How to Identify Uninstaller Information From Registry Keys
If you want a fast way to get information about the uninstallers that are listed in the registry, then check out this simple script to parse out some information for you.
This little baby asks you for a search term, then grabs the pertinent software uninstall information out of the HKey Local Machine registry hive.
It’s simple and effective, and I put it together in just a couple of minutes. It could stand to have some polish on it, but it does the job and it does it like now!
Would you improve it? How? Comments are open.
Drop this code into your ISE or a .ps1 file and run it.
$searchterm = read-host “Enter search term for uninstallers”
$uninstallers = get-childitem HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall
$founditems = $uninstallers | ? {(Get-ItemProperty -path (“HKLM:\”+$_.name) -name Displayname -erroraction silentlycontinue) -match $searchterm}
write-host “Searched registry for uninstall information on $searchterm”
write-host “——————————————”
if ($founditems -eq $null) {“None found”} else {
write-host “Found “($founditems | measure-object).count” item(s):`n”
$founditems | % {
Write-host “Displayname: “$_.getvalue(“Displayname”)
Write-host “Displayversion: “$_.getvalue(“Displayversion”)
Write-host “InstallDate: “$_.getvalue(“InstallDate”)
Write-host “InstallSource: “$_.getvalue(“InstallSource”)
Write-host “UninstallString: “$_.getvalue(“UninstallString”)
Write-host “`n”
}
}
Usage is simple: Enter a search term when prompted to get the software display name, version, when installed, the installation source, and the uninstall string.
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One suggestion, if ran on a x64 machine this code will not give the expected results, as the x86 application uninstaller keys are located under the Wow6432Node\ section of the software keys.
I have been working on modifying the code to do a arch. check @ run time, and change the location of the registery being read based on if its x86 or x64.
This of course assumes you only want to see x86 applications.
A further check of x64 applications would be simple to add though.
Good call Chris
maybe something like:
if (test-path HKLM:\Software\Wow6432Node) {
$pathRoot= “HKLM:\Software\Wow6432Node” }
else {$pathRoot = “HKLM:\Software” }
$uninstallers = get-childitem “$pathRoot\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall”
A cursory view of both of the uninstall lists on my 64bit system had each of the software entries in the “Software” location duplicated in the “Wow6432Node\Software” location, so I think it would work fine to just get the list of installers from there if that key is present.
The “test-path” seems like a good choice for the “architecture test”. It looks logical and “in context”, we’re already in the registry poking around, so might as well check there for 64-bit.
Another way to get it is checking with WMI:
gwmi win32_operatingsystem | select osArchitecture
Thanks for reading, and for the comment!
This is a very handy script, thanks! Can this script be run remotely? I work in a lab broken up into 5 seperate enviornments and I like to be able to run this script to verify all the applications in each environment.