'Determine the OS version, Linux and Windows from Powershell

How can I determine the OS type, (Linux, Windows) using Powershell from within a script?

The ResponseUri isn't recognised when this part of my script is ran on a Linux host. 

$UrlAuthority = $Request.BaseResponse | Select-Object -ExpandProperty ResponseUri | Select-Object -ExpandProperty Authority

So I want an If statement to determine the OS type that would look similar to this:

If ($OsType -eq "Linux")
{
     $UrlAuthority = ($Request.BaseResponse).RequestMessage | Select-Object -ExpandProperty RequestUri | Select-Object -ExpandProperty host
}
Else
     $UrlAuthority = $Request.BaseResponse | Select-Object -ExpandProperty ResponseUri | Select-Object -ExpandProperty Authority

I could use Get-CimInstance Win32_OperatingSystem but it would fail on Linux as it's not recognised.

linuxwindowspowershelloperating-systempowershell-core


Solution 1:[1]

Since the PowerShell versions 6.1 on Windows/Linux/OSX went to GA you can use the new properties of $PSVersionTable, OS, Platform and GitCommitId

Update In v6.0.0-beta.3 there are some breaking changes:

  • Change positional parameter for powershell.exe from -Command to -File

$PSVersionTable on :

Platform Win32NT OS Microsoft Windows 10.0.15063

PS C:\Users\LotPings> $PSVersionTable

Name                           Value
----                           -----
PSVersion                      6.1.0
PSEdition                      Core
GitCommitId                    6.1.0
OS                             Microsoft Windows 10.0.17134
Platform                       Win32NT
PSCompatibleVersions           {1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0...}
PSRemotingProtocolVersion      2.3
SerializationVersion           1.1.0.1
WSManStackVersion              3.0

Platform Unix OS Linux (ubuntu)

PS /home/LotPings> $PSVersionTable

Name                           Value
----                           -----
PSVersion                      6.1.0
PSEdition                      Core
GitCommitId                    6.1.0
OS                             Linux 4.15.0-34-generic #37-Ubuntu SMP Mon Aug 27 15:21:48 UTC 2018
Platform                       Unix
PSCompatibleVersions           {1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0...}
PSRemotingProtocolVersion      2.3
SerializationVersion           1.1.0.1
WSManStackVersion              3.0

Platform Unix OS Darwin

PS /Users/LotPings> $PSVersionTable

Name                           Value
----                           -----
PSVersion                      6.1.0
PSEdition                      Core
GitCommitId                    6.1.0
OS                             Darwin 17.7.0 Darwin Kernel Version 17.7.0: Thu Jun 21 22:53:14 PDT 2018; root:xnu-4570.71.2~1/RE...
Platform                       Unix
PSCompatibleVersions           {1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0...}
PSRemotingProtocolVersion      2.3
SerializationVersion           1.1.0.1
WSManStackVersion              3.0

Solution 2:[2]

For PowerShell Core (Powershell Version 6.0+), you can use Automatic Variables: $IsLinux, $IsMacOS and $IsWindows.

For example,

if ($IsLinux) {
    Write-Host "Linux"
}
elseif ($IsMacOS) {
    Write-Host "macOS"
}
elseif ($IsWindows) {
    Write-Host "Windows"
}

Solution 3:[3]

Actually, there should be global variables added by the PowerShell console itself--they're not considered environment variables though, which is why they wouldn't show up when using dir env: to get a list.The OS-specific ones I see for now are $IsLinux, IsMacOS and $IsWindows. This is of at least PowerShell version 6.0.0-rc and above for Mac/Linux.

You can see a list of what's available by using just Get-Variable (in a fresh session without loading your profile, if you just want what comes build-in by default).

Solution 4:[4]

Building on the above, if you only want to detect whether or not you're running under Windows, and you want a script that's forwards and backwards compatible in PowerShell and PowerShell Core, there's this:

if ($IsWindows -or $ENV:OS) {
    Write-Host "Windows"
} else {
    Write-Host "Not Windows"
}

Solution 5:[5]

When you only have to check if it is windows or linux, maybe you could use this (quick and dirty):

if ([System.Boolean](Get-CimInstance -ClassName Win32_OperatingSystem -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue))
{
    #windows
}
else
{
    #Not windows
}

Solution 6:[6]

Some more ways for Osx:

sw_vers -productVersion

10.12.6

Or (there's a "key - os_version" right above it, but I don't see how they relate):

[xml]$xml = system_profiler SPSoftwareDataType -xml   
$xml.plist.array.dict.array.dict.string -match 'macos'  

macOS 10.12.6 (16G1510)

Solution 7:[7]

This will work in any version of Powershell for the problems described in the comments on other answers.

$iswin = $PSVersionTable.Platform -match '^($|(Microsoft )?Win)'

With $False being 'nix.

Solution 8:[8]

Prior to PowerShell [Core] version 6, this was only possible by asking .NET directly. This can be done with one line:

[System.Environment]::OSVersion.Platform

This will return either Win32NT for anything descended from Windows NT (all current versions of Windows) or Unix for anything *nix (including Mac, Linux, &c.). If it returns Unix then you're obviously running v6+, so further information can be had from $PSVersionTable.PSEdition, $PSVersionTable.Platform, and $PSVersionTable.OS, and the automatic variables will be available too: $IsLinux, $IsMacOs, and $IsWindows.

Here's what I have in my profile.ps1 to make this easier by setting $IsWindows:

function Get-PSPlatform
{
    return [System.Environment]::OSVersion.Platform
}
switch (Get-PSPlatform)
{
    'Win32NT' { 
        New-Variable -Option Constant -Name IsWindows -Value $True -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
        New-Variable -Option Constant -Name IsLinux  -Value $false -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
        New-Variable -Option Constant -Name IsMacOs  -Value $false -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
     }
}

This works in all versions of PowerShell as this has been available from .NET since version 1.x. See PlatformID documentation for details.

— Please see Dave F's comment; I wrote this answer because that seems how SO works to get an answer promoted from a comment.

Solution 9:[9]

I you don't have the latest PowerShell core installed you can use a small scriptblock like:

if ($PSVersionTable.PSVersion.Major -lt 6.0) {
    switch ($([System.Environment]::OSVersion.Platform)) {
        'Win32NT' { 
            New-Variable -Option Constant -Name IsWindows -Value $True -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
            New-Variable -Option Constant -Name IsLinux -Value $false -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
            New-Variable -Option Constant -Name IsMacOs -Value $false -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
        }
    }
}
$script:IsLinuxEnv = (Get-Variable -Name "IsLinux" -ErrorAction Ignore) -and $IsLinux
$script:IsMacOSEnv = (Get-Variable -Name "IsMacOS" -ErrorAction Ignore) -and $IsMacOS
$script:IsWinEnv = !$IsLinuxEnv -and !$IsMacOSEnv

Sources

This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Overflow and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Source: Stack Overflow

Solution Source
Solution 1
Solution 2 zwcloud
Solution 3 areyling
Solution 4 MCattle
Solution 5 Patrick
Solution 6 js2010
Solution 7 Hashbrown
Solution 8
Solution 9 alainQtec

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