OSVERSIONINFO

The OSVERSIONINFO data structure contains operating system version information. The information includes major and minor version numbers, a build number, a platform identifier, and descriptive text about the operating system. This structure is used with the GetVersionEx function.

typedef struct _OSVERSIONINFO{ 
  DWORD dwOSVersionInfoSize; 
  DWORD dwMajorVersion; 
  DWORD dwMinorVersion; 
  DWORD dwBuildNumber; 
  DWORD dwPlatformId; 
  TCHAR szCSDVersion[ 128 ]; 
} OSVERSIONINFO; 

Members

dwOSVersionInfoSize

Specifies the size, in bytes, of this data structure. Set this member to sizeof(OSVERSIONINFO) before calling the GetVersionEx function.

dwMajorVersion

Identifies the major version number of the operating system as follows.

Operating System	Value
Windows 95	4
Windows 98	4
Windows Me	4
Windows NT 3.51	3
Windows NT 4.0	4
Windows 2000	5
Windows XP	5
Windows .NET Server	5

dwMinorVersion

Identifies the minor version number of the operating system as follows.

Operating System	Value
Windows 95	0
Windows 98	10
Windows Me	90
Windows NT 3.51	51
Windows NT 4.0	0
Windows 2000	0
Windows XP	1
Windows .NET Server	1

dwBuildNumber

Windows NT/2000/XP: Identifies the build number of the operating system.

Windows 95/98/Me: Identifies the build number of the operating system in the low-order word. The high-order word contains the major and minor version numbers.

dwPlatformId

Identifies the operating system platform. This member can be one of the following values.

Value	Platform
VER_PLATFORM_WIN32s	Win32s on Windows 3.1.
VER_PLATFORM_WIN32_WINDOWS	Windows 95, Windows 98, or Windows Me.
VER_PLATFORM_WIN32_NT	Windows NT 3.51, Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows XP, or Windows .NET Server.

szCSDVersion

Windows NT/2000/XP: Contains a null-terminated string, such as "Service Pack 3", that indicates the latest Service Pack installed on the system. If no Service Pack has been installed, the string is empty.

Windows 95/98/Me: Contains a null-terminated string that indicates additional version information. For example, " C" indicates Windows 95 OSR2 and " A" indicates Windows 98 Second Edition.

Remarks

Relying on version information is not the best way to test for a feature. Instead, refer to the documentation for the feature of interest. For more information on common techniques for feature detection, see Operating System Version.

If you must require a particular operating system, be sure to use it as a minimum supported version, rather than design the test for the one operating system. This way, your detection code will continue to work on future versions of Windows.

Requirements

  Windows NT/2000/XP: Included in Windows NT 3.5 and later.
  Windows 95/98/Me: Included in Windows 95 and later.
  Header: Declared in Winnt.h; include Windows.h.
  Unicode: Declared as Unicode and ANSI structures.

See Also

System Information Overview, System Information Structures, GetVersionEx, OSVERSIONINFOEX

Platform SDK Release: November 2001

What did you think of this topic? Let us know.

Order a Platform SDK CD Online (U.S/Canada)   (International)