Frequently Asked Questions

CP Studio

How does CP Studio retrieve application information?

CP Studio enumerates applications installed on a machine -- either the local machine or a remote one - by using the API exposed by Microsoft's MSI application installation engine.

What kind of information is accessed?

The MSI API provides CP Studio with a list of installed applications. For each application, the following properties are retrieved:

  • Product Name
  • Publisher
  • Version
  • Installation folder (this may be blank -- in which case CP Studio, in all likelihood, won't be able to automatically locate a lot of the files associated with this application)
  • GUID (a unique identifier)

Why can't CP Studio find all of the application files?

The folder names provided by the MSI are not complete paths such as "C:\Program Files\CompanyName\ApplicationName", but rather they are typically set to something more generic such as "PFiles\CompanyName\ApplicationName" that requires further interpretation on the part of CP Studio. CP Studio uses the most common interpretation of these paths and if it cannot find the file there, it reports back to the user.

Why doesn't CP Studio just scan the hard drive for the files?

Recursive searches can be very time-consuming, especially if the parent folder contains many child folders. Searching all of "C:\" could easily tie up the machine for a solid half-hour or more depending on the size of the drive and the number of files on it. The problem is compounded if it is searching for files on another machine across a LAN. The "closer" the search folder is to the file(s) CP Studio is looking for, the smaller the recursive search is, and the less time it's likely to take.