How to find all the browsers installed on a machine

Question

How can I find of all the browsers and their details that are installed on a machine.

I am looking after making a library that can do this, a console application would do — Pranali Desai, Mar 03 '10 at 11:29
Looks like you've got a good answer below on windows platforms. On the Non-windows side, I'd build out a hearty least-common-denominator bourne shell script which would check OS type / distribution, check the associated package managers, check the file systems for binaries, etc. Would be nice to just have it wget your script off of a remote site, but your'e not guaranteed wget on a lot of Unix platforms. — Wedge Martin, Sep 11 '15 at 16:17

score 31 · Accepted Answer · edited Sep 27 '11 at 10:25

31

A quick google search gave me Finding All Installed Browsers in Windows XP and Vista

In the application I’ve been working on, I needed to find all browsers that are installed on a user’s machine. The best way to go about this is to look in the registry under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Clients\StartMenuInternet. This is where browser manufacturers are told to put their information, per this MSDN article.

edited Sep 27 '11 at 10:25

Justin

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answered Mar 03 '10 at 11:45

PetPaulsen

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7

For me a quick google search gave me this post ;-) Thanks for posting! +1 – Josh Stribling Sep 28 '11 at 20:12
3

... But here’s a gotcha I hit: on 64bit, the keys get written to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Clients\StartMenuInternet. – SepehrM Apr 28 '14 at 18:32
Except for Microsoft Edge. Since it is the default browser in Windows 10, this has caused me some issues since the registry key stated above has the current default set to iexplor.exe (IE 11), which it is not – BeanFlicker May 11 '16 at 00:37

score 5 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 27 '15 at 14:01

A short answer:

using (RegistryKey hklm = RegistryKey.OpenBaseKey(RegistryHive.LocalMachine, RegistryView.Registry32))
{
    RegistryKey webClientsRootKey = hklm.OpenSubKey(@"SOFTWARE\Clients\StartMenuInternet");
    if (webClientsRootKey != null)
        foreach (var subKeyName in webClientsRootKey.GetSubKeyNames())
            if (webClientsRootKey.OpenSubKey(subKeyName) != null)
                if (webClientsRootKey.OpenSubKey(subKeyName).OpenSubKey("shell") != null)
                    if (webClientsRootKey.OpenSubKey(subKeyName).OpenSubKey("shell").OpenSubKey("open") != null)
                        if (webClientsRootKey.OpenSubKey(subKeyName).OpenSubKey("shell").OpenSubKey("open").OpenSubKey("command") != null)
                        {
                            string commandLineUri = (string)webClientsRootKey.OpenSubKey(subKeyName).OpenSubKey("shell").OpenSubKey("open").OpenSubKey("command").GetValue(null);
                            //your turn
                        }
}

Simple example of an application (WPF) to launch all installed browsers:

cs:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Diagnostics;
using System.Drawing;
using System.IO;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using System.Windows;
using System.Windows.Controls;
using System.Windows.Data;
using System.Windows.Documents;
using System.Windows.Input;
using System.Windows.Media;
using System.Windows.Media.Imaging;
using System.Windows.Navigation;
using System.Windows.Shapes;
using Microsoft.Win32;

namespace WpfApplication94
{
    /// <summary>
    /// Interaction logic for MainWindow.xaml
    /// </summary>
    public partial class MainWindow : Window
    {
        public MainWindow()
        {
            InitializeComponent();

            List<ViewerApplication> viewers = new List<ViewerApplication>();
            using (RegistryKey hklm = RegistryKey.OpenBaseKey(RegistryHive.LocalMachine, RegistryView.Registry32))
            {
                RegistryKey webClientsRootKey = hklm.OpenSubKey(@"SOFTWARE\Clients\StartMenuInternet");
                if (webClientsRootKey != null)
                    foreach (var subKeyName in webClientsRootKey.GetSubKeyNames())
                        if (webClientsRootKey.OpenSubKey(subKeyName) != null)
                            if (webClientsRootKey.OpenSubKey(subKeyName).OpenSubKey("shell") != null)
                                if (webClientsRootKey.OpenSubKey(subKeyName).OpenSubKey("shell").OpenSubKey("open") != null)
                                    if (webClientsRootKey.OpenSubKey(subKeyName).OpenSubKey("shell").OpenSubKey("open").OpenSubKey("command") != null)
                                    {
                                        string commandLineUri = (string)webClientsRootKey.OpenSubKey(subKeyName).OpenSubKey("shell").OpenSubKey("open").OpenSubKey("command").GetValue(null);
                                        if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(commandLineUri))
                                            continue;
                                        commandLineUri = commandLineUri.Trim("\"".ToCharArray());
                                        ViewerApplication viewer = new ViewerApplication();
                                        viewer.Executable = commandLineUri;
                                        viewer.Name = (string)webClientsRootKey.OpenSubKey(subKeyName).GetValue(null);
                                        viewers.Add(viewer);
                                    }
            }
            this.listView.ItemsSource = viewers;
        }

