The Binary Idiot

As an admittedly lazy IT person I’m all about crafting ways to automate tasks, even if it requires a bit more forethought on the frontend. I had a request come up to do an “inventory” of who had a certain software package on our machines. After determining that the Win32_Product WMI class could return a list of .msi-based installs on the machine (as well as the slew of handy metadata that comes with it), I started crafting up a script that would go out, target a specific machine that I wanted to find out if a particular package was on it, or, given my fancy, search all the machines in the domain. This is what I eventually came up with. Oh – some standard boilerplate:

The following code works fine in my environment. Mileage may vary in your own; modification may be necessary to suit your needs. Nobody, including myself, accepts any liability for any action or consquence resulting in the execution of the following code.

# Powershell - Domain Computer Software Install-base Search

#####INITIAL PARAMETERS AND GLOBAL VARIABLES#####
##################################################

########FUNCTIONS#########
# This is a function that will grab a list of computers out of Active Directory. Yanked from another script of Keith's.
Function List-Computers
{
    $strCategory = "computer"

    $objDomain = New-Object System.DirectoryServices.DirectoryEntry

    $objSearcher = New-Object System.DirectoryServices.DirectorySearcher
    $objSearcher.SearchRoot = $objDomain
    $objSearcher.Filter = ("(objectCategory=$strCategory)")

    $colProplist = "name"
    foreach ($i in $colPropList){
        $objSearcher.PropertiesToLoad.Add($i)
    }

    $colResults = $objSearcher.FindAll()

    foreach ($objResult in $colResults){
        $objComputer = $objResult.Properties; $objComputer.name
    }
}
#############################

$ComputerName = Read-Host "Enter target machine (if blank, all are selected)"
# If the field is blank, run a List-Computers function, then sort the list ascending and store that
# array as the variable.
if ($ComputerName -eq ""){
    $ComputerName = List-Computers | Sort-Object
    }

# Entering a keyword that will be used to search in the description and title strings of the
# software packages.
$SoftQuery = Read-Host "Please enter a keyword to search for:"
$SoftQuery = $SoftQuery.toUpper() #Convert anything typed to uppcase for later matching.

# The following if-then-else pings the desired machine; if not connected, it displays the
# hostname followed by "NOT CONNECTED". If they are connected, it runs the remainder of the search.
$ComputerName | foreach{
	$tmp = ping -n 1 $_;
	if ($LASTEXITCODE -eq "1"){
		Write-Host $_ "- NOT CONNECTED"
	}
    else{
        $Product = gwmi Win32_Product -ComputerName:$_
        # Parse the results for the software you're after and display each query-match result
        # for each machine
        Write-Host `n
        Write-Host Matches for $_
        Write-Host ======================================
        $Product | foreach {
            # Sets the location for relevant documentation to the Help Link
            # or About URL if it exists - can't remember where I got this.
            if ($_.HelpLink -eq $null){
                if($_.URLInfoAbout -eq $null){
                    $Documentation = $null
                }
                else{
                    $Documentation = $_.URLInfoAbout
                }
            }
            else{
                $Documentation = $_.HelpLink
            }

        # Set the variables
        $ProdName = $_.Caption
        $SoftMatch = $ProdName.ToUpper().Contains($SoftQuery)

        #I didn't want it wasting time (oh the split-seconds) enumerating variables if
        # there's no match, so it's in the if statement.
        if ($SoftMatch -eq "True"){
            $ProdInstallDateInit = $_.InstallDate2
                if($ProdInstallDateInit -eq $NULL){$ProdInstallDate = "Unknown"}
                else{$ProdInstallDate = $_.InstallDate2.Substring(4,2) + "/" + $_.InstallDate2.Substring(6,2) + "/" + $_.InstallDate2.Substring(0,4)}
        if($_.InstallLocation -eq $NULL){$ProdInstallPath = "Unknown"}
        else{$ProdInstallPath = $_.InstallLocation}
        if($_.PackageCache -eq $NULL){$ProdPackageCache = "Unknown"}
        else{$ProdPackageCache = $_.PackageCache}
        if($_.Vendor -eq $NULL){$ProdVendor = "Unknown"}
        else{$ProdVendor = $_.Vendor}
        if($_.Version -eq $NULL){$ProdVersion = $_.Version}
        else{$ProdVersion = $_.Version}
        switch ($_.InstallState){
            -6 {$ProdState = "Bad Configuration"}
            -2 {$ProdState = "Invalid Argument"}
            -1 {$ProdState = "Unknown Package"}
            -1 {$ProdState = "Advertised"}
            2 {$ProdState = "Absent"}
            5 {$ProdState = "Installed"}
            default {$ProdState = "Unknown"}
        }
    }

    if ($SoftMatch -eq "True"){
        Write-host "-------------------"
        Write-Host "Name:         " $ProdName
        Write-Host "Vendor:       " $ProdVendor
        Write-Host "Version:      " $ProdVersion
        Write-Host "Install Date: " $ProdInstallDate
        Write-Host "Install Path: " $ProdInstallPath
        Write-Host "Package Path: " $ProdPackageCache
        Write-Host "Package State:" $ProdState
        Write-Host "-------------------"
    }
}
Write-Host ======================================
Write-Host `n
}
}

For example if I run on a target of my machine looking for “Adobe”, this is the output it brings back after enumerating my software list and checking the titles/desciptions:

Matches for COMPUTERNAME
======================================
-------------------
Name:          Adobe Reader 9.3
Vendor:        Adobe Systems Incorporated
Version:       9.3.0
Install Date:  Unknown
Install Path:  C:\Program Files\Adobe\Reader 9.0\Reader\
Package Path:  C:\Windows\Installer\a78edc.msi
Package State: Installed
-------------------
======================================

The only drawback to this is that by default Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP Pro x64 clients do not include the Win32_Product Class. So, if you’re dealing with any 64-bit clients you’ll have to get that class installed. Luckily, some internet searching turned up this wonderful article that describes a batch file and gives a Powershell script on how to do this with a supplied text file of clients. Looks like s/he, too, has written a software finding script.

Of course, I could have went the extra mile (and might, someday) to do a test after the ping that checks if they’re 64-bit or not, then checks to see if Win32_Product is installed an, if not, install it. I suppose you could also use this to check if people have up-to-date versions of software by checking against a known up-to-date machine’s version number… but that was more than I needed to do and running it separately sufficed.

If you have any input or comments on this script please feel free to drop ‘em below.