Detecting Visual Studio license type / distribution channel

Question

There is plenty of information throughout the net on how to detect Windows license type and distribution channel using PID (that can be found in HKLM\SYSTEM\Setup\Pid registry key) and ProductID (that can be found in HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion).

However, there is quite little information on how to detect what kind of licensing is used to install other Microsoft products.

Namely, what i need to determine is which ones were installed using MSDN subscription license, and which were installed using other license types.

I've managed to find some info on Office flavors by analyzing product GUID (found in Uninstall registry branch):

• Office 2000
• Office XP
• Office 2003
• Office 2007
• Office 2010

However, all those articles only distinguish between these release types:

• 0 Volume license
• 1 Retail/OEM
• 2 Trial
• 5 Download

Furthermore, i could not locate any feasible information about other products. Namely, Visual Studio... (which is the one i am interested in the most).

To clarify: I do not need to obtain a license key (which i already found several ways of detecting while seeking for the information i need), my interest is solely in detecting what kind of license type was used to install the application.

Answer 1

Ok so the only way I can see of doing this is to use a tool like magicaljellybeans key finder and then have the exported keys from you msdn licenses and do a compare.

From just the software itself I am pretty sure that they are not identified as MSDN versions per se but it is the license that activates them that determines that so I am pretty sure that what you are asking is not possible as you describe it without doing the compare which means you need the key.

This is especially true as some products in msdn have and do use "retail versions" of software.

Answer 2

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/heaths/archive/2010/05/04/detection-keys-for-net-framework-4-0-and-visual-studio-2010.aspx

Visual Studio 2010
The detection keys for Visual Studio are used both to detect if the product is installed and what service pack level is installed. As with previous versions, these keys and values are under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\DevDiv\VS\Servicing.

Key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\DevDiv\VS\Servicing\10.0\$(var.ProductEdition)\$(var.LCID)
Name    Install
Type    REG_DWORD (32-bit integer)
Data    0x00000001 (1)
The values for $(var.ProductEdition) include the following table. The for other products, this value corresponds to the ProductEdition property in the Property table of the Windows Installer package for that product. The locale IDs for $(Var.LCID) are listed here.

Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate      VSTSCore
Visual Studio 2010 Premium       VSTDCore
Visual Studio 2010 Professional  PROCore
Visual Studio 2010 Shell (Integrated)   IntShell
For Dev10 we have also added detection values to the edition keys so that you do not have to detect every single language for ever edition.

Key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\DevDiv\VS\Servicing\10.0\$(var.ProductEdition)
Name    Install
Type    REG_DWORD (32-bit integer)
Data    0x00000001 (1)
These registry keys and values are also used to detect the service pack level. Instead of checking for the Name registry value, check the SP registry value. Ignore SPIndex; Microsoft uses this internally. In addition to the registry keys above, we also set a version-dependent registry value listed below.

Key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\DevDiv\VS\Servicing\10.0
Name    SP
Type    REG_DWORD (32-bit integer)
Data    0x00000001 (1)
Keep in mind, however, that as with all shared resources the more shared a resource is the less accurate it may be. This is because there is no version policy for registry values and other resources that do not have versions like text files. If two languages were installed at different servicing pack levels – which is unsupported but possible – the value would be set by the last product to be installed or reinstalled (repaired).

For more information, see the Visual Studio 2010 detection system requirements. This also includes information to use the CompLocator in your Windows Installer package as an alternative to registry detection.

http://www.mztools.com/articles/2008/MZ2008003.aspx

To detect which Visual Studio version a (multi-IDE) add-in is running under, you can use the EnvDTE.DTE.RegistryRoot property, which can return the following values:
For Visual Studio 2005: Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\8.0
For Visual Studio 2008: Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\9.0
To detect the edition and subedition of the Visual Studio IDE you can use the IVsShell interface, calling its GetProperty method with the Microsoft.VisualStudio.Shell.Interop.__VSSPROPID2.VSSPROPID_SKUEdition and Microsoft.VisualStudio.Shell.Interop.__VSSPROPID2.VSSPROPID_SubSKUEdition values.

Note: To get a service from an add-in, see HOWTO: Get a Visual Studio service from an add-in; and to know how to reference an assembly from the GAC (such as Microsoft.VisualStudio.Shell.Interop.dll), see HOWTO: Reference a Visual Studio assembly in the GAC from an add-in.

The returned results are not well documented but some values are provided in the following sample add-in:

Imports System
Imports Microsoft.VisualStudio.CommandBars
Imports Extensibility
Imports EnvDTE
Imports System.Runtime.InteropServices
Imports Microsoft.VisualStudio.Shell.Interop
Imports System.Windows.Forms



<ComVisible(True), ComImport(), Guid("6D5140C1-7436-11CE-8034-00AA006009FA"), _
InterfaceTypeAttribute(ComInterfaceType.InterfaceIsIUnknown)> _
Friend Interface IServiceProvider
   <PreserveSig()> _
   Function QueryService(<InAttribute()> ByRef guidService As Guid, _
      <InAttribute()> ByRef riid As Guid, <OutAttribute()> ByRef ppvObject As IntPtr) As Integer
End Interface

