OS Name, Version & Product Type

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Introduction

In my first tutorial I will present an easy way for retrieving the OS name, version and product type. Unfortunately, the .NET Framework doesn't have a way of identifying the OS service pack information and product type. That's why I used in my code the imported Windows API function GetVersionEx along with the System.Environmet.OSVersion property. The entire code consists of three methods, five properties and the additional structures, constants and DLL import. I will try as soon as possible to provide more comments to the code.

The Code

Required Namespaces:

using System;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;

The Structure:

[StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential)]
private struct OSVERSIONINFOEX
{
    public int dwOSVersionInfoSize;
    public int dwMajorVersion;
    public int dwMinorVersion;
    public int dwBuildNumber;
    public int dwPlatformId;
    [MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.ByValTStr, SizeConst = 128)]
    public string szCSDVersion;
    public short wServicePackMajor;
    public short wServicePackMinor;
    public short wSuiteMask;
    public byte wProductType;
    public byte wReserved;
}

The DLL Import:

[DllImport("kernel32.dll")]
private static extern bool GetVersionEx(ref OSVERSIONINFOEX osVersionInfo);

The Constants:

private const int VER_NT_WORKSTATION = 1;
private const int VER_NT_DOMAIN_CONTROLLER = 2;
private const int VER_NT_SERVER = 3;
private const int VER_SUITE_SMALLBUSINESS = 1;
private const int VER_SUITE_ENTERPRISE = 2;
private const int VER_SUITE_TERMINAL = 16;
private const int VER_SUITE_DATACENTER = 128;
private const int VER_SUITE_SINGLEUSERTS = 256;
private const int VER_SUITE_PERSONAL = 512;
private const int VER_SUITE_BLADE = 1024;

The Methods:

public static string GetOSProductType()
{
    OSVERSIONINFOEX osVersionInfo = new OSVERSIONINFOEX();
    OperatingSystem osInfo = Environment.OSVersion;

    osVersionInfo.dwOSVersionInfoSize = 
           Marshal.SizeOf(typeof(OSVERSIONINFOEX));

    if(!GetVersionEx(ref osVersionInfo))
    {
        return "";
    }
    else
    {
        if(osInfo.Version.Major == 4)
        {
            if(osVersionInfo.wProductType == VER_NT_WORKSTATION)
            {
                // Windows NT 4.0 Workstation

                return " Workstation";
            }
            else if(osVersionInfo.wProductType == VER_NT_SERVER)
            {
                // Windows NT 4.0 Server

                return " Server";
            }
            else
            {
                return "";
            }
        }
        else if(osInfo.Version.Major == 5)
        {
            if(osVersionInfo.wProductType == VER_NT_WORKSTATION)
            {
                if((osVersionInfo.wSuiteMask & 
                    VER_SUITE_PERSONAL) == VER_SUITE_PERSONAL)
                {
                    // Windows XP Home Edition

                    return " Home Edition";
                }
                else
                {
                    // Windows XP / Windows 2000 Professional

                    return " Professional";
                }
            }
            else if(osVersionInfo.wProductType == VER_NT_SERVER)
            {
                if(osInfo.Version.Minor == 0) 
                { 
                    if((osVersionInfo.wSuiteMask & 
                        VER_SUITE_DATACENTER) == VER_SUITE_DATACENTER)
                    {
                        // Windows 2000 Datacenter Server

                        return " Datacenter Server";
                    }
                    else if((osVersionInfo.wSuiteMask & 
                             VER_SUITE_ENTERPRISE) == VER_SUITE_ENTERPRISE)
                    {
                        // Windows 2000 Advanced Server

                        return " Advanced Server";
                    }
                    else
                    {
                        // Windows 2000 Server

                        return " Server";
                    }
                } 
            }
            else
            {
                if((osVersionInfo.wSuiteMask & 
                    VER_SUITE_DATACENTER) == VER_SUITE_DATACENTER)
                {
                    // Windows Server 2003 Datacenter Edition

                    return " Datacenter Edition";
                }
                else if((osVersionInfo.wSuiteMask & 
                         VER_SUITE_ENTERPRISE) == VER_SUITE_ENTERPRISE)
                {
                    // Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition

                    return " Enterprise Edition";
                }
                else if((osVersionInfo.wSuiteMask & 
                         VER_SUITE_BLADE) == VER_SUITE_BLADE)
                {
                    // Windows Server 2003 Web Edition

                    return " Web Edition";
                }
                else
                {
                    // Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition

                    return " Standard Edition";
                }
            }
        }
    }

    return "";
}

public static string GetOSServicePack()
{
    OSVERSIONINFOEX osVersionInfo = new OSVERSIONINFOEX();
    osVersionInfo.dwOSVersionInfoSize = Marshal.SizeOf(typeof(OSVERSIONINFOEX));
    
    if(!GetVersionEx(ref osVersionInfo))
    {
        return "";
    }
    else
    {
        return " " + osVersionInfo.szCSDVersion;
    }
}

public static string GetOSName()
{
    OperatingSystem osInfo = Environment.OSVersion;
    string osName = "UNKNOWN";


    switch(osInfo.Platform)
    {
        case PlatformID.Win32Windows:
        {
            switch(osInfo.Version.Minor)
            {
                case 0:
                {
                    osName = "Windows 95";
                    break;
                }

                case 10:
                {
                    if(osInfo.Version.Revision.ToString() == "2222A")
                    {
                        osName = "Windows 98 Second Edition";
                    }
                    else
                    {
                        osName = "Windows 98";
                    }
                    break;
                }

                case 90:
                {
                    osName = "Windows Me";
                    break;
                }
            }
            break;
        }

        case PlatformID.Win32NT:
        {
            switch(osInfo.Version.Major)
            {
                case 3:
                {
                    osName = "Windows NT 3.51";
                    break;
                }

                case 4:
                {
                    osName = "Windows NT 4.0";
                    break;
                }

                case 5:
                {
                    if(osInfo.Version.Minor == 0)
                    {
                        osName = "Windows 2000";
                    }
                    else if(osInfo.Version.Minor == 1)
                    {
                        osName = "Windows XP";
                    }
                    else if(osInfo.Version.Minor == 2)
                    {
                        osName = "Windows Server 2003";
                    }
                    break;
                }

                case 6:
                {
                    osName = "Windows Vista";
                    break;
                }
            }
            break;
        }
    }

    return osName;
}

The Properties:

public static string OSVersion
{
    get
    {
        return Environment.OSVersion.Version.ToString();
    }
}

public static int OSMajorVersion
{
    get
    {
        return Environment.OSVersion.Version.Major;
    }
}

public static int OSMinorVersion
{
    get
    {
        return Environment.OSVersion.Version.Minor;
    }
}

public static int OSBuildVersion
{
    get
    {
        return Environment.OSVersion.Version.Build;
    }
}

public static int OSRevisionVersion
{
    get
    {
        return Environment.OSVersion.Version.Revision;
    }
}

Notes

• OSProductType, GetOSServicePack: The space added to the returning result is for text formatting.
• OSMajorVersion, OSMinorVersion, OSBuildVersion and OSRevisionVersion: Can be used for comparing OS versions.

I hope this code is useful. I would appreciate comments or bug reports for this code. Thank you.