Question

How can I get the path of an application installed in the machine from a VB6 application? For me, I need to get the path for WinZip.

Answer 1

I think you could do something like this by using the FindExecutable API function (create a file called test.zip in c:\temp first). This info taken from this link.

Const MAX_FILENAME_LEN = 260
Private Declare Function FindExecutable Lib "shell32.dll" Alias "FindExecutableA" (ByVal lpFile As String, _ ByVal lpDirectory As String, ByVal lpResult As String) As Long

Private Sub Form_Load()
Dim i As Integer, s2 As String
Const sFile = "C:\\temp\\test.zip"

'Check if the file exists
If Dir(sFile) = "" Or sFile = "" Then
MsgBox "File not found!", vbCritical
Exit Sub
End If
'Create a buffer
s2 = String(MAX_FILENAME_LEN, 32)
'Retrieve the name and handle of the executable, associated with this file
i = FindExecutable(sFile, vbNullString, s2)
If i > 32 Then
MsgBox Left$(s2, InStr(s2, Chr$(0)) - 1)
Else
MsgBox "No association found !"
End If
End Sub