Determining program version

[Cory]

For one client we have enjoyed one version of Office for some time but now we have a mix. Certain macros need to be tweaked for the different versions so I would like to use ME to determine which version of, say, Outlook is installed and perform slightly different instructions. I have some ideas how I might divine this but I was wondering how others addressed this problem.

[MacroPolo]

For one client we have enjoyed one version of Office for some time but now we have a mix. Certain macros need to be tweaked for the different versions so I would like to use ME to determine which version of, say, Outlook is installed and perform slightly different instructions. I have some ideas how I might divine this but I was wondering how others addressed this problem.

 

One solution is to use the registry to obtain the information. ie:

 

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE

Software

Microsoft

Office

 

But I am interested in reading other solutions. Sometimes the simple-ist solution is the best solution. (and the registry isnt so simple).

[Cory]

I don't think the registry is difficult but I still don't see an elegant method in there. What I mean is there isn't a key I know of that says "Current Office Version". When I look at it now on my machine I have several folders beneath Office like 11.0, 12.0, 8.0, 9.0, and a bunch of other stuff. But there's no "If reg folder exist" so I'm not sure how I would efficiently make a determination. Do you know of some key or something I am missing? I mean how would you do it?

 

The more I look at it the more I think I need to query the file with "Get Version of" and point to "Outlook.exe" or whatever. The only monkey wrench here is the install path is a moving target from machine to machine. This got even more difficult now that 64 bit systems have an additional "Program Files (x86)" folder. Ug. But I could probably look in all the common places and ferret it out.

 

I see some scripts on line as well so that might be the other solution but I was hoping to do this in ME. And I'm lazy which is the whole reason I posted here... to avoid a bunch of research!

 

Thanks

[kevin]

If you know the path to the outlook.exe file you can do this:

Variable Set String %T1% to "c:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office10\Outlook.exe"
Get File Version: "%T1%" into %T2%

The problem with this is that Microsoft puts Outlook in different folders for the different versions. So you have to know the version before you can determine the version.

[Cory]

That's exactly the method and concern I outlined earlier. Maybe a combination of registry to find path and file version will be the trick. I can figure something out, I was just hoping that someone who had experienced this before might have some suggestions.

 

Another possibility is to have the user manually set a preference. Might be the easiest.