That Get-RemoteSoftware works great--assuming remote registry service is started on the remote system. If not you will get an error. I always check if this is started and start it if not, then stop it when done. I wonder if this is why the otherwise-great function received down-votes.
Here is a slightly modified version that will check and start the remote registry service, and stop when finished.
Function Get-WmiCustom2([string]$computername,[string]$namespace,[string]$class,[int]$timeout=15,[string]$whereclause='')
{
#Function Get-WMICustom2 by MSFT's Daniele Muscetta
#This is a modified version to add where clause parameter, optional
#Original function: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/dmuscett/archive/2009/05/27/get_2d00_wmicustom.aspx
$ConnectionOptions = new-object System.Management.ConnectionOptions
$EnumerationOptions = new-object System.Management.EnumerationOptions
$timeoutseconds = new-timespan -seconds $timeout
$EnumerationOptions.set_timeout($timeoutseconds)
$assembledpath = "\\" + $computername + "\" + $namespace
$Scope = new-object System.Management.ManagementScope $assembledpath, $ConnectionOptions
try {
$Scope.Connect()
} catch {
$result="Error Connecting " + $_
return $Result
}
$querystring = "SELECT * FROM " + $class + " " + $whereclause
$query = new-object System.Management.ObjectQuery $querystring
$searcher = new-object System.Management.ManagementObjectSearcher
$searcher.set_options($EnumerationOptions)
$searcher.Query = $querystring
$searcher.Scope = $Scope
trap { $_ } $result = $searcher.get()
return $result
}
Function Get-RemoteSoftware{
<#
.SYNOPSIS
Displays all software listed in the registry on a given computer.
.DESCRIPTION
Uses the SOFTWARE registry keys (both 32 and 64bit) to list the name, version, vendor, and uninstall string for each software entry on a given computer.
.EXAMPLE
C:\PS> Get-RemoteSoftware -ComputerName SERVER1
This shows the software installed on SERVER1.
#>
param (
[Parameter(mandatory=$true,ValueFromPipelineByPropertyName=$true)][string[]]
# Specifies the computer name to connect to
$ComputerName
)
Process {
foreach ($Computer in $ComputerName)
{
$ChangeStateBack=$False
$RemoteRegistryObj=""
$ServiceWMIObj=@(get-wmicustom2 -class "win32_service" -namespace "root\cimv2" -whereclause "WHERE name='RemoteRegistry'" -computername $computername –timeout 60 -erroraction stop)
if ($ServiceWMIObj.Count -gt 0) {
$RemoteRegistryObj = $ServiceWMIObj[0]
if ($RemoteRegistryObj.State -ne 'Running') {
$ChangeStateBack=$true
$RemoteRegistryObj.InvokeMethod("StartService",$null) | Out-Null
Start-Sleep -m 1800
#give it a chance to actually start. 1.5 second delay
}
}
#Open Remote Base
$reg=[microsoft.win32.registrykey]::OpenRemoteBaseKey('LocalMachine',$Computer)
#Check if it's got 64bit regkeys
$keyRootSoftware = $reg.OpenSubKey("SOFTWARE")
[bool]$is64 = ($keyRootSoftware.GetSubKeyNames() | ? {$_ -eq 'WOW6432Node'} | Measure-Object).Count
$keyRootSoftware.Close()
#Get all of they keys into a list
$softwareKeys = @()
if ($is64){
$pathUninstall64 = "SOFTWARE\\WOW6432Node\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Uninstall"
$keyUninstall64 = $reg.OpenSubKey($pathUninstall64)
$keyUninstall64.GetSubKeyNames() | % {
$softwareKeys += $pathUninstall64 + "\\" + $_
}
$keyUninstall64.Close()
}
$pathUninstall32 = "SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Uninstall"
$keyUninstall32 = $reg.OpenSubKey($pathUninstall32)
$keyUninstall32.GetSubKeyNames() | % {
$softwareKeys += $pathUninstall32 + "\\" + $_
}
$keyUninstall32.Close()
#Get information from all the keys
$softwareKeys | % {
$subkey=$reg.OpenSubKey($_)
if ($subkey.GetValue("DisplayName")){
$installDate = $null
if ($subkey.GetValue("InstallDate") -match "/"){
$installDate = Get-Date $subkey.GetValue("InstallDate")
}
elseif ($subkey.GetValue("InstallDate").length -eq 8){
$installDate = Get-Date $subkey.GetValue("InstallDate").Insert(6,".").Insert(4,".")
}
New-Object PSObject -Property @{
ComputerName = $Computer
Name = $subkey.GetValue("DisplayName")
Version = $subKey.GetValue("DisplayVersion")
Vendor = $subkey.GetValue("Publisher")
UninstallString = $subkey.GetValue("UninstallString")
InstallDate = $installDate
}
}
$subkey.Close()
}
$reg.Close()
if ($ChangeStateBack){
$RemoteRegistryObj.InvokeMethod("StopService",$null) | Out-Null
}
}
}
}
This is using a custom WMI get wrapper that someone at MSFT wrote, so if this snippet is copied in its entirety it will work as-is. You could modify it back to the standard get-wmiobject function, but there is no timeout built in to that. In some [not all that rare] situations the remote WMI responder will hang indefinitely with the default WMI so this adds a timeout.
-Dane
