SharePoint 2007: Determine SharePoint Version

If you’ve ever tried to quickly determine the version of SharePoint 2007 that is installed on a server, this post is for you.  I’ve often thought that Microsoft should have displayed the SharePoint version on Central Administration under Operations, Servers in Farm.  However, they did not do this and you must examine the properties of files on your servers or the IIS web server to determine the SharePoint version running on the server. 

There are two basic ways you can determine the version:

1. Navigate to the \12\bin\ folder and check file versions (For more information on the first technique read this TechNet article)
2. Use IIS Manager and look at the web site properties

I prefer the second approach because it takes some of the guesswork out of the process.  The basic steps for using IIS Manager to determine the SharePoint version are:

1. Sign in one of your SharePoint front end web servers
2. Open IIS Manager (can be found by navigating to Start, Administrative Tools, Internet Information Server (IIS) Manager)
3. Expend the folder labeled “Web Sites”
4. Right-click on the web site named “SharePoint Central Administration” and select “Properties”
5. Click on the tab named “HTTP Headers”
6. Look at the field named “Customer HTTP Headers”
7. Compare the value displayed for “MicrosoftSharePointTeamServices” to the following list.

(Please note: These instructions are written for Windows Server 2003, the instructions may be different for Windows Server 2008)

Special thanks goes to Penny Coventry for creating an excellent listing of the specific version numbers, build numbers and hotfix combinations.