diff --git a/code/nel/include/nel/misc/common.h b/code/nel/include/nel/misc/common.h
index c2a40cc0f..10f6a97e6 100644
--- a/code/nel/include/nel/misc/common.h
+++ b/code/nel/include/nel/misc/common.h
@@ -349,6 +349,9 @@ std::string formatThousands(const std::string& s);
 /// The program will be launched in the current directory
 bool launchProgram (const std::string &programName, const std::string &arguments, bool log = true);
 
+/// This function executes a program and returns output as a string
+std::string getCommandOutput(const std::string &command);
+
 /// This function kills a program using his pid (on unix, it uses the kill() POSIX function)
 bool killProgram(uint32 pid);
 
diff --git a/code/nel/src/misc/common.cpp b/code/nel/src/misc/common.cpp
index 8eca1d566..d2d2e5cb0 100644
--- a/code/nel/src/misc/common.cpp
+++ b/code/nel/src/misc/common.cpp
@@ -23,6 +23,10 @@
 #	include <ShellAPI.h>
 #	include <io.h>
 #	include <tchar.h>
+
+#define popen _popen
+#define pclose _pclose
+
 #elif defined NL_OS_MAC
 #	include <ApplicationServices/ApplicationServices.h>
 #elif defined NL_OS_UNIX
@@ -32,6 +36,8 @@
 #	include <sched.h>
 #endif
 
+#define MAX_LINE_WIDTH 256
+
 #include "nel/misc/command.h"
 #include "nel/misc/path.h"
 #include "nel/misc/i18n.h"
@@ -840,6 +846,25 @@ bool launchProgram(const std::string &programName, const std::string &arguments,
 
 }
 
+std::string getCommandOutput(const std::string &command)
+{
+	FILE *pipe = popen(command.c_str(), "r");
+	
+	if (!pipe) return "";
+
+	char buffer[MAX_LINE_WIDTH];
+	std::string result;
+
+	while (!feof(pipe))
+	{
+		if (fgets(buffer, MAX_LINE_WIDTH, pipe) != NULL) result += buffer;
+	}
+		
+	pclose(pipe);
+
+	return result;
+}
+
 /*
  * Display the bits (with 0 and 1) composing a byte (from right to left)
  */