Registry Check for Windows OS version

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A colleague is looking for a generic check he can make in the registry to determine the version of Windows he’s using (95 or 98 or 98SE or ME or NT or 2000 or XP) .
Is there a single place to look?

His need is so that his code can decide whether it should be using printer A (if from win2000) or printer B (from win NT), but a general answer would be useful.

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Yes, there is a place to check. The registry key

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindows NTCurrentVersionProductName

contains the name of the version of Windows in use. I do not know if this exists under Win9x, though, and at the moment I have no means of checking.

Hope that helps!

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Hi Mark,
I heard this was the case for XP, but I’m running NT 4 and I don’t have any “ProductName” under that key.
I do have a “CurrentVersion” (4), and a CurrentBuildNumber (1381), but nothing to say what actual product I’m using.

Thanks for looking though.

Owen

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If you chap is working with BATch files, he could extract what he wants out of the attached file…

(Be warned that some of the later parts of the BATch file are me-specific, because I’m testing on three of my machines!)

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Hi John,
Many thanks for your comprehensive attachment – I’ve been playing with it at home – Lots of food for thought there.

I’ve asked my colleague for more details on how he’s looking for the info, but I’ve not got a reply – so I don’t know whether he can incorporate a BATch file solution.

Windows 98 doesn’t use HKLMSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsNT for anything much; rather it uses HKLMSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersion to store “Version” (“Windows 98”) and “VersionNumber” (“4.10.1998”)

Many thanks to everyone else who’s contributed – I suspect the solution will be to check whether it is WinXP and assume it’s W2K if not.

Owen

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If you’re just after the version of OS–what’s wrong with taking 5 seconds to type winver in the run box or activated address bar[/i] or hitting the pause +break key and bringing up the System Properties box? I appreciate all the information from the attachment, but this seems to be quick and easy.

SMBP

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The original question included the line:
>>His need is so that his code can decide whether it should …

As your 5 second solution doesn’t include any method of programatically reading the result from the screen, an even quicker method might be to simply have a post-it note on the screen with either “W2K” or “XP” on it, no?

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I saw that. Maybe I’m not understanding it well. The friend is sitting at a machine and basically wants to know what version of Windows is on the machine. Isn’t that the main problem? We all know the registry was proferred in the first sentence, but as long as it was reliable, I didin’t appreciate that registry keys were necessary to verify the version of Windows. With most editions, you can haul off and look at them quickly. I can’t speak to the different NTs because I just have no expeirence with them. I thought the main question was how the collegue could quickly verify. The registry key could be shortcutted as well.

He asked for a single place to look. Al offered going to a command prompt, and I offered one of the command lines–the run box. Maybe I’m missing something with the phrase “his code can decide” (because I don’t fully understand what that implies). I thought he wants to know with certainty what version of Windows is at a particular machine to decide between printer A for Win 2K and B for NT.

I thought I saw 3 general answers–Al’s, Marks, Bob offering a 3rd party solution, and I added a fourth. I saw your link from the interesting site I’ve seen before, and read John’s attachement.

If the user knows the version of OS from a legitimate way to show it, is that not enough?

SMBP

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Well, of course it could be me who doesn’t understand the question, but from what is being asked, the friend is not necessarily sitting at the computer and and it is not he but the code that wants the answer. To me this implies that a program is being written that when run, will determine which printer to use based on the OS the code is being run on.

And exactly what is the “significance of the folder C:WINDOWS$NtServicePackUninstall$” in relation to this thread?

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Well, of course it could be me who doesn’t understand the question, but from what is being asked, the friend is not necessarily sitting at the computer and and it is not he but the code that wants the answer. To me this implies that a program is being written that when run, will determine which printer to use based on the OS the code is being run on.

And exactly what is the “significance of the folder C:WINDOWS$NtServicePackUninstall$” in relation to this thread?

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I think I see what is meant now. Someone is writing a program, or working with a script, maybe a batch file that will run the printer at times so that’s why the code has to recognize it and I took it to be a surface question of how to sit down and figure out the version.

