Get OS in c++ win32 for all versions of win?

Question

How to get the OS version for all windows, at least the name for win95,98,me,xp,vista,7?

Im using visual c++ 2010 and I want to include this feature in a pure win32

Answer 1

How about something like this:

#include <windows.h>
#include <string>
#include <lm.h>
#pragma comment(lib, "netapi32.lib")

bool GetWinMajorMinorVersion(DWORD& major, DWORD& minor)
{
    bool bRetCode = false;
    LPBYTE pinfoRawData = 0;
    if (NERR_Success == NetWkstaGetInfo(NULL, 100, &pinfoRawData))
    {
        WKSTA_INFO_100* pworkstationInfo = (WKSTA_INFO_100*)pinfoRawData;
        major = pworkstationInfo->wki100_ver_major;
        minor = pworkstationInfo->wki100_ver_minor;
        ::NetApiBufferFree(pinfoRawData);
        bRetCode = true;
    }
    return bRetCode;
}


std::string GetWindowsVersionString()
{
    std::string     winver;
    OSVERSIONINFOEX osver;
    SYSTEM_INFO     sysInfo;
    typedef void(__stdcall *GETSYSTEMINFO) (LPSYSTEM_INFO);

    __pragma(warning(push))
    __pragma(warning(disable:4996))
    memset(&osver, 0, sizeof(osver));
    osver.dwOSVersionInfoSize = sizeof(osver);
    GetVersionEx((LPOSVERSIONINFO)&osver);
    __pragma(warning(pop))
    DWORD major = 0;
    DWORD minor = 0;
    if (GetWinMajorMinorVersion(major, minor))
    {
        osver.dwMajorVersion = major;
        osver.dwMinorVersion = minor;
    }
    else if (osver.dwMajorVersion == 6 && osver.dwMinorVersion == 2)
    {
        OSVERSIONINFOEXW osvi;
        ULONGLONG cm = 0;
        cm = VerSetConditionMask(cm, VER_MINORVERSION, VER_EQUAL);
        ZeroMemory(&osvi, sizeof(osvi));
        osvi.dwOSVersionInfoSize = sizeof(osvi);
        osvi.dwMinorVersion = 3;
        if (VerifyVersionInfoW(&osvi, VER_MINORVERSION, cm))
        {
            osver.dwMinorVersion = 3;
        }
    }

    GETSYSTEMINFO getSysInfo = (GETSYSTEMINFO)GetProcAddress(GetModuleHandle(L"kernel32.dll"), "GetNativeSystemInfo");
    if (getSysInfo == NULL)  getSysInfo = ::GetSystemInfo;
    getSysInfo(&sysInfo);

    if (osver.dwMajorVersion == 10 && osver.dwMinorVersion >= 0 && osver.wProductType != VER_NT_WORKSTATION)  winver = "Windows 10 Server";
    if (osver.dwMajorVersion == 10 && osver.dwMinorVersion >= 0 && osver.wProductType == VER_NT_WORKSTATION)  winver = "Windows 10";
    if (osver.dwMajorVersion == 6 && osver.dwMinorVersion == 3 && osver.wProductType != VER_NT_WORKSTATION)  winver = "Windows Server 2012 R2";
    if (osver.dwMajorVersion == 6 && osver.dwMinorVersion == 3 && osver.wProductType == VER_NT_WORKSTATION)  winver = "Windows 8.1";
    if (osver.dwMajorVersion == 6 && osver.dwMinorVersion == 2 && osver.wProductType != VER_NT_WORKSTATION)  winver = "Windows Server 2012";
    if (osver.dwMajorVersion == 6 && osver.dwMinorVersion == 2 && osver.wProductType == VER_NT_WORKSTATION)  winver = "Windows 8";
    if (osver.dwMajorVersion == 6 && osver.dwMinorVersion == 1 && osver.wProductType != VER_NT_WORKSTATION)  winver = "Windows Server 2008 R2";
    if (osver.dwMajorVersion == 6 && osver.dwMinorVersion == 1 && osver.wProductType == VER_NT_WORKSTATION)  winver = "Windows 7";
    if (osver.dwMajorVersion == 6 && osver.dwMinorVersion == 0 && osver.wProductType != VER_NT_WORKSTATION)  winver = "Windows Server 2008";
    if (osver.dwMajorVersion == 6 && osver.dwMinorVersion == 0 && osver.wProductType == VER_NT_WORKSTATION)  winver = "Windows Vista";
    if (osver.dwMajorVersion == 5 && osver.dwMinorVersion == 2 && osver.wProductType == VER_NT_WORKSTATION
        &&  sysInfo.wProcessorArchitecture == PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE_AMD64)  winver = "Windows XP x64";
    if (osver.dwMajorVersion == 5 && osver.dwMinorVersion == 2)   winver = "Windows Server 2003";
    if (osver.dwMajorVersion == 5 && osver.dwMinorVersion == 1)   winver = "Windows XP";
    if (osver.dwMajorVersion == 5 && osver.dwMinorVersion == 0)   winver = "Windows 2000";
    if (osver.dwMajorVersion < 5)   winver = "unknown";

    if (osver.wServicePackMajor != 0)
    {
        std::string sp;
        char buf[128] = { 0 };
        sp = " Service Pack ";
        sprintf_s(buf, sizeof(buf), "%hd", osver.wServicePackMajor);
        sp.append(buf);
        winver += sp;
    }

    return winver;
}

Answer 2

Take a look at the MSDN article Getting the System Version

While the article only mentions currently supported Windows versions, see this knowledge base article for the numbers you'll see in the OSVERSIONINFO structure for Win 95, 98 etc.

Answer 3

It all depends on why you need to know OS version:

• To use certain feature that may not be available in older OS. In this case I would strongly suggest checking if the API itself is available using LoadLibrary and GetProcAddress functions. Otherwise, I guess you can dynamically import RtlGetVersion from ntdll.dll and use it, but again, there're too many ways it can return inaccurate information (the ones that come to mind are compatibility mode and API trampolines that can be installed by malware, AVP, and even OS itself.)

• For display purposes only. (ex: in About window for your app, or to include it in your diagnostic event log, etc.) In this case a quick and easy hack is to read it as text from the System Registry:

The downside of this approach though, is that the names and numbers can be localized for the end-user's system.

Use the following key that is available since Windows XP:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion

and its following REG_SZ (or string) values:

• ProductName = for OS name
• CurrentVersion = for OS version
• BuildLab = for full build number
• BuildLabEx = extended build number (available since Windows 7)
• ReleaseId = Release number (available since Windows 10)

Answer 4

Use GetVersionEx http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms724451%28v=VS.85%29.aspx