How to find the operating system version using JavaScript?

Question

How can I find the OS name and OS version using JavaScript?

Answer 1

You can find the OS name and version in the navigator object, as others have answered. The standard, cross-browser place to find this information is in the navigator.userAgent property. However, user agent strings vary widely by OS and browser.

So, I created a script to encapsulate this logic and report on the most common OSes and browsers in a familiar way, like http://www.whatsmybrowser.org.

I open-sourced the script and uploaded it to github, https://github.com/keithws/browser-report. Pull requests are welcome!

Answer 2

Hey for a quick solution you can consider the following library : UAPARSER - https://www.npmjs.com/package/ua-parser-js

example :

<script type="text/javascript" src="ua-parser.min.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">

var parser = new UAParser();
console.log(parser.getOS()) // will log  {name: "", version:""}

you can also install the library via npm, and import it like this:

import { UAParser } from 'ua-parser-js';
let parser = new UAParser();
parser.getOS();

the library is a JS based user agent string parser (window.navigator.userAgent is the user agent on browser) , so you can get with it other details aswell such as Browser,device,engines etc..and it can work with node js as well.

if you need typing for the library : https://www.npmjs.com/package/@types/ua-parser-js

Answer 3

If you list all of window.navigator's properties using

console.log(navigator);

You'll see something like this

# platform = Win32
# appCodeName = Mozilla
# appName = Netscape
# appVersion = 5.0 (Windows; en-US)
# language = en-US
# mimeTypes = [object MimeTypeArray]
# oscpu = Windows NT 5.1
# vendor = Firefox
# vendorSub = 1.0.7
# product = Gecko
# productSub = 20050915
# plugins = [object PluginArray]
# securityPolicy =
# userAgent = Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.12) Gecko/20050915 Firefox/1.0.7
# cookieEnabled = true
# javaEnabled = function javaEnabled() { [native code] }
# taintEnabled = function taintEnabled() { [native code] }
# preference = function preference() { [native code] }

Note that oscpu attribute gives you the Windows version. Also, you should know that:

'Windows 3.11' => 'Win16',
'Windows 95' => '(Windows 95)|(Win95)|(Windows_95)',
'Windows 98' => '(Windows 98)|(Win98)',
'Windows 2000' => '(Windows NT 5.0)|(Windows 2000)',
'Windows XP' => '(Windows NT 5.1)|(Windows XP)',
'Windows Server 2003' => '(Windows NT 5.2)',
'Windows Vista' => '(Windows NT 6.0)',
'Windows 7' => '(Windows NT 6.1)',
'Windows 8' => '(Windows NT 6.2)|(WOW64)',
'Windows 10' => '(Windows 10.0)|(Windows NT 10.0)',
'Windows NT 4.0' => '(Windows NT 4.0)|(WinNT4.0)|(WinNT)|(Windows NT)',
'Windows ME' => 'Windows ME',
'Open BSD' => 'OpenBSD',
'Sun OS' => 'SunOS',
'Linux' => '(Linux)|(X11)',
'Mac OS' => '(Mac_PowerPC)|(Macintosh)',
'QNX' => 'QNX',
'BeOS' => 'BeOS',
'OS/2' => 'OS/2',
'Search Bot'=>'(nuhk)|(Googlebot)|(Yammybot)|(Openbot)|(Slurp)|(MSNBot)|(Ask Jeeves/Teoma)|(ia_archiver)'

Answer 4

I started to write a Script to read OS and browser version that can be tested on Fiddle. Feel free to use and extend.
Breaking Change:
Since September 2020 the new Edge gets detected. So 'Microsoft Edge' is the new version based on Chromium and the old Edge is now detected as 'Microsoft Legacy Edge'!

