How to detect my browser version and operating system using JavaScript?

Question

I have tried using the code below but it only display results in Chrome and Mozilla not working in IE6.

<div id="example"></div>

<script type="text/javascript">

txt = "<p>Browser CodeName: " + navigator.appCodeName + "</p>";
txt+= "<p>Browser Name: " + navigator.appName + "</p>";
txt+= "<p>Browser Version: " + navigator.appVersion + "</p>";
txt+= "<p>Cookies Enabled: " + navigator.cookieEnabled + "</p>";
txt+= "<p>Platform: " + navigator.platform + "</p>";
txt+= "<p>User-agent header: " + navigator.userAgent + "</p>";

document.getElementById("example").innerHTML=txt;

</script>

Output:

Browser CodeName: Mozilla

Browser Name: Netscape

Browser Version: 5.0 (Windows)

Cookies Enabled: true

Platform: Win32

User-agent header: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1; rv:12.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/12.0

I need to get the version "Firefox/12.0" only.

Answer 1

2023:

navigator.platform and navigator.appVersion are deprecated, and navigator.userAgent is being reduced to contain less info, which has gradually happened between chrome version 100-113.

The modern way is to use navigator.userAgentData, it's very nice and declaritive:

See more details in this google blog.

However, FireFox and Safari hasn't adopted it yet, so this answer is a future-oriented one. Be sure to check caniuse before use.

Answer 2

I needed a 2023 code to handle iPhone and iPad separately.

navigator.platform is deprecated.

I just typed a savage code for a late night experiment.

Tested with iPhone & iPad 16.3, Android Phone, Windows 10.

Missing Android Tablets.

Not tested on Mac & Linux.

navigator.maxTouchPoints is tested greater or equal to work with Chrome simulator, remove equal to test with real devices.

About browser name and version, it's a bit tricky these days, navigator.appVersion is also deprecated.

There are many x.xx.xxx matches in userAgent, maybe the one we want is always the last.

Or not, my Samsung S10 userAgent is :

Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; Android 12; SM-G975F) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/110.0.0.0 Mobile Safari/537.36

Is it a Linux system running some Mozilla code using Safari to sandbox Chrome and make it run on an Android device ? omg

So I removed the leading "Mozilla/x.x, introduced an offset and ignored iOs version.

Don't use in production.

Anyway, the code should not rely on what machine it's running on.

Had a lot of fun though.

(() => {

console.log(navigator.userAgent);

let ua = navigator.userAgent.toLowerCase().replace(/^mozilla\/\d\.\d\W/, "");

let mobiles = {
            
        "iphone": /iphone/, 
        "ipad": /ipad|macintosh/, 
        "android": /android/
        
    };
    desktops = {

        "windows": /win/, 
        "mac": /macintosh/, 
        "linux": /linux/

    };

let os = Object.keys(mobiles)
.find(os => mobiles[os].test(ua) && navigator.maxTouchPoints >= 1) 
|| 
Object.keys(desktops)
.find(os => desktops[os].test(ua));

let browserTest = ua.match(/(\w+)\/(\d+\.\d+(?:\.\d+)?(?:\.\d+)?)/g), 
    browserOffset = browserTest.length && (browserTest.length > 2 && !(/^(ver|cri|gec)/.test(browserTest[1])) ? 1 : 0), 
    browserResult = browserTest.length && browserTest[browserTest.length - 1 - browserOffset].split("/"), 
    browser = browserResult && browserResult[0], 
    version = browserResult && browserResult[1];

console.log(os, browser, version);

})();

Fun facts :

• iPhone 12 mini iOs 16.3 userAgent returns iOs 16.1
• Firefox on Android is detected
• All browsers on iOs return Safari
• It's a complete mess

Answer 3

Detecting browser's details:

var nVer = navigator.appVersion;
var nAgt = navigator.userAgent;
var browserName  = navigator.appName;
var fullVersion  = ''+parseFloat(navigator.appVersion); 
var majorVersion = parseInt(navigator.appVersion,10);
var nameOffset,verOffset,ix;

