Alright, so you wanna know ’bout them programs on your computer, huh? Like, what’s been put on it? My grandson, he showed me this thing called “PowerShell,” says it’s like a magic window to see everything. Don’t ask me how it works, it’s all gibberish to me, but I can tell ya how to use it to see what programs you got, just like he showed me.
First off, you gotta open this PowerShell thing. My grandson, he clicks on that little window thingy at the bottom, the one that looks like a window, and then he types “PowerShell” and it pops up. Looks kinda scary with all that black screen and words, but don’t you worry, it ain’t gonna bite ya.
Okay, now the magic words. He told me to type this, and it shows all the programs. Ready? Here it is: Get-Package. Just like that, all one word, with a little dash in the middle. You type that in and then press the “Enter” key, the big one on the right side of the keyboard. And bam! A whole bunch of stuff starts scrolling by. It’s like a list, see? Each line is a program, got its name and all that. Some of it looks like gobbledygook, but you can usually pick out the names you know, like your games or that thing for writing letters.
Now, sometimes, that list is too long, right? Goes by too fast, you can’t read it all. So, my grandson, he showed me another trick. He types this: Get-Package | Out-GridView. See, it’s that same Get-Package thing from before, but then he adds this “pipe” thingy, it’s that straight up and down line, you find it near the “Enter” key. And then he types Out-GridView. What this does, it puts that long list into a little window, so you can scroll through it nice and slow, see everything real good. You can even make the window bigger if you want, just like any other window.
- So, to recap, first you open PowerShell.
- Then you type Get-Package to see the list quick.
- Or you type Get-Package | Out-GridView to see it in a window you can control.
Now, there’s another way my grandson told me, somethin’ about “WMI Object” or somethin’. He says it’s another way to get the program list, but sometimes it shows different stuff. I don’t know why, computers are weird like that. But if you wanna try it, here’s the magic words: Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_Product. Again, all that gibberish, but you just gotta type it in and press “Enter”. It’ll give you a list, but it might look a little different than the first one. And this one, it might take a while, so be patient. It’s like the computer is diggin’ deep to find everything.
My grandson, he says this PowerShell thing, it can do all sorts of stuff, but I ain’t got the patience for all that. I just wanna see what programs I got, make sure nothin’ sneaky got put on there without me knowin’. And these tricks, they work good enough for me. You just gotta type in them magic words and press “Enter”, and the computer shows you everything. Easy peasy, even for an old woman like me.
So there ya have it. That’s how you see what programs you got on your computer using that PowerShell thing. Don’t let all them fancy words scare ya. It’s just a few simple commands, and you’ll be seein’ everything in no time. And if you forget, just come back here and read it again, I ain’t goin’ nowhere.
One more thing, my grandson said something about checking software versions, you know, like updates and such. He used some fancy words again, but basically, he typed something similar. He still used that Get-WmiObject, but he added some extra stuff to see the version numbers too. I think it was something like… Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_Product | Select-Object Name, Version. Something like that. Again, it shows you a list, but this time it also tells you what version each program is. handy if you want to make sure everything is up to date, I guess. But honestly, I just leave all that update stuff to my grandson, he knows what he’s doin’.
So, you got a few options now, see? Get-Package for a quick list, Get-Package | Out-GridView for a list you can scroll through, and Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_Product for another list that might show different stuff. And if you’re feeling fancy, you can try that version check thing too. It’s all there in PowerShell, just waiting for you to type in the magic words.
Tags: PowerShell, Windows, Installed Programs, Software List, Get-Package, Get-WmiObject, Windows 10, Computer Inventory, Applications, Software Versions
