And elsewhere ('All users' as it's called on my Windows installation, though I
imagine that name varies with language).
And I wouldn't put it past MS to include "magic" entries in there too.
But that (even when generalised) doesn't sound very useful to me. The nearest
thing to a correct list of installed software in Windows is the one used by the
"Add/Remove programs" application. But even that isn't really correct (I have
many apps on this box which weren't "installed" in the normal sense -- Eclipse,
for one).
So, it really comes down to what the OP is /really/ trying to do. Which is
what Andew asked.
-- chris
well Thank you guys for all ur help .. to clear up all this mess ..
here is what I had in mind ..
I was thinking along the lines of having a Java program automate the
startup of other programs on ur PC ..using keywords .. kind of like
launchy
http://www.launchy.net/ .. difference is that launchy is
written in C so it makes it a perfect candidate for windows stuff ..
what launchy does is that indexes the start up programs for u to
create a list of programs that u could start with some keyword
matching mechanism ..
I understand that for something like this java should not be the
choice especially since it defeats the whole platform-independant-
langauge concept. but I think this can be implemented in platform-
independant manner so I guess I am just gonna drop the idea of
indexing the Start menu or something like that ..
the simplest thing would be to just let the user specify the
executables and with the help of some pattern matching you can make it
easier for user to get to that program .. but automating things is
always better ..
so if u have any ideas regarding this stuff .. please share
Again thanks for your help ..