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How to detect JetBrains IDE installations programmatically on Windows, Linux, and macOS

Ivan Pajic
Updated

Question

How can JetBrains IDE installations be detected programmatically across operating systems?

Answer

There is no single, unified mechanism to detect all JetBrains IDE installations. Detection depends on the operating system and the installation method (Toolbox App, standalone installer, system package manager, manual archive extraction). The reliable approach is to check multiple known installation locations.

For a comprehensive list of default installation paths across operating systems, refer to Directories used by JetBrains IDEs to store settings, caches, plugins, and logs.

Windows

The most reliable source on Windows is the registry key where installed applications register themselves:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall

JetBrains IDE installations performed by the standalone installer and the Toolbox App register entries under this key. Iterate over the subkeys and filter by DisplayName or Publisher containing JetBrains.

Also check the system-wide registry hive for installations performed for all users:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall

For Toolbox App-managed installations, the default Toolbox apps directory is:

%LOCALAPPDATA%\JetBrains\Toolbox\apps

Linux

There is no single registration mechanism on Linux. Multiple sources must be checked to cover all installation methods:

  • Toolbox App: scan ~/.local/share/JetBrains/Toolbox/apps/ for installed IDE directories.
  • Manual installations: check /opt/, /usr/local/, and the user home directory for extracted IDE folders matching names such as idea-IU-*, pycharm-*, goland-*, webstorm-*.
  • Snap packages: run snap list and filter for JetBrains entries (intellij-idea-ultimate, pycharm-professional, webstorm, and so on).
  • Flatpak packages: run flatpak list and filter for application IDs in the com.jetbrains.* namespace.
  • PATH: scan directories in $PATH for known launcher binaries (idea, pycharm, webstorm, goland, clion, rider, phpstorm, rubymine, datagrip).
  • Desktop entries: scan ~/.local/share/applications/ and /usr/share/applications/ for .desktop files matching jetbrains-*.desktop.

macOS

JetBrains IDEs on macOS are distributed as .app bundles. Check the following locations:

  • /Applications/ — system-wide installations.
  • ~/Applications/ — user-specific installations.
  • ~/Library/Application Support/JetBrains/Toolbox/apps/ — Toolbox-managed installations.

Filter for bundles whose name matches the JetBrains IDE family (IntelliJ IDEA*.app, PyCharm*.app, WebStorm*.app, GoLand.app, CLion.app, and so on).

Coverage notes

  • Both Toolbox-managed and standalone installations must be considered to cover all users — checking only one source misses a significant portion of installations.
  • Older installations may not be registered in the same locations as recent ones; combining multiple sources improves coverage.
  • The PATH environment variable and existing desktop shortcuts can serve as additional discovery hints when other methods miss an installation.

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