How Can I Programmatically Determine the Installed Microsoft Office Version?

Programmatically Determining Microsoft Office Version: A Developer's Guide

A frequent challenge for software developers is identifying the specific Microsoft Office version installed on a user's system. This is crucial for ensuring compatibility with various Office features and establishing minimum version requirements.

Registry Key Approach

A common method involves inspecting registry keys associated with specific Office applications. For instance, to detect Word 2007, examine this registry key:

<code>HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Office.0\Word\InstallRoot::Path</code>

The key's value indicates the Word 2007 executable's path. Similar keys exist for other Office applications, and a general root path is:

<code>HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Office.0\Common\InstallRoot::Path</code>

By analyzing the version numbers within these keys, you can determine the installed Office versions.

Utilizing the MSIEnumProducts API

Alternatively, the MSIEnumProducts API offers a way to query the MSI database for a list of installed MSI products, including Microsoft Office suites. Extracting the product name and version from this list reveals the installed Office versions.

Addressing Multiple Office Installations

While Microsoft doesn't officially support parallel Office installations, it's sometimes possible through compatibility workarounds. For comprehensive detection, combining the registry key and MSIEnumProducts methods is recommended.

Office 2019 and Office 365: Special Considerations

Office 2019 and Office 365 utilize Click-To-Run, meaning registry keys might not always contain version details for newer Office versions. To distinguish between Office 2016 and 2019, check the file version of a core Office application like winword.exe. Office 2019 typically has a higher file version number.

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