        private void Button_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
        {
            Process.Start(((sender as Control).Tag as ViewerApplication).Executable, @"http://news.google.de");
        }
    }

    public class ViewerApplication
    {
        public string Name { get; set; }
        public string Executable { get; set; }
        public Icon Icon
        {
            get { return System.Drawing.Icon.ExtractAssociatedIcon(this.Executable); }
        }
        public ImageSource ImageSource
        {
            get
            {
                ImageSource imageSource;
                using (Bitmap bmp = Icon.ToBitmap())
                {
                    var stream = new MemoryStream();
                    bmp.Save(stream, System.Drawing.Imaging.ImageFormat.Png);
                    imageSource = BitmapFrame.Create(stream);
                }
                return imageSource;
            }
        }
    }
}

xaml:

<Window x:Class="WpfApplication94.MainWindow"
        xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
        xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
        Title="MainWindow" Height="350" Width="525">
        <ListView x:Name="listView">
            <ListView.ItemTemplate>
                <DataTemplate>
                    <Button Tag="{Binding}" Click="Button_Click">
                        <StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal">
                            <Image Source="{Binding ImageSource}" />
                            <TextBlock Text="{Binding Name}" />
                        </StackPanel>
                    </Button>
                </DataTemplate>
            </ListView.ItemTemplate>
        </ListView>
</Window>

result:

enter image description here

For any beginners like me. To run this I had to create a new wpf project in visual studio and follow https://stackoverflow.com/a/62390032/8608146 then run. — Phani Rithvij, Jun 12 '21 at 06:15

score 4 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 03 '10 at 11:35

4

Scan the contents of the Program Files folder for the filenames of known browser executables.

answered Mar 03 '10 at 11:35

John Ferguson

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+1 because it is an option, and remember to also scan 64bit program files. – JL. Mar 03 '10 at 11:42

score 4 · Answer 4 · answered Sep 11 '15 at 13:18

Necromancing, as the provided answers are incomplete.

First:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Clients\StartMenuInternet.

won't get you all browsers.

If you're in a corporate environment, the user will not have admin rights. If Google-Chrome and/or Chromium are installed that way (don't know if FF works like that), then the key will only be in HK_Current_User.

Also, this doesn't cover non-windows operating systems. You'll need elaborate code to determine and cover all package-management system on Linux + Mac systems.

Here code for Windows + Debian-based Linuces

PlatformInfo:

using System.Diagnostics;


namespace PlatformInfo
{

    public delegate int BrowserRatingCallback_t(string packageName);


    public class BrowserInfo : System.IComparable<BrowserInfo>
    {
        public string Name;
        public string Path;
        public int Preference;


        public int CompareTo(BrowserInfo other)
        {
            if (this == null || other == null)
                return 0;

            int pref = this.Preference.CompareTo(other.Preference);

            if (pref != 0)
                return pref;

            return string.Compare(this.Name, other.Name, true);
        } // End Function CompareTo 


        public static int DefaultBrowserRating(string packageName)
        {
            if (EmbeddedWebServer.StringHelpers.Contains(packageName, "Google")) return 1;
            if (EmbeddedWebServer.StringHelpers.Contains(packageName, "Chromium")) return 2;
            if (EmbeddedWebServer.StringHelpers.Contains(packageName, "Opera")) return 3;
            if (EmbeddedWebServer.StringHelpers.Contains(packageName, "Firefox")) return 4;
            if (EmbeddedWebServer.StringHelpers.Contains(packageName, "Midori")) return 5;
            if (EmbeddedWebServer.StringHelpers.Contains(packageName, "Safari")) return 9000;
            if (EmbeddedWebServer.StringHelpers.Contains(packageName, "Edge")) return 9998;
            if (EmbeddedWebServer.StringHelpers.Contains(packageName, "Explorer")) return 9999;

            return 9997;
        }


        public static System.Collections.Generic.List<BrowserInfo> GetPreferableBrowser()
        {
            return GetPreferableBrowser(BrowserInfo.DefaultBrowserRating);
        }


