Getting List of installed Applications
Author
Hi guys!
I'm looking for a way to find out which applications are installed on a computer.
The method I found googling was to look at the registry key
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall
Everyone says this would work great, but for me it doesn't. In this list there's only half of my apps (mostly Microsoft stuff). All the others (like Photoshop) aren't there.
Where can I find those? In the Uninstall Dialog of my OS all applications are listed, so the list must be somewhere....
(By the way: I'm on Vista 64 and C#)
Thanks for your help!
They are there - they are just listed by their GUID, not name. Open RegEdit, navigate to the mentioned registry entry and you will see a list of subentries, a lot of which look something like EFB21DE7-8C19-4A88-BB28-A766E16493BC. If you click at one, the right pane will show the various properties of the entry, like the display name (which is the name displayed in the add/remove programs in the control panel).
Author
Yeah, that's what I thought at first, too.
But I opened every single folder and checked the DisplayName Values. Some apps are hidden in there but not all of them! E.g. Photoshop isn't in there...
But I opened every single folder and checked the DisplayName Values. Some apps are hidden in there but not all of them! E.g. Photoshop isn't in there...
The example GUID I gave (EFB21DE7-8C19-4A88-BB28-A766E16493BC) is for Photoshop CS on my machine. Take note that the "display name" property isn't always the third one in the right pane - it changes positions depending on the existence of other properties. But if you're sure it's not there then I guess it's not there! If you're particularly interested in photoshop then maybe check for other registry keys that photoshop creates when installed.
Author
No, not only PS is missing. Heres a short list of all my major apps that are not in the registry at \\uninstall:
Firefox
Adobe Flash CS3
Photoshop
Audacity
Lightroom
AVRStudio
Canon Utilities
Ghostscript
Half Life 2
Miranda
Nero
Portal
Picasa
SpyBot
Steam
SyncToy
VLC Player
Worms World Party
...(much much more)...
On the otherhand many apps are in there which I don't have in my Unsinstall-Dialog (and which I have never heard of):
AddressBook
Connection Manager
DirectDraw EX
IE40
IE4Data
DXM_Runtime
MPLayer2
SchedulingAgent
....
This puzzles me quite a lot :-)
Firefox
Adobe Flash CS3
Photoshop
Audacity
Lightroom
AVRStudio
Canon Utilities
Ghostscript
Half Life 2
Miranda
Nero
Portal
Picasa
SpyBot
Steam
SyncToy
VLC Player
Worms World Party
...(much much more)...
On the otherhand many apps are in there which I don't have in my Unsinstall-Dialog (and which I have never heard of):
AddressBook
Connection Manager
DirectDraw EX
IE40
IE4Data
DXM_Runtime
MPLayer2
SchedulingAgent
....
This puzzles me quite a lot :-)
Try selecting the "uninstall" entry and then making a search for the name of the app you want. I couldn't find firefox either looking at entries starting with f, until I made a search and found that it's called "mozilla firefox (3.0.1)". Again, I'm not saying you're wrong - just that they might be eluding you.
Author
I've tried the search but there is no PS or Firefox in this folder.
I also looked at the CURRENT_USER directory as Evil Steve suggested. But there's only 2 apps in there. So there are still many missing ;-)
Maybe you can give me a hint on what to search for because there are zillions of Firefox entries in my registry. So trying to find the location where the uninstall information have been stored is quite difficult (all I know is that they are not in the uninstall directory).
I also looked at the CURRENT_USER directory as Evil Steve suggested. But there's only 2 apps in there. So there are still many missing ;-)
Maybe you can give me a hint on what to search for because there are zillions of Firefox entries in my registry. So trying to find the location where the uninstall information have been stored is quite difficult (all I know is that they are not in the uninstall directory).
Don't search the entire registry, just select the "uninstall" folder from the left (navigate to it using the original path) and with it selected, press ctrl+f and search for "firefox". At any rate, if there is no "mozilla firefox" entry under the uninstall folder then maybe something is wrong. Look for it on another machine just to make sure.
You must use COM
See on Advanced Win32 api newsgroup
news://194.177.96.26/comp.os.ms-windows.programmer.win32
where it's a FAQ.
See on Advanced Win32 api newsgroup
news://194.177.96.26/comp.os.ms-windows.programmer.win32
where it's a FAQ.
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