Have you been trying to develop a flexible method of determining the path to launch an application. You quickly learn that software developers, in some instances, make it indredibly difficult for us to create a simple static path for the executable directory.
For instance, say you create a database and then deploy it, you can’t just use a static path to launch it, like:
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE 11\MSACCESS.EXE |
because this will work only with Office 2003. What happens if your user is using 2007, 2010, 2000, …???
So what can one do? Well, it is possible to create a series of if statements, to check and see if a 2010 folder exists, if not, then check for 2007, and so on, but this once again rellies on a series of static enties that you make as a developer. For typical installation this would work, but what about that special user that didn’t install Office in the typical location? Your script will fail, no and if or about it!
So What Can One Do?! Actually, the solution is quite straight foward and works for most every program. All we need to do is check with the registry as to where the program was installed! That’s right, let’s just ask the computer, “where did you put the application”? The beauty is in its simplicity.
For MS access, we only need to do the following
Dim WSHShell Set WshShell = Wscript.CreateObject("Wscript.Shell") MsgBox WSHShell.RegRead("HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\MSACCESS.EXE\") |
Obviously, instead of sending the result to a msgbox we could assign it to a variable and use it to actually launch a database.
What other programs can we use this technique with? You name it: Excel, Groove, Internet Explorer, FireFox, Info Path, MS Access, One Note, Outlook, Power Point, Word, … and the list goes on. Below is but a few examples of other programs.
Dim WSHShell Set WshShell = Wscript.CreateObject("Wscript.Shell") 'MS Excel MsgBox WSHShell.RegRead("HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\excel.exe\") 'Groove MsgBox WSHShell.RegRead("HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\GROOVE.EXE\") 'Internet Explore MsgBox WSHShell.RegRead("HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\IEXPLORE.EXE\") 'Info Path MsgBox WSHShell.RegRead("HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\infopath.exe\") 'MS Access MsgBox WSHShell.RegRead("HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\MSACCESS.EXE\") 'MS One Note MsgBox WSHShell.RegRead("HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\OneNote.exe\") 'MS Outlook MsgBox WSHShell.RegRead("HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\OUTLOOK.EXE\") 'PowerPoint MsgBox WSHShell.RegRead("HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\powerpnt.exe\") 'MS Word MsgBox WSHShell.RegRead("HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\Winword.exe\") 'WordPad MsgBox WSHShell.RegRead("HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\WORDPAD.EXE\") 'Write MsgBox WSHShell.RegRead("HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\WRITE.EXE\") |
So you can simply test out other application by using the appropriate executable or use regedit navigate to the “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths” key and review the list of application present on your system.
But as you can see, with but 3 little lines, we can have a flexible way to get the path to our executable. No more guessing, no more messing!
