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https://github.com/auberginehill/get-installed-programs

Retrieves the programs installed on a local machine. Additionally on a Windows 8 or Windows Server 2012 machine and later – depending whether the script is run in an elevated PowerShell window or not – some of or all the installed Windows Store apps (app packages (.appx)) are enumerated (a Windows PowerShell script).
https://github.com/auberginehill/get-installed-programs

installed-programs powershell powershell-script windows

Last synced: 3 months ago
JSON representation

Host: GitHub
URL: https://github.com/auberginehill/get-installed-programs
Owner: auberginehill
License: other
Created: 2016-09-19T16:53:05.000Z (about 8 years ago)
Default Branch: master
Last Pushed: 2017-02-02T21:58:06.000Z (almost 8 years ago)
Last Synced: 2024-05-11T04:35:59.704Z (6 months ago)
Topics: installed-programs, powershell, powershell-script, windows
Language: PowerShell
Homepage:
Size: 86.9 KB
Stars: 3
Watchers: 0
Forks: 0
Open Issues: 0
Metadata Files:
- Readme: README.md
- License: LICENSE.txt

Awesome Lists containing this project

jimsghstars - auberginehill/get-installed-programs - Retrieves the programs installed on a local machine. Additionally on a Windows 8 or Windows Server 2012 machine and later – depending whether the script is run in an elevated PowerShell window or not (PowerShell)

README

## Get-InstalledPrograms.ps1

OS:
Windows

Type:
A Windows PowerShell script

Language:
Windows PowerShell

Description:
Get-InstalledPrograms queries the Windows registry for installed programs. The keys from HKLM:\Software\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\ and HKLM:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\ are read on 64-bit computers and on the 32-bit computers only the latter path is accessed. Basic program related properties, such as Name, Version, Install Date, Publisher, Comments, Contact, Icon, Estimated Size, Help Link, Install Location, Install Source, Language, Modify Path, NoModify, NoRepair, Partner Code, PSChildName, PSDrive, PSProvider, Uninstall String, URL Info (About), URL Update Info, Version (Real), Version Major, Version Minor and Windows Installer are written to a CSV-file and displayed in a pop-up window (Out-Gridview). On Windows 8 / Windows Server 2012 machines (and later) also the installed Windows Store apps are enumerated with the Get-AppxPackage cmdlet(, which requires PowerShell 3.0 or later) in a separate CSV-file and displayed in a pop-up window (Out-Gridview); If Get-InstalledPrograms is run in an elevated PowerShell window, the Apps that are installed under other than the current user profile are detected, too.

The enumeration of installed programs in a Windows machine may take some time – therefore a progress bar is included in Get-InstalledPrograms for monitoring the steps taken. Also, after the Get-InstalledPrograms is finished, a rudimentary summary about the performance of the machine is shown. Similarly, in "Code snippet 1" is described what is not included in Get-InstalledPrograms. The "Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_Product" query method was discarded mainly due to the excessive long running times. Please see the Notes section below for further debate on the notorious Win32_Product Class.

On the other hand, as described in "Code snippet 2", if it is relevant to find out, whether a particular version of a known program is installed or not, the here unused function Check-InstalledSoftware could be called to action (the code is taken from https://github.com/auberginehill/update-adobe-flash-player" and is quite quick):

Check-InstalledSoftware "Adobe Flash Player 23 NPAPI" 23.0.0.162

will return all the aforementioned info on the queried program, if it is installed, but returns a null value, if such a program doesn't exist on the machine.

Homepage:
https://github.com/auberginehill/get-installed-programs

Short URL: http://tinyurl.com/j7a4eky

Version:
1.2

Sources:

Emojis:
Emoji Table

Tobias Weltner:
PowerTips Monthly vol 8 January 2014 (or one of the archive.org versions)

chocolatey:
Flash Player Plugin

alejandro5042:
How to run exe with/without elevated privileges from PowerShell

Michael Pietroforte:
PowerShell versions and their Windows version

Downloads:
For instance Get-InstalledPrograms.ps1. Or everything as a .zip-file.

### Screenshot

screenshot

### Outputs

:arrow_right:

Displays general program related information in console. In addition to that...

Two pop-up windows "$obj_installed_programs_selection_all" and "$windows_store_apps" (Out-GridView) on machines running Windows 8 / Windows Server 2012 or later. On machines with an earlier OS version only the former pop-up window is displayed. For determining the Operating System version, please see the Notes-section below.

Name

Description

$obj_installed_programs_selection_all

$windows_store_apps

And also two CSV-files at $path on machines running Windows 8 / Windows Server 2012 or later. On machines with an earlier OS version only the former file is written. For determining the Operating System version, please see the Notes-section below.

