Applies to: desktop apps only

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 WINAPI GetComputerName(
  __out    LPTSTR lpBuffer,
  __inout  LPDWORD lpnSize
);

Parameters

lpBuffer [out]

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.

lpnSize [in, out]

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.

Requirements

See also

Computer Names

GetComputerNameEx

SetComputerName

SetComputerNameEx

System Information Functions

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Build date: 5/5/2012