That question was posed because in trying to help with another thread Notepad, I was looking for Notepad which I found in C:WindowsNotepad. Then I wondered, where would Wordpad be–i.e. why wasn’t it anywhere I had looked in the Windows folder with Notepad? “Logic” might dictate it would be. I searched and found it in that folder, and then noticed that many key components of Windows were in there. I thought that curious because I’ve not heard a lot about the $ folders–and noticed that Winver was there. I could pose it on a separate thread.

SMBP

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Hi Guys,
I’ve got a reply from the colleague

“The Lotus Notes system Memo Wizard has a configuration document for each allowable memo type (about 70 types). This allows a “power user” to enter a printer name should the memos have to be printed out on a specific printer (as opposed to the user’s Default).

This system has mainly NT users but also a growing number of XP users. Prints requested from the NT users go to the old NT print servers, but prints from XP go to new Win2000 print servers. I was intending to modify the design of the config document to include two printer fields, one for XP and one for NT (although may have to be broader than that for other OSs). When the user prints a memo I was hoping to interrogate the OS and based on the result use the appropriate field for the printer name. I hope that makes some sense?!?!?

I don’t want to rely on questioning users for each print or storing a file on the local machine.”

So as it happens he’s going to be trying to differentiate between NT and XP users ( W2K was a red herring) and he may be able to use the GetVersionEx API to retrieve the version.

Many thanks for all your help.

Owen

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I don’t use Lotus Notes, so don’t know if this will be useful. Attached text file has example of use of the Windows GetVersionEx API function in Visual Basic to determine Windows OS version number, including the Build number and Service Pack version (if NT or later). The GetOSVersion function first determines the platform (ie, WIN 9X or WIN NT) then calls the applicable second function to get version number & other info using the API. Note if using WIN NT/2000/XP, the API can fill the OSVERSIONINFOEX data structure, which provides some additional info (such as major & minor SP version) not available in WIN 9X, which can only use an OSVERSIONINFO structure. On a WIN XP system you can also test for Home vs Pro editions. Example of use on a WIN XP system:

? GetOSVersion
Windows XP Home 5.1 Build 2600 (Service Pack 1)

On a NT based system, the major & minor version numbers and build numbers allow you to distinguish between WIN NT 3.51, NT 4.0, 2000, XP, and 2003 Server. On a WIN 9X system, the minor version & build numbers allow you to distinguish between WIN 95, 95 OSR2, 98, and ME. See attached text file for more specifics. I would not know how to do this from a batch file.

HTH

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I don’t use Lotus Notes, so don’t know if this will be useful. Attached text file has example of use of the Windows GetVersionEx API function in Visual Basic to determine Windows OS version number, including the Build number and Service Pack version (if NT or later). The GetOSVersion function first determines the platform (ie, WIN 9X or WIN NT) then calls the applicable second function to get version number & other info using the API. Note if using WIN NT/2000/XP, the API can fill the OSVERSIONINFOEX data structure, which provides some additional info (such as major & minor SP version) not available in WIN 9X, which can only use an OSVERSIONINFO structure. On a WIN XP system you can also test for Home vs Pro editions. Example of use on a WIN XP system:

? GetOSVersion
Windows XP Home 5.1 Build 2600 (Service Pack 1)

On a NT based system, the major & minor version numbers and build numbers allow you to distinguish between WIN NT 3.51, NT 4.0, 2000, XP, and 2003 Server. On a WIN 9X system, the minor version & build numbers allow you to distinguish between WIN 95, 95 OSR2, 98, and ME. See attached text file for more specifics. I would not know how to do this from a batch file.

HTH

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Hi Guys,
I’ve got a reply from the colleague

“The Lotus Notes system Memo Wizard has a configuration document for each allowable memo type (about 70 types). This allows a “power user” to enter a printer name should the memos have to be printed out on a specific printer (as opposed to the user’s Default).

