[visual-studio] How can I check what version/edition of Visual Studio is installed programmatically?

I could read registry HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\VisualStudio\10.0. However, it doesn't give me any information about the edition of it - Professional/Ultimate or whatever.

How can I get the information with programmatically (preferably python)?

if somebody needs C# example then:

var registry = Registry.ClassesRoot;
var subKeyNames = registry.GetSubKeyNames();
var regex = new Regex(@"^VisualStudio\.edmx\.(\d+)\.(\d+)$");
foreach (var subKeyName in subKeyNames)
{
    var match = regex.Match(subKeyName);
    if (match.Success)
        Console.WriteLine("V" + match.Groups[1].Value + "." + match.Groups[2].Value);
}

Run the path in cmd C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\Installer>vswhere.exe

Open the installed visual studio software and click the Help menu select the About Microsoft Visual studio--> Get the visual studio Version

You can get the VS product version by running the following command.

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\Installer\vswhere.exe" -property catalog_productDisplayVersion

Put this code somewhere in your C++ project:

#ifdef _DEBUG
TCHAR version[50];
sprintf(&version[0], "Version = %d", _MSC_VER);
MessageBox(NULL, (LPCTSTR)szMsg, "Visual Studio", MB_OK | MB_ICONINFORMATION);
#endif

Note that _MSC_VER symbol is Microsoft specific. Here you can find a list of Visual Studio versions with the value for _MSC_VER for each version.

An updated answer to this question would be the following :

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\Installer\vswhere.exe" -latest -property productId

Resolves to 2019

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\Installer\vswhere.exe" -latest -property catalog_productLineVersion

Resolves to Microsoft.VisualStudio.Product.Professional

Its not very subtle, but there is a folder in the install location that carries the installed version name.

eg I've got:

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Standard Edition - ENU

and

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Professional - ENU

You could find the install location from the registry keys you listed above.

Alternatively this will be in the registry at a number of places, eg:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\VisualStudio\9.0\Setup\Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Standard Edition - ENU

There are loads of values and keys with the string in, you can find them by looking for "Microsoft Visual Studio 2010" in the Regedit>Edit>Find function.

You'd just need to pick the one you want and do a little bit of string matching.

In Visual Studio, the Tab 'Help'-> 'About Microsoft Visual Studio' should give you the desired infos.

All the information in this thread is now out of date with the recent release of vswhere. Download that and use it.

For anyone stumbling on this question, here is the answer if you are doing C++: You can check in your cpp code for vs version like the example bellow which links against a library based on vs version being 2015 or higher:

#if (_MSC_VER > 1800)
#pragma comment (lib, "legacy_stdio_definitions.lib")
#endif

This is done at link time and no extra run-time cost.