        public static System.Collections.Generic.List<BrowserInfo> GetPreferableBrowser(BrowserRatingCallback_t browserRatingCallback)
        {
            if (System.Environment.OSVersion.Platform != System.PlatformID.Unix)
                return Win.GetPreferableBrowser(browserRatingCallback);
            // ELSE: Linux / Unix / MacOS

            if (DistroInfo.PackageManager == DistroInfo.PackageManager_t.dpkg)
                return dpkg.GetInstalledBrowsers(browserRatingCallback);

            return new System.Collections.Generic.List<BrowserInfo>();
        }


    } // End Class BrowserInfo : System.IComparable<BrowserInfo> 



    public class DistroInfo
    {

        public enum Distro_t : int
        {
             Debian 
            ,Ubuntu 
            ,Mint 

            ,Arch
            ,Gentoo

            ,CentOS
            ,Fedora
            ,RedHat 


            ,Mageia
            ,Suse 

            ,Mandrake 
            ,YellowDog 

            ,Slackware 

            ,SunJDS
            ,Solaris 
            ,UnitedLinux


            ,Unknown
        } // End Enum Distro_t 


        public enum PackageManager_t : int
        { 
             dpkg
            ,rpm
            ,portage
            ,pacman
            ,pkgtool
            ,ips
            ,unknown
        } // End Enum PackageManager_t 


        public enum DistroFamily_t : int
        {
            Debian, RedHat, Unknown 
        } // End Enum DistroFamily_t


        public static DistroFamily_t DistroFamily
        {
            get {

                if (Distro == Distro_t.Ubuntu)
                    return DistroFamily_t.Debian;

                if (Distro == Distro_t.Debian)
                    return DistroFamily_t.Debian;

                if (Distro == Distro_t.Mint)
                    return DistroFamily_t.Debian;


                if (Distro == Distro_t.RedHat)
                    return DistroFamily_t.RedHat;

                if (Distro == Distro_t.CentOS)
                    return DistroFamily_t.RedHat;

                if (Distro == Distro_t.Fedora)
                    return DistroFamily_t.RedHat;

                if (Distro == Distro_t.Suse)
                    return DistroFamily_t.RedHat;

                if (Distro == Distro_t.Mageia)
                    return DistroFamily_t.RedHat;

                if (Distro == Distro_t.Mandrake)
                    return DistroFamily_t.RedHat;

                if (Distro == Distro_t.YellowDog)
                    return DistroFamily_t.RedHat;


                return DistroFamily_t.Unknown;
            }
        } // End Property DistroFamily


        public static PackageManager_t PackageManager
        {
            get {
                if (DistroFamily == DistroFamily_t.Debian)
                    return PackageManager_t.dpkg;

                if (DistroFamily == DistroFamily_t.RedHat)
                    return PackageManager_t.rpm;

                if(Distro == Distro_t.Arch)
                    return PackageManager_t.pacman;

                if(Distro == Distro_t.Gentoo)
                    return PackageManager_t.portage;

                if(Distro == Distro_t.Slackware)
                    return PackageManager_t.pkgtool;


                if(Distro == Distro_t.Solaris)
                    return PackageManager_t.ips;

                if(Distro == Distro_t.SunJDS)
                    return PackageManager_t.ips;

                return PackageManager_t.unknown;
            }
        } // End Property PackageManager


        // Release Files in /etc (from Unix.com)
        // Novell SuSE---> /etc/SuSE-release
        // Red Hat--->/etc/redhat-release, /etc/redhat_version
        // Fedora-->/etc/fedora-release
        // Slackware--->/etc/slackware-release, /etc/slackware-version
        // Old Debian--->/etc/debian_release, /etc/debian_version
        // New Debian--->/etc/os-release
        // Mandrake--->/etc/mandrake-release
        // Yellow dog-->/etc/yellowdog-release
        // Sun JDS--->/etc/sun-release
        // Solaris/Sparc--->/etc/release
        // Gentoo--->/etc/gentoo-release

        // cat /etc/issue
        // CentOS Linux release 6.0 (Final)
        // Kernel \r on an \m

        // cat /proc/version
        // uname -a
        // If you are in a container, beware cat /proc/version will give the host distro, not the container one.

