c# How to use the new Version Helper API

Question

Since OSVersion is now not reliable since Windows 10 has been released (this function reports Windows 8 for Windows 10), I'm attempting to use the new Version Helper API functions in my C# application. Here they are.

I apologize if this is simply a issue with my DLL import, but here is my attempt to pull in these new methods to detect the OS correctly.

[DllImport("kernel32.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Auto)]
public static extern bool IsWindows7OrGreater();

[DllImport("kernel32.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Auto)]
public static extern bool IsWindows8OrGreater();

[DllImport("kernel32.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Auto)]
public static extern bool IsWindows8Point1OrGreater();

[DllImport("kernel32.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Auto)]
public static extern bool IsWindows10OrGreater();

Whenever I'm calling these methods, I'm getting:

Exception is: EntryPointNotFoundException - Unable to find an entry point named 'IsWindows7OrGreater' in DLL 'kernel32.dll'.

Am I doing something wrong? Anyone have any ideas? Thanks for any help!

EDIT: Please see the accepted answer and take a look at this code project for a good start on porting these methods over to C#.

Answer 1

Your code must have a Manifest that contains

  <compatibility xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:compatibility.v1">
    <application>
        <!-- A list of all Windows versions that this application is designed to work with. Windows will automatically select the most compatible environment.--> 
        <!-- Windows 10 -->
        <supportedOS Id="{8e0f7a12-bfb3-4fe8-b9a5-48fd50a15a9a}"/>
        <!-- Windows 8.1 -->
        <supportedOS Id="{1f676c76-80e1-4239-95bb-83d0f6d0da78}"/>
        <!-- Windows Vista -->
        <supportedOS Id="{e2011457-1546-43c5-a5fe-008deee3d3f0}"/>
        <!-- Windows 7 -->
        <supportedOS Id="{35138b9a-5d96-4fbd-8e2d-a2440225f93a}"/>
        <!-- Windows 8 -->
        <supportedOS Id="{4a2f28e3-53b9-4441-ba9c-d69d4a4a6e38}"/>
        <!-- If your application is designed to work with Windows 7, uncomment the following supportedOS node-->
      <!--<supportedOS Id="{35138b9a-5d96-4fbd-8e2d-a2440225f93a}"/>-->

    </application>
  </compatibility>

This tells the OS your code supports the newer OS

Use the following class

using System;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;

namespace VersionHelper
{
    public static class VersionHelper
    {
        const byte VER_EQUAL = 1;
        const byte VER_GREATER = 2;
        const byte VER_GREATER_EQUAL = 3;
        const byte VER_LESS = 4;
        const byte VER_LESS_EQUAL = 5;
        const byte VER_AND = 6;
        const byte VER_OR = 7;

        const byte VER_CONDITION_MASK = 7;
        const byte VER_NUM_BITS_PER_CONDITION_MASK = 3;

        //
        // RtlVerifyVersionInfo() type mask bits
        //

        const uint VER_MINORVERSION = 0x0000001;
        const uint VER_MAJORVERSION = 0x0000002;
        const uint VER_BUILDNUMBER = 0x0000004;
        const uint VER_PLATFORMID = 0x0000008;
        const uint VER_SERVICEPACKMINOR = 0x0000010;
        const uint VER_SERVICEPACKMAJOR = 0x0000020;
        const uint VER_SUITENAME = 0x0000040;
        const uint VER_PRODUCT_TYPE = 0x0000080;

        // wProductType    
        // Any additional information about the system.This member can be one of the following values.
        const byte VER_NT_DOMAIN_CONTROLLER = 0x0000002;
        const byte VER_NT_SERVER = 0x0000003;
        const byte VER_NT_WORKSTATION = 0x0000001;

        //
        // _WIN32_WINNT version constants
        //
        const ushort _WIN32_WINNT_NT4 = 0x0400;
        const ushort _WIN32_WINNT_WIN2K = 0x0500;
        const ushort _WIN32_WINNT_WINXP = 0x0501;
        const ushort _WIN32_WINNT_WS03 = 0x0502;
        const ushort _WIN32_WINNT_WIN6 = 0x0600;
        const ushort _WIN32_WINNT_VISTA = 0x0600;
        const ushort _WIN32_WINNT_WS08 = 0x0600;
        const ushort _WIN32_WINNT_LONGHORN = 0x0600;
        const ushort _WIN32_WINNT_WIN7 = 0x0601;
        const ushort _WIN32_WINNT_WIN8 = 0x0602;
        const ushort _WIN32_WINNT_WINBLUE = 0x0603;
        const ushort _WIN32_WINNT_WINTHRESHOLD = 0x0A00; /* ABRACADABRA_THRESHOLD*/
        const ushort _WIN32_WINNT_WIN10 = 0x0A00; /* ABRACADABRA_THRESHOLD*/

        const bool FALSE = false;

        static byte LOBYTE(ushort w)
        {
            return ((byte)(w & 0xff));
        }

        static byte HIBYTE(ushort w)
        {
            return ((byte)(w >> 8 & 0xff));
        }


