How to query a list of installed programs in Windows

There are multiple ways for viewing programs installed on a computer. To proceed, follow any of the steps listed below to query the list of installed apps. Here is a list of some interesting guides: How to remove pre-provisioned apps from Windows Image and how to determine Apps UWP and remove pre-provisioned appx in Windows 10, “WinRM cannot complete the operation, verify that the specified computer name is valid, that the computer is accessible over the network, and that a firewall exception for the WinRM service is enabled“, How to set the PowerShell Execution Policy via Windows Registry, how to set PowerShell Execution Policy via Windows Settings, and how to set Execution Policy via Windows PowerShell.

Here are the various methods if you wish to query the list of installed applications on Windows 10 or Windows Server. 

1: Get list of installed Apps via Windows Settings

This is the easiest way to view the list of installed applications in Windows. Navigate to Windows Settings as shown below or use press the Windows key + I to open settings and click on Apps

Next, click on the installed programs as shown below. There you should be able to see the list of installed programs on Windows

2: Get list of installed Applications via the Control Panel

This method is similar to using Windows Settings but a bit old-fashioned. In the search box on the taskbar, type control panel, and click on Control Panel as shown below

Next, click on the programs

Now, click on Programs and Features

Below is a list of installed programs via the Windows Control Panel.

3: Get lists of installed Apps via Windows Management Instrumentation Command-line (WMIC)

The WMIC is a command-line and scripting interface that simplifies the use of Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) and systems managed through WMI. Below are the various steps to make this work. Run the command below with the desired name in which you wish to have the installed programs listed. In my case, this is “InstalledProgramsonmyPC.txt“.

wmic /OUTPUT:InstalledProgramsonmyPC.txt product get name

Alternatively, you can execute the wmic this way as shown below
– Type “wmic” and press Enter.

At the “wmic:root\cli>” prompt, type the following command:

/node:EnterComputerNameHere product get name, version, vendor

Lastly, you could pull a list of installed programs, and have it saved to a text file of your choice. Please specifiy a desired path.

wmic product list brief > C:\temp\installed.txt

List of Installed Programs via PowerShell

Run the following code in order to query the registry for installed programs

$loc = Get-ChildItem HKLM:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall

$names = $loc |foreach-object {Get-ItemProperty $_.PsPath}

foreach ($name in $names)
{
    Write-Host $name.Displayname
}

5: Get list of installed applications via the Windows Registry

Alternatively, you could use the command below to view the list of installed programs to query the registry. This will query the registry for all programs that are installed with the MSI installer on the system and place the results in a text file.
– Use the command below via the Command Prompt or PowerShell

reg query HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall >> ListofInstalledPrograms.txt

I hope you found this blog post helpful. If you have any questions, please let me know in the comment session.