1 reply to this topic

[gamelord12]

I'm making a program that needs to keep a database of certain games and determine whether or not they're installed on the user's PC, sort of like what Xfire does, but I realize that registry keys are left over even when programs are uninstalled. What's a good way to determine whether or not a particular PC game is installed? How does Windows keep track of what programs are installed? How does Xfire do it? I know they're both closed-source, but what's the best way to tackle this and find out which of the games I'm keeping track of are actually installed?

[julmuri]

gamelord12 said:

but I realize that registry keys are left over even when programs are uninstalled.

No, registry entires should be cleaned if you run the uninstaller and not just shift delete the game :p

gamelord12 said:

What's a good way to determine whether or not a particular PC game is installed?

On windows I would probably keep data like <Install path registry | game executable name>,
so you could enumerate all your entrys on run time and check if
1. registry exists
2. game executable exists, read the install path and append the exe name.
How you save the data is up to you :p