Public Class Connect
   Implements IDTExtensibility2

   Private Enum SKUEdition
      SKUEdition_None = 0
      SKUEdition_Express = 500
      SKUEdition_Standard = &H3E8
      SKUEdition_Professional = &H7D0
      SKUEdition_AcademicProfessional = &H834
      SKUEdition_AcademicStudent = &H834
      SKUEdition_AcademicStudentMSDNAA = &H898
      SKUEdition_AcademicEnterprise = &H8FC
      SKUEdition_Book = &H960
      SKUEdition_DownloadTrial = &H9C4
      SKUEdition_Enterprise = &HBB8
   End Enum

   Private Enum SubSKUEdition
      SubSKUEdition_None = &H0
      SubSKUEdition_VC = &H1
      SubSKUEdition_VB = &H2
      SubSKUEdition_CSharp = &H4
      SubSKUEdition_Architect = &H8
      SubSKUEdition_IDE = &H10
      SubSKUEdition_JSharp = &H20
      SubSKUEdition_Web = &H40
      SubSKUEdition_TeamEditionDevelopers = &H80
   End Enum

   Public Function GetService(ByVal serviceProvider As Object, ByVal type As System.Type) As Object
      Return GetService(serviceProvider, type.GUID)
   End Function

   Public Function GetService(ByVal serviceProvider As Object, ByVal guid As System.Guid) As Object

      Dim objService As Object = Nothing
      Dim objIServiceProvider As IServiceProvider
      Dim objIntPtr As IntPtr
      Dim hr As Integer
      Dim objSIDGuid As Guid
      Dim objIIDGuid As Guid

      objSIDGuid = guid
      objIIDGuid = objSIDGuid
      objIServiceProvider = CType(serviceProvider, IServiceProvider)

      hr = objIServiceProvider.QueryService(objSIDGuid, objIIDGuid, objIntPtr)
      If hr <> 0 Then
         System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.ThrowExceptionForHR(hr)
      ElseIf Not objIntPtr.Equals(IntPtr.Zero) Then
         objService = System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.GetObjectForIUnknown(objIntPtr)
         System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.Release(objIntPtr)
      End If

      Return objService

   End Function

   Public Sub OnConnection(ByVal Application As Object, ByVal ConnectMode As Extensibility.ext_ConnectMode, _
      ByVal AddInInst As Object, ByRef custom As System.Array) _
      Implements Extensibility.IDTExtensibility2.OnConnection

      Dim objDTE As DTE
      Dim objService As Object
      Dim objIVsShell As IVsShell
      Dim objValue As Object = Nothing
      Dim eSKUEdition As SKUEdition
      Dim eSubSKUEdition As SubSKUEdition

      Select Case ConnectMode

         Case ext_ConnectMode.ext_cm_AfterStartup, ext_ConnectMode.ext_cm_Startup

            objDTE = DirectCast(Application, DTE)
            objService = GetService(objDTE, GetType(IVsShell))
            objIVsShell = CType(objService, IVsShell)

            If objIVsShell.GetProperty(__VSSPROPID2.VSSPROPID_SKUEdition, objValue) = 0 Then
               eSKUEdition = CType(objValue, SKUEdition)
               MessageBox.Show(eSKUEdition.ToString)
            End If

            If objIVsShell.GetProperty(__VSSPROPID2.VSSPROPID_SubSKUEdition, objValue) = 0 Then
               eSubSKUEdition = CType(objValue, SubSKUEdition)
               MessageBox.Show(eSubSKUEdition.ToString)
            End If

      End Select

   End Sub

   Public Sub OnAddInsUpdate(ByRef custom As System.Array) _
      Implements Extensibility.IDTExtensibility2.OnAddInsUpdate

   End Sub

   Public Sub OnBeginShutdown(ByRef custom As System.Array) _
      Implements Extensibility.IDTExtensibility2.OnBeginShutdown

   End Sub

   Public Sub OnDisconnection(ByVal RemoveMode As Extensibility.ext_DisconnectMode, _
      ByRef custom As System.Array) Implements Extensibility.IDTExtensibility2.OnDisconnection

   End Sub

   Public Sub OnStartupComplete(ByRef custom As System.Array) _
      Implements Extensibility.IDTExtensibility2.OnStartupComplete

   End Sub

End Class
To detect whether a specific Visual Studio package is installed or not, you can use the IsPackageInstalled method of the IVsShell interface, which receives the Guid of the package.
Detecting installed Visual Studio Service Packs

Visual Studio uses the following Windows registry entries to track the installed service packs for the several versions (2005, 2008), editions (Standard, Professional, etc.) and languages (English, Spanish, etc.):

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\DevDiv\VS\Servicing\<version>\<edition>\<localeId>

where <version> and <edition> where explained in a previous section of this article and <localeId> is 1033 for English, 3082 for Spanish, etc.

For example, when Visual Studio 2005 Team Edition for Developers has SP1 installed, the value of the "SP" registry entry of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\DevDiv\VS\Servicing\8.0\VSTD\1033 is set to 1.

To know the service at general level (without taking into account the edition and language) you can use the "SP" registry entry under the registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\DevDiv\VS\Servicing\<version>