I recently experienced a situation where a person’s computer, that was several years old, required a complete factory restore. When asked, “What programs did they have installed on the computer?”, the person was at a loss. Following this occurrence, I started to wonder if there was an easy way to view, save or print the programs that we have installed on our computers? This would be especially handy as a reference in the event of a computer crash. I know myself, there are many software packages I have installed; and, trying to remember what programs I installed (in the event of a computer failure) would be a real challenge, even for an ole’ geek like me.
I am sure there may be other options or methods to accomplish this task, but what I came across was a small software utility, that is portable, called MyUninstaller (by NirSoft). I know you are wondering, what does an uninstaller utility have to do with what we want to accomplish?
First, let me explain that MyUninstaller is in fact an alternative uninstaller utility to the standard Add/Remove applet of Windows operating system; HOWEVER, built into MyUninstaller is a menu options that gives you the ability to either save the list of all installed applications on your computer into a text file or HTML file (that can be viewed in your web browser).
To save the list to a text file, click on the File Menu and select Save Selected Items. To save and view the list as a HTML file, click on View and select HTML Report – All Items.
After using the options in MyUninstaller to generate a list of the programs on my computer, it has now become part of my overall backup strategy.
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Rick,
Very nice! As someone who likes to “factory refresh” a few times a year, this will fit my needs perfectly.
Thanks.
Bill
Thank you Bill… This little utility is actually pretty amazing in that it is a fast way to uninstall programs and also had an advanced section to it where you can uninstall multiple programs in a batch. The HTML program list is what I was shooting for and NirSoft came through.
Rick
Hi!
I use CCleaner (Tools, Save to text file).
Congrats on your great newsletter!
Ton
Thanks mindjk..
Rick
CCleaner can do this too.
Tools > Uninstall > Save to text file
Reply,
Yes, I checked out CCleaner, as well; however, I liked the HTML option in MyUninstaller.
Thanks for sharing this…
Rick
From an administrator level command prompt:
wmic product get name, version > c:\installedsoftware.txt
That will also give you a good list of software you have installed on your computer if you don’t want to install any additional software. You can find the output on the c: at installedsoftware.txt
Jason,
Really good to hear from you and get your expertise. The readers here will appreciate this added bonus.
Rick
Bill,
Good idea about the frequent factory refresh. That’s the only way you can be reasonably sure you have no malware. “Nuke it from orbit.”