WMI installed query different from add remove programs list

Question

Trying to use WMI to obtain a list of installed programs for Windows XP  Using wmic  I tried   wmic  output c  ProgramList txt product get name version   and I get a listing of many of the installed programs  but after scrubbing this list against what  Add Remove Programs  displays  I see many more programs listed in the GUI of Add Remove Programs than with the WMI query  Is there another WMI query I need to use to get the rest of the programs installed  Or is there some other place I need to look for the rest   Also  there are two installed programs that are listed in the WMI query that aren t in Add Remove programs  Any idea why

User · Answer

I have been using Inno Setup for an installer. I'm using 64-bit Windows 7 only. I'm finding that registry entries are being written to

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall

I haven't yet figured out how to get this list to be reported by WMI (although the program is listed as installed in Programs and Features). If I figure it out, I'll try to remember to report back here.

UPDATE:

Entries for 32-bit programs installed on a 64-bit machine go in that registry location. There's more written here:

http://mdb-blog.blogspot.com/2010/09/c-check-if-programapplication-is.html

See my comment that describes 32-bit vs 64-bit behavior in that same post here:

http://mdb-blog.blogspot.com/2010/09/c-check-if-programapplication-is.html?showComment=1300402090679#c861009270784046894

Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a way to get WMI to list all programs from the add/remove programs list (aka Programs and Features in Windows 7, not sure about Vista). My current code has dropped WMI in favor of using the registry. The code itself to interrogate the registry is even easier than using WMI. Sample code is in the above link.

User · Answer

You can get it in one line with powershell and batch file     echo off Powershell  command  Get-ItemProperty HKLM  Software Microsoft Windows CurrentVersion Uninstall     Select-Object DisplayName  DisplayVersion  Publisher  InstallDate   Format-List  Pause

User · Answer

With time having moved on quite a bit since this question was asked     There s a WMI class available these days for the Uninstall entries in the registry  This is much quicker to reference than Win32 Product  which I think also runs verification on the list and can take a while to enumerate  The below Powershell code  possibly requires Powershell 3 or later  will list all entries  The Out-Gridview part is just for a pretty display    Get-CimInstance Win32Reg AddRemovePrograms   Out-gridview

User · Answer

In order to build a more-or-less reliable list of applications that appear in the  Programs and Feautres  in the Control Panel  you have to consider that not all applications were installed using MSI  WMI only provides the ones installed with MSI   Here is a short summary of what I ve found out   MSI applications always have a Product Code  GUID  subkey under HKLM     Uninstall and or under HKLM     Installer UserData S-1-5-18 Products  In addition  they may have a key that looks like HKLM     Uninstall NotAGuid    Non-MSI applications do not have a product code  and therefore have keys like HKLM     Uninstall NotAGuid or HKCU     Uninstall NotAGuid

User · Answer

You can use the script from http   technet microsoft com en-us library ee692772 aspx EBAA to access the registry and list applications using WMI

User · Answer

Installed products consist of installed software elements and features so it s worth checking wmic alias s for PRODUCT as well as checking SOFTWAREELEMENT and SOFTWAREFEATURE   wmic product get name version  wmic softwareelement get name version  wmic softwarefeature get name version

User · Answer

Besides the most commonly known registry key for installed programs      HKEY LOCAL MACHINE Software Microsoft Windows CurrentVersion Uninstall   wmic command and the add remove programs also query another registry key      HKEY CLASSES ROOT Installer Products   Software name shown in the list is read from the Value of a Data entry within this key called  ProductName  Removing the registry key for a certain product from both of the above locations will keep it from showing in the add remove programs list  This is not a method to uninstall programs  it will just remove the entry from what s known to windows as installed software    Since  by using this method you would lose the chance of using the Remove button from the add remove list to cleanly remove the software from your system  it s recommended to export registry keys to a file before you delete them  In future  if you decided to bring that item back to the list  you would simply run the registry file you stored

