Access VBA WMI methods for Win32_products

Question

Hi Folks

Using Windows 10 Pro V2009 64 Bit, with Access 2019 32Bit. An Access App printing labels through Bartender from SAP.

I have adapted this code to give me a list of installed programs on a pc. I was using the WMI win32_Products method which seemed to find everything I was after but was really slow and I read its not best practice these days.

So I changed to the uninstall registry list method but discovered not all programs are listed in the uninstall registry and there may be other locations to search?

I have tried both the registry's listed registry locations for the 32bit and 64bit registries but the product I want it to find although listed in the uninstall registry(manual search is good) its missing from my table at the end.

This: "SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\" and
this: "SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall" in the HKLM section.

Public Function GetAddRemove(sComp)
'Function credit to Torgeir Bakken
Dim cnt, oReg, sBaseKey, iRC, aSubKeys
Const HKLM = &H80000002 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
Set oReg = GetObject("winmgmts:{impersonationLevel=impersonate}!\" & _
sComp & "/root/default:StdRegProv")
sBaseKey = "SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\"
iRC = oReg.EnumKey(HKLM, sBaseKey, aSubKeys)

Dim sKey, sValue, sTmp, sVersion, sDateValue, sYr, sMth, sDay

For Each sKey In aSubKeys
iRC = oReg.GetStringValue(HKLM, sBaseKey & sKey, "DisplayName", sValue)

If iRC <> 0 Then
oReg.GetStringValue HKLM, sBaseKey & sKey, "QuietDisplayName", sValue
End If
If sValue <> "" Then
dispname = sValue

iRC = oReg.GetStringValue(HKLM, sBaseKey & sKey, "InstallLocation", sValue)
instloc = sValue

SQLstr = "INSERT INTO TblInstalledApps (installed, ExecLoc) VALUES ('" & dispname & "','" & instloc & "');"
DoCmd.RunSQL SQLstr

End If
Next

End Function

This works 100s of times faster than the win32_Products WMI search so I don't want to go back, but I need it to list at least the app I want to search for on a pc if its installed 'Bartender' but it's missing from the data retrieved from the Uninstall Registry.

Is there another method of retrieving a list of installed products from Windows in VBA into an Access table or have I got something wrong in the code?

Many Thanks

Jerry

Answer 1

I wonder if that would show up on a PC with just Access Run Time installed

Tools > References is a list of all ActiveX objects installed on the machine.

Answer 2

Does Bartender show up in Access code window > Tools > References?
If yes, then you should be able to create an object of that type similar to:
dim o as object
set o = createobject("Excel.Application")
if o is nothing then
msgbox "Yo!. Excel is not installed", vbExclamation

Answer 3

Hi Many Thanks for your reply.

Yes Bartender is in the Tools -> References section of Access. Nice :)

However, I wonder if that would show up on a PC with just Access Run Time installed, not the development version of Access?

There are two barcode printing products we use Bartender and Lighthouse CJ Pro. Unfortunately CJ Pro doesn't show up in the Tools References options, so I'll have to stick to the current method to confirm if that is installed and your idea for a Bartender install :)

Regards
Jerry

Answer 4

Hi yes it appears to find the bartender product as you predicted :) Thank you

So your solution and a targeted win32_products search speeded up the process a lot, so much I don't need a splash 'please wait' screen. very cool

Appreciate your help
Jerry