A personalized web page displays a subset of multiplayer games available
on a game web site, corresponding to game software programs that are
installed on a user's computer. When the user connects to the web site,
an extended markup language (XML) data file, a web page that is not yet
personalized, and a control file are downloaded. An executable instance
of an ActiveX.TM. control program instantiated by JScript included in the
web page queries the operating system registry to produce an XML text
string listing each software program of a specific type that are
installed. The results are then compared to the XML data downloaded from
the web site, returning the subset of the games that are available on the
web site and also installed on the computer. The web page is then
transformed to display the subset, producing the personalized web page.