Check if word installed

To whoever it might concern, here’s my version that checks for Office 95-2019 & O365, both MSI based and ClickAndRun are supported, on both 32 and 64 bit systems (falls back to 32 bits when 64 bit version is not installed).

Written in Python 3.5 but of course you can always use that logic in order to write your own code in another language:

from winreg import *
from typing import Tuple, Optional, List

# Let's make sure the dictionnary goes from most recent to oldest
KNOWN_VERSIONS = {
    '16.0': '2016/2019/O365',
    '15.0': '2013',
    '14.0': '2010',
    '12.0': '2007',
    '11.0': '2003',
    '10.0': '2002',
    '9.0': '2000',
    '8.0': '97',
    '7.0': '95',
}


def get_value(hive: int, key: str, value: Optional[str], arch: int = 0) -> str:
    """
    Returns a value from a given registry path

    :param hive: registry hive (windows.registry.HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE...)
    :param key:  which registry key we're searching for
    :param value: which value we query, may be None if unnamed value is searched
    :param arch: which registry architecture we seek (0 = default, windows.registry.KEY_WOW64_64KEY, windows.registry.KEY_WOW64_32KEY)
                 Giving multiple arches here will return first result
    :return: value
    """

    def _get_value(hive: int, key: str, value: Optional[str], arch: int) -> str:
        try:
            open_reg = ConnectRegistry(None, hive)
            open_key = OpenKey(open_reg, key, 0, KEY_READ | arch)
            value, type = QueryValueEx(open_key, value)
            # Return the first match
            return value
        except (FileNotFoundError, TypeError, OSError) as exc:
            raise FileNotFoundError('Registry key [%s] with value [%s] not found. %s' % (key, value, exc))

    # 768 = 0 | KEY_WOW64_64KEY | KEY_WOW64_32KEY (where 0 = default)
    if arch == 768:
        for _arch in [KEY_WOW64_64KEY, KEY_WOW64_32KEY]:
            try:
                return _get_value(hive, key, value, _arch)
            except FileNotFoundError:
                pass
        raise FileNotFoundError
    else:
        return _get_value(hive, key, value, arch)


def get_keys(hive: int, key: str, arch: int = 0, open_reg: HKEYType = None, recursion_level: int = 1,
             filter_on_names: List[str] = None, combine: bool = False) -> dict:
    """
    :param hive: registry hive (windows.registry.HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE...)
    :param key: which registry key we're searching for
    :param arch: which registry architecture we seek (0 = default, windows.registry.KEY_WOW64_64KEY, windows.registry.KEY_WOW64_32KEY)
    :param open_reg: (handle) handle to already open reg key (for recursive searches), do not give this in your function call
    :param recursion_level: recursivity level
    :param filter_on_names: list of strings we search, if none given, all value names are returned
    :param combine: shall we combine multiple arch results or return first match
    :return: list of strings
    """
    def _get_keys(hive: int, key: str, arch: int, open_reg: HKEYType, recursion_level: int, filter_on_names: List[str]):
        try:
            if not open_reg:
                open_reg = ConnectRegistry(None, hive)
            open_key = OpenKey(open_reg, key, 0, KEY_READ | arch)
            subkey_count, value_count, _ = QueryInfoKey(open_key)

            output = {}
            values = []
            for index in range(value_count):
                name, value, type = EnumValue(open_key, index)
                if isinstance(filter_on_names, list) and name not in filter_on_names:
                    pass
                else:
                    values.append({'name': name, 'value': value, 'type': type})
            if not values == []:
                output[''] = values

            if recursion_level > 0:
                for subkey_index in range(subkey_count):
                    try:
                        subkey_name = EnumKey(open_key, subkey_index)
                        sub_values = get_keys(hive=0, key=key + '\' + subkey_name, arch=arch,
                                              open_reg=open_reg, recursion_level=recursion_level - 1,
                                              filter_on_names=filter_on_names)
                        output[subkey_name] = sub_values
                    except FileNotFoundError:
                        pass

            return output

        except (FileNotFoundError, TypeError, OSError) as exc:
            raise FileNotFoundError('Cannot query registry key [%s]. %s' % (key, exc))

    # 768 = 0 | KEY_WOW64_64KEY | KEY_WOW64_32KEY (where 0 = default)
    if arch == 768:
        result = {}
        for _arch in [KEY_WOW64_64KEY, KEY_WOW64_32KEY]:
            try:
                if combine:
                    result.update(_get_keys(hive, key, _arch, open_reg, recursion_level, filter_on_names))
                else:
                    return _get_keys(hive, key, _arch, open_reg, recursion_level, filter_on_names)
            except FileNotFoundError:
                pass
        return result
    else:
        return _get_keys(hive, key, arch, open_reg, recursion_level, filter_on_names)


