How do I detect which version of Internet Explorer is installed? - windows

Question

Is the best way to look under the Uninstall key of the Windows Registry?
Is there a Microsoft API call which provides this info and is it supported from XP onwards?
What is the best way to detect which version of Internet Explorer is installed on the local machine?

Answer 1

You have to look in the registry, but not in uninstall key. Instead,
find the key at HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer and read the value named Version.
For newer versions (IE 10 and above), Version is 9.x (for example, IE 10 is 9.10.something), and the new svcVersion value gives the true IE version.
This technique is even recommended by Microsoft; see here.

Answer 2

If you require to know the IE version into a web application you can get the User-Agent or use javascript:
You got here a Microsoft sample of how to get the internet Explorer version
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms537509(VS.85).aspx
If you require to detect the IE Version into a Desktop program with X language you need to read the Windows registry
This registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer contains the attribute Version with the IE version

Answer 3

The Version value doesn't seem to include the Internet Explorer version information that you would most likely need. Instead, look at either svcVersion or svcUpdateVersion for the information.
As an example, I am running IE 10 and if I query the Version registry value 9.10.9200.16798 is returned but if I query svcUpdateVersion 10.0.13 is returned. The latter corresponds to the actual Internet Explorer version which is 10.
REG QUERY "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer" /v Version
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer
Version REG_SZ 9.10.9200.16798
REG QUERY "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer" /v svcUpdateVersion
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer
svcUpdateVersion REG_SZ 10.0.13
REG QUERY "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer" /v svcVersion
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer
svcVersion REG_SZ 10.0.9200.16798

Answer 4

I'd like to challenge the conventional wisdom of inspecting the registry. Consider the reference source for System.Windows.Forms.WebView.Version:
string mshtmlPath =
Path.Combine(Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.System), "mshtml.dll");
FileVersionInfofvi = FileVersionInfo.GetVersionInfo(mshtmlPath);
return new Version(
fvi.FileMajorPart, fvi.FileMinorPart, fvi.FileBuildPart, fvi.FilePrivatePart);
Presumably, the guys who wrote the WebView class knew what they were doing.

Answer 5

You can also know the IE version on multiple computers using this script:
#Echo off
Cls
MD C:\SYSADMIT > NUL
Echo. > c:\SYSADMIT\Resultados.txt
SET ListaEquipos=C:\SYSADMIT\ListaEquipos.txt
For /F "Tokens=*" %%z In (%ListaEquipos%) Do (
echo %%z >> c:\SYSADMIT\Resultados.txt
reg query "\\%%z\hklm\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer" /v svcVersion >> c:\SYSADMIT\Resultados.txt
)
Inside the file: ListaEquipos.txt, there is a list of computers.
It is also necessary to check RemoteRegistry service enabled on the target computers.
Extracted from: http://www.sysadmit.com/2017/08/windows-buscar-version-de-internet-explorer-en-equipo-remoto.html