• Programs List Windows 8

As you use your system, you will install a lot of programs with some used on a daily basis and some just occasionally. When you reinstall your system for whatever reason, it can be a pain in the neck to reinstall all the software without missing even the ones that are used occasionally. So, if you have ever considered reinstalling your Windows system, having a list of all the installed software on your system will make things easier. There are multiple ways to get a list of all the installed software. Pick the method you are comfortable with and generate the list.

Using Command PromptThe first and easiest way to get a list of all the installed software on your system is by using the Command Prompt. To do that, press “Win + R,” type cmd and then press the Enter button. Wmic /output:D:InstalledSoftwareList.txt product get name,versionAs soon as you press the Enter button, Windows scans your system and saves the list in the form of a text file. You can find the text file in the location you entered above.Using PowerShellIf you’ve made a habit of using PowerShell, then you can also get the list of all installed software from it.

Programs List Windows 8

To do that, press “Win + R,” type powershell and then press the Enter button.Now, enter the below command and press the Enter button. Don’t forget to change the file path as required. Get-ItemProperty HKLM:SoftwareWow6432NodeMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionUninstall. Select-Object DisplayName, DisplayVersion, Publisher, InstallDate Format-Table –AutoSize D:InstalledSoftwareList.txtUsing CCleanerIf you don’t like to use the Command Prompt or PowerShell, then you can use the popular system cleaning utility CCleaner to get the list of all the installed software on your system. To start, if you haven’t already and open it from the Start menu.Once CCleaner has been opened, navigate to the “Uninstall” tab from the “Tools” menu appearing on the left pane.This window will show you all the installed software on your system. To get a list, simply click on the button “Save to text file” appearing in the bottom-right corner.The above action will open the Save As window. Simply select the destination and name of the file and click on the “Save” button.You will have your list in an instant at the selected destination.

Using GeekUninstallerYou can also get the installed software list using the GeekUninsatller, a free and portable Windows uninstaller. To start, extract it and execute the application.Being a portable application, you don’t have to install it. Once the application has been opened, select all the programs in the window and them select the option “Save as HTML.”.

Haven’t yet tried using the command prompt to get a list of my currently installed apps. But the list I saved to a text file from CCleaner included installation AND the version numbers:-) Each app was detailed on a single line – but due to the different lengths of app names, companies etc., the list was not particularly easy to read:-(On the other hand, the list I exported to HTML from Geek Uninstaller was very clear and easy to read – BUT it did NOT include version numbers. But I suppose version numbers are not that important, as when you want to reinstall them, you would usually install the latest version anyway. You missed out Speccy! From the same stable as CCleaner (www.piriform.com), Speccy will find out everything there is to know about the specification of your system, including all the software, Windows updates, and all the hardware, and then enable you to store it all as a text or XML file.

Absolutely invaluable if you need to submit a bug report and want to give the developer chapter and verse about your system. And it’s free! Secunia and Belarc are also pretty good, but Speccy is the best, in my opinion. The CMD-prompt solution sounded quick and easy, and it gave me a list of 226 apps. But CCleaner was missing form that list, even though I had installed it. I had never noticed the save-to-text file button before. Cool feature.

I ran it and got 240 apps. CCleaner was nice in that the.txt file is apparently tab-delimited, so it pastes nicely into Excel with column breaks.Comparing the results of the two approaches, I found the CMD-prompt solution found 102 apps that CCleaner missed, and CCleaner found 120 apps that were missed by the CMD-prompt approach.

Apps common to both solutions totaled 120, roughly half of the individual totals. Little discouraging.Comments are closed.