Electron.js: Get installed apps and open them

Question

I want to do get downloaded apps and their information on computer (cross platform) with electronjs (nodejs). How can i get apps and how can i open them?

For example:

const installedApps = thisFunctionShouldReturnInstalledApps()

console.log(installedApps)

/* 
[
  "Firefox",
  "Visual Studio Code",
  "Slack",
  "Bitwarden",
  "Notion",
  "Mailspring",
  ...
]
*/

thisFunctionShouldOpenApp(installedApps[1]) // Open Visual Studio Code

Thanks you.

I am sorry. I updated the question. Maybe it now more understandable @spring — dotslashroot, Jun 10 '21 at 17:42
Basically what he wants to do is to open a program from Electron.js by using the Electron/Node.js API. I don't see anything vague here. — michaelgrigoryan25, Jun 10 '21 at 17:52
Does this answer your question? [Launch an external application from node.js](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/17733849/launch-an-external-application-from-node-js) — michaelgrigoryan25, Jun 10 '21 at 17:55
Not really. Okay now we can open app. But sametime i want to get list of installed apps. (And open them with what you said) — dotslashroot, Jun 12 '21 at 13:46

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Jun 06 '22 at 12:04

See basically all the installed applications reside in "Program Files" and "Program Files(x86)" directories. In electron, you have access to Nodejs APIs. So these are the steps you can follow.

Use fs to list all the applications inside these directories
Find .exe files
Get the list and execute using the spawn process, make sure you set the mode of detached=true, stdout= 'ignore', you will find this in Nodejs documentation

For other OS, you can follow this same approach, only extensions will change Thank you.

This is not true for all. I for one install my apps and games on a different disk and directory. — Nordling Art, Aug 23 '23 at 17:37

Electron.js: Get installed apps and open them

1 Answers1