Microsoft provides programming examples for illustration only, without warranty either expressed or implied. This includes, but is not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. This article assumes that you are familiar with the programming language that is being demonstrated and with the tools that are used to create and to debug procedures. Microsoft support engineers can help explain the functionality of a particular procedure, but they will not modify these examples to provide added functionality or construct procedures to meet your specific requirements.
CAUTION: If you follow the steps in this example, you modify the sample database Northwind.mdb. You may want to back up the Northwind.mdb file and follow these steps on a copy of the database.
Most files used by Windows-based programs contain a version stamp. You
can check this version stamp by using Windows API (application programming interface) calls within Visual Basic for Applications.
The following example shows you how to create a sample user-defined
function to check the version number (if available) of a file.
NOTE: You may have some Microsoft Windows API functions defined in an existing Microsoft Access library; therefore, your declarations may be
duplicates. If you receive a duplicate procedure name error message, remove or comment out the declarations statement in your code.
- Open the sample database Northwind.mdb.
- Create a new module, and then type or paste the following code into the new module:
Type FileInfo
wLength As Integer
wValueLength As Integer
szKey As String * 16
dwSignature As Long
dwStrucVersion As Long
dwFileVersionMS As Long
dwFileVersionLS As Long
End Type
' NOTE: The following Declare statements are case sensitive.
Declare Function GetFileVersionInfo& Lib "Version" _
Alias "GetFileVersionInfoA" (ByVal FileName$, _
ByVal dwHandle&, ByVal cbBuff&, ByVal lpvData$)
Declare Function GetFileVersionInfoSize& Lib "Version" Alias _
"GetFileVersionInfoSizeA" (ByVal FileName$, dwHandle&)
Declare Sub hmemcpy Lib "Kernel32" Alias "RtlMoveMemory" _
(hpvDest As Any, hpvSource As Any, ByVal cbBytes&)
Function LOWORD(x As Long) As Integer
LOWORD = x And &HFFFF&
' Low 16 bits contain Minor revision number.
End Function
Function HIWORD(x As Long) As Integer
HIWORD = x \ &HFFFF&
' High 16 bits contain Major revision number.
End Function
- Save the module, and create a new blank form.
- Add a text box to the form, and set its Name property to FName.
- Add a command button to the form, and set its OnClick property to the following event procedure:
Dim x As FileInfo
Dim FileVer As String
Dim FileName As String
Dim dwHandle&, BufSize&, lpvData$, R&
'*** Get Version Information If Available ****
FileVer = ""
FileName = Me![FName]
BufSize& = GetFileVersionInfoSize(FileName, dwHandle&)
If BufSize& = 0 Then
MsgBox "Invalid File Name or no Version information available"
Exit Sub
End If
lpvData$ = Space$(BufSize&)
R& = GetFileVersionInfo(FileName, dwHandle&, BufSize&, lpvData$)
hmemcpy x, ByVal lpvData$, Len(x)
'**** Parse File Version Number ****
FileVer = Trim$(Str$(HIWORD(x.dwFileVersionMS))) + "."
FileVer = FileVer + Trim$(Str$(LOWORD(x.dwFileVersionMS))) + "."
FileVer = FileVer + Trim$(Str$(HIWORD(x.dwFileVersionLS))) + "."
FileVer = FileVer + Trim$(Str$(LOWORD(x.dwFileVersionLS)))
MsgBox FileVer, 64, "Version of " & FileName
- To use the function, on the View menu, click Form View, and then type a valid path and file name in the FName text box. The
following lines are examples of valid paths and file names:
C:\Windows\System\Notepad.exe
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\MSAccess.exe
- After entering a path to a file, click the command button to see the version displayed in a message box.