/**
 * JavaScript Client Detection
 * (C) viazenetti GmbH (Christian Ludwig)
 */
(function (window) {
    {
        var unknown = '-';

        // screen
        var screenSize = '';
        if (screen.width) {
            width = (screen.width) ? screen.width : '';
            height = (screen.height) ? screen.height : '';
            screenSize += '' + width + " x " + height;
        }

        // browser
        var nVer = navigator.appVersion;
        var nAgt = navigator.userAgent;
        var browser = navigator.appName;
        var version = '' + parseFloat(navigator.appVersion);
        var majorVersion = parseInt(navigator.appVersion, 10);
        var nameOffset, verOffset, ix;

        // Opera
        if ((verOffset = nAgt.indexOf('Opera')) != -1) {
            browser = 'Opera';
            version = nAgt.substring(verOffset + 6);
            if ((verOffset = nAgt.indexOf('Version')) != -1) {
                version = nAgt.substring(verOffset + 8);
            }
        }
        // Opera Next
        if ((verOffset = nAgt.indexOf('OPR')) != -1) {
            browser = 'Opera';
            version = nAgt.substring(verOffset + 4);
        }
        // Legacy Edge
        else if ((verOffset = nAgt.indexOf('Edge')) != -1) {
            browser = 'Microsoft Legacy Edge';
            version = nAgt.substring(verOffset + 5);
        } 
        // Edge (Chromium)
        else if ((verOffset = nAgt.indexOf('Edg')) != -1) {
            browser = 'Microsoft Edge';
            version = nAgt.substring(verOffset + 4);
        }
        // MSIE
        else if ((verOffset = nAgt.indexOf('MSIE')) != -1) {
            browser = 'Microsoft Internet Explorer';
            version = nAgt.substring(verOffset + 5);
        }
        // Chrome
        else if ((verOffset = nAgt.indexOf('Chrome')) != -1) {
            browser = 'Chrome';
            version = nAgt.substring(verOffset + 7);
        }
        // Safari
        else if ((verOffset = nAgt.indexOf('Safari')) != -1) {
            browser = 'Safari';
            version = nAgt.substring(verOffset + 7);
            if ((verOffset = nAgt.indexOf('Version')) != -1) {
                version = nAgt.substring(verOffset + 8);
            }
        }
        // Firefox
        else if ((verOffset = nAgt.indexOf('Firefox')) != -1) {
            browser = 'Firefox';
            version = nAgt.substring(verOffset + 8);
        }
        // MSIE 11+
        else if (nAgt.indexOf('Trident/') != -1) {
            browser = 'Microsoft Internet Explorer';
            version = nAgt.substring(nAgt.indexOf('rv:') + 3);
        }
        // Other browsers
        else if ((nameOffset = nAgt.lastIndexOf(' ') + 1) < (verOffset = nAgt.lastIndexOf('/'))) {
            browser = nAgt.substring(nameOffset, verOffset);
            version = nAgt.substring(verOffset + 1);
            if (browser.toLowerCase() == browser.toUpperCase()) {
                browser = navigator.appName;
            }
        }
        // trim the version string
        if ((ix = version.indexOf(';')) != -1) version = version.substring(0, ix);
        if ((ix = version.indexOf(' ')) != -1) version = version.substring(0, ix);
        if ((ix = version.indexOf(')')) != -1) version = version.substring(0, ix);

        majorVersion = parseInt('' + version, 10);
        if (isNaN(majorVersion)) {
            version = '' + parseFloat(navigator.appVersion);
            majorVersion = parseInt(navigator.appVersion, 10);
        }

        // mobile version
        var mobile = /Mobile|mini|Fennec|Android|iP(ad|od|hone)/.test(nVer);

        // cookie
        var cookieEnabled = (navigator.cookieEnabled) ? true : false;

        if (typeof navigator.cookieEnabled == 'undefined' && !cookieEnabled) {
            document.cookie = 'testcookie';
            cookieEnabled = (document.cookie.indexOf('testcookie') != -1) ? true : false;
        }

