Detect Internet Explorer Version using VB6

Question

I'm updating a legacy app and it has some functionality that detects the version of Internet Explorer that's installed, just for display and error reporting not because any components are required. The code used for IE version detection is basically the code from VBnet - DllGetVersion: Detailed Internet Explorer Version Info (Author: Kay-Christian Hansen, VBnet - Randy Birch). Unfortunately this code doesn't detect IE version greater than IE6.

So I'm wondering what the accepted VB6 method of detecting the installed version of Internet Explorer is these days?

Thanks.

Answer 1

I searched around and I couldn't really find anything. Kind of obscure for some reason. I did find this link where someone posted a solution but I coulnd't get it to fully work! :) I'm not really a vb guy so maybe you could. Here's the link if your interested:

http://www.visualbasicscript.com/m_64130/tm.htm

Edit:

I actually missed some code on the bottom of that page and that code seemed to work well in getting the version of IE. I kinda simplified his code a little bit:

Dim oFS = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Dim version = oFS.GetFileVersion("c:\windows\system32\ieframe.dll")
MsgBox("Your IE version is: " & version)

Hope this helps!

Answer 2

You could access registry to do that.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Version.

For IE 10 and above you should to check

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\svcVersion.

Look at KB 969393

Answer 3

Here is a class I use to get file version information:

Option Explicit

'property storage variables
Private m_strCompanyName As String
Private m_strFileDescription As String
Private m_strFileVersion As String
Private m_strInternalName As String
Private m_strCopyright As String
Private m_strOriginalFileName As String
Private m_strProductName As String
Private m_strProductVersion As String
Private m_strPrivateBuild As String
Private m_strSpecialBuild As String
Private m_strComments As String
Private m_strLegalTrademark As String

Private Declare Function GetFileVersionInfo Lib "Version.dll" Alias "GetFileVersionInfoA" (ByVal lptstrFilename As String, ByVal dwhandle As Long, ByVal dwlen As Long, lpData As Any) As Long
Private Declare Function GetFileVersionInfoSize Lib "Version.dll" Alias "GetFileVersionInfoSizeA" (ByVal lptstrFilename As String, lpdwHandle As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function GetSystemDirectory Lib "Kernel32" Alias "GetSystemDirectoryA" (ByVal Path As String, ByVal cbBytes As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function lstrcpy Lib "Kernel32" Alias "lstrcpyA" (ByVal lpString1 As String, ByVal lpString2 As Long) As Long
Private Declare Sub MoveMemory Lib "Kernel32" Alias "RtlMoveMemory" (dest As Any, ByVal Source As Long, ByVal Length As Long)
Private Declare Function OpenFile Lib "Kernel32" (ByVal lpFileName As String, lpReOpenBuff As OFSTRUCT, ByVal wStyle As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function VerQueryValue Lib "Version.dll" Alias "VerQueryValueA" (pBlock As Any, ByVal lpSubBlock As String, lplpBuffer As Any, puLen As Long) As Long

Private Const OFS_MAXPATHNAME = 128
Private Const OF_EXIST = &H4000
Private Const INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE = -1

Private Type OFSTRUCT
    cBytes As Byte
    fFixedDisk As Byte
    nErrCode As Long
    Reserved1 As Long
    Reserved2 As Long
    szPathName(OFS_MAXPATHNAME) As Byte
End Type

Public Function GetVersionInfo(ByRef lpFile As String) As Boolean
   Dim buffer As String
   Dim rc As Long
   Dim FullFileName As String
   Dim sFName As String
   Dim lBufferLen As Long
   Dim lDummy As Long

   On Error GoTo errGetVersionInfo

   If FileExists(lpFile) Then
      buffer = String(255, 0)
      '*** Get size ****
      lBufferLen = GetFileVersionInfoSize(lpFile, lDummy)
      If lBufferLen  0 Then
            Dim bytebuffer(255) As Byte
            MoveMemory bytebuffer(0), lVerPointer, lBufferLen
            Dim Lang_Charset_String As String
            Dim HexNumber As Long

