Thread: Operating System Detection APIs.

Good evening Cboard!

So, this is a pretty basic question, but it has been frustrating me for a while now. I am trying to programatically determine which Windows OS my program is running on. I am already aware of various APIs that are designed to achieve this, namely the GetVersion() and GetVersionEx() functions, along with their successor Version Helper functions defined in <versionhelpers.h>.

My issue with the former two functions is that they seem to 'chop and change' from OS to OS and I'm looking to make my code as "Windows-portable" as possible (ideally even extending back to the Windows 95 era). For instance, MSDN states that "Applications not manifested for Windows 8.1 or Windows 10 will return the Windows 8 OS version value (6.2)". This sort of inconsistency is hopefully avoidable; I am really disappointed in Microsoft for no longer abiding by their prior backwards-compatibility ethos.

That leads me on to the Version Helper functions. Unfortunately, programming is only a hobby of mine and, as such, I am reluctant to spend money on the go-to professional IDE, Visual Studio. I am aware that a free Express version exists, however, a few reviews of the software claim that it is an absolute nightmare to work with a "crippled" (i.e. restricted,) IDE. At the moment, I am working with the latest version of CodeBlocks, which ships with outdated Windows headers, ruling out the use of Version Helper functions. (There is, of course, the Windows SDK, but having installed it in the past, it seems that CodeBlocks just doesn't like it. A lot of errors are thrown from just including Windows.h from the SDK. Also, I'm not going to lie; I've even considered using a cracked version of Visual Studio to get the job done, but I try very hard to avoid pirated software unless ABSOLUTELY necessary.)

So I guess my questions is: "Any ideas?". Maybe it would be feasible to code my own OS fingerprinting function/library by perhaps scanning the filesystem and registry for entries that are unique to each individual version of Windows. This would, however, be very difficult as I only really have access to Windows Vista/7/8 machines; I'm unsure of how I can discover unique "artefacts" with which I can identify the other operating systems. Short of putting significant effort into creating such a codebase and re-inventing the wheel, I'm at a loss as to what I can do.

Any suggestions would be hugely appreciated!

Many thanks,
Abyssion

The community edition is a full featured FREE edition. That might give you somewhere to start.
But I'll also note that for newer versions of Windows, you SHOULD be including a manifest. So if your program is without one, it technically won't be a software written for "newer" versions of Windows.

Also, you know the W10 upgrade is free, yes (for now, anyway)? You can put a windows into a VM and upgrade that to get a W10 copy to play around with.

Originally Posted by Abyssion

Anyway, after a quick trip to the casino for a friend's stag do, I found myself with enough funds to purchase and set up the professional version of Visual Studio 2015

Why? Why would you pay for something that's free for everyone but big corporations? Why?

Anyway, I've been looking for resources online about the installation paths that the IDE takes, but have come up short thus far. I can't for instance find the windows.h header anywhere in my filesystem (even Explorer's search function could not find it), however, I can still include it in my projects without non-definition errors, so it's definately hiding somewhere.

It should be in C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\8.1\Include\um (thanks, Everything--and btw, install that instead of the Explorer junk search - finds anything in less than a second).

I've had a look through the IDE's options interface already, so I am not holding out much hope for this, but I was wondering if there is any way to customize all of the paths that the IDE defaults to so I can make Visual Studio's filesystem footprint more "compact" and easy to navigate?

I don't think so, unfortunately. The IDE has a lot of "dependencies" which goes into their own folders.

Also, it keeps creating a "Visual Studio 2015" folder in My Documents upon startup, which is really annoying; is there any way to stop this? I have already relocated my projects and templates in the filesystem and changed VS' default directories for these, but it still wants to make folders each time it starts.

Can't say I have any experience with that. I just let that folder it creates lie there, even though I have my projects at another location.

Also, just a quick question about the virtual machine idea, if you don't mind. (Thank you for the suggestion!) My understanding of virtual machines is that one needs to actually own the operating system that they wish to install on it - is this correct?

Yes, you need a license for the OS you wish to install.
(Unless we're talking about free Linux distros.)

Does anyone have any personal preferences when it comes to machine virtualisation software? It seems to me that VMware is the most common tool available these days, but perhaps someone with more experience in the field might recommend something different.

VMWare (Player) and VirtualBox are good ones. Personally, I go with VMWare Player mostly because it just works for me and I haven't had any needs that it couldn't fulfill so far. I had trouble with VirtualBox some years back (it was so slow!), but not with VMWare.

Why? Why would you pay for something that's free for everyone but big corporations?

