How to know if a software is installed using ActionScript

I'm doing a application using actionScript(Air开发者_如何学Python 2). I want to know if a software is installed on user's pc, for example, I want to know if the user installed "Adobe Digital Editions", so I can open ebooks by that. How to do that? First I want read from the registry, but Air cannot read registry, and my boss said it's better not to run another "exe" app to read registry。Then I have no idea how to do that. Anyone has better suggestion?

If ADE associates itself with a particular file type or file extension, you could use NativeApplication.nativeApplication.getDefaultApplication("") to check what's associated with it and see if it matches the ADE program.. maybe?

Check the default install locations for the application. If you cannot find what you're looking for, prompt the user to find it for you or install it.