Detecting another installed application

[John J. Hughes II]

I have several application which may or may not be installed on a machine.
I would like to call one application from another application if it's
installed. Basically add a menu item the runs the other application. I am
trying to determine if the application is installed. The application mayb
not be running. It seems best not to look in the expected program path
since they have the option of installing it somewhere else. I was also
thinking that setting a reg value might get me in a permission problem
situation. Can I check if the application is installed the same way the
installer does and if so how?

Regards,
John

[Matt]

John J. Hughes II wrote:

I have several application which may or may not be installed on a machine.
I would like to call one application from another application if it's
installed. Basically add a menu item the runs the other application. I am
trying to determine if the application is installed. The application mayb
not be running. It seems best not to look in the expected program path
since they have the option of installing it somewhere else. I was also
thinking that setting a reg value might get me in a permission problem
situation. Can I check if the application is installed the same way the
installer does and if so how?

Assuming that your application is installed in some standard way and
has an "uninstall" entry, you can find what you need in the registry.

Iterate through the keys under:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Mi*crosoft/Windows/CurrentVersion*/Uninstall
and look for the ones you want.

matt

[John J. Hughes II]

Ok, thanks, just need to look at the display name field if it exist.

Oh I am using the VS installer.

Regards,
John

"Matt" <ma********@sprynet.com> wrote in message
news:11**********************@o13g2000cwo.googlegr oups.com...

John J. Hughes II wrote:

I have several application which may or may not be installed on a machine.
I would like to call one application from another application if it's
installed. Basically add a menu item the runs the other application. I
am
trying to determine if the application is installed. The application mayb
not be running. It seems best not to look in the expected program path
since they have the option of installing it somewhere else. I was also
thinking that setting a reg value might get me in a permission problem
situation. Can I check if the application is installed the same way the
installer does and if so how?

Assuming that your application is installed in some standard way and
has an "uninstall" entry, you can find what you need in the registry.

Iterate through the keys under:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Mi*crosoft/Windows/CurrentVersion*/Uninstall
and look for the ones you want.

matt