List of Kernel32.dll versions that ship with various Windows versions?

Question

I'm trying to find out the true Windows version. For some reason my Wise installer sometimes reports the an XP version # on Windows 7.

One solution is to look at the kernel32.dll version as mentioned here: How to detect true Windows version?

I'm trying to find out the corresponding Windows version for various Kernel32.dll versions.

Answer 1

I could not find a list of Kernel32.dll versions for each release of Windows, but from testing (XP SP3, Vista, Windows 7) the Kernel32.dll version # (Major.Minor) is the same as the Windows version.

What I specifically found (for this version of windows, this version of Kernel32.dll) * Windows XP (win version 5.1) ,5.1.x * Windows Vista (win version 6.0), 6.0.x * Windows 7 (Win version 6.1), 6.1.x

This isn't perfect but it's better than any other method as a double check to see if the installer is reporting the wrong windows version #. (I realize that we should be trying to figure out why the installer reports the wrong version but it's only happening in about 1% of cases and I can't repro it, so a Kludge is called for.)

Answer 2

Here you can find some versions and even difference between them:
https://abi-laboratory.pro/index.php?view=windows

As you can see, the version numbers aren't always equivalent to OS version, but there are also other differences such as API or even DLL availability (although I would think twice before relying on it).