Automated Software Inventory Report with PowerShell (Win 10/11)

Automated Software Inventory Report with PowerShell (Win 10/11)​

Difficulty: Intermediate | Time Required: 20-30 minutes
Introduction

• Keeping an up-to-date view of installed software on Windows 10 and Windows 11 machines helps with license compliance, security patching, and asset management. A local, repeatable inventory report lets you spot outliers, track version gaps, and share a clean list with your IT team. In this tutorial, you’ll learn a practical PowerShell approach to generate a comprehensive software inventory, including both traditional desktop apps and Windows Store apps.

Prerequisites

• A Windows 10 or Windows 11 machine (version information noted below) with PowerShell 5.1 (default on Windows 10/11) or PowerShell 7.x installed.
• Administrative privileges are recommended for full access to uninstall registry keys.
• Basic familiarity with PowerShell syntax and saving scripts to a file.
• Optional: A destination folder you want to export reports to (CSV/HTML).

What you’ll generate

• A CSV inventory file (compact, sortable in Excel or any spreadsheet)
• An HTML report (readable in a browser with formatting)
• Optional: A combined view that includes Windows Store (Appx) apps via Get-AppxPackage

Step-by-step instructions
1) Open PowerShell with the right privileges

• Right-click the Start button, choose Windows PowerShell (Admin) or PowerShell 7.x (Admin) if installed.
• If you’re testing, you can start without admin, but some uninstall registry keys may be more complete with elevated rights.

2) Decide where to save the reports

• Create a folder for your reports, for example:
  • C:\Inventory\Reports
• Create it from PowerShell (optional):
  • New-Item -Path "C:\Inventory\Reports" -ItemType Directory -Force

3) Create the inventory script

• Save the following as InventorySoftware.ps1 or paste it into a new PowerShell ISE/VS Code session. This script enumerates software from standard uninstall registry keys (per-machine and per-user) and also pulls Windows Store apps (Appx) to provide a comprehensive view. It exports both CSV and HTML reports with a timestamp.

# InventorySoftware.ps1
# Generates a software inventory report for Windows 10/11 (local machine) # 1) Collect desktop/Store uninstall entries
$registryPaths = @( "HKLM:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\*", "HKLM:\Software\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\*", "HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\*") $softwareFromRegistry = foreach ($path in $registryPaths) { if (Test-Path $path) { Get-ItemProperty -Path $path -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Where-Object { $_.DisplayName -and $_.DisplayName -ne "" -and ($_.SystemComponent -ne 1) } | Select-Object DisplayName, DisplayVersion, Publisher, InstallDate }
} # 2) Collect Windows Store (Appx) apps for All Users
try { $storeApps = Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers | ForEach-Object { [pscustomobject]@{ DisplayName = $_.Name DisplayVersion = $_.Version Publisher = $_.Publisher InstallDate = "" # Appx doesn't always expose a clean InstallDate here } }
} catch { $storeApps = @
} # 3) Normalize and combine results
$combined = @ foreach ($row in $softwareFromRegistry) { $combined += [pscustomobject]@{ DisplayName = $row.DisplayName DisplayVersion = $row.DisplayVersion Publisher = $row.Publisher InstallDate = if ([string]::IsNullOrWhiteSpace($row.InstallDate) { "" } else { $row.InstallDate } }
} # Append Appx results, avoiding duplicates by DisplayName
foreach ($app in $storeApps) { $exists = $combined | Where-Object { $_.DisplayName -eq $app.DisplayName } if (-not $exists) { $combined += [pscustomobject]@{ DisplayName = $app.DisplayName DisplayVersion = $app.DisplayVersion Publisher = $app.Publisher InstallDate = $app.InstallDate } }
} # 4) Optional: Clean up InstallDate into a friendlier format if possible
$formatted = $combined | ForEach-Object { $inst = $_.InstallDate if ($inst -and $inst -match '^\d{8}$') { try { $_ | Add-Member -NotePropertyName InstallDateFriendly -NotePropertyValue:([datetime]::ParseExact($inst, 'yyyyMMdd', $null).ToShortDateString -Force } catch { $_ | Add-Member -NotePropertyName InstallDateFriendly -NotePropertyValue $inst -Force } } elseif ($inst) { $_ | Add-Member -NotePropertyName InstallDateFriendly -NotePropertyValue $inst -Force } else { $_ | Add-Member -NotePropertyName InstallDateFriendly -NotePropertyValue "" -Force } $_
} # 5) Export reports
$timestamp = Get-Date -Format "yyyyMMdd_HHmmss"
$docPath = "$env:USERPROFILE\Documents\SoftwareInventory_$timestamp" # Create directory if needed
New-Item -Path $docPath -ItemType Directory -Force | Out-Null $csvPath = "$docPath\SoftwareInventory.csv"
$htmlPath = "$docPath\SoftwareInventory.html" $formatted | Sort-Object Publisher, DisplayName | Export-Csv -Path $csvPath -NoTypeInformation
$formatted | Sort-Object Publisher, DisplayName | Select-Object DisplayName, DisplayVersion, Publisher, InstallDateFriendly | ConvertTo-Html -Title "Software Inventory Report" -PreContent "<h2>Software Inventory Report</h2><p>Generated: $(Get-Date)</p>" | Out-File -FilePath $htmlPath -Encoding UTF8 Write-Host "Inventory reports generated:"
Write-Host "CSV: $csvPath"
Write-Host "HTML: $htmlPath"