// In Opera, the true version is after "OPR" or after "Version"
if ((verOffset=nAgt.indexOf("OPR"))!=-1) {
 browserName = "Opera";
 fullVersion = nAgt.substring(verOffset+4);
 if ((verOffset=nAgt.indexOf("Version"))!=-1) 
   fullVersion = nAgt.substring(verOffset+8);
}
// In MS Edge, the true version is after "Edg" in userAgent
else if ((verOffset=nAgt.indexOf("Edg"))!=-1) {
 browserName = "Microsoft Edge";
 fullVersion = nAgt.substring(verOffset+4);
}
// In MSIE, the true version is after "MSIE" in userAgent
else if ((verOffset=nAgt.indexOf("MSIE"))!=-1) {
 browserName = "Microsoft Internet Explorer";
 fullVersion = nAgt.substring(verOffset+5);
}
// In Chrome, the true version is after "Chrome" 
else if ((verOffset=nAgt.indexOf("Chrome"))!=-1) {
 browserName = "Chrome";
 fullVersion = nAgt.substring(verOffset+7);
}
// In Safari, the true version is after "Safari" or after "Version" 
else if ((verOffset=nAgt.indexOf("Safari"))!=-1) {
 browserName = "Safari";
 fullVersion = nAgt.substring(verOffset+7);
 if ((verOffset=nAgt.indexOf("Version"))!=-1) 
   fullVersion = nAgt.substring(verOffset+8);
}
// In Firefox, the true version is after "Firefox" 
else if ((verOffset=nAgt.indexOf("Firefox"))!=-1) {
 browserName = "Firefox";
 fullVersion = nAgt.substring(verOffset+8);
}
// In most other browsers, "name/version" is at the end of userAgent 
else if ( (nameOffset=nAgt.lastIndexOf(' ')+1) < 
          (verOffset=nAgt.lastIndexOf('/')) ) 
{
 browserName = nAgt.substring(nameOffset,verOffset);
 fullVersion = nAgt.substring(verOffset+1);
 if (browserName.toLowerCase()==browserName.toUpperCase()) {
  browserName = navigator.appName;
 }
}
// trim the fullVersion string at semicolon/space if present
if ((ix=fullVersion.indexOf(";"))!=-1)
   fullVersion=fullVersion.substring(0,ix);
if ((ix=fullVersion.indexOf(" "))!=-1)
   fullVersion=fullVersion.substring(0,ix);

majorVersion = parseInt(''+fullVersion,10);
if (isNaN(majorVersion)) {
 fullVersion  = ''+parseFloat(navigator.appVersion); 
 majorVersion = parseInt(navigator.appVersion,10);
}

document.write(''
 +'Browser name  = '+browserName+'<br>'
 +'Full version  = '+fullVersion+'<br>'
 +'Major version = '+majorVersion+'<br>'
 +'navigator.appName = '+navigator.appName+'<br>'
 +'navigator.userAgent = '+navigator.userAgent+'<br>'
)

Source JavaScript: browser name.
See JSFiddle to detect Browser Details.

Detecting OS:

// This script sets OSName variable as follows:
// "Windows"    for all versions of Windows
// "MacOS"      for all versions of Macintosh OS
// "Linux"      for all versions of Linux
// "UNIX"       for all other UNIX flavors 
// "Unknown OS" indicates failure to detect the OS

var OSName="Unknown OS";
if (navigator.appVersion.indexOf("Win")!=-1) OSName="Windows";
if (navigator.appVersion.indexOf("Mac")!=-1) OSName="MacOS";
if (navigator.appVersion.indexOf("X11")!=-1) OSName="UNIX";
if (navigator.appVersion.indexOf("Linux")!=-1) OSName="Linux";

document.write('Your OS: '+OSName);

Source JavaScript: OS detection.
See JSFiddle to detect OS Details.

Answer 4

There are 3 libraries for this purpose. You can compare them online https://www.whatsmyua.info (load this page in different browsers & devices) and choose the best one that fits your needs.

