I'd use Win32::TieRegistry.

#!/perl/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;
use Win32::TieRegistry;

my $host = shift || '';
my $hklm = $Registry->Connect($host, "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE", { Access =>
+ 'KEY_READ' } ) or die $^E;
my $info = $hklm->{"SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\Windows NT\\CurrentVersion"};
my $ver = $info->{"CurrentVersion"};
my $sp = $info->{"CSDVersion"};
my $os = $hklm->{"SYSTEM\\CurrentControlSet\\Control\\ProductOptions\\
+ProductType"};
print "Remote OS: $os, Version: $ver, $sp\n";

[download]

NOTE: This will not work for Win9x or WinME.

Update: You could also use Win32::MachineInfo.

In reply to Re: Determine exact OS of remote win32 server by Mr. Muskrat
in thread Determine exact OS of remote win32 server by blackadder

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.