Detecting if a program is installed and where using cmd.exe

Question

Windows has the program start.exe which somehow knows how to open programs by their lay-name like "firefox"

Typing start firefox into cmd.exe opens firefox assuming its installed. Is there a similar command to start that will return the file path rather than starting the application?

Also open to any similar but proper solution

UPDATE: Other answers suggest using where command, and this works for programs like ping which are in the system directories, but does not find firefox like start does.

Knuckle-Dragger · Accepted Answer · 2014-02-01 22:23:39Z

7

Take a look at this registry key.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths

In it you will find something similar to this for firefox.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\firefox.exe]
@="C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Mozilla Firefox\\firefox.exe"
"Path"="C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Mozilla Firefox"

and here is a bit that reads the value from Powershell. Same thing can be done from batch file with reg.exe.

$Firepath = get-item -path 'registry::HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\firefox.exe'
$Firepath.GetValue('')

edited Feb 1, 2014 at 22:23

answered Feb 1, 2014 at 22:06

Knuckle-Dragger

7,2524 gold badges28 silver badges41 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

2 Comments

Nowayz Over a year ago

I searched for awhile and never found these keys! Thank you so much. This contains exactly what I was looking for.

Burkart Over a year ago

The mentioned reg.exe command is reg.exe query "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\firefox.exe" /v Path and requires additional output parsing.

Appu K · Accepted Answer · 2022-09-15 23:51:24Z

0

wmic product get name,version /format:csv > C:\testappu\Computername%.csv

answered Sep 15, 2022 at 23:51

Appu K

1

1 Comment

Community Over a year ago

Your answer could be improved with additional supporting information. Please edit to add further details, such as citations or documentation, so that others can confirm that your answer is correct. You can find more information on how to write good answers in the help center.

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Detecting if a program is installed and where using cmd.exe

2 Answers 2

2 Comments

1 Comment

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

2 Answers 2

2 Comments

1 Comment

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related