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rharrison33
rharrison33

Reputation: 1282

Get Product Version from Product Code in C#

I need to find the product version of an installed application using the product code GUID. Is there a way to do this using a simple API call of some sort? I have found ways to do it using P/Invoke and the WindowsInstaller namespace, but I am trying to avoid using P/Invoke.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 1724

Answers (2)

jbudreau
jbudreau

Reputation: 1307

If you want to get sneaky you can look through the registry to figure it out. When an MSI is installed windows creates a set of registry keys under:
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\<munged-ProductCode>
or
HKLM\Software\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\<munged-ProductCode>
(depending on your machine/MSI bitness)

Under that registry location there should be a registry value named "ProductVersion". The trick is to know how to 'munge' a windows GUID (see http://www.vmwareinfo.com/2011/09/surgically-eliminating-windows.html).

Upvotes: 0

Christopher Painter
Christopher Painter

Reputation: 55620

The Windows Installer exposes Win32 API functions (P/Invoke) as you have discovered. It also has COM automation interfaces that wrap these APIs but I'm sure you can guess is this is even less elegant. Windows Installer XML (WiX) Deployment Tools Foundation (DTF) has an MSI interop library that wraps it as managed code but I'm sure you can guess what it's doing under the covers: P/Invoke.

There are ways of getting it from the registry but this is not the official API and is less elegant IMO.

So to answer your question, you are already doing it in a very good and professional way.

Upvotes: 1

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