Programmatically get list of installed application executables (Windows10, C#)

Question

I want to get a list of applications that are installed and executable on Windows 10 -- ie executables of applications a user can launch (UWP and non-UWP). For UWP apps, I want to get its AppUserModelId. For non-UWP apps, I want to get the executable's file location.

So far, I have tried: 1) Going through the registry and iterate through the installed applications . However, this method goes through all installed applications, the returned list would include things like microsoft asp.net core 2.1.8 shared framework (x64) , which I want to eliminate.

2) I found that I can access what I wanted through the special Appsfolder , by typing shell:Appsfolder into either the explorer window or Run. So far I was able to get access to this folder, and iterate through the items and list the names of the files. But I am not sure how to collect information on AppUserModelId (for UWP apps) and filepath (for WPF apps).

Relevant code I used to enumerate Appsfolder files:

namespace AppsFolder
{
    ...
    public static class AppsFolder
    {
       ...

       // GUID for shell:Appsfolder
       public static readonly Guid KnownFolderID = new Guid("1e87508d-89c2-42f0-8a7e-645a0f50ca58");

       public static IEnumerable<string> GetItemNames(ESHGDN gdn)
       {
           IShellFolder appsFolder = GetAppsFolder();
           try
           {
               IntPtr enumIDListInterfacePointer;
               appsFolder.EnumObjects(IntPtr.Zero,
                    ESHCONTF.SHCONTF_NONFOLDERS | ESHCONTF.SHCONTF_FOLDERS,
                   out enumIDListInterfacePointer);
               using (var enumIDList = new
                      EnumIDListWrapper(enumIDListInterfacePointer))
               {
                  var names = new List<string>();
                  foreach (var pidl in enumIDList)
                  {
                      STRRET name;
                      recycleBin.GetDisplayNameOf(
                              pidl.DangerousGetHandle(),
                             gdn,
                             out name);
                      names.Add(STRRETToString(ref name, pidl));
                      if (name.uType != (int)STRRETType.Offset)
                         Marshal.FreeCoTaskMem(name.data.pOleStr);
                  }
                  return names;
               }
           }
           finally
           {
               Marshal.FinalReleaseComObject(recycleBin);
           }
        }

        private static IShellFolder GetAppsFolder()
        {
            IShellFolder desktop;
            NativeMethod.SHGetDesktopFolder(out desktop);
            try
            {
                Guid shellFolderInterfaceId = typeof(IShellFolder).GUID;
                IntPtr recycleBinShellFolderInterfacePointer;
                desktop.BindToObject(
                    GetItemIDList().DangerousGetHandle(),
                    IntPtr.Zero,
                    ref shellFolderInterfaceId,
                    out recycleBinShellFolderInterfacePointer);
                return (IShellFolder)Marshal.GetObjectForIUnknown(
                             recycleBinShellFolderInterfacePointer);
            }
            finally
            {
                Marshal.FinalReleaseComObject(desktop);
            }
         }

         public static SafeCoTaskMemHandleZeroIsInvalid GetItemIDList()
         {
             SafeCoTaskMemHandleZeroIsInvalid pidl;
             Guid guid = KnownFolderID;
             NativeMethod.SHGetKnownFolderIDList(
                ref guid, 0, IntPtr.Zero, out pidl);
             return pidl;
         }
     }
}

Executed as:

string[] names = AppsFolder.GetItemNames(AppsFolder.ESHGDN.SHGDN_INFOLDER).ToArray();
for (int i=0; i<names.Length; i++)
{
    Console.WriteLine(names[i]);
}

The ILaunchSourceAppUserModelID interface provides a method to get the AppUserModelID, but I'm not sure how to get access to this interface through my IShellFolder interface. Also, how do I get the actual file location within the AppsFolder virtual folder to actual exe's filepath?

Answer 1

You can get Application User Model ID (AUMID) for all apps installed for the current user by running the following command in Windows PowerShell command prompt:

get-StartApps

To get AUMIDs for Windows Store apps installed for another user, run the following command in Windows PowerShell command prompt:

$installedapps = get-AppxPackage

$aumidList = @()
foreach ($app in $installedapps)
{
    foreach ($id in (Get-AppxPackageManifest $app).package.applications.application.id)
    {
        $aumidList += $app.packagefamilyname + "!" + $id
    }
}

$aumidList

More detailed information you can refer to " Find the Application User Model ID of an installed app ".

What you need to do is call related registry API or Powershell command from C#.

Answer 2

You get the AppUserModelId with IShellFolder2.GetDetailsEx and PKEY_AppUserModel_ID

(tested in C# on Windows 10)

[StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential, Pack = 4)]
public struct PROPERTYKEY
{
    private readonly Guid _fmtid;
    private readonly uint _pid;

    public PROPERTYKEY(Guid fmtid, uint pid)
    {
        _fmtid = fmtid;
        _pid = pid;
    }

    public static readonly PROPERTYKEY PKEY_AppUserModel_ID = new PROPERTYKEY(new Guid("9F4C2855-9F79-4B39-A8D0-E1D42DE1D5F3"), 5);     
}

Answer 3

Check out this answer.

In short, add the Microsoft.WindowsAPICodePack-Shell nuget package to your project and then use this code:

// GUID taken from https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/shell/knownfolderid
var FODLERID_AppsFolder = new Guid("{1e87508d-89c2-42f0-8a7e-645a0f50ca58}");
ShellObject appsFolder = (ShellObject)KnownFolderHelper.FromKnownFolderId(FODLERID_AppsFolder);

foreach (var app in (IKnownFolder)appsFolder)
{
    // The friendly app name
    string name = app.Name;
    // The ParsingName property is the AppUserModelID
    string appUserModelID = app.ParsingName; // or app.Properties.System.AppUserModel.ID
    // You can even get the Jumbo icon in one shot
    ImageSource icon =  app.Thumbnail.ExtraLargeBitmapSource;
}

To start the app:

System.Diagnostics.Process.Start("explorer.exe", @" shell:appsFolder\" + appUserModelID);

Works for both regular apps and store apps.