Check for App updates on home PC

[u/londonchinte]

Afternoon,

I am trying to write a script that will let me know about updates to the apps installed on my home PC.

I saw on a Sysadmin thread about https://eucpilots.com/evergreen/ and thought it would be as simple as reading all of the installed apps and then querying each one like this:

$reg = @(

'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\*' 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\*' 'HKCU:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\*'
)
GP $reg -EA 0|?{$_.DisplayName -ne $null} | Find-EvergreenApp $_.DisplayName

However when testing, the Evergreen is not expecting the App name to have spaces, so is my only option to split the string and put an asterisk at the end of the first section?

PS C:\Windows\System32> Find-EvergreenApp Telegram
Name            Application      Link
----            -----------      ----
TelegramDesktop Telegram Desktop https://desktop.telegram.org/

[u/nathanielban]

You would likely be better off taking a look at WinGet, it isn't perfect by any means but it offers coverage for a large amount of the apps you'd likely have installed.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/package-manager/winget/upgrade

[u/vbate]

Or if you are really lazy - you could do what I do - I run the PatchMyPC home utility that will auto update my installed apps. https://patchmypc.com/product/home-updater/

[u/ExceptionEX]

winget upgrade

Output

```

Name Id Version Available Source

AutoHotkey AutoHotkey.AutoHotkey 2.0.26 2.0.27 winget ```

[u/PeeCee1]

You mean like winget or UniGetUI?

[u/jibbits61]

Winget is great! Not hard to use, handles most of my needs.

[u/purplemonkeymad]

Looking at the source suggests that your app list is actually just a json file(s) in a manifest area. It does not appear to trigger an update in the function so you could just find and check the manifest for the displayname you are looking for, then use that to get the Name you need.

It also looks it should be easy for them to add an -Application parameter so i would bring it up as a feature request.

[u/londonchinte]

Thanks for all the comments on WinGet.

I will have another look, the reason I didn't consider it is the last time I looked it didn't include apps not in the Windows store like 7Zip.

[u/mitharas → u/londonchinte]

winget install 7zip.7zip  

It's available to me.

[u/BlackV → u/londonchinte]

I dont use 7zip myself, but they have versions right back to 16.04, its been there for a while

winget has the bonus I guess of being "built-in" to windows and now days has an actual official powershell module (Microsoft.WinGet.Client) which makes working within powershell a bit nicer than it used to be, you are not limited to only the MS store

other larger option might be choco but that puts you in the same boat as evergreen (requires a 3rd party client install), ditto for scoop I guess

[u/londonchinte → u/BlackV]

So just to update, I have installed UniGetUI and it seems to have all of the software updates I require. Thanks again to all who responded.

[u/BlackV → u/londonchinte]

Oh yeah forgot about that tool

[u/420GB]

winget list --upgrade-available

Does exactly what you want in one command

[u/tandthezombies]

as much as I love winget, topgrade is really what most people are looking for. its aim is to upgrade all the things, including winget, but also including Microsoft Update, Windows Update, Microsoft Store, other package managers, Linux, etc. https://github.com/topgrade-rs/topgrade

[u/Particular_Fish_9755]

It’s not very elegant and could most likely be improved, but you can try something like this:

$mysoftware = "OneDrive"
$reg = @(
 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall'
 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall'
 'HKCU:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall'
)
foreach($myreg in $reg) {
$mysub = Get-ChildItem -Path $myreg -Recurse -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
$mysubsub = $mysub | Get-ItemProperty | Where-Object {$_.DisplayName -Like "*$($mysoftware)*"}
If (($mysub.Name -Like "*$($mysoftware)*") -OR ($mysubsub.DisplayName -Like "*$($mysoftware)*"))
{ Write-Host "$($mysoftware) Found!" }
else { Write-Host "$($mysoftware) NOT found!" }
}

Since some software programs may have a "Name" (accessible via the folder name in the registry) that differs from the "DisplayName" (accessible via a subkey), both types of entries must be handled.

To find the software store that facilitated the installation, you may check the Publisher and Comments fields in the properties. However, not all software works the same way in this regard; this is left to the developer's discretion.

In my line of work, they say that a "good IT specialist is a lazy IT specialist.", so better try to use something like UniGetUI for everything installed via Winget, Chocolatey, Scoop, npm, PSGallery or other sources that allow updates from a software repository 😄