Announcing Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 16241 PC + 15230 Mobile Insider

Wynona said:

I don't believe in stupid! I do believe in lack of knowledge, though!

I also believe that those who call one with a lack of knowledge stupid, should turn around and take a good look at themselves!

Lack of knowledge doesn't make one stupid but refusal to use the knowledge does.

dencal said:

It takes a women to put things in perspective....so easy to make cheap remarks at the expense of others.
Well stated Wyn.

Thanks, Dencal.

CountMike said:

Lack of knowledge doesn't make one stupid but refusal to use the knowledge does.

True dat, but I'm not gonna judge. I've said, "Duh-h-h-h-h" too many times.

Kind of good news that there's no new build today, it gives me time for long overdue clean re-install. Hyper-V VM which I use to create customized deployment image is installing all the software as we speak, after it's done it's just a simple taks to capture install.wim and replace original Microsoft one on USB install media and finally wait half an hour for that image to install on this laptop.

I was thinking that most of you geeks apparently prefer a traditional clean install, create users and re-install all software manually instead of deploying a custom image with pre-installed software and user profiles. Nothing wrong in that approach, although deploying is quite easy and faster.

Anyway, for those of you who prefer traditional method, re-installing software can be a PITA especially if you have a lot of software installed, one issue being to remember what was installed and what needs to be reinstalled.

PowerShell comes to rescue! Simply enter following command to get a list of all installed traditional Win32 applications:

Get-WmiObject -Class win32_Product



Not very practical, though, with lots of unnecessary information. Let's add some options to only show name and version, sort list alphabetically as a table, and write it to a text file. Command is (replace W:\Installed_Software.txt with your preferred save path and filename):

Get-WmiObject -Class win32_Product | select Name, Version | Sort-Object Name | ft -auto > 'W:\Installed_Software.txt'


(Click to enlarge.)

Now you have a list of your installed software in a text file. Upload it to OneDrive, use it as reference after a clean install to see what software you had installed earlier and what needs to be re-installed:



Kari

Winuser said:

@ Kari I tried that and only got a small list of my installed programs. Is there a way to get a list of all my installed programs?

Get-WmiObject cmdlet in PowerShell with following options writes a list W:\Installed_Software.txt:

Code:

Get-WmiObject -Class win32_Product | select Name, Version | Sort-Object Name | ft -auto > 'W:\Installed_Software.txt'

It works always if entered correctly. It might take some time, up to a minute before the list is populated. Check the command syntax you used. Notice the three vertical bars / pipe symbols ( | ) used to add four commands to one command line, see Wikipedia: Vertical bar - Wikipedia:



Also notice single quotes around path and file name 'W:\Install_Software.txt', and > character before it which tells PS to send output to a file instead of showing it on screen.

Delete the old one before creating a new list.

Kari

Fisher Mann said:

Not having or wanting to use their time to learn makes one stay at the bottom of the user curve. Computers like some things in life can be completely alien to some people and they don't want to mess with them. That is why I think IPhones and Android devices are so popular. Buy them and use them without having to use settings and control panels not to mention command prompts and Power Shells.

I find computers easier to use than fancy-shmancy phones. specially Android.