        // http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/35183/how-do-i-identify-which-linux-distro-is-running
        public static Distro_t Distro
        {
            get{
                string issue = null;

                if (System.IO.File.Exists("/etc/issue"))
                    issue = System.IO.File.ReadAllText("/etc/issue", System.Text.Encoding.UTF8);

                if (EmbeddedWebServer.StringHelpers.Contains(issue, "Ubuntu"))
                    return Distro_t.Ubuntu;

                if (System.IO.File.Exists("/etc/os-release"))
                    return Distro_t.Debian; // New Debian

                if (System.IO.File.Exists("/etc/debian_release"))
                    return Distro_t.Debian; // Old Debian




                if (System.IO.File.Exists("/etc/gentoo-release"))
                    return Distro_t.Gentoo; // Not yet supported

                if (System.IO.File.Exists("/etc/SuSE-release"))
                    return Distro_t.Suse;



                if (EmbeddedWebServer.StringHelpers.Contains(issue, "CentOS"))
                    return Distro_t.CentOS;

                if (System.IO.File.Exists("/etc/fedora-release"))
                    return Distro_t.Fedora;

                if (System.IO.File.Exists("/etc/redhat_version"))
                    return Distro_t.Fedora;



                // Unsupported 
                if (System.IO.File.Exists("/etc/mandrake-release"))
                    return Distro_t.Mandrake;

                if (System.IO.File.Exists("/etc/slackware-release"))
                    return Distro_t.Slackware;

                if (System.IO.File.Exists("/etc/yellowdog-release"))
                    return Distro_t.YellowDog;

                if (System.IO.File.Exists("/etc/yellowdog-release"))
                    return Distro_t.YellowDog;

                if (System.IO.File.Exists("/etc/sun-release"))
                    return Distro_t.SunJDS;

                if (System.IO.File.Exists("/etc/release"))
                    return Distro_t.Solaris;

                if (System.IO.File.Exists("/etc/UnitedLinux-release"))
                    return Distro_t.Solaris;

                return Distro_t.Unknown;
            } // End Get 
        } // End Property Distro


    } // End Class DistroInfo 



    public class dpkg
    {


        public static bool HasDPKG()
        {
            // if (System.IO.File.Exists("/usr/bin/dpkg")) return true;
            if (DistroInfo.PackageManager == DistroInfo.PackageManager_t.dpkg)
                return true;

            return false;
        } // End Function HasDPKG


        public static bool IsPackageInstalled(string packageName)
        {
            Process process = new Process();
            process.StartInfo.FileName = "dpkg";
            process.StartInfo.Arguments = "-s \"" + packageName + "\"";
            process.StartInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
            process.StartInfo.RedirectStandardOutput = true;
            process.StartInfo.RedirectStandardError = true;
            process.Start();
            process.WaitForExit();
            int result = process.ExitCode;

            if (result == 0)
                return true;

            return false;
        } // End Function IsPackageInstalled


        public static string GetExecutable(string packageName)
        {
            Process process = new Process();
            process.StartInfo.FileName = "dpkg";
            process.StartInfo.Arguments = "-L \"" + packageName + "\"";
            process.StartInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
            process.StartInfo.RedirectStandardOutput = true;
            process.Start();
            //* Read the output (or the error)
            string output = process.StandardOutput.ReadToEnd();
            process.WaitForExit();

            if (output != null)
                output = output.Replace("\r", "\n");
            string[] lines = output.Split(new char[] { '\n' }, System.StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries);

            string executable = null;

            foreach (string line in lines)
            {
                if (line.IndexOf("/bin/") != -1)
                {
                    executable = line;
                    break;
                }
            }

            return executable;
        } // End Function GetExecutable


        public static System.Collections.Generic.List<BrowserInfo> GetInstalledBrowsers()
        {
            return GetInstalledBrowsers(BrowserInfo.DefaultBrowserRating);
        } // End Function GetInstalledBrowsers


        public static System.Collections.Generic.List<BrowserInfo> GetInstalledBrowsers(BrowserRatingCallback_t browserRatingCallback )
        {

            System.Collections.Generic.List<BrowserInfo> ls = new System.Collections.Generic.List<BrowserInfo>();
            System.Collections.Generic.List<string> packageList = GetPossibleBrowsers();

            foreach (string packageName in packageList)
            {
                if (IsPackageInstalled(packageName))
                {
                    int sort = browserRatingCallback(packageName);

                    ls.Add(new BrowserInfo()
                    {
                         Name = packageName
                        ,Path = GetExecutable(packageName)
                        ,Preference = sort
                    });

                } // End if (isPackageInstalled(packageName)) 

