Finding Local SQL server Visual Baisc

Several methods actually.  Registry, looking for the file, etc.  See here for some details:
http://www.mysql.com/doc/en/Windows_prepare_environment.html
(Scroll down because the page is designed poorly)

Thanks for this but I am actually looking for information on how to decect MS SQL server and NOT MySQL. Thanks

Also this is with Visual Basic. I forgot to mention

Sorry bout that:  You can check in the registry for SQL Server as well.

Version Using the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\MSSQLServer\Setup\ProductSuite key you can determine the version of SQL Server you are running.
SQL Server 6.x standard versions = No entry (There should be NO ProductSuite key)
SQL 6.5 Enterprise Edition = Enterprise
Small Business Server = SBS

SQL Server Keys the keys SQL Server uses are as follows:
Generic to all versions:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\MSSQLServer
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MSSQLServer
Specific to 6.0

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\MSDTC
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\SQLExecutive
Specific to 7.0

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\SQLServerAgent
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server 7
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\MSSQLServ65

Also this is with Visual Basic. I forgot to mention

So does this mean you need help in reading the registry keys via VB?  If so, you can look into the following:
http://www.ilook.fsnet.co.uk/vb/vbreg.htm

being new her you may not realize that using the refresh facility of your browser after posting a comment will post it twice.  Use the "Reload this question" at the top left of the page to refresh instead.

Excellent twalgrave, I am very new to VB, so i am sure I will be able to understand your code. I will come back if I need more. Thanks for your help

Glad to help out.

No problem leaving this open for now, but don't forget to come back to finalize it at some point.  If this is your first foray into APIs using VB, you might need some help and I'm here for that, just post here.  The site has been experiencing some email outages recently and that's the only way I know when you respond, but I will always respond back even if to say "I don't know" so if I don't respond, it's probably due to email notifications being down again.

I tad a look at your code the registry stuff and I managed to get it to read the registry, which is good. But what if the key is not there (i.e if MSSQL is not installed ?) what would be returned then. Also I would like to have something that returns eg (MS SQL server version 8.0 Enterprize edition, Service Pack 3. I have seen some apps that do this, which i believe use something called SQL-DMO ? Do you know anything about this. It is still very helpful to have the registry thing ..

Ok this is clear. I will give it a bash and see how it goes.