This system has mainly NT users but also a growing number of XP users. Prints requested from the NT users go to the old NT print servers, but prints from XP go to new Win2000 print servers. I was intending to modify the design of the config document to include two printer fields, one for XP and one for NT (although may have to be broader than that for other OSs). When the user prints a memo I was hoping to interrogate the OS and based on the result use the appropriate field for the printer name. I hope that makes some sense?!?!?

I don’t want to rely on questioning users for each print or storing a file on the local machine.”

So as it happens he’s going to be trying to differentiate between NT and XP users ( W2K was a red herring) and he may be able to use the GetVersionEx API to retrieve the version.

Many thanks for all your help.

Owen

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I think I see what is meant now. Someone is writing a program, or working with a script, maybe a batch file that will run the printer at times so that’s why the code has to recognize it and I took it to be a surface question of how to sit down and figure out the version.

That question was posed because in trying to help with another thread Notepad, I was looking for Notepad which I found in C:WindowsNotepad. Then I wondered, where would Wordpad be–i.e. why wasn’t it anywhere I had looked in the Windows folder with Notepad? “Logic” might dictate it would be. I searched and found it in that folder, and then noticed that many key components of Windows were in there. I thought that curious because I’ve not heard a lot about the $ folders–and noticed that Winver was there. I could pose it on a separate thread.

SMBP

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I saw that. Maybe I’m not understanding it well. The friend is sitting at a machine and basically wants to know what version of Windows is on the machine. Isn’t that the main problem? We all know the registry was proferred in the first sentence, but as long as it was reliable, I didin’t appreciate that registry keys were necessary to verify the version of Windows. With most editions, you can haul off and look at them quickly. I can’t speak to the different NTs because I just have no expeirence with them. I thought the main question was how the collegue could quickly verify. The registry key could be shortcutted as well.

He asked for a single place to look. Al offered going to a command prompt, and I offered one of the command lines–the run box. Maybe I’m missing something with the phrase “his code can decide” (because I don’t fully understand what that implies). I thought he wants to know with certainty what version of Windows is at a particular machine to decide between printer A for Win 2K and B for NT.

I thought I saw 3 general answers–Al’s, Marks, Bob offering a 3rd party solution, and I added a fourth. I saw your link from the interesting site I’ve seen before, and read John’s attachement.

If the user knows the version of OS from a legitimate way to show it, is that not enough?

SMBP

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The original question included the line:
>>His need is so that his code can decide whether it should …

As your 5 second solution doesn’t include any method of programatically reading the result from the screen, an even quicker method might be to simply have a post-it note on the screen with either “W2K” or “XP” on it, no?

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If you’re just after the version of OS–what’s wrong with taking 5 seconds to type winver in the run box or activated address bar[/i] or hitting the pause +break key and bringing up the System Properties box? I appreciate all the information from the attachment, but this seems to be quick and easy.

SMBP

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Hi John,
Many thanks for your comprehensive attachment – I’ve been playing with it at home – Lots of food for thought there.

I’ve asked my colleague for more details on how he’s looking for the info, but I’ve not got a reply – so I don’t know whether he can incorporate a BATch file solution.

Windows 98 doesn’t use HKLMSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsNT for anything much; rather it uses HKLMSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersion to store “Version” (“Windows 98”) and “VersionNumber” (“4.10.1998”)

Many thanks to everyone else who’s contributed – I suspect the solution will be to check whether it is WinXP and assume it’s W2K if not.

Owen

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If you chap is working with BATch files, he could extract what he wants out of the attached file…

(Be warned that some of the later parts of the BATch file are me-specific, because I’m testing on three of my machines!)

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NT4 *will* show “4.0” as the version number, and W2K (aka NT5) will show “5.0”

(XP is really NT 5.1)

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Hmm. Pity nobody seems to have read my attachment…

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Reading and comprehending are not necessarily the same thing

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Reading and comprehending are not necessarily the same thing

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Oh, you can bet the store on it – I DID! An ol’ batch man like me, what else! I wuz gonna write back and tease you about – I knew you’re good at this, John, but man that was some fast writing on your part! I’m only hoping the the OP will check out your contribution.

