PowerShell for IT Inventory: Getting All Installed Apps from Remote Windows PCs
In the dynamic world of IT administration, keeping an accurate inventory of software installed across all machines is not just a best practice—it’s a necessity. Whether you’re conducting a security audit, ensuring license compliance, troubleshooting application conflicts, or planning system upgrades, knowing exactly what’s running where is paramount. Manually checking each machine is impractical, especially in environments with dozens or hundreds of computers. This guide provides a comprehensive, step-by-step approach to leverage PowerShell’s robust capabilities for remote system management. We’ll show you how to discover target machines within your network using DNS queries, remotely connect to them, extract a detailed list of all installed applications (including DisplayName, DisplayVersion, Publisher, and InstallDate) from both user and system contexts, and finally, compile this invaluable data into a single, easy-to-digest CSV report. By the end of this guide, you’ll have a powerful, automated solution to maintain an up-to-date software inventory across your Windows infrastructure. ...