        [DllImport("kernel32.dll")]
        static extern ulong VerSetConditionMask(ulong ConditionMask, uint TypeMask,   byte  Condition );

        [DllImport("kernel32.dll")]
        static extern bool VerifyVersionInfoW(ref OSVERSIONINFOEXW lpVersionInformation, uint dwTypeMask, ulong dwlConditionMask);


        [StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential, CharSet = CharSet.Unicode)]
        struct OSVERSIONINFOEXW
        {
            public int dwOSVersionInfoSize;
            public int dwMajorVersion;
            public int dwMinorVersion;
            public int dwBuildNumber;
            public int dwPlatformId;
            [MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.ByValTStr, SizeConst = 128)]
            public string szCSDVersion;
            public UInt16 wServicePackMajor;
            public UInt16 wServicePackMinor;
            public UInt16 wSuiteMask;
            public byte wProductType;
            public byte wReserved;
        }


        public static bool
        IsWindowsVersionOrGreater(ushort wMajorVersion, ushort wMinorVersion, ushort wServicePackMajor)
        {
            var osvi = new OSVERSIONINFOEXW
            {
                dwOSVersionInfoSize = Marshal.SizeOf(typeof(OSVERSIONINFOEXW))
            };

            var dwlConditionMask = VerSetConditionMask(
                VerSetConditionMask(
                VerSetConditionMask(
                    0, VER_MAJORVERSION, VER_GREATER_EQUAL),
                       VER_MINORVERSION, VER_GREATER_EQUAL),
                       VER_SERVICEPACKMAJOR, VER_GREATER_EQUAL);

            osvi.dwMajorVersion = wMajorVersion;
            osvi.dwMinorVersion = wMinorVersion;
            osvi.wServicePackMajor = wServicePackMajor;

            return VerifyVersionInfoW(ref osvi, VER_MAJORVERSION | VER_MINORVERSION | VER_SERVICEPACKMAJOR, dwlConditionMask) != FALSE;
        }

        public static bool
        IsWindowsXPOrGreater()
        {
            return IsWindowsVersionOrGreater(HIBYTE(_WIN32_WINNT_WINXP), LOBYTE(_WIN32_WINNT_WINXP), 0);
        }

        public static bool
        IsWindowsXPSP1OrGreater()
        {
            return IsWindowsVersionOrGreater(HIBYTE(_WIN32_WINNT_WINXP), LOBYTE(_WIN32_WINNT_WINXP), 1);
        }

        public static bool
        IsWindowsXPSP2OrGreater()
        {
            return IsWindowsVersionOrGreater(HIBYTE(_WIN32_WINNT_WINXP), LOBYTE(_WIN32_WINNT_WINXP), 2);
        }

        public static bool
        IsWindowsXPSP3OrGreater()
        {
            return IsWindowsVersionOrGreater(HIBYTE(_WIN32_WINNT_WINXP), LOBYTE(_WIN32_WINNT_WINXP), 3);
        }

        public static bool
        IsWindowsVistaOrGreater()
        {
            return IsWindowsVersionOrGreater(HIBYTE(_WIN32_WINNT_VISTA), LOBYTE(_WIN32_WINNT_VISTA), 0);
        }

        public static bool
        IsWindowsVistaSP1OrGreater()
        {
            return IsWindowsVersionOrGreater(HIBYTE(_WIN32_WINNT_VISTA), LOBYTE(_WIN32_WINNT_VISTA), 1);
        }

        public static bool
        IsWindowsVistaSP2OrGreater()
        {
            return IsWindowsVersionOrGreater(HIBYTE(_WIN32_WINNT_VISTA), LOBYTE(_WIN32_WINNT_VISTA), 2);
        }

        public static bool
        IsWindows7OrGreater()
        {
            return IsWindowsVersionOrGreater(HIBYTE(_WIN32_WINNT_WIN7), LOBYTE(_WIN32_WINNT_WIN7), 0);
        }

