GetCurrentTime and GetTickCount Functions Identical

 Last reviewed: November 2, 1995
Article ID: Q45702
The information in this article applies to:
  • Microsoft Windows Software Development Kit (SDK) versions 3.0 and 3.1
  • Microsoft Win32 Application Programming Interface (API) included with: 

        - Microsoft Windows NT versions 3.5 and 3.51
    - Microsoft Windows 95 version 4.0

The GetCurrentTime() and GetTickCount() functions are identical. Each returns the number of milliseconds (+/- 55 milliseconds) since the user started Windows, and the return value of each function is declared to be a DWORD.

The following code demonstrates these two functions: 

   DWORD dwCurrTime;
   DWORD dwTickCount;
   char szCurrTime[50];

   dwCurrTime = GetCurrentTime ();
   dwTickCount = GetTickCount ();

   sprintf (szCurrTime, "Current time = %lu\nTick count = %lu",
            dwCurrTime, dwTickCount);

   MessageBox (hWnd, szCurrTime, "Times", MB_OK);
NOTE: GetCurrentTime() and GetTickCount() return an unsigned double word (32-bit DWORD) which gives a maximum count of 4,294,967,296 ticks. This number will yield a maximum count of 49.71 days which the system keeps track of running time.

Additional reference words: 3.00 3.10 3.50 3.51 4.00 95
KBCategory: kbui
KBSubcategory: UsrTim

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Last reviewed: November 2, 1995
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