Scan installed software on Windows

Question

Is there any way of scanning and querying installed software on Windows faster than using WMI?

Answer 1

If you have enough permissions, you may scan the local registry. Pertinent entries should be:

• HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall
• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall
• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall

An example follows:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\{7BF61FA9-BDFB-4563-98AD-FCB0DA28CCC7}]
"Comments"=""
"DisplayVersion"="8.0.1557"
"InstallDate"="20131119"
"Publisher"="Microsoft Corporation"
"DisplayName"="IIS 8.0 Express"

Iterate through each Child, and extract the desired information (DisplayName, for example.)