://www.quora.com/How-can-I-tell-what-version-of-Windows-is-installed-on-a-hard-drive-without-booting-it

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/4-easy-ways-to-know-if-youre-on-a-64-bit-version-of-windows/

http://superuser.com/questions/443357/version-number-of-windows-7-from-its-image-iso/443365

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