installed-win-apps

returns the paths of all installed apps on Windows

Update 1.1.6: Fixed: output incorrect targets when running 32bit node on 64 bit Windows

Update 1.1.4: Added: output lnk files only and do not extract targets. It's much faster way to check if an app is installed.

Update 1.1.3: Bug fixed: not working when script path includes spaces. (a bug with npm win-lnk-parser)

Update 1.1.1: You can filter installed paths by passing a keyword as argument

Update 1.0.8: Fixed a bug with win-codepage module as it won't work on non-English Windows

Why: I could not use the existing modules to get the path of certain programs like WPS

How: Read start menu folders recursively for shortcut files (.lnk) and get the path information.

Who am I: Developer of GT4T gt4t.net, a file translator app that translates Office, Markdown, PDF, HTML files in batches. No file upload needed.

installation

npm i installed-win-apps

Usage

    const installedPaths = require ('installed-win-apps');

    installedPaths.getAllPaths().then (paths=>{
        console.log(paths)   //paths is an array that contains the paths of all installed apps. e.g. [{lnk: "file file path.lnk", target: "target exe path.exe"}]
    })

    //Check if Microsoft Word is installed; returns an array if found and false if not found;
    installedPaths.getAllPaths("Microsoft Word").then (paths=>{
        console.log(paths)   //paths is an array that contains the paths of all installed apps with name containing "Microsoft Word". e.g. [{lnk: "file file path.lnk", target: "target exe path.exe"}]
    })


    installedPaths.getAllPaths("no such an app!").then (paths=>{
        console.log(paths)   //false
    })
    
    installedPaths.getAllPaths("Microsoft Word", true).then (paths=>{
        // Second parameter true means prints out lnk files only and do not extract target for faster performance 
        console.log(paths)   //paths is an array that contains the paths of all installed apps with name containing "Microsoft Word". e.g. [{lnk: "file file path.lnk", target: ""}]
    })

Functions

async getAllPaths(keyword = "", lnkOnly=false)

• @param {String} keyword @default {empty string}: Filter for an application. Print out all applications when left empty.
• @param {Boolean} lnkOnly @default {false}: Print out lnk files only. Do not extract targets. Fast way to find out if an application is installed.
• @returns {Array} Array of objects {lnk: "", target: ""} . e.g. [{lnk: "PATH/myapp.lnk", target: "PATH/myapp.exe"},{lnk: "PATH/yourapp.lnk", target: "PATH/yourapp.exe"}]

Caveats

• Implementation only currently supports Windows systems