Get OS Version / Friendly Name in C#

Question

I am currently working on a C# project. I want to collect users statistics to better develop the software. I am using the Environment.OS feature of C# but its only showing the OS name as something like Microsoft Windows NT

What I want to be able to retrieve is the actual known name of the OS like whether it is Windows XP, Windows Vista or Windows 7 and etc.

Is this possible?

Shamikashamma

possible duplicate of How to get the "friendly" OS Version Name? – Fasten

see this answer #578134 – Rader

Check out #860959 – Tomb

Possible duplicate of how do I detect user operating system – Gallup

Answer 1

Add a reference and using statements for System.Management, then:

public static string GetOSFriendlyName()
{
    string result = string.Empty;
    ManagementObjectSearcher searcher = new ManagementObjectSearcher("SELECT Caption FROM Win32_OperatingSystem");
    foreach (ManagementObject os in searcher.Get())
    {
        result = os["Caption"].ToString();
        break;
    }
    return result;
}

Soldo

Some users of my software are getting an UnauthorizedAccessException in ManagementObjectSearcher.Get() when running my software. Any idea why that might be? – Appreciate

@WaltD open a question with that, and include in that question a link to this answer. – Austine

According to the wording in MSDN, if (WMI) is installed on the computer (if!), it's possible that some computers don't have WMI installed. For those computers, this approach will likely fail. – Austine

@Austine I did, here, but no one answered it. – Appreciate

Answer 2

You should really try to avoid WMI for local use. It is very convenient but you pay dearly for it in terms of performance. Think laziness tax!

Kashish's answer about the registry does not work on all systems. Code below should and also includes the service pack:

    public string HKLM_GetString(string path, string key)
    {
        try
        {
            RegistryKey rk = Registry.LocalMachine.OpenSubKey(path);
            if (rk == null) return "";
            return (string)rk.GetValue(key);
        }
        catch { return ""; }
    }

    public string FriendlyName()
    {
        string ProductName = HKLM_GetString(@"SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion", "ProductName");
        string CSDVersion = HKLM_GetString(@"SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion", "CSDVersion");
        if (ProductName != "")
        {
            return (ProductName.StartsWith("Microsoft") ? "" : "Microsoft ") + ProductName +
                        (CSDVersion != "" ? " " + CSDVersion : "");
        }
        return "";
    }

Cembalo

On Windows 11 this will report, e.g. "Windows 10 Enterprise" – Roseannaroseanne

Answer 3

Add a .NET reference to Microsoft.VisualBasic. Then call:

new Microsoft.VisualBasic.Devices.ComputerInfo().OSFullName

From MSDN:

This property returns detailed information about the operating system name if Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) is installed on the computer. Otherwise, this property returns the same string as the My.Computer.Info.OSPlatform property, which provides less detailed information than WMI can provide.information than WMI can provide.

Marybethmaryellen

Is a wrong solution, in my case it just returns the string "Microsoft". is a wrong solution, this is the same as: My.Computer.Info.OSFullName. – Denounce

@ElektroStudios: See MSDN: "This property returns detailed information about the operating system name if Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) is installed on the computer. Otherwise, this property returns the same string as the My.Computer.Info.OSPlatform property, which provides less detailed information than WMI can provide." – Marybethmaryellen

How-to know if (WMI) is installed on the computer ? – Verrazano

Answer 4

String subKey = @"SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion";
RegistryKey key = Registry.LocalMachine;
RegistryKey skey = key.OpenSubKey(subKey);
Console.WriteLine("OS Name: {0}", skey.GetValue("ProductName"));

I hope that you find this useful

Schear

The registry key will be slightly different for 64-bit vs 32-bit as Wow6432Node is not present in the Windows 7 32-bit registry for example. – Asare

On Windows 11 ProductName is "Windows 10" – Roseannaroseanne

Answer 5

System.OperatingSystem osInfo = System.Environment.OSVersion;

Cannot

it's giving "Microsoft Windows NT 6.2.9200.0" for Win 10 PC. – Fulvous

@SaddamBinSyed, add an app.manifest XML file to your application and uncomment the <supportedOS> line for Windows 10 under the assembly\compatibility\application XML node. Then you will get the actual version string, e.g. Microsoft Windows NT 10.0.19043.0 – Angloindian

Answer 6

public int OStype()
    {
        int os = 0;
        IEnumerable<string> list64 = Directory.GetDirectories(Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("SystemRoot")).Where(s => s.Equals(@"C:\Windows\SysWOW64"));
        IEnumerable<string> list32 = Directory.GetDirectories(Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("SystemRoot")).Where(s => s.Equals(@"C:\Windows\System32"));
        if (list32.Count() > 0)
        {
            os = 32;
            if (list64.Count() > 0)
                os = 64;
        }
        return os;
    }

Reunite

Answer 7

Though this is not a fully C# way of detecting the OS Name, below code works for my needs-

public static string GetFriendlyOSName()
    {
        System.Diagnostics.Process cmd = new System.Diagnostics.Process();
        cmd.StartInfo.FileName = "cmd.exe";
        cmd.StartInfo.Arguments = "/C systeminfo | findstr /c:\"OS Name\"";
        cmd.StartInfo.RedirectStandardOutput = true;
        cmd.StartInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
        cmd.StartInfo.CreateNoWindow = true;
        cmd.Start();
        cmd.WaitForExit();
        string output = cmd.StandardOutput.ReadToEnd();
        cmd.Close();
        return output.Split(new[] { ':' }, 2)[1].Trim();
    }

Note:

1. This code works for only Windows OS.
2. The code is tested only on Windows 10, 11.

Burkett

OS Name will work only on English Operation Systems. For e.g. German it would be Betriebssystemname. – Sarajane

Answer 8

string text = (string)Registry.LocalMachine.OpenSubKey("SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\Windows NT\\CurrentVersion").GetValue("ProductName");

this code will get the full os name like this "Windows 8.1 Pro"

Euchologion