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

Introduction

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

If you are using Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook for Outlook related operations in your application, then you must check if Outlook 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 Outlook, the ProgID is Outlook.Application. So, the below code is used to check whether Outlook is installed or not.

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

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

History

• 5 December, 2013 - First version submitted for approval