Getting Version from MSI without Installing It

Introduction

This ariticle is used to fetch the version number from an MSI without installing the MSI.

Background

In C# to access this we need to have reference to msi.dll which is exists in system32 folder of the system

Using the Code

To access the version number or other product related stuff we need to have the DLL reference in our visual studio dotnet.

DLL name: msi.dll (which is exists in system32)

            
Type type = Type.GetTypeFromProgID("WindowsInstaller.Installer");

WindowsInstaller.Installer installer = (WindowsInstaller.Installer)

Activator.CreateInstance(type);

WindowsInstaller.Database db = installer.OpenDatabase(
    @"D:\SEDC\Services\MyCodeSetup.msi", 0);

WindowsInstaller.View dv = db.OpenView(
     "SELECT `Value` FROM `Property` WHERE `Property`='ProductVersion'");

WindowsInstaller.Record record = null;

dv.Execute(record);

record = dv.Fetch();

string str = record.get_StringData(1).ToString();// here you will get the version number