Access to Windows "Add/Remove Programs"?

[Sean DiZazzo]

Hi all,

I'm trying to find a way to get a list of all the installed programs
on a Windows box via Python. I thought of a few hacks that might
partially work, and then thought about "Add/Remove Programs" Seems
like the right way to go. I looked over the pywin32 docs a bit, but
nothing slapped me in the face.

Is there any reliable way to get at that info?

Thanks in advance,

~Sean

 

[Larry Bates]

Hi all,

I'm trying to find a way to get a list of all the installed programs
on a Windows box via Python. I thought of a few hacks that might
partially work, and then thought about "Add/Remove Programs" Seems
like the right way to go. I looked over the pywin32 docs a bit, but
nothing slapped me in the face.

Is there any reliable way to get at that info?

Thanks in advance,

~Sean

I would guess that that program gets the information from the registry.
Maybe looking at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE or HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software branches?

-Larry

 

[Gabriel Genellina]

I'm trying to find a way to get a list of all the installed programs
on a Windows box via Python. I thought of a few hacks that might
partially work, and then thought about "Add/Remove Programs" Seems
like the right way to go. I looked over the pywin32 docs a bit, but
nothing slapped me in the face.

Is there any reliable way to get at that info?

You may enumerate the entries under this registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall

 

[Sean DiZazzo]

You may enumerate the entries under this registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall

Thank both of you. Perfect!

~Sean

 

[Mike Driscoll]

Thank both of you.  Perfect!

~Sean

I have used both of these methods, but it should be noted that not all
programs register themselves in the registry. The usual suspects are
spyware related. But there are still a few programs that you can just
download and unzip that don't write anything to the registry.

But this does work for probably 99% of programs on Windows.

Mike