Create a list of all installed Windows software

It can sometimes be useful to create a list of all software programs installed on a Windows PC. Maybe you want to hand it over to a friend or publish it on the Internet, or just use it to analyze what software has been installed on a system.

While it is possible to display the installed software using the Control Panel of the Windows operating system, there is no feature to export that list to a file.

You could now go ahead and make screenshots, or even type all the program names into a file, but that would certainly take some time to be accomplished.

There are other solutions on how you can export a list of all installed programs to a text file so that it can be shared or processed easier.

This guide presents you with several options that allow you to export the list of installed software. Lets get started.

Using the command line

You do not need third-party software if you use the command line, which is probably the top reason why you'd want to use it.

1. Tap on Windows-R to bring up the run box, type cmd and hit enter.
2. Use the command wmic to open the Windows Management Instrumentation Command-line and scripting interface.
3. Run the command /output:c:\users\username\softwarelist.txt product get name, version, installlocation to create the new softwarelist.txt file and fill it with date.
4. The command looks up the name, version and path the software is installed to. You can remove information if you do not need them, or add information such as installdate, vendor, description or installstate to the output.
5. Note that you need to replace c:\users\username\softwarelist.txt with a directory of your choosing on your computer. At the very least, it is necessary to replace username with your account username.

Belarc Advisor

Belarc Advisor creates a detailed system profile of your computer that includes software and hardware, network inventory, the patch state of the system, security information and other information that may be useful to you.

All you need to do is download and install the program on your system, and have it scan it afterwards. The scan takes less than a minute to complete, and a results page is opened in your web browser of choice afterwards.

Here you need to scroll down until you find the software licenses and software versions & usage sections.

You can copy and paste the information from here, or work with them right from the local HTML page instead if you prefer to do so.

CCleaner

CCleaner is a popular temporary file cleaner for the Windows operating system. While it is used primarily for that, it ships with a boatload of other tools that help you manage various system features.

One of them lets you uninstall software that is installed on the system. It resembles the native Windows uninstallation program and is not as powerful as Revo Uninstaller or other programs that scan for leftovers after the uninstallation.

There is however a save to text file button here that you can use to export the list of installed software to the local system.

Geek Uninstaller

Geek Uninstaller is an advanced software removal program for Windows. It can not only uninstall installed programs, but also scan the system for leftovers so that they do get removed as well in the process.

You can use it to export the list of software as an HTML file easily. Just run the program -- it is portable so no installation is required -- and select File > Export to HTML to save the data to your local system.

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