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Al

It wasn’t “fast writing”, but the accumulated wisdom of several years and several people, including a couple of BATch file Gurus (not me, by the way!). I have a JGExamples directory for such BATch files…!

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Al

It wasn’t “fast writing”, but the accumulated wisdom of several years and several people, including a couple of BATch file Gurus (not me, by the way!). I have a JGExamples directory for such BATch files…!

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Oh, you can bet the store on it – I DID! An ol’ batch man like me, what else! I wuz gonna write back and tease you about – I knew you’re good at this, John, but man that was some fast writing on your part! I’m only hoping the the OP will check out your contribution.

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Hmm. Pity nobody seems to have read my attachment…

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NT4 *will* show “4.0” as the version number, and W2K (aka NT5) will show “5.0”

(XP is really NT 5.1)

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Places To Look Besides the Registry[/u]

If you Start>run and in the run box or in the “activated address bar” rt. click task bar>tools>address bar (which then also becomes a run box as well as an address bar in your taskbar and put winver[/i] in either, an About Windows box should pop up. I’ve used this in some 98 boxes at the library, (at least the run box) so I would think it would work in XP. I can’t make “ver” work in the run box curiously, but both of these will work in any other command line with the exception of the Recovery Console. I also find this on System Properties however of the many ways you want to get there (rt. click My Computer, Windows + Pause Break key; System on Control Panel or rt. click shortcutting the Control Panel Applet). You can also type “Msinfo32” in the run box or activated address bar and this will give you the version at the top of System Information but it will take several seconds longer to load.

SMBP

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Places To Look Besides the Registry[/u]

If you Start>run and in the run box or in the “activated address bar” rt. click task bar>tools>address bar (which then also becomes a run box as well as an address bar in your taskbar and put winver[/i] in either, an About Windows box should pop up. I’ve used this in some 98 boxes at the library, (at least the run box) so I would think it would work in XP. I can’t make “ver” work in the run box curiously, but both of these will work in any other command line with the exception of the Recovery Console. I also find this on System Properties however of the many ways you want to get there (rt. click My Computer, Windows + Pause Break key; System on Control Panel or rt. click shortcutting the Control Panel Applet). You can also type “Msinfo32” in the run box or activated address bar and this will give you the version at the top of System Information but it will take several seconds longer to load.

SMBP

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For the NT family, only Windows 2000 and XP will return a product name. This way you can assume that a null is NT 4 or another flavor of Windows. Perhaps you can use it knowing that?

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For the NT family, only Windows 2000 and XP will return a product name. This way you can assume that a null is NT 4 or another flavor of Windows. Perhaps you can use it knowing that?

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Do you know anything about the significance of the folder C:WINDOWS$NtServicePackUninstall$ and why it contains so many important files and folders. I noticed the winver file is located in it {at least on an XP machine) and fonts, wordpad, cmd, netmeeting, defrag, dxdiag, Windows Explorer, the windows logon screensaver, the windows visual style file, Outlook Express, internet connection wizard, internet explorer, the MMC, WMP 6.409.1128, mspaint, remote desktop, and regedit among others.

SMBP

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I don’t see what this has to do with the original question, but the answer is that this folder contains all of the backup files from a Service Pack installation. The name of the folder should give you a pretty good idea what its purpose is.

Why do they back up all those files? Because service packs are tested with a known set of files and file versions. Service packs are (more or less) updating a good portion of the system directory.

If you want to explore this topic further, start a new thread so that this one does not diverge.

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I have a question similar to original one.

The output of VER command is a string starting with “Microsoft Windows…” and showing Windows version. How to write a BAT file to run the appropriate patch version (for example, KB823559) using VER command (or whatever) without user interruption?

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If you want to use VER to determine the operating system (actually, Command Processor) level, look at the attachment I posted. It’s all in there… You get either NT or 2000 or XP. I’ll try to remember tonight to check on a Windows 98 SE system, but there’s very little point using that because the Command Processor is (even more) primitive…

I don’t understand what you mean by the KB question… Are you asking:
Depending on the version of the operating system, run a specific EXE file from a specific directory?
If yes, then you’ll need to be more specific!!

