How can PHP developers efficiently retrieve the path to mysqldump.exe without using full path or PATH environment variable settings?

To efficiently retrieve the path to mysqldump.exe without using full path or PATH environment variable settings, PHP developers can utilize the Windows registry to locate the installation path of MySQL. By querying the registry key associated with MySQL, developers can dynamically retrieve the path to mysqldump.exe without hardcoding it or relying on environment variables.

function getMysqldumpPath() {
    $mysqlKey = 'SOFTWARE\\MySQL AB\\MySQL Server 8.0'; // Registry key for MySQL installation
    $reg = new COM('WScript.Shell');
    $mysqlPath = $reg->RegRead("HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\$mysqlKey;Location");
    
    if(!empty($mysqlPath)) {
        return $mysqlPath . '\\bin\\mysqldump.exe';
    } else {
        return false;
    }
}

$mysqldumpPath = getMysqldumpPath();
if($mysqldumpPath) {
    echo "Path to mysqldump.exe: $mysqldumpPath";
} else {
    echo "Unable to retrieve path to mysqldump.exe";
}