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I have seen a few questions on how to enable and disable add-ons for Internet Explorer, but none that simply list the names of the installed add-ons.

While trying to get this working on my own, I've found that a few of my installed add-ons show up in this location: 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Extensions'

In that location, I find 3 out of 13 add-ons that I find when I open the Manage Add-ons dialog within Internet Explorer.

Here is a small peice of code I planned on using to accesss the registry after I found where the Add-ons are kept, but I unfortunately have been stuck looking through Regedit (Registry Editor) for some time.

Microsoft.Win32.RegistryKey objVistaRegistryKey = Microsoft.Win32.Registry.LocalMachine.OpenSubKey(@"SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Extensions");

Here is some more info about IE toolbars/addons. Many of them use Browser Helper Objects(BHO), some are stored here: 

'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Browser Helper Objects'

Any extra insight would be most appreciated.

Garrett
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  • Curious: Why you hope to do that? There are about a dozen different locations in which code that can be loaded into IE hangs out, and finding them all is very tricky. There are some 3rd party tools that aim to do this but I don't know if any of them get them all either... – EricLaw Sep 26 '13 at 19:31
  • I aim to populate a list of add-ons with the eventual goal of removing or at least blocking malicious add-ons. Would you be so kind as to post some of those third party tools? They would really help me out. – Garrett Sep 26 '13 at 20:11
  • Pretty sure Ad-Aware, SpyBot, AutoRuns all do this. – EricLaw Sep 27 '13 at 13:48
  • Oh, I meant 3rd party libraries. Thanks anyways though. – Garrett Sep 27 '13 at 14:13
  • I'm also looking for a programmatic solution to this. The problem is there are so many places to look at, that reaching a definite list is very difficult. – Nikhil Gupta Mar 03 '14 at 10:38

1 Answers1

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From this source:

Browser Helper Objects - Browser plug-ins which are designed to enhance the browser's functionality. Entries can be found in the registry at: 

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Browser Helper Objects

Toolbars - Additional toolbars that appear in a browser, often below the address bar. Entries can be found in the registry at: 

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Toolbar

URLSearchHooks - Used when an address without a protocol such as http:// has been entered in the browser's address bar. Entries can be found in the registry at: 

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\URLSearchHooks

Explorer Bars - Internet Explorer sidebars located adjacent to the browser pane. Entries can be found in the registry at: 

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Explorer Bars
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Explorer Bars

Additionally, from MSDN:

custom items for context menu:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\MenuExt\<Menu Text>
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\MenuExt\<Menu Text>

Custom items for Tools menu, custom toolbar buttons:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Extensions\{GUID}
noseratio
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  • Thanks @Noseratio. Are there ways to match the {GUID} with the actual extension somehow? – Nikhil Gupta Mar 06 '14 at 09:49
  • @NikhilGupta, no problem. You should be able to look it up by the GUID under `HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID` or `HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\CLSID`. – noseratio Mar 06 '14 at 09:55