Q189249: HOWTO: Determine Which 32-Bit Windows Version Is Being Used
Article: Q189249
Product(s): Microsoft Visual Basic for Windows
Version(s): 4.0,5.0,6.0
Operating System(s):
Keyword(s): kbnokeyword KbVBA kbVBp400 kbVBp500 kbVBp600 kbGrpDSVB
Last Modified: 25-FEB-2002
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The information in this article applies to:
- Microsoft Visual Basic Learning Edition for Windows, versions 5.0, 6.0
- Microsoft Visual Basic Professional Edition for Windows, versions 5.0, 6.0
- Microsoft Visual Basic Enterprise Edition for Windows, versions 5.0, 6.0
- Microsoft Visual Basic Standard Edition, 32-bit, for Windows, version 4.0
- Microsoft Visual Basic Professional Edition, 32-bit, for Windows, version 4.0
- Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications version 5.0
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SUMMARY
=======
An application may need to perform tasks differently depending on which
operating system is running on the computer. This article shows, by example, how
to differentiate between Microsoft Windows 95, Microsoft Windows 98, Microsoft
Window NT 3.51, Microsoft Windows NT 4.0, Microsoft Windows 2000, and Microsoft
Windows XP.
The Win32 GetVersionEx function returns information that a program can use to
identify the operating system. Among those values are the major and minor
revision numbers and a platform identifier. With the introduction of Windows 98,
it now takes a more involved logical evaluation to determine which version of
Windows is in use. The listing below provides the data needed to evaluate the
OSVERSIONINFO structure populated by GetVersionEx:
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| | Windows 95 | Windows 98 | Windows Me | Windows NT 4.0 | Windows 2000 | Windows XP |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| PlatformID | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Major Version | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 5 |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Minor Version | 0 | 10 | 90 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
MORE INFORMATION
================
Step-by-Step Example
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1. Start a new Standard EXE project in Visual Basic. Form1 is created by
default.
2. From the Project menu, add a Standard Module to the project.
3. Insert the following code into Module1:
Public Declare Function GetVersionExA Lib "kernel32" _
(lpVersionInformation As OSVERSIONINFO) As Integer
Public Type OSVERSIONINFO
dwOSVersionInfoSize As Long
dwMajorVersion As Long
dwMinorVersion As Long
dwBuildNumber As Long
dwPlatformId As Long
szCSDVersion As String * 128
End Type
Public Function getVersion() As String
Dim osinfo As OSVERSIONINFO
Dim retvalue As Integer
osinfo.dwOSVersionInfoSize = 148
osinfo.szCSDVersion = Space$(128)
retvalue = GetVersionExA(osinfo)
With osinfo
Select Case .dwPlatformId
Case 1
Select Case .dwMinorVersion
Case 0
getVersion = "Windows 95"
Case 10
getVersion = "Windows 98"
Case 90
getVersion = "Windows Mellinnium"
End Select
Case 2
Select Case .dwMajorVersion
Case 3
getVersion = "Windows NT 3.51"
Case 4
getVersion = "Windows NT 4.0"
Case 5
If .dwMinorVersion = 0 Then
getVersion = "Windows 2000"
Else
getVersion = "Windows XP"
End If
End Select
Case Else
getVersion = "Failed"
End Select
End With
End Function
4. Add the following line of code to the Load event of Form1:
MsgBox GetVersion()
5. Run the project, and note that a message box displays the correct Windows
version.
REFERENCES
==========
For more information, please see the following article in the Microsoft
Knowledge Base:
Q92936 HOWTO: Get Windows 3.1 Version Number in VB with GetVersion
Additional query words:
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Keywords : kbnokeyword KbVBA kbVBp400 kbVBp500 kbVBp600 kbGrpDSVB
Technology : kbVBSearch kbAudDeveloper kbZNotKeyword6 kbZNotKeyword2 kbVB500Search kbVB600Search kbVBA500 kbVB500 kbVB600 kbVB400Search kbVB400 kbVBASearch kbZNotKeyword3
Version : :4.0,5.0,6.0
Issue type : kbhowto
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