def get_office_click_and_run_ident():
    # type: () -> Optional[str]
    """
    Try to find the office product via clickandrun productID
    """
    try:
        click_and_run_ident = get_value(HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE,
                                                 r'SoftwareMicrosoftOfficeClickToRunConfiguration',
                                                 'ProductReleaseIds',
                                                 arch=KEY_WOW64_64KEY |KEY_WOW64_32KEY,)
    except FileNotFoundError:
        click_and_run_ident = None
    return click_and_run_ident


def _get_used_word_version():
    # type: () -> Optional[int]
    """
    Try do determine which version of Word is used (in case multiple versions are installed)
    """
    try:
        word_ver = get_value(HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT, r'Word.ApplicationCurVer', None)
    except FileNotFoundError:
        word_ver = None
    try:
        version = int(word_ver.split('.')[2])
    except (IndexError, ValueError, AttributeError):
        version = None
    return version


def _get_installed_office_version():
    # type: () -> Optional[str, bool]
    """
    Try do determine which is the highest current version of Office installed
    """
    for possible_version, _ in KNOWN_VERSIONS.items():
        try:
            office_keys = get_keys(HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE,
                                               r'SOFTWAREMicrosoftOffice{}'.format(possible_version),
                                               recursion_level=2,
                                               arch=KEY_WOW64_64KEY |KEY_WOW64_32KEY,
                                               combine=True)

            try:
                is_click_and_run = True if office_keys['ClickToRunStore'] is not None else False
            except:
                is_click_and_run = False

            try:
                is_valid = True if office_keys['Word'] is not None else False
                if is_valid:
                    return possible_version, is_click_and_run
            except KeyError:
                pass
        except FileNotFoundError:
            pass
    return None, None


def get_office_version():
    # type: () -> Tuple[str, Optional[str]]
    """
    It's plain horrible to get the office version installed
    Let's use some tricks, ie detect current Word used
    """

    word_version = _get_used_word_version()
    office_version, is_click_and_run = _get_installed_office_version()

    # Prefer to get used word version instead of installed one
    if word_version is not None:
        office_version = word_version

    version = float(office_version)
    click_and_run_ident = get_office_click_and_run_ident()

    def _get_office_version():
        # type: () -> str
        if version:
            if version < 16:
                try:
                    return KNOWN_VERSIONS['{}.0'.format(version)]
                except KeyError:
                    pass
            # Special hack to determine which of 2016, 2019 or O365 it is
            if version == 16:
                if isinstance(click_and_run_ident, str):
                    if '2016' in click_and_run_ident:
                        return '2016'
                    if '2019' in click_and_run_ident:
                        return '2019'
                    if 'O365' in click_and_run_ident:
                        return 'O365'
                return '2016/2019/O365'
        # Let's return whatever we found out
        return 'Unknown: {}'.format(version, click_and_run_ident)

    if isinstance(click_and_run_ident, str) or is_click_and_run:
        click_and_run_suffix = 'ClickAndRun'
    else:
        click_and_run_suffix = None

    return _get_office_version(), click_and_run_suffix

You can than use the code like the following example:

office_version, click_and_run = get_office_version()
print('Office {} {}'.format(office_version, click_and_run))

Remarks

• Didn’t test with office < 2010 though
• Python typing is different between the registry functions and the office functions since I wrote the registry ones before finding out that pypy / python2 does not like typing… On those python interpreters you might just remove typing completly
• Any improvements are highly welcome

Introduction

After the tip on How to Check Whether Excel is Installed in the System or Not, we are going to do the same for Microsoft Word.

If you are using Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word for Word related operations in your application, then you must check if Word is installed in the client machine or not. This tip gives you that trick.

Background

This little piece of code is a result of the research after the comment by Marco Bertschi on my previous tip (How to Check Whether Excel is Installed in the System or Not). Thanks a lot Marco.

Nice one, Tadit — It might be even improvable by providing information what the ProgID for the other office applications are (Word etc., but maybe even Visio or MS Project).

Using the Code

We will use Type Class and its method Type.GetTypeFromProgID Method (String).

Gets the type associated with the specified program identifier (ProgID), returning null if an error is encountered while loading the Type.

Return Value

Type: System.Type

The type associated with the specified ProgID, if progID is a valid entry in the registry and a type is associated with it; otherwise, null.

For Word, the ProgID is Word.Application. So, the below code is used to check whether Word is installed or not.

Type officeType = Type.GetTypeFromProgID("Word.Application");

if (officeType == null)
{
    
    
}
else
{
    
    
}  

History

• 29 November 2013 — First version submitted

How to detect the version of Word just by looking at the Word window

.

NOTE: The information in the dialog box that opens when you click About Word may not look exactly as shown in the illustrations below. Microsoft seems to move the information around from time to time.

Example of result is the numeric value:
16

Function fncGetFullWordBuildNumber_String() As String
    'Returns string with the full Word build number
    fncGetFullWordBuildNumber_String = _
        CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject") _
        .GetFileVersion(Application.Path & "WINWORD.exe")
End Function

Example of result:
16.0.10827.20150