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.

Value Meaning
VER_SUITE_BACKOFFICE
0x00000004
Microsoft BackOffice components are installed.
VER_SUITE_BLADE
0x00000400
Windows Server 2003, Web Edition is installed.
VER_SUITE_COMPUTE_SERVER
0x00004000
Windows Server 2003, Compute Cluster Edition is installed.
VER_SUITE_DATACENTER
0x00000080
Windows Server 2008 Datacenter, Windows Server 2003, Datacenter Edition, or Windows 2000 Datacenter Server is installed.
VER_SUITE_ENTERPRISE
0x00000002
Windows Server 2008 Enterprise, Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition, or Windows 2000 Advanced Server is installed. Refer to the Remarks section for more information about this bit flag.
VER_SUITE_EMBEDDEDNT
0x00000040
Windows XP Embedded is installed.
VER_SUITE_PERSONAL
0x00000200
Windows Vista Home Premium, Windows Vista Home Basic, or Windows XP Home Edition is installed.
VER_SUITE_SINGLEUSERTS
0x00000100
Remote Desktop is supported, but only one interactive session is supported. This value is set unless the system is running in application server mode.
VER_SUITE_SMALLBUSINESS
0x00000001
Microsoft Small Business Server was once installed on the system, but may have been upgraded to another version of Windows. Refer to the Remarks section for more information about this bit flag.
VER_SUITE_SMALLBUSINESS_RESTRICTED
0x00000020
Microsoft Small Business Server is installed with the restrictive client license in force. Refer to the Remarks section for more information about this bit flag.
VER_SUITE_STORAGE_SERVER
0x00002000
Windows Storage Server 2003 R2 or Windows Storage Server 2003is installed.
VER_SUITE_TERMINAL
0x00000010
Terminal Services is installed. This value is always set.

If VER_SUITE_TERMINAL is set but VER_SUITE_SINGLEUSERTS is not set, the system is running in application server mode.

VER_SUITE_WH_SERVER
0x00008000
Windows Home Server is installed.
VER_SUITE_MULTIUSERTS
0x00020000
AppServer mode is enabled.

wProductType

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

Value Meaning
VER_NT_DOMAIN_CONTROLLER
0x0000002
The system is a domain controller and the operating system is Windows Server 2012 , Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2003, or Windows 2000 Server.
VER_NT_SERVER
0x0000003
The operating system is Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2003, or Windows 2000 Server.

Note that a server that is also a domain controller is reported as VER_NT_DOMAIN_CONTROLLER, not VER_NT_SERVER.

VER_NT_WORKSTATION
0x0000001
The operating system is Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP Professional, Windows XP Home Edition, or Windows 2000 Professional.

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.

Operating system Version number dwMajorVersion dwMinorVersion Other
Windows 10 10.0* 10 0 OSVERSIONINFOEX.wProductType == VER_NT_WORKSTATION
Windows Server 2016 10.0* 10 0 OSVERSIONINFOEX.wProductType != VER_NT_WORKSTATION
Windows 8.1 6.3* 6 3 OSVERSIONINFOEX.wProductType == VER_NT_WORKSTATION
Windows Server 2012 R2 6.3* 6 3 OSVERSIONINFOEX.wProductType != VER_NT_WORKSTATION
Windows 8 6.2 6 2 OSVERSIONINFOEX.wProductType == VER_NT_WORKSTATION
Windows Server 2012 6.2 6 2 OSVERSIONINFOEX.wProductType != VER_NT_WORKSTATION
Windows 7 6.1 6 1 OSVERSIONINFOEX.wProductType == VER_NT_WORKSTATION
Windows Server 2008 R2 6.1 6 1 OSVERSIONINFOEX.wProductType != VER_NT_WORKSTATION
Windows Server 2008 6.0 6 0 OSVERSIONINFOEX.wProductType != VER_NT_WORKSTATION
Windows Vista 6.0 6 0 OSVERSIONINFOEX.wProductType == VER_NT_WORKSTATION
Windows Server 2003 R2 5.2 5 2 GetSystemMetrics(SM_SERVERR2) != 0
Windows Home Server 5.2 5 2 OSVERSIONINFOEX.wSuiteMask & VER_SUITE_WH_SERVER
Windows Server 2003 5.2 5 2 GetSystemMetrics(SM_SERVERR2) == 0
Windows XP Professional x64 Edition 5.2 5 2 (OSVERSIONINFOEX.wProductType == VER_NT_WORKSTATION) && (SYSTEM_INFO.wProcessorArchitecture==PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE_AMD64)
Windows XP 5.1 5 1 Not applicable
Windows 2000 5.0 5 0 Not applicable
* For applications that have been manifested for Windows 8.1 or Windows 10. Applications not manifested for Windows 8.1 or Windows 10 will return the Windows 8 OS version value (6.2). To manifest your applications for Windows 8.1 or Windows 10, refer to Targeting your application for Windows.
 

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.

Product Setting
Windows Server 2003 R2 SM_SERVERR2
Windows XP Media Center Edition SM_MEDIACENTER
Windows XP Starter Edition SM_STARTER
Windows XP Tablet PC Edition SM_TABLETPC
 

Examples

For an example, see Getting the System Version.

Note

The winnt.h header defines OSVERSIONINFOEX as an alias which automatically selects the ANSI or Unicode version of this function based on the definition of the UNICODE preprocessor constant. Mixing usage of the encoding-neutral alias with code that not encoding-neutral can lead to mismatches that result in compilation or runtime errors. For more information, see Conventions for Function Prototypes.

Requirements

Requirement Value
Minimum supported client Windows 2000 Professional [desktop apps only]
Minimum supported server Windows 2000 Server [desktop apps only]
Header winnt.h (include Windows.h)

See also

IsWow64Process

OSVERSIONINFO

Version Helper APIs