How to Check Whether PowerPoint is Installed in the System or Not

Introduction

After the tip on Excel and Word, we are going to do the same for Microsoft Powerpoint.

If you are using Microsoft.Office.Interop.PowerPoint for Powerpoint related operations in your application, then you must check if Powerpoint is installed in the client machine or not. This tip gives you that trick.

Background

This little piece of code is a result of the research after the comment by Marco Bertschi on my previous tip (How to Check Whether Excel is Installed in the System or Not). Thanks a lot Marco. :)

Marco Bertschi says

Nice one, Tadit - It might be even improvable by providing information what the ProgID for the other office applications are (Word etc., but maybe even Visio or MS Project).

Using the Code

We will use the Type class and its method Type.GetTypeFromProgID Method (String).

Gets the type associated with the specified program identifier (ProgID), returning null if an error is encountered while loading the Type.

Return Value 

Type: System.Type

The type associated with the specified ProgID, if progID is a valid entry in the registry and a type is associated with it; otherwise, null.

For Powerpoint, the ProgID is Powerpoint.Application. So, the below code is used to check whether Powerpoint is installed or not.

Type officeType = Type.GetTypeFromProgID("Powerpoint.Application");

if (officeType == null)
{
    // Powerpoint is not installed.   
    // Show message or alert that Powerpoint is not installed.
}
else
{
    // Powerpoint is installed.    
    // Continue your work.
}

History

• 3 December 2013 - First version submitted for approval.