Game explorer

Author: codev (talk, contrib)

Description

Microsoft Windows Vista ships with a feature called Game Explorer that allows a developer to list games in a central explorer location. Following the useful code from kichik and Doca Cola in this thread: http://forums.winamp.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=258969 I wrote an installer that adds an item to Game Explorer and removes it.

To integrate with Game Explorer you need to add a gdf xml file, icon and screenshot to the resources of an exe or dll that installs with your app. You can generate these with the Game Explorer tool that ships in the Microsoft DirectX SDK. You will also need that SDK for the GameuxInstallHelper.dll library these routines use to install the app.

The code

 RequestExecutionLevel admin
 !define GIS_CURRENT_USER 2
 !define GIS_ALL_USERS 3
 
 Function GameExplorer
  Push $0
 
  ; Check if we have Vista or later
  ClearErrors
  ReadRegStr $0 HKLM "SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion" CurrentVersion
  IfErrors finished
  StrCpy $0 $0 1
  IntCmp $0 6 0 finished
 
  ; Register with Game Explorer if so
  SetOutPath $Temp
  File "GameuxInstallHelper.dll"
 
  ; Remove first to avoid duplication
  ReadRegStr $0 HKCU "Software\TITLE" "GameExplorer"
  StrCmp $0 '' skipUninstall
  System::Call "GameuxInstallHelper::RemoveFromGameExplorer(g r0)"
  System::Call "GameuxInstallHelper::RemoveTasks(g r0)"
  skipUninstall:
 
  ; Now add to GE
  System::Call "GameuxInstallHelper::GenerateGUID(g .r0)"
  WriteRegStr HKCU "Software\TITLE" "GameExplorer" $0
  System::Call "GameuxInstallHelper::AddToGameExplorer(t 'GDFEXE', t 'APPPATH', i ${GIS_ALL_USERS}, g r0 r0)"
  System::Call "GameuxInstallHelper::CreateTask(i ${GIS_ALL_USERS}, g r0, i 0, i 0, t 'Play', t 'PROGPATH', t 'PROGARGS')"
  System::Call "GameuxInstallHelper::CreateTask(i ${GIS_ALL_USERS}, g r0, i 1, i 0, t 'Support', t 'http://www.codev.co.uk/', t '')"
 
 finished:
  Pop $0
 FunctionEnd
 
 Function un.GameExplorer
  Push $0
 
  ; Check if we have Vista or later
  ClearErrors
  ReadRegStr $0 HKLM "SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion" CurrentVersion
  IfErrors finished
  StrCpy $0 $0 1
  IntCmp $0 6 0 finished
 
  ; Remove from game explorer
  SetOutPath $Temp
  File "GameuxInstallHelper.dll"
  ReadRegStr $0 HKCU "Software\TITLE" "GameExplorer"
  StrCmp $0 '' finished
  System::Call "GameuxInstallHelper::RemoveFromGameExplorer(g r0)"
  System::Call "GameuxInstallHelper::RemoveTasks(g r0)"
 finished:
 
 Pop $0
 FunctionEnd

Usage

Just put Call GameExplorer in your install section and Call un.GameExplorer in your uninstall section.

Replace TITLE with the name of your app, GDFAPP with the executable containing the GDF resources, APPPATH with the application path, PROGPATH with the program to run when the user double clicks your game (you can add arguments in the place of PROGARGS) and your application's website in the place of http://www.codev.co.uk

MSDN Pages

Integrating Windows Game Explorer into an Installer