Example of how to get a list of installed programs (like Add and Remove Programs)

[chris128]

Probably this issue that I mentioned in the original post:

64 bit
The code seems to work perfectly fine on a 64 bit system if the code is built to target x64 (or AnyCpu) but if you set the code to target x86 then Windows hides/redirects one of the registry keys from the process and that key contains some of the installed programs - the end result being that not all programs may be displayed in this scenario. No such issues on 32 bit operating systems of course.

[ClarkVent]

I had considered that, but wouldn't your test app fail too then?

[chris128]

No because that targets AnyCpu

[ClarkVent]

Oddly enough, I can't change the target platform. In your test app, I can't change it from "Active (Any CPU)" and in my app I can't change it from "Active (x86)"...

[chris128]

You're changing it in the wrong place then. Double click on the "My Project" node in the Solution Explorer tree on the right hand side, then go to the Compile tab on the left in the new window that opens, then depending on which version of VS you are using you may have to click the Advanced Compile Options button from there.

[ClarkVent]

Doesn't matter really, since the project I want to use this for can't use x64 as a target anyway...

Anyway, you were thinking about including getting the application's icons as well. Is that still on the table?

[ClarkVent]

You're changing it in the wrong place then. Double click on the "My Project" node in the Solution Explorer tree on the right hand side, then go to the Compile tab on the left in the new window that opens, then depending on which version of VS you are using you may have to click the Advanced Compile Options button from there.

Yes I did that and it didn't work. What did work eventually, was going to Tools -> Options -> Projects and Solutions -> General, then tick "Always show solution". Then in the Solution Explorer, right click the solutions (which will now show) and click "Configuration Manager". There I first have to add a solution platform, then I can choose it as the active platform.

[chris128]

Anyway, you were thinking about including getting the application's icons as well. Is that still on the table?

I'm afraid not, but there's nothing to stop someone else adding that functionality. It would be relatively easy if you only ever want to run it on the local machine rather than running it remotely against other computers on the network.

[etorreshn]

Well, I tested this. but it doesnt work with windows vista and windows 7.
Am I Right?

[chris128]

Well, I tested this. but it doesnt work with windows vista and windows 7.
Am I Right?

No you are not right. Care to explain what exactly "doesnt work" ?

[Drewster727]

Chris,

I'm getting a registry access denied error when I run this under certain users. I'm certain it's a permissions issue with those particular users, but do you have a good suggestion for where in your installedprograms class I can output what area of the registry it's being denied access to? i.e. where can I place a debug.writeline method in your class to output the current key.

Thanks man, I can elaborate more on this if needed, just pressed for time.

-Drew

[chris128]

The code attempts to read from the following registry locations (and subkeys under each one):
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Classes\Installer\Products
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Installer\UserData
but then it also looks at each of the user subkeys under HKEY_USERS so that may be where you are getting the permissions error if its trying to read data from other user's registry keys that the current user does not have access to (though I've never had any such issues and no one else has reported that).

[Drewster727]

Thanks for the reply & info,

I believe I may have figured out what the problem is... This is just a hunch but it makes some sense.

My exe is running on a login script when a user logs into a computer, it seems that when a user is already logged in to a computer (and the account is locked, i.e. the session is being switched without logging that user off) another user logs in and it attempts to query some reg key that is locked down from the other logged on user's session.

I've been able to reproduce this, otherwise it works great...

[chris128]

Yeah that would explain why I have never come across this issue. Just change the code in my class so that it doesn't try to get the programs installed for other users as well then. If you look at the public function GetInstalledPrograms, you should see near the end of it there is a part where it loops through each of the keys in the HKEY_USERS key, just change that so that it only uses the HKEY_CURRENT_USER key instead (so get rid of the loop completely).

[Drewster727]

Is there a particular spot in the code I could just place a try catch statement to catch that issue rather than removing the ability to search for other user programs?

Thanks.

-Drew

[chris128]

Is there a particular spot in the code I could just place a try catch statement to catch that issue rather than removing the ability to search for other user programs?

Thanks.

