Blank Lines In 'wmic product get name'

Matt316 · 13 Feb 2021

Hi. I was thinking of cleaning out a few of my older programs and, just out of curiosity, I tried the 'wmic product get name' command to see what it produced and whether it was the same list as that in 'Apps & Features'. What I instantly found was that many of the lines were blank. I tried it on other computers and VMs and found nothing unusual. Does anyone know what these blank lines mean, and if they are somehow nefarious?

Matt

Try3 · 13 Feb 2021

Matt,

I don't get any blank lines.

Whilst I cannot find any source document, it has always been my understanding that WMIC gets its list from the Registry key
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall

WMIC is 'deprecated'.
- Type WMIC /? to see for yourself.
- This means whatever MS wants it to mean on any given occasion.

- 'Deprecated' can mean that security vulnerabilities will be addressed but no other development work will take place.
- 'Deprecated' can mean completely inhibited.

The WMIC method has always been limited anyway. You can find additional entries in Control panel, Programs & features.

Do the PowerShell equivalents also produce blank lines for your computer?
Get-WmiObject win32_product | Select-Object Name, Version, PackageName, InstallDate
Get-CimInstance win32_product | Select-Object Name, Version, PackageName, InstallDate
Taken from How to get a list of all installed Software - SID-500
I suspect, but do not know, that this method is as limited as WMIC.

Denis

Try3 · 13 Feb 2021

Matt,

Personally, I use NirSoft's UninstallView
e.g.
…\UninstallView.exe /scomma D:\SomePathOrOther\InstalledAppsList.csv

I have checked its output line by line and seen that everything from Control panel, Programs & features is included.
- This output has 90 lines.
- My WMIC output only had 78 [as did the PS commands I mentioned].

Denis

Matt316 · 13 Feb 2021

Cheers, Guys.

Matt