The GetVersion function returns the current version number of Windows and information about the operating system platform.
This function has been superseded by GetVersionEx, which is the preferred method for obtaining system version number information. New applications should use GetVersionEx. The GetVersionEx function was developed because many existing Windows applications err when examining the DWORD return value of a GetVersion function call, transposing the major and minor version numbers packed into that DWORD. The GetVersionEx function forces applications to explicitly examine each element of version information, and allows for future enhancements to that information.
DWORD GetVersion(VOID)
This function has no parameters.
If the function succeeds, the return value is a DWORD value that contains the major and minor version numbers of Windows in the low order word, and information about the operating system platform in the high order word.
For all platforms, the low order word contains the version number of Windows. The low-order byte of this word specifies the major version number, in hexadecimal notation. The high-order byte specifies the minor version (revision) number, in hexadecimal notation.
To distinguish between operating system platforms, use the high order bit and the low order byte, as shown in the following table:
|
Platform |
High order bit |
Low order byte (major version number) |
|
Windows NT |
zero |
3 or 4 |
|
Windows 95 |
1 |
4 |
|
Win32s with Windows 3.1 |
1 |
3 |
For Windows NT and Win32s, the remaining bits in the high order word specify the build number.
For Windows 95 the remaining bits of the high order word are reserved.
This function does not return the current version number of MS-DOS.
The following code fragment illustrates how to extract information from the GetVersion return value:
dwVersion = GetVersion(); // Get major and minor version numbers of Windows dwWindowsMajorVersion = (DWORD)(LOBYTE(LOWORD(dwVersion))); dwWindowsMinorVersion = (DWORD)(HIBYTE(LOWORD(dwVersion))); // Get build numbers for Windows NT or Win32s if (dwVersion < 0x80000000) // Windows NT dwBuild = (DWORD)(HIWORD(dwVersion)); else if (dwWindowsMajorVersion < 4) // Win32s dwBuild = (DWORD)(HIWORD(dwVersion) & ~0x8000); else // Windows 95 -- No build numbers provided dwBuild = 0;