If you have a PC with server software, or a Windows server edition, uptime is important. Knowing how long your PC has been running can help meet certain conditions.
Uptime is the time the PC has been on since the last restart. This is useful, for example, to know whether the PC has frozen in the meantime and/or the PC has not been restarted without your knowledge.
There are several ways to check the uptime of your Windows computer. The first way is through task manager and the second way is through a special command in the Command Prompt or PowerShell.
How long has my Windows PC or Server been running? (Uptime)
Task Manager is the easiest way to see how long the PC has been running without restarting. Task Manager is part of Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 10 and Windows 11 and clearly shows us what the uptime is.
Uptime via task management
Right-click on the Start button. In the menu click on task management.
When the task manager is open, first click on the “Performance” tab and then on "Processor"“. At the bottom you will see “Time active”. This is the time that the PC is active, i.e. the uptime.
Request last restart via Command Prompt
If you want to query the uptime via scripting, you can use the Command Prompt.
The command “systeminfo” gives us clarity about the system information. This system information also shows what the “system boot time” is. You can request this information in the following way.
Right-click on the Start button. Click Run in the menu. In the run window type: cmd.exe.
Then copy and paste the following command into Command Prompt. The result is the “System boot time”.
systeminfo | find "System Boot Time"
This result shows when the last time the computer was restarted. This way you can calculate the “uptime” yourself.
Request last restart via PowerShell
You can also use PowerShell scripting to inquire when the computer was last restarted. This way you can also calculate the uptime of the computer yourself.
Right-click on the Start button. Click on “PowerShell” in the menu or “Windows Terminal".
Then copy and paste the command below into the PowerShell window and you will see the last restart of the computer as output.
Get-CimInstance -ClassName Win32_OperatingSystem | Select LastBootUpTime
There are also other ways to query the uptime of your PC. You can do this by checking the active network connection. The network connection is started when Windows starts. The network connection therefore also gives a good indication of how long the PC has been on.
I hope this helped you. Thank you for reading!