16-Bit App WNetGetCaps Call Return Value on Win32

 Last reviewed: May 10, 1995
Article ID: Q120359
The information in this article applies to:
  • Microsoft Win32 Software Development Kit (SDK), versions 3.5, 3.51, and 4.0

16-bit Windows-based applications often call WNetGetCaps() to determine the capabilities of the installed network. When a Windows-based application running on Windows NT calls WNetGetCaps(), the return value is 0x8004, which corresponds to WNNC_NET_Multinet | WNNC_SUBNET_WinWorkgroups.

However, the Windows NT Windows on Windows (WOW) layer and Windows 95 do not support the Windows for Workgroups Multinet (MNet) APIs, so a call to one of these APIs returns a failed Dynalink error.

The return value of WNetGetCaps() may not seem technically correct for Windows for Workgroups. It was designed to be compatible with all existing 16-bit Windows-based applications.

If you need to determine whether a 16-bit Windows-based application is running on Windows NT or MS-DOS/Windows version 3.1, use GetWinFlags(). GetWinFlags() returns a WF_WINNT flag if the application is running under WOW on Windows NT.

GetWinFlags() is an existing function that was modified in WOW to add the following flag: 

   #define WF_WINNT         0x4000

Additional reference words: 3.50 4.00
KBCategory: kbprg
KBSubcategory: SubSys

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Last reviewed: May 10, 1995
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