User · Answer

Add Remove Programs also has to look into this registry key to find installations for the current user   HKEY CURRENT USER Software Microsoft Windows CurrentVersion Uninstall   Applications like Google Chrome  Dropbox  or shortcuts installed through JavaWS  web start  JNLPs can be found only here

User · Answer

All that Add Remove Programs is really doing is reading this Registry key   HKEY LOCAL MACHINE Software Microsoft Windows CurrentVersion Uninstall

User · Answer

I adapted the MS-Technet VBScript for my needs  It dumps Wow6432Node as well as standard entries into  programms txt  Use it at your own risk  no warranty   Save as dump vbs  From command line type  wscript dump vbs  Const HKLM    amp H80000002 Set objReg   GetObject  winmgmts      amp       amp    root default StdRegProv   Set objFSO   CreateObject  Scripting FileSystemObject    outFile  programms txt   Set objFile   objFSO CreateTextFile outFile True  writeList  SOFTWARE Wow6432Node Microsoft Windows CurrentVersion Uninstall    objReg  objFile writeList  SOFTWARE Microsoft Windows CurrentVersion Uninstall    objReg  objFile objFile Close   Function writeList strBaseKey  objReg  objFile   objReg EnumKey HKLM  strBaseKey  arrSubKeys      For Each strSubKey In arrSubKeys         intRet   objReg GetStringValue HKLM  strBaseKey  amp  strSubKey   DisplayName   strValue          If intRet  lt  gt  0 Then             intRet   objReg GetStringValue HKLM  strBaseKey  amp  strSubKey   QuietDisplayName   strValue          End If         objReg GetStringValue HKLM  strBaseKey  amp  strSubKey   DisplayVersion   version         objReg GetStringValue HKLM  strBaseKey  amp  strSubKey   InstallDate   insDate          If  strValue  lt  gt      and  intRet   0  Then             objFile Write strValue  amp       amp  version  amp       amp  insDate  amp  vbCrLf         End If     Next End Function

User · Answer

I believe your syntax is using the Win32 Product Class in WMI   One cause is that this class only displays products installed using Windows Installer  See Here    The Uninstall Registry Key is your best bet   HKEY LOCAL MACHINE Software Microsoft Windows CurrentVersion Uninstall HKEY LOCAL MACHINE SOFTWARE WOW6432Node Microsoft Windows CurrentVersion Uninstall  UPDATE FOR COMMENTS   The Uninstall Registry Key is the standard place to list what is installed and what isn t installed   It is the location that the Add Remove Programs list will use to populate the list of applications   I m sure that there are applications that don t list themselves in this location   In that case you d have to resort to another cruder method such as searching the Program Files directory or looking in the Start Menu Programs List   Both of those ways are definitely not ideal     In my opinion  looking at the registry key is the best method

User · Answer

Not the best  but whether it is practical method   Use HijackThis   Run hijack this  click the  Open the Misc Tools section  button    click  Open Uninstall Manager     click save list    txt   yes to the prompts  notepad will open with your add remove programs list       Source

User · Answer

Hope this helps somebody  I ve been using the registry-based enumeration in my scripts  as suggested by some of the answers above   but have found that it does not properly enumerate 64-bit software when run on Windows 10 x64 via SCCM  which uses a 32-bit client   Found something like this to be the most straightforward solution in my particular case     Function Get-Programs  Bits       Result          Output    reg query HKLM Software Microsoft Windows CurrentVersion Uninstall  reg  Bits  s     Foreach   Line in  Output        If   Line -match    s DisplayName s REG SZ s                   Result    New-Object PSObject -Property            DisplayName    matches 1           Bits       Bits -bit                         Result     Software    Get-Programs 32  Software    Get-Programs 64   Realize this is a little too Perl-ish in a bad way  but all other alternatives I ve seen involved insanity with wrapper scripts and similar clever-clever solutions  and this seems a little more human   P S  Trying really hard to refrain from dumping a ton of salt on Microsoft here for making an absolutely trivial thing next to impossible  I e   enumerating all MS Office versions in use on a network is a task to make a grown man weep

[windows] WMI "installed" query different from add/remove programs list?

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