Get installed applications in a system

Question

How to get the applications installed in the system using c  code

User · Answer

I agree that enumerating through the registry key is the best way.

Note, however, that the key given, @"SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall", will list all applications in a 32-bit Windows installation, and 64-bit applications in a Windows 64-bit installation.

In order to also see 32-bit applications installed on a Windows 64-bit installation, you would also need to enumeration the key @"SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall".

User · Answer

You can take a look at this article  It makes use of registry to read the list of installed applications   public void GetInstalledApps         string uninstallKey     SOFTWARE Microsoft Windows CurrentVersion Uninstall       using  RegistryKey rk   Registry LocalMachine OpenSubKey uninstallKey                 foreach  string skName in rk GetSubKeyNames                          using  RegistryKey sk   rk OpenSubKey skName                                 try                                       lstInstalled Items Add sk GetValue  DisplayName                                       catch  Exception ex

User · Answer

it s worth noting that the Win32 Product WMI class represents products as they are installed by Windows Installer  not every application use windows installer    however  SOFTWARE Microsoft Windows CurrentVersion Uninstall  represents applications for 32 bit  For 64 bit you also need to traverse  HKEY LOCAL MACHINE SOFTWARE Wow6432Node Microsoft Windows CurrentVersion Uninstall  and since not every software has a 64 bit version the total applications installed are a union of keys on both locations that have  UninstallString  Value with them   but the best options remains the same  traverse registry keys is a better approach since every application have an entry in registry including the ones in Windows Installer  however the registry method is insecure as if anyone removes the corresponding key then you will not know the Application entry On the contrary Altering the HKEY Classes ROOT Installers is more tricky as it is linked with licensing issues such as Microsoft office or other products  for more robust solution you can always combine registry alternative with the WMI

User · Answer

As others have pointed out  the accepted answer does not return both x86 and x64 installs  Below is my solution for that  It creates a StringBuilder  appends the registry values to it  with formatting   and writes its output to a text file  const string FORMAT    quot  0 -100   1 -20   2 -30   3 -8  n quot    private void LogInstalledSoftware         var line   string Format FORMAT   quot DisplayName quot    quot Version quot    quot Publisher quot    quot InstallDate quot        line    string Format FORMAT   quot ----------- quot    quot ------- quot    quot --------- quot    quot ----------- quot        var sb   new StringBuilder line  100000       ReadRegistryUninstall ref sb  RegistryView Registry32       sb Append   quot  n 64 bit section  n n line  quot        ReadRegistryUninstall ref sb  RegistryView Registry64       File WriteAllText   quot c  temp log txt quot   sb ToString           private static void ReadRegistryUninstall ref StringBuilder sb  RegistryView view                const string REGISTRY KEY     quot SOFTWARE Microsoft Windows CurrentVersion Uninstall quot           using var baseKey   RegistryKey OpenBaseKey RegistryHive LocalMachine  view           using var subKey   baseKey OpenSubKey REGISTRY KEY           foreach  string subkey name in subKey GetSubKeyNames                          using RegistryKey key   subKey OpenSubKey subkey name               if   string IsNullOrEmpty key GetValue  quot DisplayName quot   as string                                 var line   string Format FORMAT                      key GetValue  quot DisplayName quot                        key GetValue  quot DisplayVersion quot                        key GetValue  quot Publisher quot                        key GetValue  quot InstallDate quot                     sb Append line                             key Close                      subKey Close            baseKey Close

User · Answer

Your best bet is to use WMI  Specifically the Win32 Product class

User · Answer

Iterate through  HKEY LOCAL MACHINE SOFTWARE Microsoft Windows CurrentVersion Uninstall  keys and check their  DisplayName  values

