How do I detect which version of Internet Explorer is installed?

Question

Is the best way to look under the Uninstall key of the Windows Registry? Is there a Microsoft API call which provides this info and is it supported from XP onwards?

Answer 1

I'd like to challenge the conventional wisdom of inspecting the registry. Consider the reference source for System.Windows.Forms.WebView.Version:

string mshtmlPath = 
   Path.Combine(Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.System), "mshtml.dll");
FileVersionInfofvi = FileVersionInfo.GetVersionInfo(mshtmlPath);
return new Version(
             fvi.FileMajorPart, fvi.FileMinorPart, fvi.FileBuildPart, fvi.FilePrivatePart);

Presumably, the guys who wrote the WebView class knew what they were doing.