-Drew

Yeah you could just wrap each iteration of the loop through individual user's programs because if it fails for one item in that user's registry hive then it will fail for all of them so it doesn't make any sense to add the Try/Catch any further into the code.

Just try replacing this:

Private Shared Function InternalGetInstalledPrograms(ByVal IncludeUpdates As Boolean, ByVal HklmPath As RegistryKey, ByVal HkuPath As RegistryKey) As List(Of InstalledProgram)
        Dim ProgramList As New List(Of InstalledProgram)
 
        Dim ClassesKey As RegistryKey = HklmPath.OpenSubKey("Software\Classes\Installer\Products")
 
        '---Wow64 Uninstall key
        Dim Wow64UninstallKey As RegistryKey = HklmPath.OpenSubKey("Software\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall")
        ProgramList = GetUninstallKeyPrograms(Wow64UninstallKey, ClassesKey, ProgramList, IncludeUpdates)
 
        '---Standard Uninstall key
        Dim StdUninstallKey As RegistryKey = HklmPath.OpenSubKey("Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall")
        ProgramList = GetUninstallKeyPrograms(StdUninstallKey, ClassesKey, ProgramList, IncludeUpdates)
 
        For Each UserSid As String In HkuPath.GetSubKeyNames
            '---HKU Uninstall key
            Dim CuUnInstallKey As RegistryKey = HkuPath.OpenSubKey(UserSid & "\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall")
            ProgramList = GetUninstallKeyPrograms(CuUnInstallKey, ClassesKey, ProgramList, IncludeUpdates)
            '---HKU Installer key
            Dim CuInstallerKey As RegistryKey = HkuPath.OpenSubKey(UserSid & "\Software\Microsoft\Installer\Products")
            ProgramList = GetUserInstallerKeyPrograms(CuInstallerKey, HklmPath, ProgramList)
        Next
 
        'Close the registry keys
        Try
            HklmPath.Close()
            HkuPath.Close()
        Catch ex As Exception
            Debug.WriteLine("Error closing registry key - " & ex.Message)
        End Try
 
        'Sort the list alphabetically and return it to the caller
        ProgramList.Sort()
        Return ProgramList
    End Function

with this:

Private Shared Function InternalGetInstalledPrograms(ByVal IncludeUpdates As Boolean, ByVal HklmPath As RegistryKey, ByVal HkuPath As RegistryKey) As List(Of InstalledProgram)
        Dim ProgramList As New List(Of InstalledProgram)
 
        Dim ClassesKey As RegistryKey = HklmPath.OpenSubKey("Software\Classes\Installer\Products")
 
        '---Wow64 Uninstall key
        Dim Wow64UninstallKey As RegistryKey = HklmPath.OpenSubKey("Software\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall")
        ProgramList = GetUninstallKeyPrograms(Wow64UninstallKey, ClassesKey, ProgramList, IncludeUpdates)
 
        '---Standard Uninstall key
        Dim StdUninstallKey As RegistryKey = HklmPath.OpenSubKey("Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall")
        ProgramList = GetUninstallKeyPrograms(StdUninstallKey, ClassesKey, ProgramList, IncludeUpdates)
 
        For Each UserSid As String In HkuPath.GetSubKeyNames
            Try
                '---HKU Uninstall key
                Dim CuUnInstallKey As RegistryKey = HkuPath.OpenSubKey(UserSid & "\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall")
                ProgramList = GetUninstallKeyPrograms(CuUnInstallKey, ClassesKey, ProgramList, IncludeUpdates)
                '---HKU Installer key
                Dim CuInstallerKey As RegistryKey = HkuPath.OpenSubKey(UserSid & "\Software\Microsoft\Installer\Products")
                ProgramList = GetUserInstallerKeyPrograms(CuInstallerKey, HklmPath, ProgramList)
            Catch ex As Exception
                Debug.WriteLine("Error encountered in HKEY_USERS\" & UserSid & " : " & ex.Message)
            End Try
        Next
 
 
        'Close the registry keys
        Try
            HklmPath.Close()
            HkuPath.Close()
        Catch ex As Exception
            Debug.WriteLine("Error closing registry key - " & ex.Message)
        End Try
 
        'Sort the list alphabetically and return it to the caller
        ProgramList.Sort()
        Return ProgramList
    End Function

let me know how it goes

[Blagojce]

In registry under HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall I have keys which starts with "{some number" but application skip this keys and start with application name keys.
I search through the code,but didn't notice how you did this.