        // system
        var os = unknown;
        var clientStrings = [
            {s:'Windows 10', r:/(Windows 10.0|Windows NT 10.0)/},
            {s:'Windows 8.1', r:/(Windows 8.1|Windows NT 6.3)/},
            {s:'Windows 8', r:/(Windows 8|Windows NT 6.2)/},
            {s:'Windows 7', r:/(Windows 7|Windows NT 6.1)/},
            {s:'Windows Vista', r:/Windows NT 6.0/},
            {s:'Windows Server 2003', r:/Windows NT 5.2/},
            {s:'Windows XP', r:/(Windows NT 5.1|Windows XP)/},
            {s:'Windows 2000', r:/(Windows NT 5.0|Windows 2000)/},
            {s:'Windows ME', r:/(Win 9x 4.90|Windows ME)/},
            {s:'Windows 98', r:/(Windows 98|Win98)/},
            {s:'Windows 95', r:/(Windows 95|Win95|Windows_95)/},
            {s:'Windows NT 4.0', r:/(Windows NT 4.0|WinNT4.0|WinNT|Windows NT)/},
            {s:'Windows CE', r:/Windows CE/},
            {s:'Windows 3.11', r:/Win16/},
            {s:'Android', r:/Android/},
            {s:'Open BSD', r:/OpenBSD/},
            {s:'Sun OS', r:/SunOS/},
            {s:'Chrome OS', r:/CrOS/},
            {s:'Linux', r:/(Linux|X11(?!.*CrOS))/},
            {s:'iOS', r:/(iPhone|iPad|iPod)/},
            {s:'Mac OS X', r:/Mac OS X/},
            {s:'Mac OS', r:/(Mac OS|MacPPC|MacIntel|Mac_PowerPC|Macintosh)/},
            {s:'QNX', r:/QNX/},
            {s:'UNIX', r:/UNIX/},
            {s:'BeOS', r:/BeOS/},
            {s:'OS/2', r:/OS\/2/},
            {s:'Search Bot', r:/(nuhk|Googlebot|Yammybot|Openbot|Slurp|MSNBot|Ask Jeeves\/Teoma|ia_archiver)/}
        ];
        for (var id in clientStrings) {
            var cs = clientStrings[id];
            if (cs.r.test(nAgt)) {
                os = cs.s;
                break;
            }
        }

        var osVersion = unknown;

        if (/Windows/.test(os)) {
            osVersion = /Windows (.*)/.exec(os)[1];
            os = 'Windows';
        }

        switch (os) {
            case 'Mac OS':
            case 'Mac OS X':
            case 'Android':
                osVersion = /(?:Android|Mac OS|Mac OS X|MacPPC|MacIntel|Mac_PowerPC|Macintosh) ([\.\_\d]+)/.exec(nAgt)[1];
                break;

            case 'iOS':
                osVersion = /OS (\d+)_(\d+)_?(\d+)?/.exec(nVer);
                osVersion = osVersion[1] + '.' + osVersion[2] + '.' + (osVersion[3] | 0);
                break;
        }
        
        // flash (you'll need to include swfobject)
        /* script src="//ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/swfobject/2.2/swfobject.js" */
        var flashVersion = 'no check';
        if (typeof swfobject != 'undefined') {
            var fv = swfobject.getFlashPlayerVersion();
            if (fv.major > 0) {
                flashVersion = fv.major + '.' + fv.minor + ' r' + fv.release;
            }
            else  {
                flashVersion = unknown;
            }
        }
    }

    window.jscd = {
        screen: screenSize,
        browser: browser,
        browserVersion: version,
        browserMajorVersion: majorVersion,
        mobile: mobile,
        os: os,
        osVersion: osVersion,
        cookies: cookieEnabled,
        flashVersion: flashVersion
    };
}(this));

alert(
    'OS: ' + jscd.os +' '+ jscd.osVersion + '\n' +
    'Browser: ' + jscd.browser +' '+ jscd.browserMajorVersion +
      ' (' + jscd.browserVersion + ')\n' + 
    'Mobile: ' + jscd.mobile + '\n' +
    'Flash: ' + jscd.flashVersion + '\n' +
    'Cookies: ' + jscd.cookies + '\n' +
    'Screen Size: ' + jscd.screen + '\n\n' +
    'Full User Agent: ' + navigator.userAgent
);

Answer 5

@Ludwig 's solution was brilliant. A couple of fixes (which didn't have to do with operating system, and I couldn't place as a comment on his original posting because this is too long):

1. IE 11 no longer identifies itself as MS IE.
2. Chrome on IOS spoofs itself as Safari

Here they are:

(function (window) {
    {
    /* test cases
        alert(
            'browserInfo result: OS: ' + browserInfo.os +' '+ browserInfo.osVersion + '\n'+
                'Browser: ' + browserInfo.browser +' '+ browserInfo.browserVersion + '\n' +
                'Mobile: ' + browserInfo.mobile + '\n' +
                'Cookies: ' + browserInfo.cookies + '\n' +
                'Screen Size: ' + browserInfo.screen
        );
    */
        var unknown = 'Unknown';

