How to get version information of DLLs and Exes?

Some times you really wanted to know what is the version of your DLL or EXE which you are using.
Microsoft supports couple of API's.The main API is GetFileVersionInfo

GetFileVersionInfo

The GetFileVersionInfo function returns version information about a specified file.

As with other file installation functions, GetFileVersionInfo works only with Win32 file images. It does not work with 16-bit Windows file images.

BOOL GetFileVersionInfo (
LPTSTR lptstrFilename,  // pointer to filename string
DWORD dwHandle  ,     // ignored
DWORD dwLen,           // size of buffer
LPVOID lpData            // pointer to buffer to receive 
                                // file-version info.
);

In order to Use this API you have to do following.

Add these lines at Top of your file.

struct FileInfo
{
CString fileName;
CString version;
CString date;
};
struct LANGANDCODEPAGE {
WORD wLanguage;
WORD wCodePage;
};
#define VERINFO_comments "comments"
#define VERINFO_CompanyName "CompanyName"
#define VERINFO_FileDescrib "FileDescription"
#define VERINFO_FileVersion "FileVersion"
#define VERINFO_InternalName "InternalName"
#define VERINFO_LegalCopyright "LegalCopyright"
#define VERINFO_LegalTrademarks "LegalTrademarks"
#define VERINFO_OriginalFilename "OriginalFilename"
#define VERINFO_ProductName "ProductName"
#define VERINFO_ProductVersion "ProductVersion"
#define VERINFO_PrivateBuild "PrivateBuild"
#define VERINFO_SpecialBuild "SpecialBuild"
CString GetFileVersionInfoString(LPCSTR fileFullName,LPCSTR verInfoString);

Implement the function GetFileVersionInfoString

CString GetFileVersionInfoString(LPCSTR fileFullName,LPCSTR verInfoString)
{
char *rcData = 0;
DWORD dwSize;
UINT wSize;
LANGANDCODEPAGE *lpTranslate;
LPTSTR fileName = (LPTSTR)fileFullName;
//file name and path
CFileStatus status;
CString verInfo = "Unavailable";
if( CFile::GetStatus(fileName, status ) )
{
//Version
LPDWORD handle1 = 0;
dwSize = ::GetFileVersionInfoSize(fileName, handle1);
if (! dwSize)
return verInfo;
rcData = new char[dwSize];
// get valid resource data using path, handle, and size
int result = ::GetFileVersionInfo(fileName, 0, dwSize, (LPVOID)rcData);
if (result)
{
result = ::VerQueryValue(rcData,TEXT("\\VarFileInfo\\Translation" ),
(LPVOID*)&lpTranslate, &wSize);
if (result == 0 || wSize == 0)
{
delete []rcData;
return verInfo;
}
}
// Read the file description for each language and code page.
char SubBlock[100];
LPVOID lpBuffer;
for( unsigned i=0; i < (wSize/sizeof(struct LANGANDCODEPAGE)); i++ )
{
wsprintf( SubBlock, TEXT("\\StringFileInfo\\%04x%04x\\%s"),
lpTranslate[i].wLanguage,lpTranslate[i].wCodePage,verInfoString);
result = VerQueryValue(rcData, SubBlock, (LPVOID*)&lpBuffer, &wSize);
if (!result)
break;
verInfo = (LPCSTR)lpBuffer;
}
delete []rcData;
}
return verInfo;
}

After Defining this function You can call this function is like

CString ver = "Unavailable";
CString fullFilename;
fullFilename = TEXT("C:\\Winnt\\system32\\shell.dll");
ver = GetFileVersionInfoString(fullFilename,VERINFO_FileVersion);
AfxMessageBox(ver);

The Message box will show the version no for shell.dll.You can also get copyright Information with same way.