User · Answer

My requirement is to check if specific software is installed in my system  This solution works as expected  It might help you  I used a windows application in c  with visual studio 2015    private void Form1 Load object sender  EventArgs e                         object line              string softwareinstallpath   string Empty              string registry key     SOFTWARE Microsoft Windows CurrentVersion Uninstall               using  var baseKey   Microsoft Win32 RegistryKey OpenBaseKey RegistryHive LocalMachine  RegistryView Registry64                                 using  var key   baseKey OpenSubKey registry key                                         foreach  string subkey name in key GetSubKeyNames                                                  using  var subKey   key OpenSubKey subkey name                                                         line   subKey GetValue  DisplayName                                if  line    null  amp  amp   line ToString   ToUpper   Contains  SPARK                                                                    softwareinstallpath   subKey GetValue  InstallLocation   ToString                                    listBox1 Items Add subKey GetValue  InstallLocation                                     break                                                                                                                             if softwareinstallpath Equals string Empty                                 MessageBox Show  The Mirth connect software not installed in this system                                 string targetPath   softwareinstallpath      custom-lib                string   files   System IO Directory GetFiles   D  BaseFiles                    Copy the files and overwrite destination files if they already exist               foreach  var item in files                                string srcfilepath   item                  string fileName   System IO Path GetFileName item                   System IO File Copy srcfilepath  targetPath   fileName  true                             return

User · Answer

Might I suggest you take a look at WMI  Windows Management Instrumentation   If you add the System Management reference to your C  project  you ll gain access to the class  ManagementObjectSearcher   which you will probably find useful   There are various WMI Classes for Installed Applications  but if it was installed with Windows Installer  then the Win32 Product class is probably best suited to you   ManagementObjectSearcher s   new ManagementObjectSearcher  SELECT   FROM Win32 Product

User · Answer

I used Nicks approach - I needed to check whether the Remote Tools for Visual Studio are installed or not  it seems a bit slow  but in a seperate thread this is fine for me  - here my extended code       private bool isRdInstalled             ManagementObjectSearcher p   new ManagementObjectSearcher  SELECT   FROM Win32 Product            foreach  ManagementObject program in p Get                  if  program    null  amp  amp  program GetPropertyValue  Name      null  amp  amp  program GetPropertyValue  Name   ToString   Contains  Microsoft Visual Studio 2012 Remote Debugger                      return true                            if  program    null  amp  amp  program GetPropertyValue  Name      null                    Trace WriteLine program GetPropertyValue  Name                                     return false

User · Answer

While the accepted solution works  it is not complete  By far   If you want to get all the keys  you need to take into consideration 2 more things      x86  amp  x64 applications do not have access to the same registry    Basically x86 cannot normally access x64 registry  And some   applications only register to the x64 registry    and     some applications actually install into the CurrentUser registry instead of the LocalMachine   With that in mind  I managed to get ALL installed applications using the following code  WITHOUT using WMI  Here is the code   List lt string gt  installs   new List lt string gt     List lt string gt  keys   new List lt string gt          SOFTWARE Microsoft Windows CurrentVersion Uninstall       SOFTWARE WOW6432Node Microsoft Windows CurrentVersion Uninstall         The RegistryView Registry64 forces the application to open the registry as x64 even if the application is compiled as x86  FindInstalls RegistryKey OpenBaseKey RegistryHive LocalMachine  RegistryView Registry64   keys  installs   FindInstalls RegistryKey OpenBaseKey RegistryHive CurrentUser  RegistryView Registry64   keys  installs    installs   installs Where s   gt   string IsNullOrWhiteSpace s   Distinct   ToList    installs Sort       The list of ALL installed applications    private void FindInstalls RegistryKey regKey  List lt string gt  keys  List lt string gt  installed      foreach  string key in keys          using  RegistryKey rk   regKey OpenSubKey key               if  rk    null                  continue                foreach  string skName in rk GetSubKeyNames                    using  RegistryKey sk   rk OpenSubKey skName                       try                         installed Add Convert ToString sk GetValue  DisplayName                            catch  Exception ex