4) Run the script

• Save and run:
  • If you saved as InventorySoftware.ps1, run:
  • powershell -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File "C:\Path\To\InventorySoftware.ps1"
• If you run into policy restrictions, use the bypass flag shown above or temporarily adjust the execution policy with caution:
  • Set-ExecutionPolicy -Scope Process -ExecutionPolicy Bypass

5) Review the reports

• Open the HTML report in a browser for a nicely formatted view.
• Open the CSV file in Excel or another spreadsheet program to filter, sort, and analyze (e.g., by Publisher, by Version, or by InstallDate).

6) Optional: Schedule automatic generation

• If you want this to run automatically (weekly or monthly), create a scheduled task:
  • Open Task Scheduler -> Create Task
  • General: Name it “Software Inventory”
  • Triggers: Weekly or Monthly, set your preferred cadence
  • Actions: Start a program
  • Program/script: powershell.exe
  • Add arguments: -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File "C:\Path\To\InventorySoftware.ps1"
  • Conditions/Settings: Configure as needed (e.g., run only if user is logged on, run with highest privileges)

Tips and troubleshooting notes

• Include Store apps with Get-AppxPackage
  • Note that Appx data may differ in structure and is not always perfectly aligned with uninstall registry data. The script includes Appx by-name, version, and publisher for a broader view.
• Filtering system components
  • The uninstall registry entries sometimes include SystemComponent=1 for non-user-facing components. The script filters these by default, but you can adjust the filter if you need to include or exclude additional entries.
• 64-bit vs 32-bit considerations
  • The script queries both HKLM:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall and HKLM:\Software\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall to cover 64-bit and 32-bit apps.
• InstallDate handling
  • Registry InstallDate values can be formatted differently (yyyyMMdd, etc.. The script attempts to present a friendlier date when possible, but some entries may have missing dates.
• Centralized reporting for multiple machines
  • For larger environments, consider running this as a startup script via Group Policy or a central management tool, then collate CSVs from multiple machines into a single workbook. You can extend the script to write outputs to a network share if needed.
• Security and privacy
  • Inventory data can reveal software details that may be sensitive. Ensure appropriate permissions and protect exported reports, especially on shared systems.

Conclusion

• You now have a practical, repeatable method to produce a comprehensive software inventory for Windows 10/11 using PowerShell. The workflow covers traditional desktop installations and Windows Store apps, with convenient CSV and HTML outputs suitable for audits, software compliance checks, or asset management reviews.
• By extending the script (for example, integrating remote data collection via PowerShell Remoting or adding version comparison against a license catalog), you can scale this approach to whole departments or organizations.

Key Takeaways

• A centralized, repeatable inventory helps with license compliance, security hygiene, and asset tracking on Windows 10/11.
• The recommended approach uses registry-based uninstall data (and optionally Appx) to generate a robust local software report.
• Export formats (CSV and HTML) support easy sharing, filtering, and presentation to stakeholders.
• Scheduling reports keeps you up to date with minimal effort, and you can extend the script for broader enterprise usage.

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This tutorial was generated to help WindowsForum.com users get the most out of their Windows experience.