Review request: JDK-8020191 System.getProperty( " os.name " ) returns " Windows NT (unknown) " on Windows 8.1

[Alan Bateman]

The changes in the webrev look okay to me but the reference to the "app 
compatibility shim" in the MS article is a bit confusing and not clear 
to me (with checking into it more) whether this might consider java.exe 
as something that isn't targeted to Windows 8.1. So can you verify that 
you have checked it on the latest 8.1 preview?

As regards the helper library then this could be useful in the future 
(for now then it probably complicates things because the JDK still has 
to run on older versions of Windows).

-Alan.


On 31/07/2013 05:53, Alexey Utkin wrote:
> Bug description:
>     https://jbs.oracle.com/bugs/browse/JDK-8020191
>     http://bugs.sun.com/view_bug.do?bug_id=8020191
>
> Here is the suggested fix:
> http://cr.openjdk.java.net/~uta/openjdk-webrevs/JDK-8020191/webrev.00/
>
> Summary:
> We need to be consistent with the rest of OS, so I extend the case for 
> 6.3 internal version number by values "Windows 8.1" for workstation 
> OS, and "Windows Server 2012 R2" for server OS.
> (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/dn302074.aspx)
>
> But we get a chance to have a wrong OS name due to MS compatibility 
> problems.
>
> Here is the problem description:
>
> http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/forums/windowsazure/zh-tw/c471de52-611f-435d-ab44-56064e5fd7d5/windows-81-preview-getversionex-reports-629200 
>
>
> and MS respond:
>     http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/dn302074.aspx
>
> Quotations:
> "In Windows 8.1 Preview, we have introduced a new API, Versionhelpers 
> API, that deprecates the need for using GetVersion(Ex) APIs. This 
> addresses difficulties in interpreting the numerical value returned by 
> the GetVersion(Ex) APIs."
>
> "The internal version number for Windows 8.1 Preview and Windows 
> Server 2012 R2 Preview is 6.3. Only apps that are targeting Windows 
> 8.1 will receive a return value of 6.3. Those apps that are not 
> targeted for Windows 8.1 will receive a return value of 6.2 unless 
> previously shimmed as discussed below."
>
>
> Regards,
> -uta