My.User.Name vs. My.User.CurrentPrincipal.Identity.Name

Question

I've found that both My.User.Name and My.User.CurrentPrincipal.Identity.Name both return the Windows login ID of the user logged in to the PC. However, is there a difference between the two? Will there ever be a case where they won't return the same value?

Answer 1

The information on the My.User MSDN page has the best summary of these values and when they differ

• http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/a3da82hw(VS.80).aspx

In summary though. The biggest difference occurs between Windows and Web Applications.

For Windows applications, this property provides the same functionality as the CurrentPrincipal property. For Web applications, this property provides the same functionality as the User property of the object returned by the Current property.