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I was trying to look into the implementation of GetVersion function in kernel32.dll.

I was surprised to see that the GetVersion thunk is issuing a jump to API-MS-WIN-CORE-SYSINFO-L1-1-0.DLL::GetVersion, and in turn API-MS-WIN-CORE-SYSINFO-L1-1-0.DLL::GetVersion is pointing(forwarder) back to KERNEL32.DLL::GetVersion


Any idea why is it so? So where is the real implementation of GetVersion?

Kernel32.dll

kernel32.dll

API-MS-WIN-CORE-SYSINFO-L1-1-0.DLL

enter image description here

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    to make universal crt possible most implementation were shifted to other dlls and a version agnostic stub which knows where to redirect the backward compatible and present apis were introduced which is contained in a resource only dll file named APISETSCHEMEA.dll you may check here for some internals of that here
    – blabb
    Jan 14 at 3:12
  • What @blabb said! Plus, you may want to read this and this and this as well as the code in this and this. Enjoy. Oh and my answer on the Q&A blabb linked also offers details about this topic.
    – 0xC0000022L ♦
    Jan 14 at 10:35

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GetVersion() was deprecated in 8.1 - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/sysinfo/targeting-your-application-at-windows-8-1

So I would guess that they've left the function stub there to catch and redirect calls in code that hasn't been updated.

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  • I did tried to create a dummy program to test out GetVersion and it's working fine.
    – caramel1995
    Jan 14 at 5:04
  • Besides that there are also some function that is not deprecated that has the same footprint.
    – caramel1995
    Jan 14 at 5:04
  • Deprecated means you shouldn't use it, not you can't. However, GetVersion() does anyway lie all the time unless your application happens to run with a manifest that proclaims full compatibility with the Windows release on which it runs. For the truth use RtlGetVersion or consult KUSER_SHARED_DATA. Either way, what you encountered is more about API sets than about whether GetVersion is deprecated.
    – 0xC0000022L ♦
    Jan 14 at 10:29
  • @MegaTonnage: I think in this question it's more about the API Sets rather than about why it's deprecated or so.
    – 0xC0000022L ♦
    Jan 14 at 10:41

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