1. usage example for platform.js

<script src="platform.js"></script>

// on an iPad
platform.name; // 'Safari'
platform.version; // '5.1'
platform.product; // 'iPad'
platform.manufacturer; // 'Apple'
platform.layout; // 'WebKit'
platform.os; // 'iOS 5.0'
platform.description; // 'Safari 5.1 on Apple iPad (iOS 5.0)'

// or parsing a given UA string
var info = platform.parse('Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.7.2; en; rv:2.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/4.0 Opera 11.52');
info.name; // 'Opera'
info.version; // '11.52'
info.layout; // 'Presto'
info.os; // 'Mac OS X 10.7.2'
info.description; // 'Opera 11.52 (identifying as Firefox 4.0) on Mac OS X 10.7.2'

2. usage example for ua-parser.js

<script src="ua-parser.min.js"></script>

var parser = new UAParser();
console.log(parser.getResult());
/*
    /// This will print an object structured like this:
    {
        ua: "",
        browser: {
            name: "",
            version: "",
            major: "" //@deprecated
        },
        engine: {
            name: "",
            version: ""
        },
        os: {
            name: "",
            version: ""
        },
        device: {
            model: "",
            type: "",
            vendor: ""
        },
        cpu: {
            architecture: ""
        }
    }
*/
// Default result depends on current window.navigator.userAgent value

// Now let's try a custom user-agent string as an example
var uastring1 = "Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) AppleWebKit/535.2 (KHTML, like Gecko) Ubuntu/11.10 Chromium/15.0.874.106 Chrome/15.0.874.106 Safari/535.2";
parser.setUA(uastring1);
var result = parser.getResult();
// You can also use UAParser constructor directly without having to create an instance:
// var result = UAParser(uastring1);

console.log(result.browser);        // {name: "Chromium", version: "15.0.874.106"}
console.log(result.device);         // {model: undefined, type: undefined, vendor: undefined}
console.log(result.os);             // {name: "Ubuntu", version: "11.10"}
console.log(result.os.version);     // "11.10"
console.log(result.engine.name);    // "WebKit"
console.log(result.cpu.architecture);   // "amd64"

Answer 5

Update

I had some good experiences with Platform.js (demo here), but still, caution is adviced:

Original Post

I'd like to refer you to the author of WhichBrowser: Everybody lies.

Basically, no browser is being honest. No matter if you use Chrome or IE, they both will tell you that they are "Mozilla Netscape" with Gecko and Safari support. Try it yourself on any of the fiddles flying around in this thread:

hims056's fiddle

Hariharan's fiddle

or any other... Try it with Chrome (which might still succeed), then try it with a recent version of IE, and you will cry. Of course, there are heuristics, to get it all right, but it will be tedious to grasp all the edge cases, and they will very likely not work anymore in a year's time.

Take your code, for example:

<div id="example"></div>
<script type="text/javascript">
txt = "<p>Browser CodeName: " + navigator.appCodeName + "</p>";
txt+= "<p>Browser Name: " + navigator.appName + "</p>";
txt+= "<p>Browser Version: " + navigator.appVersion + "</p>";
txt+= "<p>Cookies Enabled: " + navigator.cookieEnabled + "</p>";
txt+= "<p>Platform: " + navigator.platform + "</p>";
txt+= "<p>User-agent header: " + navigator.userAgent + "</p>";
document.getElementById("example").innerHTML=txt;
</script>

Chrome says:

Browser CodeName: Mozilla

Browser Name: Netscape

Browser Version: 5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/40.0.2214.115 Safari/537.36

Cookies Enabled: true

Platform: Win32

User-agent header: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/40.0.2214.115 Safari/537.36

IE says:

Browser CodeName: Mozilla

Browser Name: Netscape

Browser Version: 5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; Trident/7.0; SLCC2; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 3.5.30729; .NET CLR 3.0.30729; Media Center PC 6.0; .NET4.0C; .NET4.0E; InfoPath.3; rv:11.0) like Gecko

