Remotely identifying OS version

[Dilan Arumainathan]

Hello:
Is there a reliable way to remotely identify what version of Windows is
running at a particular IP address. I have a whole bunch of machines that
are spread across the enterprise. These loosely connected workstations are
not part of a domain. Until we convert all 9x machines I have the need to
perform administrative functions periodically such as changing the admin
password. I have tried nmap and it is of no use as it doesn't report the
difference between 9x and NT (and above). I have tried using the
sysinternals tools but they are not 'script friendly'.

thanks

 

[Jetro]

You can extract and analyze some values from the remote registry like
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion, VersionNumber/Version in W9x
and Me or HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion,
CurrentVersion/ProductName/CurrentBuildNumber in NT. It's worth a mention
the file naming difference like win386.swp/pagefile.sys or windows/winnt or
Profiles/Personal/Documents&Settings etc.
Unfortunately, I've lost the handy utility for this task.