Get the "File version" of an exe file

How can I get the "File version" or the "Product version" of an exe file?

i can see it if:

1. i'm right click on the exe file.
2. click on "Properties".
3. click on TAB "Details".
4. under the "Description" title are listed the parameters "File version" and "Product version".

I want to read these parameters using a Matlab command.

I saw a way to get the "Owner" of the file using the commands in the link below, but I couldn't figure out how to read the "File version".

https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/40645-find-out-owner-of-a-file-as-displayed-by-windows-explorer#answer_50397

Answer 1

[Jan]

Create a VBS script:

' File: FileProductVer.vbs
Set FSO=CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
If Wscript.Arguments.Count > 0 then
   sFullFileName = Wscript.Arguments(0)
   If FSO.FileExists(sFullFileName) Then
      Set objFolder = CreateObject("Shell.Application").Namespace(FSO.GetParentFolderName(sFullFileName))
      Set objFolderItem = objFolder.ParseName(FSO.GetFileName(sFullFileName))
      WScript.Echo "FileVersion   : " & objFolderItem.ExtendedProperty("Fileversion")
      WScript.Echo "ProductVersion: " & objFolderItem.ExtendedProperty("productversion")
   Else
      WScript.Echo "Error: missing file"
   End If
Else
   WScript.Echo "Error: missing input"
End If

Then call it from Matlab:

file = fullfile(matlabroot, 'bin', 'matlab.exe');
[status, result] = system(sprintf('cscript -nologo FileProductVer.vbs "%s"', file))

Output:

result =
    'FileVersion   : 1.0.0.1
     ProductVersion: 9.5.0.878302
     '     

Parse this using strsplit and strtrim.

[David Goldfisher]

Thank you very much, this helped me a lot!

For those who do not know how to work with the VBS script:

You can open a txt file and copy the VBS script into it.

Then rename the file to "FileProductVer.vbs"

Answer 2

[Wolfie]

You can use .NET functionality directly. Here is the Microsoft documentation for the System.Diagnostics.FileVersionInfo function:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.diagnostics.fileversioninfo.fileversion?view=net-9.0

MATLAB code:

file = fullfile(matlabroot, 'bin', 'matlab.exe');
v = char( System.Diagnostics.FileVersionInfo.GetVersionInfo( file ).FileVersion );

Output:

v =
    '24.2.0.2651190'    

If you don't use the .FileVersion attribute then you'll get a structure with various fields including numeric major/minor versions.