How do I get a description of the current OS version in windows?

Question

I need to get a simple description of the OS, such as "Windows XP (SP2)" or "Windows 2000 Professional" to include in some debugging code. Ideally, I'd like to simply retrieve it by calling a "GetOSDisplayName" function.

Is there such a function available for C++ win32 programming?

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 13 '09 at 22:37

4

Have a look at this: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms724429(VS.85).aspx

answered Oct 13 '09 at 22:37

Nick Bedford

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Was hoping for a built-in function, but I guess this is the best there is. :( Thanks. – Colen Oct 14 '09 at 02:26
Win32 isn't the funnest API to use :-P – Nick Bedford Oct 14 '09 at 02:42

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered May 08 '14 at 05:19

3

If you are looking for the productName+version that marketing uses, it's in the registry:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Product Name

Looking at my computer, it says "Windows 8.1 Pro".

answered May 08 '14 at 05:19

G Huxley

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score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 13 '09 at 23:36

1

and also have a look at this: http://www.codeproject.com/KB/macros/winver_macros.aspx

answered Oct 13 '09 at 23:36

didito

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score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Oct 14 '09 at 00:19

And here's an example from something I came across recently:

OSVERSIONINFO osvi;

ZeroMemory(&osvi, sizeof(OSVERSIONINFO));
osvi.dwOSVersionInfoSize = sizeof(OSVERSIONINFO);

GetVersionEx(&osvi);
// use osvi.dwMajorVersion and osvi.dwMinorVersion

You'll need to run some tests to check which versions of windows the numbers correspond to. this might help: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Microsoft_Windows#Windows_NT

// (bad) example to check if we're running Windows XP
if (osvi.dwMajorVersion == 5 && osvi.dwMinorVersion == 1)
{
    // Windows XP
}

score 0 · Answer 5 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:26

0

Please find below a link to a related .NET question and set of answers. The C++/Win32 answer is essentially the same after some trivial mapping between .NET and C++/Win32.

How to translate MS Windows OS version numbers into product names in .NET?

edited May 23 '17 at 12:26

Community

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answered May 06 '10 at 12:13

Thomas Bratt

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How do I get a description of the current OS version in windows?

5 Answers5