Cookies Enabled: true

Platform: Win32

User-agent header: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; Trident/7.0; SLCC2; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 3.5.30729; .NET CLR 3.0.30729; Media Center PC 6.0; .NET4.0C; .NET4.0E; InfoPath.3; rv:11.0) like Gecko

At least Chrome still has a string that contains "Chrome" with the exact version number. But, for IE you must extrapolate from the things it supports to actually figure it out (who else would boast that they support .NET or Media Center :P), and then match it against the rv: at the very end to get the version number. Of course, even such sophisticated heuristics might very likely fail as soon as IE 12 (or whatever they want to call it) comes out.

Answer 6

To get the new Microsoft Edge based on a Mozilla core add:

else if ((verOffset=nAgt.indexOf("Edg"))!=-1) {
 browserName = "Microsoft Edge";
 fullVersion = nAgt.substring(verOffset+5);
}

before

// In Chrome, the true version is after "Chrome" 
else if ((verOffset=nAgt.indexOf("Chrome"))!=-1) {
 browserName = "Chrome";
 fullVersion = nAgt.substring(verOffset+7);
}

Answer 7

Code to detect the operating system of an user

let os = navigator.userAgent.slice(13).split(';')
os = os[0]

console.log(os)

Windows NT 10.0

Answer 8

I wasn't able to get some of the other answers to work on Chrome, Firefox, IE11, and Edge with the same code. I came up with the below and it appears to work for those browsers listed above. I also wanted to see what OS the user was on. I haven't tested this against a browser with user overridden User-Agent settings, so mileage may vary. The order of the IFs is important for this to work correctly.

let os, osStore, bStore, appVersion, browser;
// Chrome
if(navigator.vendor === "Google Inc."){
    appVersion = navigator.appVersion.split(" ");
    os = [appVersion[1],appVersion[2],appVersion[3],appVersion[4],appVersion[5]].join(" ");
    os = os.split("(")[1].split(")")[0]
    browser = appVersion[appVersion.length-2].split("/").join(" ");
    console.log("Browser:",browser,"- OS:",os);
}

// Safari
else if(navigator.vendor === "Apple Computer, Inc."){
    appVersion = navigator.appVersion.split(" ");
    os = [appVersion[1],appVersion[2],appVersion[3],appVersion[4],appVersion[5]].join(" ");
    os = os.split("(")[1].split(")")[0];
    browser = appVersion[appVersion.length-1].split("/").join(" ");
    console.log("Browser:",browser,"- OS:",os);
}

// Firefox is seems the only browser with oscpu
else if(navigator.oscpu){
    bStore = navigator.userAgent.split("; ").join("-").split(" ");
    browser = bStore[bStore.length-1].replace("/"," ");
    osStore = [bStore[1],bStore[2],bStore[3]].join(" ");
    osStore = osStore.split("-");
    osStore.pop(osStore.lastIndexOf)
    osStore = osStore.join(" ").split("(");
    os = osStore[1];
    console.log("Browser:",browser,"- OS:",os);
}

// IE is seems the only browser with cpuClass
// MSIE 11:10 Mode
else if(navigator.appName === "Microsoft Internet Explorer"){
    bStore = navigator.appVersion.split("; ");
    browser = bStore[1]+" / "+bStore[4].replace("/"," ");
    os = [bStore[2],bStore[3]].join(" ");
    console.log("Browser:",browser,"- OS:",os);
}

// MSIE 11
else if(navigator.cpuClass){
    bStore = navigator.appVersion.split("; ");
    osStore = [bStore[0],bStore[1]].join(" ");
    os = osStore.split("(")[1];
    browser = "MSIE 11 "+bStore[2].split("/").join(" ");
    console.log("Browser:",browser,"- OS:",os);
}

// Edge
else if(navigator.appVersion){
    browser = navigator.appVersion.split(" ");
    browser = browser[browser.length -1].split("/").join(" ");
    os = navigator.appVersion.split(")")[0].split("(")[1];
    console.log("Browser:",browser,"- OS:",os);
}