John

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If you want to use VER to determine the operating system (actually, Command Processor) level, look at the attachment I posted. It’s all in there… You get either NT or 2000 or XP. I’ll try to remember tonight to check on a Windows 98 SE system, but there’s very little point using that because the Command Processor is (even more) primitive…

I don’t understand what you mean by the KB question… Are you asking:
Depending on the version of the operating system, run a specific EXE file from a specific directory?
If yes, then you’ll need to be more specific!!

John

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I think winver will work in the run box for Win 9X through XP . It’s getting harder to find a 9X box even though MS is considering extending 98 support again.

SMBP

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There’s a huge difference between the VER command and WINVER. Don’t think WINVER blends in with the thread, sir.

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Here’s what confuses me then. Winver in the run box gives me more detailed information about my version on any machine than Ver at any command prompt does. While I understand this was about code recognizing it, since Winver gives me more information than Ver unless there are other commands you are augmenting it with Al, then why is Ver more relavant since it spits out less info about the version. See below:

SMBP

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Here’s what confuses me then. Winver in the run box gives me more detailed information about my version on any machine than Ver at any command prompt does. While I understand this was about code recognizing it, since Winver gives me more information than Ver unless there are other commands you are augmenting it with Al, then why is Ver more relavant since it spits out less info about the version. See below:

SMBP

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As someone said in an earlier post, if this is a need for “programming” an inquiry, then the VER command can be used to pipe results to or from a batch file or other programming vehicle. The WINVER command produces a GUI result which then would take “Windows programming” or some other third-party software like Winbatch or AutoIt or ….. to be able to query a GUI screen to parse what’s contained therein. Unless you’re into programming, and I am not, I think we should leave this solution to others, such as John Gray’s excellent contribution or whatever else may come out of the thread.

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Thanks a lot Al. Sorry. It’s my ignorance of batch files and programming that shows. I hope to learn some, and knowing that these things are possible as well as the many options to people who can do shell scripting and handle batch files well is very humbling. but shows that there is so much more available that can be done with the Windows OS, and I suppose some of the servers if you can.

SMBP

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Thanks a lot Al. Sorry. It’s my ignorance of batch files and programming that shows. I hope to learn some, and knowing that these things are possible as well as the many options to people who can do shell scripting and handle batch files well is very humbling. but shows that there is so much more available that can be done with the Windows OS, and I suppose some of the servers if you can.

SMBP

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As someone said in an earlier post, if this is a need for “programming” an inquiry, then the VER command can be used to pipe results to or from a batch file or other programming vehicle. The WINVER command produces a GUI result which then would take “Windows programming” or some other third-party software like Winbatch or AutoIt or ….. to be able to query a GUI screen to parse what’s contained therein. Unless you’re into programming, and I am not, I think we should leave this solution to others, such as John Gray’s excellent contribution or whatever else may come out of the thread.

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There’s a huge difference between the VER command and WINVER. Don’t think WINVER blends in with the thread, sir.

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I think winver will work in the run box for Win 9X through XP . It’s getting harder to find a 9X box even though MS is considering extending 98 support again.

SMBP

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I’ve just tried VER on Windows 98 SE, and it gives

Windows 98 [Version 4.10.2222]

If someone can give me the results for 95, 98 and ME, I could do a more comprehensive version.

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Sorry, I’ll try to be more specific. I really need something like this:

…
IF [String] EQU “Microsoft Windows NT [Version 4.0]” 823559NT.EXE
IF [String] EQU “Microsoft Windows 2000 [Version 5.00.2195]” 8235592K.EXE
IF [String] EQU “Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]” 823559XP.EXE
ELSE ECHO Please use Windowsupdate Website
…

Ans I don’t know how to force BAT file to recognize the string.

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I’ve composed a trivial BATch file fragment, and put it as an attachment.

