Find Windows username in PHP

Question

How can I retrieve the username of the currently logged on Windows user in PHP?

Solution 1

This code will display username under which PHP/WebServer is run. If you run such script in CLI mode, it will show your login name, otherwise it will be username for the webserver user:

$obj = new COM("wscript.network");
echo $obj->username;

Further information

• http://php.net/manual/en/function.com-get.php
• http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/3fxhka75%28v=vs.85%29.aspx

---

An Alternative would be via WMIC:

exec('wmic COMPUTERSYSTEM Get UserName', $user)
print_r($user);

For more details on WMIC, see

• WMIC - Take Command-line Control over WMI and
• Windows Management Instrumentation Command

Solution 2

Assuming you are referring to the username of the user running PHP, this can be retrieved using:

$username = getenv("username");

If you mean the username of the person viewing the webpage - due to security issues in browsers, this is not possible.