OSVERSIONINFOEXA structure (winnt.h)

Contains operating system version information. The information includes major and minor version numbers, a build number, a platform identifier, and information about product suites and the latest Service Pack installed on the system. This structure is used with the GetVersionEx and VerifyVersionInfo functions.

Syntax

typedef struct _OSVERSIONINFOEXA {
  DWORD dwOSVersionInfoSize;
  DWORD dwMajorVersion;
  DWORD dwMinorVersion;
  DWORD dwBuildNumber;
  DWORD dwPlatformId;
  CHAR  szCSDVersion[128];
  WORD  wServicePackMajor;
  WORD  wServicePackMinor;
  WORD  wSuiteMask;
  BYTE  wProductType;
  BYTE  wReserved;
} OSVERSIONINFOEXA, *POSVERSIONINFOEXA, *LPOSVERSIONINFOEXA;

Members

dwOSVersionInfoSize

The size of this data structure, in bytes. Set this member to sizeof(OSVERSIONINFOEX).

dwMajorVersion

The major version number of the operating system. For more information, see Remarks.

dwMinorVersion

The minor version number of the operating system. For more information, see Remarks.

dwBuildNumber

The build number of the operating system.

dwPlatformId

The operating system platform. This member can be VER_PLATFORM_WIN32_NT (2).

szCSDVersion[128]

A null-terminated string, such as "Service Pack 3", that indicates the latest Service Pack installed on the system. If no Service Pack has been installed, the string is empty.

wServicePackMajor

The major version number of the latest Service Pack installed on the system. For example, for Service Pack 3, the major version number is 3. If no Service Pack has been installed, the value is zero.

wServicePackMinor

The minor version number of the latest Service Pack installed on the system. For example, for Service Pack 3, the minor version number is 0.

wSuiteMask

A bit mask that identifies the product suites available on the system. This member can be a combination of the following values.

wProductType

Any additional information about the system. This member can be one of the following values.

wReserved

Reserved for future use.

Remarks

Relying on version information is not the best way to test for a feature. Instead, refer to the documentation for the feature of interest. For more information on common techniques for feature detection, see Operating System Version.

If you must require a particular operating system, be sure to use it as a minimum supported version, rather than design the test for the one operating system. This way, your detection code will continue to work on future versions of Windows.

The following table summarizes the values returned by supported versions of Windows. Use the information in the column labeled "Other" to distinguish between operating systems with identical version numbers.

You should not rely upon only the VER_SUITE_SMALLBUSINESS flag to determine whether Small Business Server has been installed on the system, as both this flag and the VER_SUITE_SMALLBUSINESS_RESTRICTED flag are set when this product suite is installed. If you upgrade this installation to Windows Server, Standard Edition, the VER_SUITE_SMALLBUSINESS_RESTRICTED flag will be cleared—however, the VER_SUITE_SMALLBUSINESS flag will remain set. In this case, this indicates that Small Business Server was once installed on this system. If this installation is further upgraded to Windows Server, Enterprise Edition, the VER_SUITE_SMALLBUSINESS flag will remain set.

If compatibility mode is in effect, the OSVERSIONINFOEX structure contains information about the operating system that is selected for application compatibility.

To determine whether a Win32-based application is running on WOW64, call the IsWow64Process function. To determine whether the system is running a 64-bit version of Windows, call the GetNativeSystemInfo function.

The GetSystemMetrics function provides the following additional information about the current operating system.

Examples

For an example, see Getting the System Version.

Requirements

See also

IsWow64Process

OSVERSIONINFO

Version Helper APIs