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Programmatically determine whether Reader or Acrobat is installed?

Forum Index > Deployment & Installation > Programmatically determine whether Reader or Acrobat is installed?
2007-10-02 19:31:40
pkipe
Registered: Oct 2 2007
Posts: 3

Is there a simple (foolproof) way for a program to determine whether either Reader or Acrobat is installed, and if so, which one?

A PC on which Acrobat Pro is installed contains a registry key of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\Acrobat.exe.

A PC on which Acrobat Reader is installed contains a registry key of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\AcroRd32.exe.

Will the above keys be correct for any version of the respective products installed on any version of Windows from 2000 to Vista?

Thanks in advance,

Pete

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2007-10-16 12:42:53
#1
mczajka
Registered: Oct 11 2005
Posts: 29
I've see this done a few different ways. Checking the registry, which can be difficult when dealing with numerous/future versions or scanning the hard drive. In my PC autoruns, I typically find the default .pdf viewer and check it, but also have a system for scanning the default "Program Files\Adobe" location for the .exe's, and let the user pick which one he wants to use with the CD-ROM we produce. We use Indigo Rose products - AutoPlay Media Studio and SetupFactory. This will get 99% of them. Some I.T. people put Acrobat in non-default areas though, so you have to either give the user a way to scan other locations, or make them manually pick the version. It's inefficient to scan the entire hard drive, which could take much longer.
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2007-10-18 06:56:27
#2
pkipe
Registered: Oct 2 2007
Posts: 3
Thanks mczajka -- your reply gave me food for thought. In the two-week absence of any other ideas, I went ahead and coded checks of the reg. keys I mentioned in my original post, and that seems to be working acceptably now.

I did pick up on your mention of file associations though, and that caused me to do some research into looking in the registry at the file association to determine the actual executable. I suspect that in the long run, that would be the better approach. When I have some spare time, I'll probably switch.

Thanks again for your thoughts.

Pete
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