[chris128]

In registry under HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall I have keys which starts with "{some number" but application skip this keys and start with application name keys.
I search through the code,but didn't notice how you did this.

Those programs are programs that have been installed by a Windows Installer (MSI) setup program. For each of the registry keys under that location you mentioned, my code checks to see if they have the WindowsInstaller value within them set to 1, if they do then we just get the name of the key (so{DJFHDFH34} for example) and pass it to our GetInstallerKeyNameFromGuid function which takes the name and works out the MSI installer ID for it (which is done by just moving some of the characters around, just look at the function to see exactly what it does). Then we look for that MSI installer ID in another part of the registry (HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\MSI_installer_ID_here) to actually get the program name and other information.

This is the part of the code that does it (within the GetUninstallKeyPrograms method):

If Not CInt(CurrentSubKey.GetValue("WindowsInstaller", 0)) = 1 Then
'...
'... irrelevent code here
'...
Else   'If WindowsInstaller
     Dim ProgVersion As String = String.Empty
     Dim Name As String = String.Empty
     Dim FoundName As Boolean = False
     Try
           Dim MsiKeyName As String = GetInstallerKeyNameFromGuid(SubKeyName)
           Dim CrGuidKey As RegistryKey = ClassesKey.OpenSubKey(MsiKeyName)
           If Not CrGuidKey Is Nothing Then
                  Name = CStr(CrGuidKey.GetValue("ProductName", String.Empty))
           End If
     Catch ex As Exception
           Debug.WriteLine(SubKeyName & " - " & ex.Message)
     End Try

Hope that explains it - I know its not very straight forward, that's why it took me ages to figure it out and get this code working

[Drewster727]

Yeah you could just wrap each iteration of the loop through individual user's programs because if it fails for one item in that user's registry hive then it will fail for all of them so it doesn't make any sense to add the Try/Catch any further into the code.

Private Shared Function InternalGetInstalledPrograms(ByVal IncludeUpdates As Boolean, ByVal HklmPath As RegistryKey, ByVal HkuPath As RegistryKey) As List(Of InstalledProgram)
        Dim ProgramList As New List(Of InstalledProgram)
 
        Dim ClassesKey As RegistryKey = HklmPath.OpenSubKey("Software\Classes\Installer\Products")
 
        '---Wow64 Uninstall key
        Dim Wow64UninstallKey As RegistryKey = HklmPath.OpenSubKey("Software\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall")
        ProgramList = GetUninstallKeyPrograms(Wow64UninstallKey, ClassesKey, ProgramList, IncludeUpdates)
 
        '---Standard Uninstall key
        Dim StdUninstallKey As RegistryKey = HklmPath.OpenSubKey("Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall")
        ProgramList = GetUninstallKeyPrograms(StdUninstallKey, ClassesKey, ProgramList, IncludeUpdates)
 
        For Each UserSid As String In HkuPath.GetSubKeyNames
            Try
                '---HKU Uninstall key
                Dim CuUnInstallKey As RegistryKey = HkuPath.OpenSubKey(UserSid & "\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall")
                ProgramList = GetUninstallKeyPrograms(CuUnInstallKey, ClassesKey, ProgramList, IncludeUpdates)
                '---HKU Installer key
                Dim CuInstallerKey As RegistryKey = HkuPath.OpenSubKey(UserSid & "\Software\Microsoft\Installer\Products")
                ProgramList = GetUserInstallerKeyPrograms(CuInstallerKey, HklmPath, ProgramList)
            Catch ex As Exception
                Debug.WriteLine("Error encountered in HKEY_USERS\" & UserSid & " : " & ex.Message)
            End Try
        Next
 
 
        'Close the registry keys
        Try
            HklmPath.Close()
            HkuPath.Close()
        Catch ex As Exception
            Debug.WriteLine("Error closing registry key - " & ex.Message)
        End Try
 
        'Sort the list alphabetically and return it to the caller
        ProgramList.Sort()
        Return ProgramList
    End Function

let me know how it goes

worked like a charm chris, thanks a bunch.

