Identifying Excel version programmatically

Question

My VB.NET (3.5) application generates Excel reports.

Newer versions of Excel support the Office Open XML file format, while older versions don't.

I'd like my application to identify which version of Excel is installed on the local machine, and use a different method for generating the report (Newer versions: by generating an XML file. Older versions: by utilizing Excel Automation).

How can I identify the Excel version installed on the local machine?

Doug Glancy · Accepted Answer · 2011-04-10 16:19:17Z

5

You could open an instance of Excel and check the version:

Dim appExcel As Object
appExcel = CreateObject("Excel.Application")
With appExcel
    Debug.Print(Val(.application.version))
    .quit()
    appExcel = Nothing
End With

answered Apr 10, 2011 at 16:19

Doug Glancy

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smirkingman Over a year ago

This is the correct answer. Using the registry is unreliable.

mathieu · Accepted Answer · 2011-04-10 15:51:04Z

3

You can have a look at one of the following registry keys :

HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Excel 
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Excel

You should look for the existence of the key, with "Excel" in it, as you can have office 2003 installed, and visio 2007 aside, so both keys will exist, but only one will have an Excel subkey :

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0

Number / Version correspondance

Office 9 : Office 2000
Office 10 : Office XP (First version to support XML format worksheets)
Office 11 : Office 2003
Office 12 : Office 2007
Office 14 : Office 2010 (fun fact, 13 was skipped)

edited Apr 10, 2011 at 15:51

answered Apr 10, 2011 at 15:39

mathieu

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M.A. Hanin Over a year ago

That's a good start! On this machine I have Visio 2003 and Excel 2002. I see HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\10.0\Excel exists, but HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Excel doesn't.

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