How to get the current OS

published: January 8, 2023 author: Tinu tags: PowerShell categories: PowerShell-Basic

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Table of Contents

• Table of Contents
  • PowerShell 7
  • Windows PowerShell
  • Unknown Environment
• See also

PowerShell 7

With PowerShell 7 it’s easy to determine the current os:

$IsMacOS
$IsLinux
$IsWindows

Windows PowerShell

In Windows PowerShell it’s easy to determine the current os:

[Environment]::OSVersion

Unknown Environment

If you don’t know which PowerShell you running on which OS, you can use the following code:

# define an enumerator for the OS-type
enum OSType {
    Linux
    Mac
    Windows
}

function Get-CurrentOS {
    # if the PSVersion is less than 6, it's Windows PowerShell
    if($PSVersionTable.PSVersion.Major -lt 6){
        return [OSType]::Windows
    }
    # if the PSVersion is greather than 6, you can use the pwsh constants
    else{
        if($IsMacOS)   {return [OSType]::Mac}
        if($IsLinux)   {return [OSType]::Linux}
        if($IsWindows) {return [OSType]::Windows} 
    }
}

switch(Get-CurrentOS){
    Mac {
        $OSVersion = "$(sw_vers -productName) $(sw_vers -productVersion).$(sw_vers -buildVersion)"
        Write-Host "Running on $($OSVersion)" -ForegroundColor Cyan
    }
    Linux {
        $OSVersion = $((Get-Content /etc/*release | Select-String -Pattern 'DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION=') -replace 'DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION=')
        Write-Host "Running on $($OSVersion)" -ForegroundColor Cyan
    }
    Windows {
        $OSVersion = "$((Get-CimInstance -ClassName Win32_OperatingSystem).Caption) ($([System.Environment]::OSVersion.Version.ToString()))"
        Write-Host "Running on $($OSVersion)" -ForegroundColor Cyan
    }
}

See also

Determine the OS version, Linux and Windows from Powershell on stack overflow

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