GetComputerNameA function (winbase.h)
Retrieves the NetBIOS name of the local computer. This name is established at system startup, when the system reads it from the registry.
GetComputerName retrieves only the NetBIOS name of the local computer. To retrieve the DNS host name, DNS domain name, or the fully qualified DNS name, call the GetComputerNameEx function. Additional information is provided by the IADsADSystemInfo interface.
The behavior of this function can be affected if the local computer is a node in a cluster. For more information, see ResUtilGetEnvironmentWithNetName and UseNetworkName.
Syntax
BOOL GetComputerNameA(
[out] LPSTR lpBuffer,
[in, out] LPDWORD nSize
);
Parameters
[out] lpBuffer
A pointer to a buffer that receives the computer name or the cluster virtual server name. The buffer size should be large enough to contain MAX_COMPUTERNAME_LENGTH + 1 characters.
[in, out] nSize
On input, specifies the size of the buffer, in TCHARs. On output, the number of TCHARs copied to the destination buffer, not including the terminating null character.
If the buffer is too small, the function fails and GetLastError returns ERROR_BUFFER_OVERFLOW. The lpnSize parameter specifies the size of the buffer required, including the terminating null character.
Return value
If the function succeeds, the return value is a nonzero value.
If the function fails, the return value is zero. To get extended error information, call GetLastError.
Remarks
The GetComputerName function retrieves the NetBIOS name established at system startup. Name changes made by the SetComputerName or SetComputerNameEx functions do not take effect until the user restarts the computer.
If the caller is running under a client session, this function returns the server name. To retrieve the client name, use the WTSQuerySessionInformation function.
Examples
For an example, see Getting System Information.
Note
The winbase.h header defines GetComputerName as an alias that automatically selects the ANSI or Unicode version of this function based on the definition of the UNICODE preprocessor constant. Mixing usage of the encoding-neutral alias with code that is not encoding-neutral can lead to mismatches that result in compilation or runtime errors. For more information, see Conventions for Function Prototypes.
Requirements
| Requirement | Value |
|---|---|
| Minimum supported client | Windows 2000 Professional [desktop apps | UWP apps] |
| Minimum supported server | Windows 2000 Server [desktop apps | UWP apps] |
| Target Platform | Windows |
| Header | winbase.h (include Windows.h) |
| Library | Kernel32.lib |
| DLL | Kernel32.dll |