Running a client side application

[BD]

Hi All, I'm back again looking for a solution that may, or may not be
possible.
Using VB
I need to determine if a remote site visitor has a particular piece of
software installed. In cases where they used the installer, there will be a
registry key that can be checked, however, not all people use the installer.
Some just download the zip file and extract the files.
I'm thinking that, first the code should check for the registry value
(possible?) and if it's not found then open the standard file open dialog so
they could browse to the executable. The path could be written to a cookie
for persistence, or not.
Now comes an even more difficult problem, my site will have example code
which will only run using the specified application and will be of no
interest to anyone who doesn't have it. I would like to run the application
on the client-side passing the code to it as a parameter.

What is the best approach to take here?
Code examples would be great.
Thanks people.

BD

 

[Peter Bromberg [C# MVP]]

The only way you can access the filesystem or the Registry of a client
computer through a web page that is sitting in their browser is via an
ActiveX control,
and the user must approve the installation of same. This is for obvious
security reasons. You wouldn't want some rogue web site messing with your
filesystem
or Registry, would you?
--Peter