How to get the name of the current Windows user in JavaScript

Question

I was wondering how I would get the name of the current user in JavaScript as part of an HTML document   In Java  one would type System getProperty  user name    to achieve this  What is the alternative to this in JavaScript

User · Answer

If the script is running on Microsoft Windows in an HTA or similar, you can do this:

var wshshell=new ActiveXObject("wscript.shell");
var username=wshshell.ExpandEnvironmentStrings("%username%");

Otherwise, as others have pointed out, you're out of luck. This is considered to be private information and is not provided by the browser to the javascript engine.

User · Answer

I think is not possible to do that  It would be a huge security risk if a browser access to that kind of personal information

User · Answer

Working for me on IE    lt script type  text javascript  gt    var WinNetwork   new ActiveXObject  WScript Network      document write WinNetwork UserName    lt  script gt       but ActiveX controls needs to be on in security settings

User · Answer

There is no fully compatible alternative in JavaScript as it posses an unsafe security issue to allow client-side code to become aware of the logged in user   That said  the following code would allow you to get the logged in username  but it will only work on Windows  and only within Internet Explorer  as it makes use of ActiveX  Also Internet Explorer will most likely display a popup alerting you to the potential security problems associated with using this code  which won t exactly help usability    lt  doctype html gt   lt html gt   lt head gt       lt title gt Windows Username lt  title gt   lt  head gt   lt body gt   lt script type  text javascript  gt      var WinNetwork   new ActiveXObject  WScript Network        alert WinNetwork UserName     lt  script gt   lt  body gt   lt  html gt    As Surreal Dreams suggested you could use AJAX to call a server-side method that serves back the username  or render the HTML with a hidden input with a value of the logged in user  for e g    ASP NET MVC 3 syntax    lt input id  username  type  hidden  value   User Identity Name    gt

User · Answer

JavaScript runs in the context of the current HTML document  so it won t be able to determine anything about a current user unless it s in the current page or you do AJAX calls to a server-side script to get more information   JavaScript will not be able to determine your Windows user name

[javascript] How to get the name of the current Windows user in JavaScript

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