Maybe I have made a big mistake by doing so. However, whilst your first reply pointed me in the direction of the community edition, I checked Microsoft's "compare editions" page, and there were a few "ticks" missing from the community edition that were present for Pro. Having installed it and fiddled with it now, I realise that most of these features aren't likely to be used by myself any time soon, but I feel it's good to have them available should the need arise.

It should be in C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\8.1\Include\um (thanks, Everything--and btw, install that instead of the Explorer junk search - finds anything in less than a second).

Wonderful, found it; thank you! Am I right in thinking these are the headers that would ship with the latest SDK (i.e. up-to-date headers)? And Everything looks awesome, I shall indeed install it; cheers for the pointer.

Shame about VS' dependencies and filesystem usage. I shall look into VMware Player and try to dig out my old Operating system disks. Pretty sure I've got Vista, XP and 98 lying around the house somewhere.

Do you (or does anyone else) happened to know of a resource from which I can learn about the structure of Visual Studio's project folders? Again, I'm comparing CodeBlocks and oranges here, but with my old IDE, I simply had a project file, source files and object files, a .layout file and a .depend file. Plus one or two folders (for different configurations,) for the actual executables. Visual Studio, on the other hand, generates a much more complex directory structure. I shall have a look on msdn at the different filetypes, but alot of it seems pretty redundant.

Also, pertaining to the inclusion of header files, does Visual Studio have a hardcoded list of include directories? I seem able to include windows.h alongside standard library headers without ever having to specify a fully qualified path to the files. A hardcoded list is the only way I can think of that this could be achieved.

Many thanks for your help Elysia!

Abyssion

Originally Posted by Abyssion

Wonderful, found it; thank you! Am I right in thinking these are the headers that would ship with the latest SDK (i.e. up-to-date headers)? And Everything looks awesome, I shall indeed install it; cheers for the pointer.

The latest IDE ships with the latest platform SDK headers, as far as I know.

Does you (or anyone else) happened to know of a resource from which I can learn about the structure of Visual Studio's project folders? Again, I'm comparing CodeBlocks and oranges here, but with my old IDE, I simply had a project file, source files and object files, a .layout file and a .depend file. Plus one or two folders (for different configurations,) for the actual executables. Visual Studio, on the other hand, generates a much more complex directory structure. I shall have a look on msdn at the different filetypes, but alot of it seems pretty redundant.

I can probably mention a few things...

.apk file - No idea
.sln file - Contains your solution, which contains information about the paths to your projects, among other things
.vcxproj - Your project
.vcxproj.filters - Contains the filter structure of your projects/solutions, I believe.
.vcxproj.user - Contains various configuration stuff for your projects
.suo - Contains stuff specific to your solution/projects such as IDE layout
Debug/Release folder - Contains all the compiled files and executables for your project
x64 folder - Contains Debug/Release folders for targeting x64 instead of x86
.exp - Information about exported functions from DLL files, I believe
.ilk - Used for incremental linking
.pdb - Used for debugging symbols for your executables
.sdf - Database containing intellisense information for your project
.ipch - Precompiled header
.obj - Compiled intermediate file (i.e. object file) used for linking
.pch - Precompiled header

Also, pertaining to the inclusion of header files, does Visual Studio have a hardcoded list of include directories? I seem able to include windows.h alongside standard library headers without ever having to specify a fully qualified path to the files. A hardcoded list is the only way I can think of that this could be achieved.

It doesn't have hard-coded paths, per se. They are certainly pre-configured, but you can change them. Use the property manager to access the default "built-in" property sheets. I don't recall off-hand exactly what they're named, though. But in them, you can find VC++ Directories, where you can add all sorts of paths. Maybe google add visual c++ paths?

Originally Posted by Abyssion

That list of file types is extremely helpful Elysia, thank you very much! I've actually copied and pasted that information into a text file on my machine for future reference; I hope you don't mind?

No probs.

Cheers for pointing me in the direction of the property manager for default include path configurations. I was thinking more along the lines of whacking the Windows Kits folder (amongst other SDKish type things,) actually inside the Visual Studio installation folder, in a subfolder called SDKs or something. Just to clear up a bit of the installation-mess that VS created on my filesystem. Of course, anything that is not configurable from within the IDE itself, I shall leave be. Would this be a really bad idea, or do you think it could work?

I honestly wouldn't really care about it. You could probably with some research figure out how to change it and make it work, but I mean, why put down the time to do that when it can be better spent on other things?

Originally Posted by freddie

What seemed to work for me was searching the environment table for the string...

"Program Files (x86)"

If I found that I knew I had a 64 bit Win7 machine.

An extremely poor solutions. First off, it really only works on English machines, and you know that's just a minority of the world.
Secondly, the user can change this directory. This foils this plan altogether.