Check if what version of Word is installed

[blabore]

Check what version of Word is installed

 

Does anyone know of a way to check if Word is installed, and what version it is? I currently just try to instanitate a Word Application object, and handle the error to indicate word isn't available, but this is pretty much a hack. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks, Ben

Edited November 7, 2003 by blabore

[Shamil]

Ben,

 

For MS Word versions starting 9.0 (2000) you can check the existence of the registry key:

 

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\<MS Office version>\Access\InstallRoot]

 

e.g. for MS Word 2000 this will be the key:

 

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\9.0\Access\InstallRoot]

 

For MS Office 97 I think you've to check the existence of the system registry value BinDirPath under

 

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\8.0]

 

read this value - e.g. I've it here as

 

"BinDirPath"="D:\\Program Files\\MSOffice\\97\\Office"

 

and then concatenate it with winword.exe - it will be:

 

D:\Program Files\MSOffice\97\Office\winword.exe

 

for the sample value above and see if this file exists of not.

 

HTH,

Shamil

[Shamil]

Ben,

 

Sorry, I did post wrong registry keys (form MS Access instead of MW Word) - here how they should have been posted:

 

For MS Word versions starting 9.0 (2000) you can check the existence of the registry key:

 

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\<MS Office version>\Word\InstallRoot]

 

e.g. for MS Word 2000 this will be the key:

 

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\9.0\Word\InstallRoot]

 

For MS Office 97 I think you've to check the existence of the system registry value BinDirPath under

 

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\8.0]

 

read this value - e.g. I've it here as

 

"BinDirPath"="D:\\Program Files\\MSOffice\\97\\Office"

 

and then concatenate it with winword.exe - it will be:

 

D:\Program Files\MSOffice\97\Office\winword.exe

 

for the sample value above and see if this file exists of not.

 

HTH,

Shamil

[Shamil]

Ben,

 

Here is the function, which should help you (tested with MS Office 2000 only):

 

Public Function MsWordFullPath(ByVal vlngVersion As Long) As String

' Given MS Word version number returns its FullPath if it's installed, empty string ("") otherwise

' Note: MS Office versions supported: 8 and above

Dim objRegKey As Microsoft.Win32.RegistryKey

Dim strKeyName As String

Dim strValueName As String

Dim strValue As String

 

strKeyName = "SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\Office\\" & vlngVersion.ToString & ".0\\Common\\InstallRoot"

Select Case vlngVersion

Case Is < 8

strValueName = ""

strValue = ""

Case 8

strValueName = "OfficeBin"

Case Is > 8

strValueName = "Path"

End Select

 

If Microsoft.VisualBasic.Len(strValueName) > 0 Then

objRegKey = Microsoft.Win32.Registry.LocalMachine.OpenSubKey(strKeyName, False)

If (objRegKey Is Nothing) Then

strValue = ""

Else

strValue = objRegKey.GetValue(strValueName)

If Microsoft.VisualBasic.Len(strValue) > 0 Then

If Microsoft.VisualBasic.Right(strValue, 1) <> "\" Then strValue = strValue & "\"

strValue = strValue & "winword.exe"

If Not System.IO.File.Exists(strValue) Then strValue = ""

End If

objRegKey.Close()

End If

End If

Return (strValue)

End Function

 

 

HTH,

Shamil

[blabore]

Shamil,

 

Thanks for the replies, that was exactly what I was looking for. -Ben