Environment.OSVersion doesnt return windows 7

Question

I was trying to display the OS edition using System.Environment in my C# application.

Console.WriteLine("{0}",Environment.OSVersion);

But I see "Microsoft Windows NT 6.1.7600.0" on console,where as I was expecting something similar to "Windows 7 Professional". Why does OSVersion static method return this value?

Check this out: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2819934/detect-windows-7-in-net The answer is, it's just how MS decided to do it. — Matthew Watson, Jun 06 '13 at 10:55
"Windows 7 Professional" is for regular people. "NT 6.1.7600.0" is for programmers. You are a programmer now, welcome aboard. — Hans Passant, Jun 06 '13 at 12:16

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 06 '13 at 10:56

Because its for identifying the platform you're running on rather than the 'name' of the version of Windows you're running on. So you can use it to tell if your application is running on a Unix-style OS rather than Windows for example.

You can use the Win32_OperatingSystem WMI class (via System.Management) to get more information about the version of windows you're running on: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa394239(v=vs.85).aspx

Environment.OSVersion doesnt return windows 7

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