[How-To] Get The List of Installed Apps In Windows

Some times you might need to create a list of application installed in your computer so that you can install those applications when you reinstall Windows.

I usually take screen shots of my Control Panel or my Start menu for this purpose. But there is an easier way to do this job by using a built-in Windows feature.

By following these steps you will be able to generate a text file which contains all the installed programs on your Windows machine.

How To:

1. Open command prompt with administrator rights. That is, go to All Programs > Accessories and right-click on Command Prompt and select ‘Run as administrator’.
2. Click continue button if you get User Account Control (UAC) Prompt.
3. In the Command Prompt, type WMIC and hit enter. You will see the following message:
   
   (WMIC stands for Windows Management Instrumentation Command-line)
4. Next, you need to type the following command and wait for some time:
   /output:C:\InstallList.txt product get name,version
   
   Depending on the number of programs installed, it can take up-to a minute to respond to this command. Here “C” is the drive letter where Windows will store the installed applications list. You can also change the name of the output file and drive letter if you want to modify the output location.

I have tested this in Windows 7 (32-bit) but this trick should work in Windows Vista and XP without any problems.

However there is freeware called Belarc Advisor to do the same job. It creates a detailed list installed apps, missing Microsoft hot-fixes, anti-virus status and displays the results in your Web browser.