Dos command to list all installed programs

go to the root of your C: drive first

C:\my stuff>cd\

C:\>dir /w /s >dirlisting.txt

this will output a list of all files and subfolders to a file called dirlisting.txt on the root of your C: drive. This won't tell you all running apps, but you can see what you have on your hard drive based on the folder names and their paths.

you may use regedit to dump into a text file the content of the key :
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall

this will list each and every piece of software shown in the add/remove program control panel.

you'll then have to process the text to strip down undesired info (like maybe the drivers that every so often appear like {15634F-265432-543151765376}) As you're a netadmin I take it you'll find your way with some perl script (active perl allows to "compile" perl scripts as exe)

From Windows 2000 on the WMI instrumentation can also be queried to get the deal (I've not the opportunity to dig that from MS technet know, let me know by email if you wish that I schedule some more time for that)

if your target organization is larger than a SOHO I'd really advise you to consider a inventory solution like Insight Manager / TopTools/ Tivoli/ SMS or their Open Source counterparts
(have a look at http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=58373&package_id=155185&release_id=488140 )

You can use reg.exe command-line tool to get data containing in HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Uninstall.

Your best bet would be to run some PC auditing software like Centennial Discovery. This will scan your HDD and compare to a database of known programs signatures and output the result nicely for you.

http://www.vbsedit.com/scripts/apps/user/scr_226.asp

Please post back if you have any more problems or questions.

echo List of softwares > software_list.txt
echo ================= >>software_list.txt
reg export HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall temp1.txt
find "DisplayName" temp1.txt| find /V "ParentDisplayName" > temp2.txt
for /f "tokens=2,3 delims==" %%a in (temp2.txt) do (echo %%a >> software_list.txt)

del temp1.txt temp2.txt

Windows comes with a command line version of the Management Instrumentation (WMIC).

To get the list of all installed programs in a text file, simply enter the following command in a prompt:

wmic product > c:\product.txt

C:\windows\system32\wmic is the command
Below syntax is to execute this command

C:\windows\system32\wmic \output:C:/installed.txt product get name, version

Since there are applications that make no registry entries, and do not therefore appear in add-remove-programs list, simply pulling the registry will typically only get around 80% of the actual licensed apps on the machine. You need a utility that can hit both the registry and baseline/enumerate all executable files such as Symantec Altiris software inventory.

As stated, nearly all of the command line, registry based, and related utilities only list those programs that install and place proper registry entries in the proper keys.

Just listing all of the executables on a system is not very helpful either, as you have a lot of sorting and elimination to do to make a simple list.

I have used Win Audit and it gives a fairly detailed list.

SIW is another viable option.

http://www.gtopala.com/

The real question is what do you need / want to do with this information?

If this is for a business that wants to make sure that only licensed and approved software is installed, you really need to lock down the computers and install monitoring software.

Chas

You can audit programs and updates on your PC and also on any Windows PC in your network using EMCO Network Software Scanner freeware tool: http://emcosoftware.com/network-software-scanner.

This tool allows collecting software inventory info for every PC and export it to a CSV file.

Hope this helps.