How to get dll or exe file description

Question

I am creating a program that, among other things, will manage services. I am trying to list Services that are similar to how they are listed in msconfig (first window below).

I found where the services are listed in the registry. In Vista and Win7, DisplayName and Description are often links. For example, @%SystemRoot%\system32\aelupsvc.dll,-1 is the DisplayName data for the Application Experience service. Win7 has a place to store these links, making it easy to get the right DisplayName. But in Vista, I did not find a place in the registry where this information is stored. So I looked at the referenced file and found that the File Description tab on the Details tab of the file properties would be sufficient.

So how can I get a File Description ? I use Java, so I prefer to use Java or Command Line to get this information.

Answer 1

The version number is on the same page as the description.

so I think this topic might be useful:

Get version information for .exe

Answer 2

Good work and good luck, but I offer you another, possibly easier solution.

Use the sc and / or WMI command line utility. You can connect to WMI by running a script (JScript or VBScript) using the cscript utility directly from the java program or using a number of interaction tools such as JaWin, Jintegra or Jinterop.

JaWin and Jinterop are open source products.