            } // Next packageName 

            ls.Sort();

            return ls;
        } // End Function GetInstalledBrowsers


        public static System.Collections.Generic.List<string> GetPossibleBrowsers()
        {
            return SearchPackages("www-browser");
        } // End Function GetPossibleBrowsers 


        public static System.Collections.Generic.List<string> SearchPackages(string categoryName)
        {
            System.Collections.Generic.List<string> ls = new System.Collections.Generic.List<string>();

            Process process = new Process();  // e.g. apt-cache search www-browser 
            process.StartInfo.FileName = "apt-cache";
            process.StartInfo.Arguments = "search \"" + categoryName + "\"";
            process.StartInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
            process.StartInfo.RedirectStandardOutput = true;
            process.StartInfo.RedirectStandardError = true;
            process.Start();
            //* Read the output (or the error)
            string output = process.StandardOutput.ReadToEnd();
            process.WaitForExit();

            if (output != null)
                output = output.Replace("\r", "\n");

            string[] lines = output.Split(new char[] { '\n' }, System.StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries);

            foreach (string line in lines)
            {
                if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(line))
                    continue;

                int pos = line.IndexOf(" ");
                if (pos < 0)
                    continue;

                string packageName = line.Substring(0, pos);
                ls.Add(packageName);
            } // Next line 

            return ls;
        } // End Function SearchPackages 


    } // End Class dpkg 

    public class Win
    {

        public static System.Collections.Generic.List<BrowserInfo> GetPreferableBrowser(BrowserRatingCallback_t browserRatingCallback)
        {
            System.Collections.Generic.List<BrowserInfo> ls = new System.Collections.Generic.List<BrowserInfo>();
            if (System.Environment.OSVersion.Platform == System.PlatformID.Unix)
                return ls;

            using (Microsoft.Win32.RegistryKey hklm = Microsoft.Win32.Registry.LocalMachine)
            {
                Microsoft.Win32.RegistryKey webClientsRootKey = hklm.OpenSubKey(@"SOFTWARE\Clients\StartMenuInternet");
                if (webClientsRootKey != null)
                    foreach (var subKeyName in webClientsRootKey.GetSubKeyNames())
                        if (webClientsRootKey.OpenSubKey(subKeyName) != null)
                            if (webClientsRootKey.OpenSubKey(subKeyName).OpenSubKey("shell") != null)
                                if (webClientsRootKey.OpenSubKey(subKeyName).OpenSubKey("shell").OpenSubKey("open") != null)
                                    if (webClientsRootKey.OpenSubKey(subKeyName).OpenSubKey("shell").OpenSubKey("open").OpenSubKey("command") != null)
                                    {
                                        string commandLineUri = (string)webClientsRootKey.OpenSubKey(subKeyName).OpenSubKey("shell").OpenSubKey("open").OpenSubKey("command").GetValue(null);
                                        if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(commandLineUri))
                                            continue;
                                        commandLineUri = commandLineUri.Trim("\"".ToCharArray());

                                        // viewer.Executable = commandLineUri;
                                        string Name = (string)webClientsRootKey.OpenSubKey(subKeyName).GetValue(null);

                                        ls.Add(new BrowserInfo()
                                        {
                                            Name = Name
                                            ,
                                            Path = commandLineUri
                                            ,
                                            Preference = browserRatingCallback(Name)
                                        });

                                    }
            } // End Using 


            using (Microsoft.Win32.RegistryKey hklm = Microsoft.Win32.Registry.CurrentUser)
            {
                Microsoft.Win32.RegistryKey webClientsRootKey = hklm.OpenSubKey(@"SOFTWARE\Clients\StartMenuInternet");
                if (webClientsRootKey != null)
                    foreach (var subKeyName in webClientsRootKey.GetSubKeyNames())
                        if (webClientsRootKey.OpenSubKey(subKeyName) != null)
                            if (webClientsRootKey.OpenSubKey(subKeyName).OpenSubKey("shell") != null)
                                if (webClientsRootKey.OpenSubKey(subKeyName).OpenSubKey("shell").OpenSubKey("open") != null)
                                    if (webClientsRootKey.OpenSubKey(subKeyName).OpenSubKey("shell").OpenSubKey("open").OpenSubKey("command") != null)
                                    {
                                        string commandLineUri = (string)webClientsRootKey.OpenSubKey(subKeyName).OpenSubKey("shell").OpenSubKey("open").OpenSubKey("command").GetValue(null);
                                        if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(commandLineUri))
                                            continue;
                                        commandLineUri = commandLineUri.Trim("\"".ToCharArray());

