How to get the List of Installed software - windows

Question

I am trying to get the availability of the software on pc. My condition is that I need to fetch whether the application is installed or not on my laptop if it is installed is it in working condition?
# Setting Execution policy for the Current User
Set-ExecutionPolicy -ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned -Scope CurrentUser
$currentExecutionPolicy = Get-ExecutionPolicy
Write-Output "The Execution Ploicy is set to $currentExecutionPolicy"
$programFilePath = #(
'Google Chrome-C:\Program Files\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe'
'Brackets Text Editor-C:\Program Files (x86)\Brackets\Brackets.exe'
'Microsoft Edge-C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft\Edge\Application\msedge.exe'
'Microsoft Excel-C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\root\Office16\EXCEL.EXE'
#'Microsoft Outlook-C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\root\Office16\OUTLOOK.EXE'
)
$result = foreach($program in $programFilePath) {
$splitString = $program -split ('-')
$program_name = $splitString[0]
$program_path = $splitString[1]
foreach($program in $program_path) {
if (Test-Path -Path $program) {
# Write-Output "Program Path Exists"
$programProcess = Start-Process -FilePath $program -PassThru -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
timeout 5
try{
$myshell = New-Object -com "Wscript.Shell"
$myshell.sendkeys("{ENTER}")
timeout 1
$myshell = New-Object -com "Wscript.Shell"
$myshell.sendkeys("{ENTER}")
}
catch{
$runningProcess = Get-Process -Name $programProcess.ProcessName
}
if($runningProcess -eq $true) {
[pscustomobject]#{
Application_Name = $program_name
Application_Availability = 'Installed'
Application_Status = 'Working'
}
}
else {
[pscustomobject]#{
Application_Name = $program_name
Application_Availability = 'Installed'
Application_Status = 'Not Working. Error Log is generated as Application_Error_Log text file.'
}
Get-EventLog -LogName Application | Where-Object {$_.InstanceID -eq '1000'} | Tee-Object -FilePath .\Application_Error_Log.txt
}
<# Action to perform if the condition is true #>
} else {
[pscustomobject]#{
Application_Name = $program_name
Application_Availability = 'Not Installed'
Application_Status = $null
}
}
}
}
" :: System Software Audit Report :: " | Out-File .\System_Software_Details.txt
$result | Tee-Object -FilePath ".\System_Software_Details.txt" -Append
timeout 60
Although I am getting the application active which are working and functional but in my output in Text file application status shows : Application_Status = 'Not Working. Error Log is generated as although my application is working fine
My second concern is I am unable to handle the application which is giving me an error
$myshell = New-Object -com "Wscript.Shell"
$myshell.sendkeys("{ENTER}")
timeout 1
$myshell = New-Object -com "Wscript.Shell"
$myshell.sendkeys("{ENTER}")

Answer 1

I think checking filesystem paths is an option but a bad one - you cannot ensure in any case that the expected path is used. Checking the filesystem is only necessary for portable applications.
A better approach is to check the following registry keys, by doing so you get the same result as it is displayed under add/remove programs:
HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall
HKLM:\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall
Get-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\*" -Name DisplayName,DisplayVersion,InstallSource,Publisher,UninstallString
Another way is to query wmi/cim:
Get-CimInstance -query "select * from win32_product"
But by doing so you generate foreach discovered software product an event in the windows event log (Log: Application, Source: MSIInstaller).
To verify if you can start successfully an application by using start-process you need also to specify the parameter -wait and then check if the return code is 0.

Answer 2

$runningProcess -eq $true doesn't necessarily work as $runningProcess is not a boolean but an object. Alas it always returns false.
TL;DR
If you look at your code you see that to get to "...Not Working..." you have to evaluate ($runningProcess -eq $true). Ergo it returns false.

Answer 3

There's always get-package.
$list = '*chrome*','*firefox*','*notepad++*'
$list | % { get-package $_ }
Name Version Source ProviderName
---- ------- ------ ------------
Google Chrome 104.0.5112.102 msi
Mozilla Firefox (x64 en-US) 104.0.1 Programs
Notepad++ (64-bit x64) 7.8.9 msi
Faster as an argument list and no wildcards:
get-package 'google chrome','mozilla firefox (x64 en-us)',
'notepad++ (64-bit x64)'
Or with the threadjob module:
$list = '*chrome*','*firefox*','*notepad++*'
$list | % { start-threadjob { get-package $using:_ } } |
receive-job -wait -auto