Take a look at the Win32 module (which is installed & loaded by default on most windows Perl's). 

print Win32::GetOSVersion();;
Service Pack 1 6 0 6001 2 1 0 768 1

print Win32::GetOSName();;
WinVista Service Pack 1

[download]

The interpretation of the list from Win32::GetOSVersion() is: 

    OS                    ID    MAJOR   MINOR
    Win32s                 0      -       -
    Windows 95             1      4       0
    Windows 98             1      4      10
    Windows Me             1      4      90
    Windows NT 3.51        2      3      51
    Windows NT 4           2      4       0
    Windows 2000           2      5       0
    Windows XP             2      5       1
    Windows Server 2003    2      5       2
    Windows Vista          2      6       0
    Windows Server 2008    2      6       0
    Windows 7              2      6       1

[download]

Which should be good enough for most purposes.

Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error.
"Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority".
In the absence of evidence, opinion is indistinguishable from prejudice.
RIP an inspiration; A true Folk's Guy

In reply to Re: $^O on windows-systems and Perl interna by BrowserUk
in thread $^O on windows-systems and Perl interna by esskar

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.