Package Exports

win-detect-browsers

This package does not declare an exports field, so the exports above have been automatically detected and optimized by JSPM instead. If any package subpath is missing, it is recommended to post an issue to the original package (win-detect-browsers) to support the "exports" field. If that is not possible, create a JSPM override to customize the exports field for this package.

Readme

win-detect-browsers

Detects installed versions of Chrome, Chromium, Firefox, PhantomJS (local and global), Internet Explorer, Safari and Opera (Stable, Beta and Developer). Supports Windows XP and up.

Command line / API / Changelog / License

About

Basically, browser detection on Windows can't be done right. This is the try-everything-and-fail-silently approach. It accounts for architecture differences, normalizes environment variables, tries default locations, searches the registry (in the HKLM and HKCU hives), checks Start Menu Internet Applications and looks in PATH. Version numbers are then read from the executable metadata.

browser-launcher by substack has poor Windows support, and it prompted me to create this module. It is now used in browser-launcher2, an active fork of browser-launcher.

Command line

Install globally and run:

npm i win-detect-browsers -g
win-detect-browsers

Example output on 32-bits Windows 7:

Found 10 browsers in 382ms

chrome 44.0.2390.0
  @ C:\Users\vweevers\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome SxS\Application\chrome.exe
chrome 44.0.2383.0
  @ C:\Program Files\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe
chromium 44.0.2390.0
  @ C:\Users\vweevers\AppData\Local\Chromium\Application\chrome.exe
firefox 34.0.5.5443
  @ C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe
ie 11.0.9600.17728
  @ C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe
opera 29.0.1795.47
  @ C:\Program Files\Opera\Launcher.exe
opera 29.0.1795.41
  @ C:\Program Files\Opera beta\Launcher.exe
opera 30.0.1835.5
  @ C:\Program Files\Opera developer\Launcher.exe
phantomjs 1.9.8.0
  @ C:\Program Files\nodejs\node_modules\phantomjs\lib\phantom\phantomjs.exe
safari 5.34.54.16
  @ C:\Program Files\Safari\Safari.exe

Enable debug with SET DEBUG=win-detect-browsers.

examples

Detect Internet Explorer and Phantomjs, without version numbers:

win-detect-browsers --no-version ie phantomjs

Return first found version of FF:

win-detect-browsers --lucky firefox

API

Streaming mode: detect([names, options]) returns a readable stream.
Legacy callback mode: detect([names, options,] cb) calls cb with an array of results.

Where names is an array of browser names you want to find. If omitted, it will detect all browsers. Available options are:

boolean lucky whether to end the search for a browser after the first result. Note that this result is not consistent, because search is asynchronous. Defaults to false, meaning: find all versions.
boolean version whether to get version numbers, defaults to true.

examples

Detect everything:

var detect   = require('win-detect-browsers')
  , through2 = require('through2')

detect().pipe(through2.obj(function(b, _, next){
  var format = "\n%s %s\n  @ %s"
  console.log(format, b.name, b.version, b.path)
  next()
})

Detect only Chrome and IE, without version numbers:

detect(['chrome', 'ie'], {version: false})

Changelog

2.0.0

Speed improvement (2-4x), because it uses a single cscript process to query the registry (replaces reg queries) and a single cscript process to get the version numbers (replaces wmic queries).
Exports a readable object stream, but 1.x callback style is still supported (at least until 3.0)
Only emits executables (*.exe)
No longer uses command-line version flags or version numbers found in the registry or elsewhere. This simplifies the process and makes the version numbers consistent and more detailed.