How to get the "friendly" OS Version Name?

Question

I am looking for an elegant way to get the OS version like: "Windows XP Professional Service Pack 1" or "Windows Server 2008 Standard Edition" etc.

Is there an elegant way of doing that?

I am also interested in the processor architecture (like x86 or x64).

Answer 1

You can use WMI to get the product name ("Microsoft® Windows Server® 2008 Enterprise "):

using System.Management; var name = (from x in new ManagementObjectSearcher("SELECT Caption FROM Win32_OperatingSystem").Get().Cast<ManagementObject>()                       select x.GetPropertyValue("Caption")).FirstOrDefault(); return name != null ? name.ToString() : "Unknown"; 

Answer 2

You should really try to avoid WMI for local use. It is very convenient but you pay dearly for it in terms of performance. This is quick and simple:

    public string HKLM_GetString(string path, string key)     {         try         {             RegistryKey rk = Registry.LocalMachine.OpenSubKey(path);             if (rk == null) return "";             return (string)rk.GetValue(key);         }         catch { return ""; }     }      public string FriendlyName()     {         string ProductName = HKLM_GetString(@"SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion", "ProductName");         string CSDVersion = HKLM_GetString(@"SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion", "CSDVersion");         if (ProductName != "")         {             return (ProductName.StartsWith("Microsoft") ? "" : "Microsoft ") + ProductName +                         (CSDVersion != "" ? " " + CSDVersion : "");         }         return "";     }