            HexNumber = CLng(bytebuffer(2)) + CLng(bytebuffer(3)) * &H100 + _
                CLng(bytebuffer(0)) * &H10000 + CLng(bytebuffer(1)) * &H1000000

            Lang_Charset_String = Hex(HexNumber)
            'now we change the order of the language id and code page
            'and convert it into a string representation.
            'For example, it may look like 040904E4
            'Or to pull it all apart:
            '04------        = SUBLANG_ENGLISH_USA
            '--09----        = LANG_ENGLISH
            ' ----04E4 = 1252 = Codepage for Windows:Multilingual
            Do While Len(Lang_Charset_String)  0
      End If   'lBufferLen  INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE Then
        FileExists = True
    Else
        FileExists = False
    End If

End Function

Friend Property Get CompanyName() As String

   CompanyName = m_strCompanyName

End Property
Private Property Let CompanyName(ByVal vNewValue As String)

   m_strCompanyName = Trim$(vNewValue)

End Property

Friend Property Get FileDescription() As String

   FileDescription = m_strFileDescription

End Property
Private Property Let FileDescription(ByVal vNewValue As String)

   m_strFileDescription = Trim$(vNewValue)

End Property

Friend Property Get FileVersion() As String

   FileVersion = m_strFileVersion

End Property
Private Property Let FileVersion(ByVal vNewValue As String)

   m_strFileVersion = Trim$(vNewValue)

End Property

Friend Property Get InternalName() As String

   InternalName = m_strInternalName

End Property
Private Property Let InternalName(ByVal vNewValue As String)

   m_strInternalName = Trim$(vNewValue)

End Property

Friend Property Get Copyright() As String

   Copyright = m_strCopyright

End Property
Private Property Let Copyright(ByVal vNewValue As String)

   m_strCopyright = Trim$(vNewValue)

End Property

Friend Property Get OriginalFileName() As String

   OriginalFileName = m_strOriginalFileName

End Property
Private Property Let OriginalFileName(ByVal vNewValue As String)

   m_strOriginalFileName = Trim$(vNewValue)

End Property

Friend Property Get ProductName() As String

   ProductName = m_strProductName

End Property
Private Property Let ProductName(ByVal vNewValue As String)

   m_strProductName = Trim$(vNewValue)

End Property

Friend Property Get ProductVersion() As String

   ProductVersion = m_strProductVersion

End Property
Private Property Let ProductVersion(ByVal vNewValue As String)

   m_strProductVersion = Trim$(vNewValue)

End Property

Friend Property Get PrivateBuild() As String

   ProductVersion = m_strPrivateBuild

End Property
Private Property Let PrivateBuild(ByVal vNewValue As String)

   m_strPrivateBuild = Trim$(vNewValue)

End Property

Friend Property Get SpecialBuild() As String

   ProductVersion = m_strSpecialBuild

End Property
Private Property Let SpecialBuild(ByVal vNewValue As String)

   m_strSpecialBuild = Trim$(vNewValue)

End Property

Friend Property Get Comments() As String

   Comments = m_strComments

End Property
Private Property Let Comments(ByVal vNewValue As String)

   m_strComments = vNewValue

End Property

Friend Property Get LegalTrademark() As String

   LegalTrademark = m_strLegalTrademark

End Property
Private Property Let LegalTrademark(ByVal vNewValue As String)

   m_strLegalTrademark = vNewValue

End Property

These are my results for IE 8.
Company name: Microsoft Corporation
File description: Internet Explorer
Product version: 8.00.6001.18702 (longhorn_ie8_rtm(wmbla).090308-0339)
Internal name: iexplore
Legal copyright: © Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
Original file name: IEXPLORE.EXE
Product name: Windows® Internet Explorer
Comments: Windows® Internet Explorer
Trademarks: Windows® Internet Explorer
File version: 8.00.6001.18702 (longhorn_ie8_rtm(wmbla).090308-0339)
Private build:
Special build: