Windows Address Book

[Roddy]

How can I tell if the address book is installed or not? (using mfc)

if its installed i need a way to extract the information from it.

I need to know how to program it, frankly.

Not much about WAB.exe on CG or many other sites. Microsofts code examples are a solution but their code example of WAB programming is using the win32api and I want a less error prone way of doing this.

Ideas on a postcard

++R

[Jedhi]

You could try to see if you could open the address book file. It this is not possible then you must assume that no address book has been installed.

[Roddy]

apparently it can be accessed through mapi but I don't want to be bothered with profiles and logins.

Microsoft has a gutsy sample that shows how to do it in c++ but its long winded, complicated and there has to be an easier way than their demo.

One function call to bring it up, if it exists, and extract the email address that is highlighted by the mouse? (Easier said than done, it appears.)