How to write Batch script to do something based on windows version - excel

Question

I am fairly new to writing batch scripts and our system has just thrown me a slight curve ball.
We are getting new computers with Windows 10 and Office 16. We also still have Windows 7 and Office 14 PCs are the network that have not been upgraded yet.
I currently have a batch file that does an xcopy on execution that checks an excel file on a server against a version of the same file on the users local machine. If the server version is newer, it copies over the local version then opens and runs the excel file.
I need to update my batch to accomodate both versions of excel when it needs to open and run the file.
I can check either on windows or excel version as they are married together, but I'm open to whichever method is more reliable.
I was playing with WMIC which returns the version of windows reliably on our machines. I tried other scripts from my research on the web and they did not function as I would have liked.
Here is my current code:
set "source=\\s001\FOLDER\EXCELFILE TOOL.xlsm"
set "target=C:\Apps\EXCELFILE TOOL PROGRAM\"
xcopy "%source%" "%target%" /y /d /h /k /r
START "" "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office14\EXCEL.exe" /e "%target%\EXCELFILE TOOL.xlsm"
EXIT
Before the "START" line, I need to check which version of windows or office is on the machine, then modify the start to be one of these two options:
Option 1
START "" "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office14\EXCEL.exe" /e "%target%\EXCELFILE TOOL.xlsm"
Option 2
START "" "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\root\Office16\EXCEL.exe" /e "%target%\EXCELFILE TOOL.xlsm"
Any help would be really appreciated, thanks!

Answer 1

If you're just wanting to start Excel, searching directories should be unnecessary.
Once installed Excel would have a registry sub-key created under:
"[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE|HKEY_CURRENT_USER]\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths"
Most likely named:
"HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\Excel.exe"
Where the Default value data holds the fully qualified path to the application.
With entries under this key, simply entering the applications name should run it:
Start Excel.exe
The REG_SZ data entry can be used with or without its .exe extension.(If necessary, the ShellExecuteEx function adds the extension when searching App Paths subkey).
You could therefore simply use:
Start Excel
If using the method suggested throughout the majority of the comments then you'd need to use Excel.exe as part of your search mask!
The example below, utilises an additional For loop, to allow for checking in both Program Files and Program Files (x86)
#For %%A In ("%ProgramFiles%" "%ProgramFiles(x86)%" 2^>Nul
) Do #For /F "Delims=" %%B In ('Where /R %%A Excel.exe 2^>Nul'
) Do #Start "" "%%~B"
You could of course ignore the outer loop if you're sure that the installed version is always installed to Program Files (x86).
#For /F "Delims=" %%A In ('Where /R "%ProgramFiles(x86)%" Excel.exe 2^>Nul'
) Do #Start "" "%%~A"
The above two examples could be left as one line, if you're not interseted in maintaining lines of no more than 80 characters.