Get a list of installed programs with application icons

Question

I need to get a list of installed program on local machine with application icons. Below is the code snippet that am using to get the list of installed program and installed directory path.

/// <summary>
    /// Gets a list of installed software and, if known, the software's install path.
    /// </summary>
    /// <returns></returns>
    private string Getinstalledsoftware()
    {
        //Declare the string to hold the list:
        string Software = null;

        //The registry key:
        string SoftwareKey = @"SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall";
        using (RegistryKey rk = Registry.LocalMachine.OpenSubKey(SoftwareKey))
        {
            //Let's go through the registry keys and get the info we need:
            foreach (string skName in rk.GetSubKeyNames())
            {
                using (RegistryKey sk = rk.OpenSubKey(skName))
                {
                    try
                    {
                        //If the key has value, continue, if not, skip it:
                        if (!(sk.GetValue("DisplayName") == null))
                        {
                            //Is the install location known?
                            if (sk.GetValue("InstallLocation") == null)
                                Software += sk.GetValue("DisplayName") + " - Install path not known\n"; //Nope, not here.
                            else
                                Software += sk.GetValue("DisplayName") + " - " + sk.GetValue("InstallLocation") + "\n"; //Yes, here it is...
                        }
                    }
                    catch (Exception ex)
                    {
                        //No, that exception is not getting away... :P
                    }
                }
            }
        }

        return Software;
    }

Now the issue is how i can get the installed application icon ?

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

To extract icon of installed windows application first we need to figure out the location of icon for the installed windows application. This information is stored in registry at following locations -

1. Key name - HEKY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall Value - DisplayIcon
2. Key name - HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Installer\Products{productID} Value - ProductIcon

For more detail and code to get application icons - http://newapputil.blogspot.in/2015/06/extract-icons-of-installed-windows_17.html

Answer 2

To determine if its an update, there will be a key called IsMinorUpgrade. This is present and set to a 1 for updates. If it's 0 or not present, then it's not an update.

To get an icon from an executable, use this code:

VB:

Public Function IconFromFilePath(filePath As String) As Icon 
    Dim result As Icon = Nothing 
    Try 
        result = Icon.ExtractAssociatedIcon(filePath) 
    Catch ''# swallow and return nothing. You could supply a default Icon here as well 
    End Try 
    Return result 
End Function 

C#:

public Icon IconFromFilePath(string filePath)
{
    Icon result = null;
    try {
        result = Icon.ExtractAssociatedIcon(filePath);
    } catch { }
    return result;
}