CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#c++delphiwinapibrowser
kobik
kobik

Reputation: 21252

List all web-browsers installed on a Windows machine

Is there a common method/api to list all web browsers (name, executable, default yes/no) installed on my machine (and per user), and how to find out which is the default web browser?

I have seen this question: How to find all the browsers installed on a machine

And on MSDN: How to Register an Internet Browser or Email Client With the Windows Start Menu which states that web-browsers should register themselves under HKLM\SOFTWARE\Clients\StartMenuInternet (and HKCU)

Is that really the common/correct approach? (And if yes, any solid implementation out there?)

My goal is to create a drop-down menu with a list of all web-browsers installed on user's machine (indicating the default), and allow the user to browse his HTML file/URLs with one of the external web-browser available.

Upvotes: 6

Views: 5954

Answers (2)

Andreas Rejbrand
Andreas Rejbrand

Reputation: 109002

You could do something like

procedure ListRegisteredBrowsers(List: TStrings);
var
  reg: TRegistry;
  ki: TRegKeyInfo;
  i: Integer;
  keyname: string;
  len: DWORD;
begin
  reg := TRegistry.Create;
  try
    reg.RootKey := HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE;
    if not Reg.KeyExists('\SOFTWARE\Clients\StartMenuInternet') then Exit;
    if not Reg.OpenKey('\SOFTWARE\Clients\StartMenuInternet', false) then
      raise Exception.Create('ListRegisteredBrowsers: Could not open registry key.');
    if not reg.GetKeyInfo(ki) then
      raise Exception.Create('ListRegisteredBrowsers: Could not obtain registry key information.');
    List.Clear;
    SetLength(keyname, len);
    for i := 0 to ki.NumSubKeys - 1 do
    begin
      len := ki.MaxSubKeyLen + 1;
      if RegEnumKeyEx(reg.CurrentKey, i, PChar(keyname), len, nil, nil, nil, nil) <> ERROR_SUCCESS then
        RaiseLastOSError;
      if reg.OpenKey('\SOFTWARE\Clients\StartMenuInternet\' + keyname, false) then
        List.Add(reg.ReadString(''));
      Reg.OpenKey('\SOFTWARE\Clients\StartMenuInternet', true);
    end;
  finally
    reg.Free;
  end;
end;

and

function GetDefaultBrowser: string;
var
  reg: TRegistry;
begin
  result := '';
  reg := TRegistry.Create;
  try
    reg.RootKey := HKEY_CURRENT_USER;
    if Reg.OpenKey('\SOFTWARE\Clients\StartMenuInternet', false) then
      result := reg.ReadString('')
    else
    begin
      reg.RootKey := HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE;
      if Reg.OpenKey('\SOFTWARE\Clients\StartMenuInternet', false) then
        result := reg.ReadString('')
    end;
    reg.RootKey := HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE;
    if Reg.OpenKey('\SOFTWARE\Clients\StartMenuInternet\' + result, false) then
      result := reg.ReadString('');
  finally
    reg.Free;
  end;
end;

Test it:

procedure TForm1.Button1Click(Sender: TObject);
var
  sl: TStringList;
  i: Integer;
  DefBrw: string;
begin
  DefBrw := GetDefaultBrowser;
  sl := TStringList.Create;
  try
    ListRegisteredBrowsers(sl);
    Memo1.Lines.BeginUpdate;
    for i := 0 to sl.Count - 1 do
      if SameText(sl[i], DefBrw) then
        Memo1.Lines.Add(sl[i] + ' (Default)')
      else
        Memo1.Lines.Add(sl[i]);
    Memo1.Lines.EndUpdate;
  finally
    sl.Free;
  end;
end;

Upvotes: 7

David Heffernan
David Heffernan

Reputation: 613252

That method finds all the browsers that are registered as Start Menu Internet Applications. In practice that will suffice since all the major browsers register themselves in this way. If a browser fails to register itself as a Start Menu Internet Applications then it has no chance of Windows noticing it and offering that browser to the user.

The MSDN topic that explains it all is here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/dd203067.aspx

The Start menu in Windows XP and Windows Vista contains reserved slots for the default Internet (browser) and E-mail (mail) clients, together commonly known as Start Menu Internet Applications. Applications which register as Start Menu Internet Applications do so across the entire system (per-machine). In Windows Vista, the user may use the Default Programs feature to set a per-user default.

Upvotes: 6

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