User · Answer

I wanted to be able to extract a list of apps just as they appear in the start menu  Using the registry  I was getting entries that do not show up in the start menu    I also wanted to find the exe path and to extract an icon to eventually make a nice looking launcher  Unfortunately  with the registry method this is kind of a hit and miss since my observations are that this information isn t reliably available    My alternative is based around the shell AppsFolder which you can access by running explorer exe shell appsFolder and which lists all apps  including store apps  currently installed and available through the start menu  The issue is that this is a virtual folder that can t be accessed with System IO Directory  Instead  you would have to use native shell32 commands  Fortunately  Microsoft published the Microsoft WindowsAPICodePack-Shell on Nuget which is a wrapper for the aforementioned commands  Enough said  here s the code      GUID taken from https   docs microsoft com en-us windows win32 shell knownfolderid var FOLDERID AppsFolder   new Guid   1e87508d-89c2-42f0-8a7e-645a0f50ca58     ShellObject appsFolder    ShellObject KnownFolderHelper FromKnownFolderId FOLDERID AppsFolder    foreach  var app in  IKnownFolder appsFolder           The friendly app name     string name   app Name         The ParsingName property is the AppUserModelID     string appUserModelID   app ParsingName     or app Properties System AppUserModel ID        You can even get the Jumbo icon in one shot     ImageSource icon    app Thumbnail ExtraLargeBitmapSource      And that s all there is to it  You can also start the apps using   System Diagnostics Process Start  explorer exe      shell appsFolder     appModelUserID     This works for regular Win32 apps and UWP store apps  How about them apples   Since you are interested in listing all installed apps  it is reasonable to expect that you might want to monitor for new apps or uninstalled apps as well  which you can do using the ShellObjectWatcher   ShellObjectWatcher sow   new ShellObjectWatcher appsFolder  false   sow AllEvents     s  e    gt  DoWhatever    sow Start      Edit  One might also be interested in knowing that the AppUserMoedlID mentioned above is the unique ID Windows uses to group windows in the taskbar

User · Answer

The object for the list   public class InstalledProgram       public string DisplayName   get  set        public string Version   get  set        public string InstalledDate   get  set        public string Publisher   get  set        public string UnninstallCommand   get  set        public string ModifyPath   get  set        The call for creating the list       List lt InstalledProgram gt  installedprograms   new List lt InstalledProgram gt         string registry key     SOFTWARE Microsoft Windows CurrentVersion Uninstall       using  RegistryKey key   Registry LocalMachine OpenSubKey registry key                 foreach  string subkey name in key GetSubKeyNames                          using  RegistryKey subkey   key OpenSubKey subkey name                                 if  subkey GetValue  DisplayName      null                                        installedprograms Add new InstalledProgram                                               DisplayName    string subkey GetValue  DisplayName                            Version    string subkey GetValue  DisplayVersion                            InstalledDate    string subkey GetValue  InstallDate                            Publisher    string subkey GetValue  Publisher                            UnninstallCommand    string subkey GetValue  UninstallString                            ModifyPath    string subkey GetValue  ModifyPath

User · Answer

Iterating through the registry key  SOFTWARE Microsoft Windows CurrentVersion Uninstall  seems to give a comprehensive list of installed applications   Aside from the example below  you can find a similar version to what I ve done here   This is a rough example  you ll probaby want to do something to strip out blank rows like in the 2nd link provided   string registry key     SOFTWARE Microsoft Windows CurrentVersion Uninstall   using Microsoft Win32 RegistryKey key   Registry LocalMachine OpenSubKey registry key         foreach string subkey name in key GetSubKeyNames                  using RegistryKey subkey   key OpenSubKey subkey name                         Console WriteLine subkey GetValue  DisplayName                         Alternatively  you can use WMI as has been mentioned   ManagementObjectSearcher mos   new ManagementObjectSearcher  SELECT   FROM Win32 Product    foreach ManagementObject mo in mos Get          Console WriteLine mo  Name         But this is rather slower to execute  and I ve heard it may only list programs installed under  ALLUSERS   though that may be incorrect  It also ignores the Windows components  amp  updates  which may be handy for you

User · Answer

Use Windows Installer API   It allows to make reliable enumeration of all programs  Registry is not reliable  but WMI is heavyweight

[c#] Get installed applications in a system

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