HOWTO: Interpret the Results of InternetQueryOption with the INTERNET_VERSION_INFO Structure

ID: Q244857

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Internet Explorer (Programming) versions 3.0, 4.0, 5

SUMMARY

Using the InternetQueryOption function, you can retrieve the version of the WinInet DLL. The version information returned is the internal version number of the DLL not the version stamp of the WinInet.dll file.

MORE INFORMATION

You can use the INTERNET_VERSION_INFO structure as follows (error checking code is omitted):


INTERNET_VERSION_INFO structVI;
DWORD dwStructSize = sizeof(INTERNET_VERSION_INFO);
InternetQueryOption (NULL, INTERNET_OPTION_VERSION, <BR/>
                    (LPVOID)&structVI, &dwStructSize);
printf("WinINet Major Version: %d\n", structVI.dwMajorVersion);
printf("WinINet Minor Version: %d\n", structVI.dwMinorVersion);

The Platform SDK contains the following description of the INTERNET_OPTION_VERSION flag that can be used with the InternetQueryOption function:

Retrieves an INTERNET_VERSION_INFO structure that contains the version number of Wininet.dll. This option can be used on a NULL HINTERNET handle by InternetQueryOption.

The INTERNET_VERSION_INFO structure returned by this function call can be interpreted as follows:

dwMajorVersion	dwMinorVersion	WinInet Version
1	0	Internet Explorer 3
1	1	Internet Explorer 4
1	2	Internet Explorer 5

It is possible to get exact Wininet.dll version information (as shown in file properties) by using version APIs as follows:


#define SWAPWORDS(X) ( (X<<16) | (X>>16) )
...
if (! (dwSize = GetFileVersionInfoSize (TEXT("wininet.dll"), &dwHandle) ) )
{
    dwError = GetLastError();
    if (dwError == 2)
       // 2 is file no found error
       cerr << "Wininet.dll is not found" << endl;
    else if (dwError == 1812)<BR/>
       // 1812 means no resource section information, very unlikely case
       cerr << "Wininet.dll does contain resource section" << endl;
    else
       cerr << "GetFileVersionInfoSize failed: " << 
       GetLastError() << endl;
       return 0;
}

lpBuffer = new TCHAR [dwSize]; 
if (!GetFileVersionInfo (TEXT ("wininet.dll"), 0, 
     dwSize, (LPVOID) lpBuffer) )
{
   cerr << "GetFileVersionInfo failed: " 
   << GetLastError() << endl;
   return 0;
}
LPDWORD lpdwLangCp;

if (!VerQueryValue(lpBuffer, TEXT("\\VarFileInfo\\Translation"), 
     (LPVOID*) &lpdwLangCp, &dwUint) ) 
{
   cerr << "VerQueryValue failed: " << GetLastError() << endl;
   return 0;
}
TCHAR     szLangCp[9];
wsprintf( szLangCp, TEXT ("%08X"),SWAPWORDS( *lpdwLangCp ));
TCHAR SubBlock [2048];
wsprintf( SubBlock, TEXT("\\StringFileInfo\\%s\\FileVersion"), szLangCp );

if (!VerQueryValue(lpBuffer, SubBlock,  (LPVOID*)&Buffer, &dwUint) ) 
{
   cerr << "No file version info available" << endl;
   return 0;
}
else
  cout << "File Version: " << Buffer << endl;
wsprintf( SubBlock, TEXT("\\StringFileInfo\\%s\\ProductVersion"), 
          szLangCp );
if (!VerQueryValue(lpBuffer, SubBlock,  (LPVOID*)&Buffer, &dwUint) ) 
{
   cerr << "No produce version info available" << endl;
   return 0;
}
else
   cout << "Product Version: " << Buffer << endl;

wsprintf( SubBlock, TEXT("\\StringFileInfo\\%s\\FileDescription"), 
        szLangCp );
if (!VerQueryValue(lpBuffer, SubBlock,  (LPVOID*)&Buffer, &dwUint) ) 
{
   cerr << "No File Description info available" << endl;
   return 0;
}
else
   cout << "File Description: " << Buffer << endl;

delete [] lpBuffer;

Additional query words:

Keywords : kbIE300 kbIE400 kbWinInet kbIE500 kbGrpInetServer kbDSupport
Version : WINDOWS:3.0,4.0,5
Platform : WINDOWS
Issue type : kbhowto