-Drew

[cevem]

That's great article.

I have a question. How to find executable location of the programs? Thanks.

[chris128]

That's great article.

I have a question. How to find executable location of the programs? Thanks.

There isn't any way that I know of. I know we all like to think that an installed program has a "main" EXE file but at the end of the day an installed program can be any number of EXEs (maybe even none at all) so Windows does not have any relation between an entry in Add/Remove Programs and actual EXE's (other than the location of the uninstaller for that program). If anyone finds a way to do it I would be interested to hear how, but as far as I know it is not really possible.

[Blagojce]

Those programs are programs that have been installed by a Windows Installer (MSI) setup program. For each of the registry keys under that location you mentioned, my code checks to see if they have the WindowsInstaller value within them set to 1, if they do then we just get the name of the key (so{DJFHDFH34} for example) and pass it to our GetInstallerKeyNameFromGuid function which takes the name and works out the MSI installer ID for it (which is done by just moving some of the characters around, just look at the function to see exactly what it does). Then we look for that MSI installer ID in another part of the registry (HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\MSI_installer_ID_here) to actually get the program name and other information.

This is the part of the code that does it (within the GetUninstallKeyPrograms method):

If Not CInt(CurrentSubKey.GetValue("WindowsInstaller", 0)) = 1 Then
'...
'... irrelevent code here
'...
Else   'If WindowsInstaller
     Dim ProgVersion As String = String.Empty
     Dim Name As String = String.Empty
     Dim FoundName As Boolean = False
     Try
           Dim MsiKeyName As String = GetInstallerKeyNameFromGuid(SubKeyName)
           Dim CrGuidKey As RegistryKey = ClassesKey.OpenSubKey(MsiKeyName)
           If Not CrGuidKey Is Nothing Then
                  Name = CStr(CrGuidKey.GetValue("ProductName", String.Empty))
           End If
     Catch ex As Exception
           Debug.WriteLine(SubKeyName & " - " & ex.Message)
     End Try

Hope that explains it - I know its not very straight forward, that's why it took me ages to figure it out and get this code working

Now it is clarified, Thanks!

[Drewster727]

Chris,

I know that in the sub-directories in the following paths most programs have an 'installdate' key associated with them:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall

Would you be able to give me some instructions on how to query the 'installdate' reg key and return that as well (similar to calling program.displayname & program.version? i.e. so I can return program.installdate

What parts of the code do I need to add to in order to be able to grab that?

I would find this very useful.

Thanks in advance, your help is always appreciated!

-Drew

[Drewster727]

well, I think I figured it out, was easier than I thought.

[max_carpenter]

Hi Chris128, Thanks for this example works brilliantly, My code was only getting half of the apps.

I have chopped out alot of code as I didn't require it for this project as its an automated program to get details from the local machine (no updates).

It all works brilliantly I have the Target cpu set to Active (any CPU) however one small problem which isn't a big deal is the duplication of the odd few programs.

This is not a problem for us and I noticed someone else mentioned it but also mentioned it worked fine after they set it to Any CPU.

Not a problem just thought I would bring it up. But well done on the great coding :-)

[chris128]

Thanks surprised to hear you are getting duplicats though when you are compiling to AnyCPU as I've been using this code for months on loads of machines and not found any machines where it does not produce an identical list to Add/Remove Programs. Are you sure you didn't change something when you were chopping out the bits that you don't need? Or maybe these machines have multiple versions of these programs installed?

[elielCT]

This is really awsome..
I was using my own script, with additional scripts found elsewhere, but this handles it all!!

Very nice..

