Determining the version of an MSI without installing it

Question

I have an MSI file built from my C# Visual Studio 2010. The version is set through the Version property. I wanted to know if there is a way to determine the version without having to install the file. Currently when right click and view the properties it isn't displayed.

Answer 1

The following code may be helpful. But remember that you should first add a COM reference to the Microsoft Windows Installer Object Library and add the WindowsInstaller namespace to your code. The following function may be what you need.

public static string GetMsiInfo( string msiPath, string Info)
{
   string retVal = string.Empty;

   Type classType = Type.GetTypeFromProgID( “WindowsInstaller.Installer” );
   Object installerObj = Activator.CreateInstance( classType );
   Installer installer = installerObj as Installer;

   // Open msi file
   Database db = installer.OpenDatabase( msiPath, 0 );

   // Fetch the property
   string sql = String.Format(“SELECT Value FROM Property WHERE Property=’{0}’”, Info);
   View view = db.OpenView( sql );
   view.Execute( null );

   // Read in the record
   Record rec = view.Fetch();
   if ( rec != null )
      retVal = rec.get_StringData( 1 );

   return retVal;
}

If you need the version, pass in the name of the MSI file you want, e.g.

string version = GetMsiInfo( "d:\product.msi", “ProductVersion” );