        public static bool
        IsWindows7SP1OrGreater()
        {
            return IsWindowsVersionOrGreater(HIBYTE(_WIN32_WINNT_WIN7), LOBYTE(_WIN32_WINNT_WIN7), 1);
        }

        public static bool
        IsWindows8OrGreater()
        {
            return IsWindowsVersionOrGreater(HIBYTE(_WIN32_WINNT_WIN8), LOBYTE(_WIN32_WINNT_WIN8), 0);
        }

        public static bool
        IsWindows8Point1OrGreater()
        {
            return IsWindowsVersionOrGreater(HIBYTE(_WIN32_WINNT_WINBLUE), LOBYTE(_WIN32_WINNT_WINBLUE), 0);
        }

        public static bool
        IsWindowsThresholdOrGreater()
        {
            return IsWindowsVersionOrGreater(HIBYTE(_WIN32_WINNT_WINTHRESHOLD), LOBYTE(_WIN32_WINNT_WINTHRESHOLD), 0);
        }

        public static bool
        IsWindows10OrGreater()
        {
            return IsWindowsVersionOrGreater(HIBYTE(_WIN32_WINNT_WINTHRESHOLD), LOBYTE(_WIN32_WINNT_WINTHRESHOLD), 0);
        }

        public static bool
        IsWindowsServer()
        {
            var osvi = new OSVERSIONINFOEXW
            {
                dwOSVersionInfoSize = Marshal.SizeOf(typeof(OSVERSIONINFOEXW)),
                wProductType = VER_NT_WORKSTATION
            };

            var dwlConditionMask = VerSetConditionMask(0, VER_PRODUCT_TYPE, VER_EQUAL);

            return !VerifyVersionInfoW( ref osvi, VER_PRODUCT_TYPE, dwlConditionMask);
        }
    }
}

Answer 2

Unfortunately, it's a little more complicated than that. The "functions" are actually macros defined in VersionHelpers.h.

If you think of it, that's the only way to do it - they can't add functions to older Windows versions retroactively.

You have to port the macros over to C#.

Answer 3

VersionHelpers functions are not exported in any dll, but rather defined in VersionHelpers.h file, in order to utilize the functionality in your C# code you can copy the functionality from the header file,

Import those 2 functions:

[DllImport("kernel32.dll")]
static extern ulong VerSetConditionMask(ulong dwlConditionMask, uint dwTypeBitMask, byte dwConditionMask);

[DllImport("kernel32.dll")]
static extern bool VerifyVersionInfo([In] ref OsVersionInfoEx lpVersionInfo, uint dwTypeMask, ulong dwlConditionMask);

Define the following structure:

[StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential)]
struct OsVersionInfoEx
{
    public uint OSVersionInfoSize;
    public uint MajorVersion;
    public uint MinorVersion;
    public uint BuildNumber;
    public uint PlatformId;
    [MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.ByValTStr, SizeConst = 128)]
    public string CSDVersion;
    public ushort ServicePackMajor;
    public ushort ServicePackMinor;
    public ushort SuiteMask;
    public byte ProductType;
    public byte Reserved;
}

Then use the following function:

static bool IsWindowsVersionOrGreater(uint majorVersion, uint minorVersion, ushort servicePackMajor)
{
    OsVersionInfoEx osvi = new OsVersionInfoEx();
    osvi.OSVersionInfoSize = (uint)Marshal.SizeOf(osvi);
    osvi.MajorVersion = majorVersion;
    osvi.MinorVersion = minorVersion;
    osvi.ServicePackMajor = servicePackMajor;
    // These constants initialized with corresponding definitions in
    // winnt.h (part of Windows SDK)
    const uint VER_MINORVERSION = 0x0000001;
    const uint VER_MAJORVERSION = 0x0000002;
    const uint VER_SERVICEPACKMAJOR = 0x0000020;
    const byte VER_GREATER_EQUAL = 3;
    ulong versionOrGreaterMask = VerSetConditionMask(
       VerSetConditionMask(
           VerSetConditionMask(
               0, VER_MAJORVERSION, VER_GREATER_EQUAL),
           VER_MINORVERSION, VER_GREATER_EQUAL),
       VER_SERVICEPACKMAJOR, VER_GREATER_EQUAL);
    uint versionOrGreaterTypeMask = VER_MAJORVERSION |VER_MINORVERSION | VER_SERVICEPACKMAJOR;
    return VerifyVersionInfo(ref osvi, versionOrGreaterTypeMask, versionOrGreaterMask);

}