SOLVED: Read DLL information in explorer.

[pilgrim]

I have never posted an IDEA before, I know nothing about programming, I have no idea if what I have in mind is possible let alone how long it would take, so bear with me.

The other week I was trying to track down some DLL's that had been left behind by a program that I had uninstalled.
I did not know their names so I waded through Windows (XP) taking the name of the software as a starting point.
Using this method I located several which I confirmed by holding the mouse over them and reading the data that shows.

I realised that this was a very poor way of doing things and I wondered if it would be possible to write a program that showed DLL information (the data that shows when you hold the mouse over them) in a column in explorer or in any other way that did not require checking each DLL one by one?

[skwire]

You should be able to do this within Windows Explorer already.

1) Put the listview into Details mode.
2) Right-click the listview header and choose the "More..." entry at the bottom.
3) Check the boxes for "Company", "Description" and "File Version."

That should be it.   

[pilgrim]

That is truly amazing!
After 5 years of crawling about inside XP that list is something that I have never looked at.
Some of the other options look like they might be of interest as well.
I have always limited the number of columns in exporer to avoid scrolling and limit space, not to mention that the majority of the time most of the extra columns would not be useful.

Thank you skwire for your prompt and simple answer, I can now go on a long overdue hunt for unwanted DLL's of which I suspect I may have quite a few.

Never mind about updating to Vista or 7, I doubt I will ever work out all the tricks in XP.

Your help is much appreciated.

[skwire]

Fantastic.  I'll move this thread.