Please note that comparing the entire generated string, not just appropriate tokens from it, requires an exact match — so that’s why there are two blanks at the end of the NT4 test string, because that’s what gets produced by VER on NT4!

As is customary, I’ve put ECHO statements at the front of the EXE file names, so that you can test on the three operating systems. When you’re happy that you get the correct results, remove the three ECHOes.

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Thank you very much, indeed!

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Thank you very much, indeed!

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I’ve composed a trivial BATch file fragment, and put it as an attachment.

Please note that comparing the entire generated string, not just appropriate tokens from it, requires an exact match — so that’s why there are two blanks at the end of the NT4 test string, because that’s what gets produced by VER on NT4!

As is customary, I’ve put ECHO statements at the front of the EXE file names, so that you can test on the three operating systems. When you’re happy that you get the correct results, remove the three ECHOes.

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Sorry, I’ll try to be more specific. I really need something like this:

…
IF [String] EQU “Microsoft Windows NT [Version 4.0]” 823559NT.EXE
IF [String] EQU “Microsoft Windows 2000 [Version 5.00.2195]” 8235592K.EXE
IF [String] EQU “Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]” 823559XP.EXE
ELSE ECHO Please use Windowsupdate Website
…

Ans I don’t know how to force BAT file to recognize the string.

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I’ve just tried VER on Windows 98 SE, and it gives

Windows 98 [Version 4.10.2222]

If someone can give me the results for 95, 98 and ME, I could do a more comprehensive version.

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I have a question similar to original one.

The output of VER command is a string starting with “Microsoft Windows…” and showing Windows version. How to write a BAT file to run the appropriate patch version (for example, KB823559) using VER command (or whatever) without user interruption?

Reply | Quote

I don’t see what this has to do with the original question, but the answer is that this folder contains all of the backup files from a Service Pack installation. The name of the folder should give you a pretty good idea what its purpose is.

Why do they back up all those files? Because service packs are tested with a known set of files and file versions. Service packs are (more or less) updating a good portion of the system directory.

If you want to explore this topic further, start a new thread so that this one does not diverge.

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Do you know anything about the significance of the folder C:WINDOWS$NtServicePackUninstall$ and why it contains so many important files and folders. I noticed the winver file is located in it {at least on an XP machine) and fonts, wordpad, cmd, netmeeting, defrag, dxdiag, Windows Explorer, the windows logon screensaver, the windows visual style file, Outlook Express, internet connection wizard, internet explorer, the MMC, WMP 6.409.1128, mspaint, remote desktop, and regedit among others.

SMBP

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Yes, there is a place to check. The registry key

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindows NTCurrentVersionProductName

contains the name of the version of Windows in use. I do not know if this exists under Win9x, though, and at the moment I have no means of checking.

Hope that helps!

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You didn’t say how you plan to do this check, but doesn’t the VER command return the name and version number of the Windows version? I don’t have too many versions available to me any more, but it does so in XP Pro and WinME.

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You didn’t say how you plan to do this check, but doesn’t the VER command return the name and version number of the Windows version? I don’t have too many versions available to me any more, but it does so in XP Pro and WinME.

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Further information here at Codeproject.com
Interesting to see that Windows 95, 98 and ME are all classed as “Version 4” as well – I guess that was the next step after Win 3.1…..

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Just run Aida32 and it will tell all.
No need to run regedit or a batch file or whatever.

Bob

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Aye, AIDA will tell all, but from a programmatic standpoint, it does not provide the solution. I believe the goal is to be able to pull this information from within code.

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I suppose so, Mark.
Why I don’t know but he also said, “but a general answer would be useful.”

Always a few ways to get the same answer, it’s just the route you take.

Bob

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I suppose so, Mark.
Why I don’t know but he also said, “but a general answer would be useful.”

Always a few ways to get the same answer, it’s just the route you take.

Bob

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Aye, AIDA will tell all, but from a programmatic standpoint, it does not provide the solution. I believe the goal is to be able to pull this information from within code.

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Just run Aida32 and it will tell all.
No need to run regedit or a batch file or whatever.

Bob

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