Question

I’m writing a program that needs to get the install date and version information of all the programs in a registry. I am able to get a list of all of the programs, but I do not know how to access any information about the programs themselves. If I was able to determine the filepath to where the files are located I would be able to access this information. I happen to know that the programs I’m interested in are all located in the C:\\Program Files (x86)\ folder, but they are in subfolders within this that I am unable to specify. Any ideas on how to get the filepaths of the files I am retrieving?

Here’s my code:

public List<BSAApp> getInstalledApps( string computerName )
        {
            List<BSAApp> appList = new List<BSAApp>();

            ManagementScope ms = new ManagementScope();
            ms.Path.Server = computerName;
            ms.Path.NamespacePath = "root\\cimv2";
            ms.Options.EnablePrivileges = true;
            ms.Connect();

            ManagementClass mc = new ManagementClass( "StdRegProv" );
            mc.Scope = ms;

            ManagementBaseObject mbo;
            mbo = mc.GetMethodParameters( "EnumKey" );

            mbo.SetPropertyValue( "sSubKeyName", "SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\App Paths" );

            string[] subkeys = (string[])mc.InvokeMethod( "EnumKey", mbo, null ).Properties["sNames"].Value;

            if( subkeys != null )
            {
                foreach( string strKey in subkeys )
                {
                    string path = ?????
                    FileVersionInfo info = FileVersionInfo.GetVersionInfo( path );
                    appList.Add( new BSAApp( strKey, info.ProductVersion ) );                    
                }
            }

            return appList;
        }

Answer 1

ManagementObjectSearcher mos = new ManagementObjectSearcher("SELECT * FROM  Win32_Product");
foreach(ManagementObject mo in mos.Get())
{
  Console.WriteLine(mo["Name"]);
  Console.WriteLine(mo["InstallState"]);
}

Get installed applications in a system

But as mentioned in that thread, it has its own drawbacks.