Registering Windows Programs to Installed Programs List

Question

As you know, Windows has a "Add/Remove Programs" system in the Control Panel.

Let's say I am preparing an installer and I want to register my program to list of installed programs and want it to be uninstallable from "Add/Remove Programs"?

Which protocols should I use. Any tutorials or docs about registering programs to that list?

I am coding with python and I can use WMI (Windows Management Instrument) or Win32 API. IMHO, it is done with Registry keys but I am not sure with it.

I also want to execute an uninstaller upon the Uninstallation to remove installed files. Any related docs or tutorials are highly appreciated. Thanks.

Answer 1

As stated on IRC:

"Windows keeps its uninstall information in the registry"

Its in HLLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\uninstall\ keys.

You need a few things from the Win32 API, but I belive there's a fair amount of Python support for the win32 API.

Basically, a key in ...\Uninstall\ with a unique name (like "MyApp") with a few special values stashed in there. Add/Remove programs looks through there.

Its pretty self-explanatory.

Answer 2

Inno Setup is open source so perhaps you can get some ideas from that.

Answer 3

If you are developing for Windows platform I think using Windows Installer from Microsoft won't be a problem.

You can check documentation of Windows Installer from Microsoft.com Windows Installer Page