detect client side software version

Question

I have web application, through I need it to read an application version on the client side.

is this possible? Can I do this in javascript, or even asp.net?

I want to determine the version of software installed on the client side.

For example:

The version of software that is installed, for instance if a user installs a program with name test.exe, I want to detect it and get its version. It's not browser plugin.

Answer 1

You need to use activeX to create object of any exposed type using JS. If it fails software is not installed, else u can retrieve version stored in activeX object. Thats how most messenger do.

<OBJECT id="MSXML4"
classid="clsid:88d969c0-f192-11d4-a65f-0040963251e5"
codebase="http://www..../msxml4.cab#version=4,10,9404,0"
type="application/x-oleobject"
STYLE="display: none"
standby="ww">
Alternative Text
</OBJECT>

<script>
//if msxml4 is not installed
if( !document.MSXML4 ){
alert("MSXML4 is not installed");
</script>
}