[chris128]

Thanks

[elielCT]

ok everyone seems to be asking about the icon thing...
its really cake to do, and I wanted that feature as well so I put it in...
now as perfect as this solution seemed (unghhhhh!), it wasnt really what i wanted after all.. but chris u definately put me in the right path.. like sum1 mentioned B4, what i really wanted was the path to the executables, and didnt want bundles (such as office, or adobe cs3), but rather an itemized account of the exe's in those bundles (word, excel, ect.).. so using your structure (nicely done with the Ienum, i guess i dont know as much as i thought i did) i will search the start menu, and program files folder, and possibly system32 for any & all exe. when i finish, following tradition, i will post in new thread. Now for the icon matter this is how i did it:


in the properties region add:

Private _IconPath As String = String.Empty
    ''' <summary>
    ''' If this program specifies an icon file, it's path will be returned 
    ''' </summary>
    Public Property IconPath() As String
        Get
            Return _IconPath
        End Get
        Set(ByVal value As String)
            _IconPath = value
        End Set
    End Property

in the constructors region change second sub to:

Public Sub New(ByVal ProgramDisplayName As String, ByVal ProgramParentDisplayName As String, ByVal IsProgramUpdate As Boolean, ByVal ProgramVersion As String, ByVal ProgramIconPath As String)
        Me.DisplayName = ProgramDisplayName
        Me.ParentDisplayName = ProgramParentDisplayName
        Me.IsUpdate = IsProgramUpdate
        Me.Version = ProgramVersion
        Me.IconPath = ProgramIconPath
    End Sub

in the GetUserInstallerKeyPrograms function edit to the following:

If Not CInt(UserDataProgramKey.GetValue("SystemComponent", 0)) = 1 Then
                                        Dim Name As String = CStr(CuInstallerKey.OpenSubKey(CuProductGuid).GetValue("ProductName", String.Empty))
                                        Dim ProgVersion As String = String.Empty
                                        Dim ProgIcon As String = String.Empty
                                        Try
                                            ProgVersion = CStr(UserDataProgramKey.GetValue("DisplayVersion", String.Empty))
                                            ProgIcon = CStr(UserDataProgramKey.GetValue("DisplayIcon", String.Empty))
                                        Catch ex As Exception
                                            Debug.WriteLine(ex.Message)
                                        End Try
                                        If Not Name = String.Empty AndAlso Not IsProgramInList(Name, ExistingProgramList) Then
                                            ExistingProgramList.Add(New InstalledProgram(Name))
                                            ProductFound = True
                                        End If
                                    End If

in the GetUninstallKeyPrograms function edit to the following:

If IncludeUpdates Then
                                    'Add the program to our list if we are including updates in this search
                                    Dim Name As String = CStr(CurrentSubKey.GetValue("DisplayName", String.Empty))
                                    Dim IconP As String = CStr(CurrentSubKey.GetValue("DisplayIcon", String.Empty))
                                    If Not Name = String.Empty AndAlso Not IsProgramInList(Name, ExistingProgramList) Then
                                        ExistingProgramList.Add(New InstalledProgram(Name, CStr(CurrentSubKey.GetValue("ParentDisplayName", String.Empty)), True, ProgVersion, IconP))
                                    End If
                                End If

and still in the GetUninstallKeyPrograms function edit to the following:

If UninstallStringExists Then
                                    Dim Name As String = CStr(CurrentSubKey.GetValue("DisplayName", String.Empty))
                                    Dim IconP As String = CStr(CurrentSubKey.GetValue("DisplayIcon", String.Empty))
                                    If Not Name = String.Empty AndAlso Not IsProgramInList(Name, ExistingProgramList) Then
                                        If Not IconP = String.Empty Then
                                        End If
                                        ExistingProgramList.Add(New InstalledProgram(Name, CStr(CurrentSubKey.GetValue("ParentDisplayName", String.Empty)), False, ProgVersion, IconP))
 
                                    End If
                                End If

and still in the GetUninstallKeyPrograms function edit to the following:

Else 'If WindowsInstaller
                            Dim ProgVersion As String = String.Empty
                            Dim Name As String = String.Empty
                            Dim FoundName As Boolean = False
                            Dim IconP As String = String.Empty
                            Try
                                Dim MsiKeyName As String = GetInstallerKeyNameFromGuid(SubKeyName)
                                Dim CrGuidKey As RegistryKey = ClassesKey.OpenSubKey(MsiKeyName)
                                If Not CrGuidKey Is Nothing Then
                                    Name = CStr(CrGuidKey.GetValue("ProductName", String.Empty))
                                    IconP = CStr(CrGuidKey.GetValue("DisplayIcon", String.Empty))
                                End If
                            Catch ex As Exception
                                Debug.WriteLine(SubKeyName & " - " & ex.Message)
                            End Try
                            Try
                                ProgVersion = CStr(CurrentSubKey.GetValue("DisplayVersion", String.Empty))
                                IconP = CStr(CurrentSubKey.GetValue("DisplayIcon", String.Empty))
                            Catch ex As Exception
                                Debug.WriteLine(ex.Message)
                            End Try
                            If Not Name = String.Empty AndAlso Not IsProgramInList(Name, ExistingProgramList) Then
                                ExistingProgramList.Add(New InstalledProgram(Name, CStr(CurrentSubKey.GetValue("ParentDisplayName", String.Empty)), False, ProgVersion, IconP))
                            End If
                        End If

Now in your form get the icons as follows:

Private Sub GetProgramsFinished(ByVal InstalledPrograms As List(Of InstalledProgram))
        If Not InstalledPrograms Is Nothing Then
            For i As Integer = 0 To InstalledPrograms.Count - 1
                If InstalledPrograms(i).IsUpdate = False Then
                    Dim theIcon As Icon
                    Dim theIconPath As String
                    Try
                        If Not InstalledPrograms(i).IconPath = Nothing Then
                            If InstalledPrograms(i).IconPath.IndexOf(",") > 0 Then
                                theIconPath = InstalledPrograms(i).IconPath.Substring(0, InstalledPrograms(i).IconPath.IndexOf(","))
                            Else
                                theIconPath = InstalledPrograms(i).IconPath
                            End If
                            theIcon = System.Drawing.Icon.ExtractAssociatedIcon(theIconPath)
                        Else
                            theIcon = My.Resources.error_icon1
                        End If
                    Catch ex As Exception
                        theIcon = My.Resources.error_icon1
                    End Try
 
                    ProgDataGridView.Rows.Add("", theIcon, InstalledPrograms(i).DisplayName)
                    Me.ProgDataGridView.Refresh()
                End If
            Next
        End If
        Me.Enabled = True
        If ProgDataGridView.Rows.Count = 1 Then
            MessageBox.Show("No programs were found - this could be because there were no programs installed on the computer (that is not very likely really though is it)." & vbNewLine & _
                            "Try again... ", "Ooops", MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Warning)
        Else
        End If
    End Sub

this will get u almost all icons, and puts one in its place where it didnt find an icon. Im not going to perfect this, as im going a slightly different route based on chris's solution... but should help point yall in the right direction...

[chris128]

Cool thanks for posting that, I'm sure it will help others out The only reason I didn't add the icons originally is because this is intended to be usable against remote PCs and in that situation your code (which is the same as how I would have done it) wont work. If you only ever intend for this code to get programs from the machine it is running on then obviously that is not an issue

Oh and you said it gets almost all icons - are there any that it doesn't get that do actually appear in Add/Remove Programs? I'm assuming there is and that these are icons where the file pointed to by the DisplayIcon registry value contains more than one icon, as you are just using ExtractAssociatedIcon which doesn't have any option to get a specific icon from the file. If you are bothered about this, you might want to try using the NativeIcon.GetIconAtIndex method from my Windows API library (download link in my signature) as this will let you get an icon at a specific index from the specified file (I believe the DisplayIcon registry values specify the index number of the icon that should be used after the file name)

[elielCT]

gotcha...

yea thats not the case with me....

the reason for me gettin involved in this whole mess is due to the development of a small app that requires list of installed progs in local pc, but the path of itemized exe's is an integral and essential part..

thanks again for sharin... a little moddin and i devote more time to the rest of the app instead...

