Question

Is there a Registry setting that I can look for to determine whether or not the Visual C++ redistributable is installed, whether standalone or as part of Visual Studio 2008? I know that I could launch the VC++ 2008 redistributable installer and let it handle the detection, but it would look cleaner if I can check for it and not bother launching the installer if the redistributable is already on the system.

It’s no biggie if there is no setting to search for, as this is just for the preliminary installers that we have for the new version of our software. We won’t need it for the new Windows Installer-based installers that we are working on that will replace the old tech ones and will use the merge modules.

Answer 1

Check the registry:

VC++2008 (sp1): HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\{3C3D696B-0DB7-3C6D-A356-3DB8CE541918}

or

VC++2008 (original): HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\{FF66E9F6-83E7-3A3E-AF14-8DE9A809A6A4}