Get installed applications in a system

Question

How to get the applications installed in the system using c# code?

Answer 1

it's worth noting that the Win32_Product WMI class represents products as they are installed by Windows Installer. not every application use windows installer

however "SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall" represents applications for 32 bit. For 64 bit you also need to traverse "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall" and since not every software has a 64 bit version the total applications installed are a union of keys on both locations that have "UninstallString" Value with them.

but the best options remains the same .traverse registry keys is a better approach since every application have an entry in registry[including the ones in Windows Installer].however the registry method is insecure as if anyone removes the corresponding key then you will not know the Application entry.On the contrary Altering the HKEY_Classes_ROOT\Installers is more tricky as it is linked with licensing issues such as Microsoft office or other products. for more robust solution you can always combine registry alternative with the WMI.