[elielCT]

some.. 7zip icon does not show in either, but clipmagic icon shows in add/remove...
ur edit should do the trick.. and while using ur edit the user should remove/alter the line that i used to search for icons with index values, and remove the index.. utorrent didnt seem to care and the icon displays, but the others wont..

[chris128]

Ah yeah, you mean this bit:

If InstalledPrograms(i).IconPath.IndexOf(",") > 0 Then
                                theIconPath = InstalledPrograms(i).IconPath.Substring(0, InstalledPrograms(i).IconPath.IndexOf(","))
                            Else
                                theIconPath = InstalledPrograms(i).IconPath
                            End If

Anyway, glad the code helped you out a bit even if it wasn't 100% what you were looking for

[javier_sa@yahoo.com]

I am new to vb and I love your code, it looks awesome and I want to know how can I also pull the system information from the remote pc. Things like computer type ram, hard disk, ect. I want to put it on the same page. Can you assist?

[max_carpenter]

You should be starting a new thread not replying to this one.

This is exactly what I am working on at the moment for our Internal Asset Management system. There are two ways to go about it:

1: (The route we are taking): Have a client peice of software on each machine that collects details and sends back to a central server. Useful if you just want a database of machines with details - this method can also get alot of information.

2: Use Remote WMI to get the information you want. Note you will need permissions to access the other machine. I have used remote WMI but only within a Domain Environment and I have Domain Admin rights.

There is probably other methods but these are the two ones that jump out at me.

Hope this helps. If you want to discuss it further create a new thread in the vb.net forum.

[javier_sa@yahoo.com]

Thanks I posted a new thread to show you what I am looking for.

[chris128]

2: Use Remote WMI to get the information you want. Note you will need permissions to access the other machine. I have used remote WMI but only within a Domain Environment and I have Domain Admin rights.

Yeah WMI can be a little unreliable because a lot of admins don't allow it through their workstation's firewalls or simply disable the WMI service.

The other method that I have used in the past is a variation on your first method - rather than having a piece of software actually installed and always running on the workstations, we just run the program from a network share via logon script that is assigned to all users. This way it runs whenever anyone logs on to a PC (so we also get a record of when anyone logged on and which PC they logged on to) and updates the general system info in a central SQL database

[max_carpenter]

That is similar to what I have built (and currently rebuilding) at my place although it doesnt run with logon scripts.

My old package ran as a windows service on each local machine and got all the information I required including last logged on user and lots of WMI information then compiled an XML sent it back to the server for a server service to read the xml and enter it into the database.

The new one is slightly differnts its a windows forms app that runs on startup for every user, still collects all the same information but then connects to the server using sockets to send all the info back. The reason its a windows forms app because italso acts as a server monitor for users to see status of all our services and for us to display messages to the user etc.

[chris128]

Yeah I do like the idea of having an app like that, that we could send messages to the users through or send it the path to a script/program to execute, but I always wonder about the security risks. I mean if you have an app that accepts incoming connections that give it commands to execute, it would be very easy for an attacker to exploit and make it do whatever they wanted, if you didn't have some decent security built in (more than just a hard coded password because someone could just decompile your client side app to see what the password is that it checks for). I know the probability of anyone actually trying to exploit a bespoke app you've written is very slim but I just think if it ever did happen I would be in so much trouble if someone found out my application had put every user's computers at risk (and therefore the entire company's data) that its just not worth it. Plus, we use MS SCCM now so we can just use that to push out apps and scripts etc and it collects a fair bit of information from the workstations too, even down to when they last ran each EXE on their PC which comes in handy for identifying who isn't using software that we pay for licenses for so that we can redistribute that license instead of having to buy a new one

[max_carpenter]

That does sound handy.

As for the bespoke app not only as you mention is it very very slim that someone will exploit it especially as its not out in the public for anyone to find but with our one it only accepts pre-programmend commands and not scripts or windows commands etc.

For instance it is programmed to accept the commands

SCAN
LOCATE
UPATE
AVSCAN
MESSAGE

etc

But I couldn't say run the following:

C:\tmp\MyScript.bat

My program would just see that as an error and disconnect the session.