How do I programmatically determine operating system in Java?

Question

I would like to determine the operating system of the host that my Java program is running programmatically (for example: I would like to be able to load different propertie

Answer 1

If you're interested in how an open source project does stuff like this, you can check out the Terracotta class (Os.java) that handles this junk here:

• http://svn.terracotta.org/svn/tc/dso/trunk/code/base/common/src/com/tc/util/runtime/
• http://svn.terracotta.org/svn/tc/dso/tags/2.6.4/code/base/common/src/com/tc/util/runtime/

And you can see a similar class to handle JVM versions (Vm.java and VmVersion.java) here:

• http://svn.terracotta.org/svn/tc/dso/trunk/common/src/main/java/com/tc/util/runtime/

Answer 2

Just use com.sun.javafx.util.Utils as below.

if ( Utils.isWindows()){
     // LOGIC HERE
}

OR USE

boolean isWindows = OSInfo.getOSType().equals(OSInfo.OSType.WINDOWS);
       if (isWindows){
         // YOUR LOGIC HERE
       }

Answer 3

I find that the OS Utils from Swingx does the job.

Answer 4

Oct. 2008:

I would recommend to cache it in a static variable:

public static final class OsUtils
{
   private static String OS = null;
   public static String getOsName()
   {
      if(OS == null) { OS = System.getProperty("os.name"); }
      return OS;
   }
   public static boolean isWindows()
   {
      return getOsName().startsWith("Windows");
   }

   public static boolean isUnix() // and so on
}

That way, every time you ask for the Os, you do not fetch the property more than once in the lifetime of your application.

---

February 2016: 7+ years later:

There is a bug with Windows 10 (which did not exist at the time of the original answer).
See "Java's “os.name” for Windows 10?"

Answer 5

As indicated in other answers, System.getProperty provides the raw data. However, the Apache Commons Lang component provides a wrapper for java.lang.System with handy properties like SystemUtils.IS_OS_WINDOWS, much like the aforementioned Swingx OS util.

Answer 6

String osName = System.getProperty("os.name");
System.out.println("Operating system " + osName);