Using registry to determine Window's OS name, any downside?

[VB-only]

I just verified manually that I can determine which Windows OS I'm on from the registry:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\software\microsoft\windows nt\
currentversion
ProductName

I manually verified on W7, W8, W10 that they are valid.

This seems too easy. What's wrong here?

[Zvoni]

I just verified manually that I can determine which Windows OS I'm on from the registry:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\software\microsoft\windows nt\
currentversion
ProductName

I manually verified on W7, W8, W10 that they are valid.

This seems too easy. What's wrong here?

Nothing wrong there.
Might take a look at this: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/...-from-registry

[VB-only]

Thank you for that link. But now I'm even more confused. My app will be run on different versions oof Windows around the world. I only need to know whether the user is running W10 or not W10 in order to specify Help information.

According to that link, Currentversion may not give the correct data.

So maybe just check for CurrentMajorVersionNumber, and if I get a 10 back, then that would satisfy me.

[wqweto]

Try this

Option Explicit

Private Declare Function RtlGetVersion Lib "ntdll" (lpVersionInformation As Any) As Long

Private Sub Form_Load()
    If RealOsVersion = 1000 Then
        MsgBox "Yes!", vbExclamation
    End If
End Sub

Property Get RealOsVersion() As Long
    Static lVersion As Long
    Dim aBuffer() As Long
    
    If lVersion = 0 Then
        ReDim aBuffer(0 To 100) As Long
        aBuffer(0) = UBound(aBuffer) * 4
        RtlGetVersion aBuffer(0)
        lVersion = aBuffer(1) * 100 + aBuffer(2)
    End If
    RealOsVersion = lVersion
End Property

cheers,
</wqw>

[dilettante]

The whole point of version-lie appcompat shims is to keep old programs working. If your program really is properly written to run on Windows 10 then your manifest should declare this. Once you've done that all documented ways of retrieving version info work fine.

Instead of fixing your problem you are applying crude bandaging.

[VB-only]

Thank you for that elegant solution. However, I don't understand what it's doing and seems to be way too overkill for my needs. If it were to break sometime in the future, I wouldn't know how to fix it.

I'm always in need of simple solutions to complex problems. But thanks just the same.

[dilettante]

There are two potential pitfalls in the hack of reading that registry value.

Microsoft might move it somewhere else later on (unlikely). Microsoft may start providing spoofed values as part of the version-lie shim (more likely but still not very likely).

But hey, you could always do the job correctly.

[Grant Swinger]

Have you tried using WMI? You can get the Windows version from Win32_OperatingSystem class in the root/CIMV2 namespace. It's easy to do. Here's an example in VBScript.

strComputer = "." 
Set objWMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:\\" & strComputer & "\root\CIMV2") 
Set colItems = objWMIService.ExecQuery( _
    "SELECT * FROM Win32_OperatingSystem",,48) 
For Each objItem in colItems 
    Wscript.Echo "-----------------------------------"
    Wscript.Echo "Win32_OperatingSystem instance"
    Wscript.Echo "-----------------------------------"
    Wscript.Echo "Version: " & objItem.Version
Next

It will return a value like this: 10.0.19042. This is Windows 10. XP will 5, Vista 6.0, Win7 6.1, and Win8 6.2.

[yokesee]

In case it helps you.
https://github.com/M2000Interpreter/.../clsOSInfo.cls
I use this class

[dilettante]

WMI is an admin scripting tool. It isn't meant for use within applications and access to it may well be disabled via Group Policy for most users.