How do I check if Windows Installer 3.1 or higher is installed?

Question

I need to know this since this is a pre-req for .NET 3.5 and if I\'m including the .NET bootstrapper, I should also see if Windows Installer 3.1 is needed.

Right now

Answer 1

locate the installer msi.dll with this registry path: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Installer

value: InstallerLocation

then get the version information from that file.

update: the way above is old! new way to detect the version is documented here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa368280%28VS.85%29.aspx