        // screen
        var screenSize = '';
        if (screen.width) {
            width = (screen.width) ? screen.width : '';
            height = (screen.height) ? screen.height : '';
            screenSize += '' + width + " x " + height;
        }

        //browser
        var nVer = navigator.appVersion;
        var nAgt = navigator.userAgent;
        var browser = navigator.appName;
        var version = '' + parseFloat(navigator.appVersion);
        var majorVersion = parseInt(navigator.appVersion, 10);
        var nameOffset, verOffset, ix;

        // Opera
        if ((verOffset = nAgt.indexOf('Opera')) != -1) {
            browser = 'Opera';
            version = nAgt.substring(verOffset + 6);
            if ((verOffset = nAgt.indexOf('Version')) != -1) {
                version = nAgt.substring(verOffset + 8);
            }
        }
        // MSIE
        else if ((verOffset = nAgt.indexOf('MSIE')) != -1) {
            browser = 'Microsoft Internet Explorer';
            version = nAgt.substring(verOffset + 5);
        }

        //IE 11 no longer identifies itself as MS IE, so trap it
        //http://stackoverflow.com/questions/17907445/how-to-detect-ie11
        else if ((browser == 'Netscape') && (nAgt.indexOf('Trident/') != -1)) {

            browser = 'Microsoft Internet Explorer';
            version = nAgt.substring(verOffset + 5);
            if ((verOffset = nAgt.indexOf('rv:')) != -1) {
                version = nAgt.substring(verOffset + 3);
            }

        }

        // Chrome
        else if ((verOffset = nAgt.indexOf('Chrome')) != -1) {
            browser = 'Chrome';
            version = nAgt.substring(verOffset + 7);
        }
        // Safari
        else if ((verOffset = nAgt.indexOf('Safari')) != -1) {
            browser = 'Safari';
            version = nAgt.substring(verOffset + 7);
            if ((verOffset = nAgt.indexOf('Version')) != -1) {
                version = nAgt.substring(verOffset + 8);
            }

            // Chrome on iPad identifies itself as Safari. Actual results do not match what Google claims
            //  at: https://developers.google.com/chrome/mobile/docs/user-agent?hl=ja
            //  No mention of chrome in the user agent string. However it does mention CriOS, which presumably
            //  can be keyed on to detect it.
            if (nAgt.indexOf('CriOS') != -1) {
                //Chrome on iPad spoofing Safari...correct it.
                browser = 'Chrome';
                //Don't believe there is a way to grab the accurate version number, so leaving that for now.
            }
        }
        // Firefox
        else if ((verOffset = nAgt.indexOf('Firefox')) != -1) {
            browser = 'Firefox';
            version = nAgt.substring(verOffset + 8);
        }
        // Other browsers
        else if ((nameOffset = nAgt.lastIndexOf(' ') + 1) < (verOffset = nAgt.lastIndexOf('/'))) {
            browser = nAgt.substring(nameOffset, verOffset);
            version = nAgt.substring(verOffset + 1);
            if (browser.toLowerCase() == browser.toUpperCase()) {
                browser = navigator.appName;
            }
        }
        // trim the version string
        if ((ix = version.indexOf(';')) != -1) version = version.substring(0, ix);
        if ((ix = version.indexOf(' ')) != -1) version = version.substring(0, ix);
        if ((ix = version.indexOf(')')) != -1) version = version.substring(0, ix);

        majorVersion = parseInt('' + version, 10);
        if (isNaN(majorVersion)) {
            version = '' + parseFloat(navigator.appVersion);
            majorVersion = parseInt(navigator.appVersion, 10);
        }

        // mobile version
        var mobile = /Mobile|mini|Fennec|Android|iP(ad|od|hone)/.test(nVer);

        // cookie
        var cookieEnabled = (navigator.cookieEnabled) ? true : false;

        if (typeof navigator.cookieEnabled == 'undefined' && !cookieEnabled) {
            document.cookie = 'testcookie';
            cookieEnabled = (document.cookie.indexOf('testcookie') != -1) ? true : false;
        }

