You’ve probably installed many programs over time on your Windows PC and might not remember all of them. Let’s look at multiple ways to get a list of installed programs in Windows 10.
You can refer to this list of installed programs when you set up a new PC or reinstall Windows 10 and know what programs to install.
1. List Installed Programs Using Registry and PowerShell
Querying the registry is an effective way of finding out all installed programs in Windows 10. You can use a combination of the registry and PowerShell to get a list of installed software.
To begin, download the Get-ProgramGet script from TechNet. Store it in C:Windowssystem32 (replace C with whatever your local directory is.)
Press Windows key + X and click Windows PowerShell (Admin), which we’re going to use to run the script.
It’s likely that your computer has a policy enabled to stop you running scripts, so let’s change that.
Input the following:
Set-ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted
Press A to say Yes to All.
Next, input the following:
. .Get-RemoteProgram
Press R to Run once.
This will then output a list of programs installed on your local machine. Click and drag to highlight the list. You can then copy this into another program, like Notepad or Excel, to save the list.
2. List Installed Programs Using Settings
One way is to view all your installed programs is to look within Settings. This is a basic solution but is effective if you have concerns about using PowerShell.
Press Windows key + I to open Settings and click Apps. This will list all programs installed on your computer, along with the Windows Store apps that came pre-installed.
Use your Print Screen key to capture the list and paste the screenshot into another program like Paint. You will probably need to scroll down and take multiple screenshots. If this is the case, you might find it easier to paste each image into a word processor and save it as a single file.
3. List Installed Programs Using UninstallView
UninstallView is a program from NirSoft. While it can be used to uninstall programs, it’s also incredibly good at generating a reliable list of your installed programs.
Once downloaded, open the executable and it will show a list of your programs. Use the Options dropdown to toggle the appearance of Windows Apps, if you want them included.
Go to View > HTML Report – All Items to see an HTML export of the list. You can keep that file in the default location as per the address bar, or press Ctrl + S to save it somewhere else.
4. List Installed Programs Using CCleaner
CCleaner is a Windows program designed to free up space on your PC, though CCleaner has a questionable reputation nowadays. Nevertheless, it’s handy for a single use to generate a list of installed programs on your PC that can be saved to a text file.
Once installed, open CCleaner and click Tools on the left, then Uninstall.
Click the blue Save to text file button in the lower-right corner.
On the Save As dialog box, navigate to the folder where you want to save the installed programs list, enter a File name and click Save.
The list of installed programs includes the company, date installed, size, and version number for each program.
The text is tab-delimited, which makes it somewhat hard to read in a text editor. You can import the text from this file into Excel to make it easier to read.
Convert Your List of Programs Into an Excel Worksheet
Open Excel. Go to Open > Browse and change the dropdown next to File name to be All files. Then navigate to where you exported the text file and open it.
On the first screen of the Text Import Wizard dialog box, make sure Delimited is selected under Choose the file type that best describes your data. Click Next.
On the second screen, make sure Tab is checked under Delimiters.
Click Finish. Your list of programs is then imported into columns on a worksheet in Excel.
5. List Installed Programs Using Geek Uninstaller
Geek Uninstaller is a free, portable Windows program used to thoroughly uninstall programs, including all leftovers. The program will also forcefully remove stubborn or broken programs. You can use Geek Uninstaller to generate and save a list of installed programs on your PC.
Open the downloaded executable. A list of installed programs displays on the Geek Uninstaller main window.
To save this list to an HTML file, press Ctrl + S. On the Save As dialog box, navigate to the folder where you want to save the installed programs list, enter a File name and click Save.
The HTML file automatically opens in the default browser once it’s saved. The list includes the name and size of each program and the date on which the program was installed.
Press Ctrl + S to save the Installed Programs HTML page to a location you choose with a custom file name.
Geek Uninstaller also allows you to display a list of apps installed from the Windows Store. Go to View > Windows Store Apps. Note that this is a separate list to the other one—it does not combine them.
All the apps installed on your PC from the Windows Store display. You can export this list to an HTML file the same way you did for the list of regular Windows programs.
And while you’re using Geek Uninstaller, you should consider uninstalling unnecessary Windows programs and apps.
Move Your Programs Elsewhere
All of these techniques get you the same end result, so it’s just preference as to which one you want to use. If you don’t want to install anything, go with PowerShell, otherwise, a third-party app works nicely.
Now you know all the programs you have, perhaps you want to move them around. Check out our guide on how to move installed programs in Windows 10.
Read the full article: 5 Ways to Generate a List of All Installed Programs in Windows