// Other browser
else {
    console.log(JSON.stringify(navigator));
}

Answer 9

To detect operating system using JavaScript it is better to use navigator.userAgent instead of navigator.appVersion

{
  var OSName = "Unknown OS";
  if (navigator.userAgent.indexOf("Win") != -1) OSName = "Windows";
  if (navigator.userAgent.indexOf("Mac") != -1) OSName = "Macintosh";
  if (navigator.userAgent.indexOf("Linux") != -1) OSName = "Linux";
  if (navigator.userAgent.indexOf("Android") != -1) OSName = "Android";
  if (navigator.userAgent.indexOf("like Mac") != -1) OSName = "iOS";
  console.log('Your OS: ' + OSName);
}

Answer 10

For Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Internet Explorer and Safari

var ua="Mozilla/1.22 (compatible; MSIE 10.0; Windows 3.1)";
//ua = navigator.userAgent;
var b;
var browser;
if(ua.indexOf("Opera")!=-1) {

    b=browser="Opera";
}
if(ua.indexOf("Firefox")!=-1 && ua.indexOf("Opera")==-1) {
    b=browser="Firefox";
    // Opera may also contains Firefox
}
if(ua.indexOf("Chrome")!=-1) {
    b=browser="Chrome";
}
if(ua.indexOf("Safari")!=-1 && ua.indexOf("Chrome")==-1) {
    b=browser="Safari";
    // Chrome always contains Safari
}

if(ua.indexOf("MSIE")!=-1 && (ua.indexOf("Opera")==-1 && ua.indexOf("Trident")==-1)) {
    b="MSIE";
    browser="Internet Explorer";
    //user agent with MSIE and Opera or MSIE and Trident may exist.
}

if(ua.indexOf("Trident")!=-1) {
    b="Trident";
    browser="Internet Explorer";
}

// now for version


var version=ua.match(b+"[ /]+[0-9]+(.[0-9]+)*")[0];

console.log("broswer",browser);
console.log("version",version);

Answer 11

There is a library for this purpose: https://github.com/bestiejs/platform.js#readme

Then you can use it this way

// example 1
platform.os; // 'Windows Server 2008 R2 / 7 x64'

// example 2 on an iPad
platform.os; // 'iOS 5.0'

// you can also access on the browser and some other properties
platform.name; // 'Safari'
platform.version; // '5.1'
platform.product; // 'iPad'
platform.manufacturer; // 'Apple'
platform.layout; // 'WebKit'

// or use the description to put all together
platform.description; // 'Safari 5.1 on Apple iPad (iOS 5.0)'

Answer 12

Try this one..

// Browser with version  Detection
navigator.sayswho= (function(){
    var N= navigator.appName, ua= navigator.userAgent, tem;
    var M= ua.match(/(opera|chrome|safari|firefox|msie)\/?\s*(\.?\d+(\.\d+)*)/i);
    if(M && (tem= ua.match(/version\/([\.\d]+)/i))!= null) M[2]= tem[1];
    M= M? [M[1], M[2]]: [N, navigator.appVersion,'-?'];
    return M;
})();

var browser_version          = navigator.sayswho;
alert("Welcome to " + browser_version);

check out the working fiddle ( here )

Answer 13

PPK's script is THE authority for this kind of things, as @Jalpesh said, this might point you in the right way

var wn = window.navigator,
        platform = wn.platform.toString().toLowerCase(),
        userAgent = wn.userAgent.toLowerCase(),
        storedName;

// ie
    if (userAgent.indexOf('msie',0) !== -1) {
        browserName = 'ie';
        os = 'win';
        storedName = userAgent.match(/msie[ ]\d{1}/).toString();
        version = storedName.replace(/msie[ ]/,'');

        browserOsVersion = browserName + version;
    }

Taken from https://github.com/leopic/jquery.detectBrowser.js/blob/sans-jquery/jquery.detectBrowser.sansjQuery.js