                                        // viewer.Executable = commandLineUri;
                                        string Name = (string)webClientsRootKey.OpenSubKey(subKeyName).GetValue(null);

                                        ls.Add(new BrowserInfo()
                                        {
                                            Name = Name
                                            ,
                                            Path = commandLineUri
                                            ,
                                            Preference = browserRatingCallback(Name)
                                        });

                                    }
            } // End Using

            ls.Sort();
            return ls;
        } // End Function GetPreferableBrowser 


    }


    public class rpm
    {


        public rpm()
        {
            throw new System.NotImplementedException("TODO");
        }


        // # rpm -q --whatprovides webclient
        //links-graphic-2.1-0.pre11.1mdk
        //lynx-2.8.5-1mdk
        //links-2.1-0.pre13.3mdk
        //kdebase-common-3.2.3-134.8.101mdk
        //mozilla-1.7.2-12.2.101mdk
        //epiphany-1.2.8-4.2.101mdk
        //wget-1.9.1-4.2.101mdk

        // Another rough method is apropos
        // This lists unexpected results too, and misses firefox as well as konqueror, who didn't filled the man-pages correctly. 
        //snx]->~ > apropos browser
        //alevt (1)            - X11 Teletext browser
        //amrecover (8)        - Amanda index database browser
        //elinks (1)           - lynx-like alternative character mode WWW browser
        //gnome-moz-remote (1) - remote control of browsers.
        //goad-browser (1)     - Graphical GOAD browser
        //links (1)            - lynx-like alternative character mode WWW browser
        //LinNeighborhood (1)  - an SMB Network Browser
        //lynx (1)             - a general purpose distributed information browser for the World Wide Web
        //mozilla-1.5 (1)      - a Web browser for X11 derived from Netscape Communicator
        //opera (1)            - a graphical web browser
        //sensible-browser (1) - sensible editing, paging, and web browsing
        //smbtree (1)          - A text based smb network browser
        //www (1)              - the W3C Line Mode Browser.
        //www-browser (1)      - a general purpose distributed information browser for the World Wide Web
        //xfhelp (1)           - lauches an HTML browser to display online documentation for
        //                       "The Cholesterol Free Desktop Environment"
        //viewres (1x)         - graphical class browser for Xt
        //htsserver (1)        - offline browser server : copy websites to a local directory
        //httrack (1)          - offline browser : copy websites to a local directory
        //webhttrack (1)       - offline browser : copy websites to a local directory
    } // End Class RPM 


} // End Namespace

String-Helpers

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;

namespace EmbeddedWebServer
{
    internal class StringHelpers
    {



        public static bool Contains(string source, string value)
        {
            if (source == null || value == null)
                return false;

            return System.Globalization.CultureInfo.InvariantCulture.CompareInfo.IndexOf(source, value, System.Globalization.CompareOptions.IgnoreCase) != -1;
        }


    }
}

And this is the actual usage:

public void OpenBrowser()
{
    System.Collections.Generic.List<PlatformInfo.BrowserInfo> bi = PlatformInfo.BrowserInfo.GetPreferableBrowser(); 
    string url = "\"" + "http://127.0.0.1:" + this.m_Port.ToString() + "/Index.htm\"";

    if (bi.Count > 0)
    {
        System.Diagnostics.ProcessStartInfo psi = new System.Diagnostics.ProcessStartInfo();
        psi.FileName =bi[0].Path;
        psi.Arguments = url;

        System.Diagnostics.Process.Start(psi);
        return;
    }

    System.Diagnostics.Process.Start(url);
} // End Sub OpenBrowser

Hi stefan, can you please add lines of code to get default browser? Thanks — Mrityunjay, Dec 02 '16 at 11:03
The default-browser is simple: Just open the URL as process - on Linux, this will require gvfs to be installed - which it usually will be - on desktop-linux. — Stefan Steiger, Jan 02 '18 at 16:35

score 3 · Answer 5 · edited Apr 28 '14 at 08:48

This solution seems to work for me:

RegistryKey browserKeys;
//on 64bit the browsers are in a different location
browserKeys =   Registry.LocalMachine.OpenSubKey(@"SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Clients\StartMenuInternet");
if (browserKeys == null)
    browserKeys = Registry.LocalMachine.OpenSubKey(@"SOFTWARE\Clients\StartMenuInternet");
    string[] browserNames = browserKeys.GetSubKeyNames();

Enjoy coding! Chagbert.

How to find all the browsers installed on a machine

5 Answers5

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