PowerShell: Get BIOS Release Date
Need to check when the current BIOS/firmware was released - for update planning or hardware age verification? This one-liner pulls the release date straight from the system.
Prerequisites:
- Privileges: None
- Module: Built-in, no import needed
Quick Command:
Get-CimInstance -ClassName Win32_BIOS | Select-Object ReleaseDateExample Output:
ReleaseDate
-----------
1/15/2024 12:00:00 AM📦
Want all of them at once?
Get every free one-liner from this blog in a single downloadable bundle organized by category, each with full comment-based help. No more copy-pasting one at a time.
Get every free one-liner from this blog in a single downloadable bundle organized by category, each with full comment-based help. No more copy-pasting one at a time.
How It Works:
- Get-CimInstance -ClassName Win32_BIOS queries the Win32_BIOS WMI class, which stores information about the BIOS/firmware installed on the system.
- ReleaseDate returns the date the BIOS version was released by the manufacturer - useful for checking how outdated the firmware is. Get-CimInstance automatically converts this into a readable local date/time format.
Pro Tip:
On virtual machines, ReleaseDate may come back empty, since virtualized firmware isn't tied to a real manufacturing date the way physical hardware is. If you see an empty result paired with a virtualization company under Manufacturer (like Parallels, VMware, or Hyper-V), that confirms you're looking at a VM rather than physical hardware.