How to find OS version mohandasg[ at ]gmail.com 10/27/2008 5:39:52 PM 'Environment.OSVersion' can be used to find OS version. However how to differentiate between windows XP (64 bit) and a windows 2K3 ? both shows major version 5 and minor version 2 . Also how to differentiate between Vista and windows 2K8? Thanks -mhnds

Re: How to find OS version Jeroen Mostert <jmostert[ at ]xs4all.nl> 10/27/2008 6:05:51 PM mohandasg[ at ]gmail.com wrote: [Quoted Text] > 'Environment.OSVersion' can be used to find OS version. However how to > differentiate between windows XP (64 bit) and a windows 2K3 ? both > shows major version 5 and minor version 2 . > Also how to differentiate between Vista and windows 2K8? > You can't do this using Environment. You can do it by P/Invoke to GetVersionEx(): wProductType will be VER_NT_WORKSTATION for XP and Vista and VER_NT_SERVER for the server editions. Google around, there are a few samples. Ask yourself whether you really need to do this -- the reason the version numbers are identical is that the kernels are identical, so the OSes are so much alike that it should make no difference for most applications. An installer might need to know this, but installers typically aren't written as .NET applications (for one thing, you have to make sure .NET is installed before you can use the installer, which is a bit silly...) -- J.

Re: How to find OS version "Cowboy \(Gregory A. Beamer\)" <NoSpamMgbworld[ at ]comcast.netNoSpamM> 10/28/2008 1:14:06 PM Jeroen has explained why the versions are the same, but I can see some reasons you might want to know the exact OS, as there are things you might take advantage of on a server and not a workstation (and vice versa). The native calls Jeroen has are a good method. If you know you will have proper access, there are also keys in the registry you can query. The keys are under: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion There are quite a few useful keys in here, although you will have to figure out how to best use them. I am not sure wheter the 32 bit, 64 bit question is easily answered here, but you can definitely get server versus workstation. -- Gregory A. Beamer MVP, MCP: +I, SE, SD, DBA Subscribe to my blog http://feeds.feedburner.com/GregoryBeamer# or just read it: http://feeds.feedburner.com/GregoryBeamer ******************************************** | Think outside the box! | ******************************************** <mohandasg[ at ]gmail.com> wrote in message news:4118ab0b-10ab-4950-b1a9-6fd32d45b6c5[ at ]v72g2000hsv.googlegroups.com... [Quoted Text] > 'Environment.OSVersion' can be used to find OS version. However how to > differentiate between windows XP (64 bit) and a windows 2K3 ? both > shows major version 5 and minor version 2 . > Also how to differentiate between Vista and windows 2K8? > > Thanks > -mhnds

Re: How to find OS version Jeroen Mostert <jmostert[ at ]xs4all.nl> 10/28/2008 6:49:52 PM Cowboy (Gregory A. Beamer) wrote: [Quoted Text] > If you know you will have proper access, there are also keys in the > registry you can query. The keys are under: > > HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion > > There are quite a few useful keys in here, although you will have to > figure out how to best use them. I am not sure wheter the 32 bit, 64 bit > question is easily answered here, but you can definitely get server > versus workstation. > Be kind to Microsoft and your customers and don't have your programs poking around in registry keys unless they're explicitly documented (which is relatively rare). The next version of Windows will either have to bend over backwards to make sure your successful application still works as expected even though the keys have changed, or else it will do nothing for your poorly selling application which will break and sell even more poorly as a result. :-) -- J.