detect Internet Explorer 11 availability

Question

I'm currently building a debugging extension for Visual Studio. Therefore I'd like to identify all available browsers. Now, I know, that Windows 10 always contains the Internet Explorer 11 but Windows 11 not. The problem now is, that I cannot detect the OS version (GetVersionEx and so on don't work anymore)... the problem is, that Microsofts idea is, that we should "detect if the api is available and not which OS version you are running on" ... ok... in most cases ok... but in this case... can someone tell me how this should work?
Oh, and next question... how can I detect and find the IE installation at all? ... I currently do it via the Classes\IE.AssocFile.HTM\shell\open\command registry key... but the problem is, that on Windows 11 there is also an "Internet Explorer" which is in fact a renamed Edge (or hardlinked or whatever) ... so, again a backwards compatibility that is f* hard to work around... why? what's the "official" idea for doing this???

Answer 1

On Windows 10 and before, the IE path is read from

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths
IEXPLORE.EXE

But I cannot test on Windows 11...

Answer 2

Hello,

Welcome to Microsoft Q&A!

I found the Computer\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.html\OpenWithProgids registry lists all available browsers(not "official" idea).

Thank you.

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Answer 3

Well, what I do now is

1) read "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\IE.AssocFile.HTM\shell\opencommand"

2) look at the file I find at this specific path and if the ProductBuildPart of its version is >= 22000 then I assume Windows 11 and thus a rediretion towards Edge and thus no Internet Explorer