Uptime – How to find out how long your computer has been on – the uptime

In Windows, you can find your uptime via one of the following two methods commands. To enter these commands open a command prompt from the Start Menu or just execute cmd.exe

• systeminfo | find “Up Time”
• net statistics server (Note that this command displays actually shows the last boot time from which the uptime can be calculated)
• Uptime (This command is not included in the operating system, but is an uptime utility provided by Microsoft)

Also, it is worth noting that Windows Server 2003 systems and above record their uptime in the System event log at midnight every night, as Event ID 6013. See the screenshot below from a Windows Server 2003 uptime event.

In Mac OS X, Linux, Unix and other Unix-like operating systems, simply enter the following command into any terminal and the current system load values and uptime will be displayed.

• uptime

In OpenVMS systems, the following command provides the system uptime.

• show system /noprocess

Hope this helps you find the uptime of your system regardless of the running operating system, be it Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, Unix or any other system.

If you know uptime commands specific to any other operating systems not listed, please use the comments system and I will update this article accordingly. Of course, feel free to post your uptime(s) as well – a good bit of competition is always healthy!

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