        // system
        var os = unknown;
        var clientStrings = [
            {s:'Windows 3.11', r:/Win16/},
            {s:'Windows 95', r:/(Windows 95|Win95|Windows_95)/},
            {s:'Windows ME', r:/(Win 9x 4.90|Windows ME)/},
            {s:'Windows 98', r:/(Windows 98|Win98)/},
            {s:'Windows CE', r:/Windows CE/},
            {s:'Windows 2000', r:/(Windows NT 5.0|Windows 2000)/},
            {s:'Windows XP', r:/(Windows NT 5.1|Windows XP)/},
            {s:'Windows Server 2003', r:/Windows NT 5.2/},
            {s:'Windows Vista', r:/Windows NT 6.0/},
            {s:'Windows 7', r:/(Windows 7|Windows NT 6.1)/},
            {s:'Windows 8.1', r:/(Windows 8.1|Windows NT 6.3)/},
            {s:'Windows 8', r:/(Windows 8|Windows NT 6.2)/},
            {s:'Windows NT 4.0', r:/(Windows NT 4.0|WinNT4.0|WinNT|Windows NT)/},
            {s:'Windows ME', r:/Windows ME/},
            {s:'Android', r:/Android/},
            {s:'Open BSD', r:/OpenBSD/},
            {s:'Sun OS', r:/SunOS/},
            {s:'Linux', r:/(Linux|X11)/},
            {s:'iOS', r:/(iPhone|iPad|iPod)/},
            {s:'Mac OS X', r:/Mac OS X/},
            {s:'Mac OS', r:/(MacPPC|MacIntel|Mac_PowerPC|Macintosh)/},
            {s:'QNX', r:/QNX/},
            {s:'UNIX', r:/UNIX/},
            {s:'BeOS', r:/BeOS/},
            {s:'OS/2', r:/OS\/2/},
            {s:'Search Bot', r:/(nuhk|Googlebot|Yammybot|Openbot|Slurp|MSNBot|Ask Jeeves\/Teoma|ia_archiver)/}
        ];
        for (var id in clientStrings) {
            var cs = clientStrings[id];
            if (cs.r.test(nAgt)) {
                os = cs.s;
                break;
            }
        }

        var osVersion = unknown;

        if (/Windows/.test(os)) {
            osVersion = /Windows (.*)/.exec(os)[1];
            os = 'Windows';
        }

        switch (os) {
            case 'Mac OS X':
                osVersion = /Mac OS X (10[\.\_\d]+)/.exec(nAgt)[1];
                break;

            case 'Android':
                osVersion = /Android ([\.\_\d]+)/.exec(nAgt)[1];
                break;

            case 'iOS':
                osVersion = /OS (\d+)_(\d+)_?(\d+)?/.exec(nVer);
                osVersion = osVersion[1] + '.' + osVersion[2] + '.' + (osVersion[3] | 0);
                break;

        }
    }

    window.browserInfo = {
        screen: screenSize,
        browser: browser,
        browserVersion: version,
        mobile: mobile,
        os: os,
        osVersion: osVersion,
        cookies: cookieEnabled
    };
}(this));

Answer 6

platform.js seems like a good one file library to do this.

Usage example:

// on IE10 x86 platform preview running in IE7 compatibility mode on Windows 7 64 bit edition
platform.name; // 'IE'
platform.version; // '10.0'
platform.layout; // 'Trident'
platform.os; // 'Windows Server 2008 R2 / 7 x64'
platform.description; // 'IE 10.0 x86 (platform preview; running in IE 7 mode) on Windows Server 2008 R2 / 7 x64'

// or on an iPad
platform.name; // 'Safari'
platform.version; // '5.1'
platform.product; // 'iPad'
platform.manufacturer; // 'Apple'
platform.layout; // 'WebKit'
platform.os; // 'iOS 5.0'
platform.description; // 'Safari 5.1 on Apple iPad (iOS 5.0)'

// or parsing a given UA string
var info = platform.parse('Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.7.2; en; rv:2.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/4.0 Opera 11.52');
info.name; // 'Opera'
info.version; // '11.52'
info.layout; // 'Presto'
info.os; // 'Mac OS X 10.7.2'
info.description; // 'Opera 11.52 (identifying as Firefox 4.0) on Mac OS X 10.7.2'