Compare Software on Two Machines

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Hey Y’all,

Earlier this year I saw a post, which I can’t seem to find, of someone asking about comparing software on two machines. That got me thinking, now there’s an interesting powershell project. So here is the result Comp-InstalledSoftware.ps1.

The program will accept the names of two computers and then compare the installed software both 32 and 64 bit. It outputs a five tabbed dialog box which contains the following information:

• Identical Software on Both Machines
  
  Software on Both Machine with different version numbers.
  
  Software only on Machine A (first specified machine)
  
  Software only on Machine B (2nd specified machine)
  
  Statistics, i.e. counts.
  
  Notes:
• All machines must be setup for PowerShell Remoting.
• Remote machines must have the Remote Registry Service enabled. It does Not have to be started as the program will attempt to do that if necessary. If using PowerShell Core (Ver 6+ ) Remote Registry must be started on all Remote machines!
  
• Please read the builtin help file:
  Get-Help [d:path]Comp-InstalledSoftware.ps1 -Full
• You can exclude files, by partial name, from the lists either by passing an argument or specifying a file containing the programs to be excluded. (see the help file).
• The download link also contains a file with hash codes so you can verify your download.
• Feedback Welcome.

HTH

Edit: The header inconsistency in the different versions screen has been fixed and uploaded.

May the Forces of good computing be with you!

RG

PowerShell & VBA Rule!
Computer Specs

3 users thanked author for this post.

Vincenzo, doriel, Alex5723

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Does this scan only drove C (installed) or all drives and acknowledge Portable software too ?

90%+ of the software I use is Portable and on drive D.

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Alex, no it will not report portable software as it scans the registry for the installed software. Trying to list portable software would be almost impossible as any .exe file could be portable, installed or part of Windows. You would have to have a comprehensive list of portable software, a nightmare to maintain. Just look how many files there on SysInternals and NirSoft alone!

HTH

May the Forces of good computing be with you!

RG

PowerShell & VBA Rule!
Computer Specs

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There is PowerShell also for macOS and Linux, so it might be possible to do this also on Macs and Linux PCs.

I don’t really work with PowerShell, I’m more of a DOS and of a Bash person. But reading RetiredGeek’s interesting comment I did wonder if this and other PowerShell scripts that run on Windows may also run on macOS and Linux, maybe with just a few obvious modifications. For those who might be equally intrigued, the answer is yes, but it depends:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/scripting/whats-new/known-issues-ps6?view=powershell-7.1

So probably not RetiredGeek’s, but others here might know better.

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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