This simple Python script retrieves a list of installed programs from one or more Windows computers on your local network and writes those lists to text files.

I created this program to have a convenient backup of every installed program on all of my Windows PCs for when I need to perform factory resets

• Install Python

1. Open get-programs.py in a text editor & set the name of the PCs:

... existing code ...

computers = ["DESKTOP-1, DESKTOP-2"] # Replace with the name(s) of your target Windows PCs

... existing code ...

2. Each target computer must have the Remote Registry service running
   

• Open Windows Services and start the RemoteRegistry service
  (optional: set the service to start automatically at startup if you're going to be running this program frequently)
  
  IMPORTANT: Configure your Windows Firewall inbound rules to only accept Remote Service Management from the local IP address of the computer that will be running this code
  

4. Open run.bat and enjoy!

1. Install pyinstaller:

pip install pyinstaller

2. Open a terminal window in the same folder as get-programs.py and run this command:

pyinstaller --onefile --noconsole get-programs.py

3. That's it! You'll find the executable get-programs.exe in the 'dist' directory.

You can automatically run this program at a specific time or interval of your choice.

1. Open Windows Task Scheduler.
2. In the Actions pane on the right, click on "Create Basic Task...".
3. Name the task (e.g., "Get-Installed-Programs").
4. Choose a trigger interval (e.g., Daily, Weekly, Monthly, etc.)
5. Choose a specific interval (e.g., time of day, day of the week, etc.) (I run mine once a day at midnight)
6. Select "Start a program" as the Action
7. Browse to the location of the run.bat (or the compiled .exe) that's located in the same folder as get-programs.py
8. Set the Start in (optional): location to the folder that contains run.bat & get-programs.py (e.g., "C:\Users\Henry\Documents\List-Of-Installed-Programs").
9. In the Settings tab, uncheck the Stop the task if it runs longer than: checkbox.
10. You're all set! Click Finish.