Path

Type

Name

$env:temp\installed_programs.csv

installed_programs.csv

$env:temp\windows_store_apps.csv

windows_store_apps.csv

### Notes

:warning:

Despite Get-InstalledPrograms makes valid eforts to detect the installed programs on a local machine, achieving a 100 % detect rate of the installed programs might not happen, since not every program writes the uninstallation information to the registry. The unused WMI query Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_InstalledWin32Program seems not to detect every installed program either, and even listing all the shortcuts found on a computer omits those programs, which don't have a shortcut, so increasing the detect rate of the hard-to-detect installed programs is clearly a prominent area for further development in Get-InstalledPrograms.

The notoriously slow and possibly harmful Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_Product command is deliberately not used for listing the installed programs in Get-InstalledPrograms, since the Win32_Product Class has some unpleasant behaviors – namely it uses a provider DLL that validates the consistency of every installed MSI package on the computer (msiprov.dll with the mandatorily initiated resiliency check, in which the installations are verified and possibly also repaired or repair-installed), which is the main reason behind the slow performance of Win32_Product Class. All in all Win32_product Class is not query optimized and in Get-InstalledPrograms, for now, a combination of various registry queries is used instead.

PowerShell versions and their Windows versions:

Please note that this script will try to check whether it is run in an elevated PowerShell window (run as an administrator) or not when executed on a Windows 8 or a Windows Server 2012 machine or later.

Please note that the CSV-file is created in a directory, which is specified with the $path variable (at line 6). The $env:temp variable points to the current temp folder. The default value of the $env:temp variable is C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Temp (i.e. each user account has their own separate temp folder at path %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Temp). To see the current temp path, for instance a command

[System.IO.Path]::GetTempPath()

may be used at the PowerShell prompt window [PS>]. To change the temp folder for instance to C:\Temp, please, for example, follow the instructions at Temporary Files Folder - Change Location in Windows, which in essence are something along the lines:
1. Right click on Computer and click on Properties (or select Start → Control Panel → System). In the resulting window with the basic information about the computer...
2. Click on Advanced system settings on the left panel and select Advanced tab on the resulting pop-up window.
3. Click on the button near the bottom labeled Environment Variables.
4. In the topmost section labeled User variables both TMP and TEMP may be seen. Each different login account is assigned its own temporary locations. These values can be changed by double clicking a value or by highlighting a value and selecting Edit. The specified path will be used by Windows and many other programs for temporary files. It's advisable to set the same value (a directory path) for both TMP and TEMP.
5. Any running programs need to be restarted for the new values to take effect. In fact, probably also Windows itself needs to be restarted for it to begin using the new values for its own temporary files.

### Examples

:book:
To open this code in Windows PowerShell, for instance:

./Get-InstalledPrograms

Run the script. Please notice to insert ./ or .\ before the script name.

help ./Get-InstalledPrograms -Full

Display the help file.

Set-ExecutionPolicy remotesigned

This command is altering the Windows PowerShell rights to enable script execution for the default (LocalMachine) scope. Windows PowerShell has to be run with elevated rights (run as an administrator) to actually be able to change the script execution properties. The default value of the default (LocalMachine) scope is "Set-ExecutionPolicy restricted".

Parameters:
For more information, please type "Get-ExecutionPolicy -List", "help Set-ExecutionPolicy -Full", "help about_Execution_Policies" or visit Set-ExecutionPolicy or about_Execution_Policies.

New-Item -ItemType File -Path C:\Temp\Get-InstalledPrograms.ps1

Creates an empty ps1-file to the C:\Temp directory. The New-Item cmdlet has an inherent -NoClobber mode built into it, so that the procedure will halt, if overwriting (replacing the contents) of an existing file is about to happen. Overwriting a file with the New-Item cmdlet requires using the Force. If the path name includes space characters, please enclose the path name in quotation marks (single or double):
For more information, please type "help New-Item -Full".

### Contributing

Find a bug? Have a feature request? Here is how you can contribute to this project:

Bugs:
Submit bugs and help us verify fixes.

Feature Requests:
Feature request can be submitted by creating an Issue.

Edit Source Files:
Submit pull requests for bug fixes and features and discuss existing proposals.

### www

Script Homepage

Tobias Weltner: PowerTips Monthly vol 8 January 2014 (or one of the archive.org versions)

chocolatey: Flash Player Plugin

Perfect Progress Bars for PowerShell

Uninstall method of the Win32_Product class

How to run exe with/without elevated privileges from PowerShell

PowerShell versions and their Windows version

Get operating system information in VB .NET

System.Environment.OSVersion.Version.Major

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