Alternative to Win32_Product?

That Get-RemoteSoftware works great - if the remote registry service is running on the remote system. If not, you will receive an error message. I always check if it is running and start it if not, then stop it when done. I wonder if this is why the otherwise great function got down-votes.

Below is a small version that checks and starts the remote registry service and stops when finished.

Function Get-WmiCustom2([string]$computername,[string]$namespace,[string]$class,[int]$timeout=15,[string]$whereclause='') 
{
#Function Get-WMICustom2 by MSFT Daniele Muscetta 
#This is a modified version to add where clause parameter, optional
#Original function: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/dmuscett/archive/2009/05/27/get_2d00_wmicustom.aspx

$ConnectionOptions = new-object System.Management.ConnectionOptions
$EnumerationOptions = new-object System.Management.EnumerationOptions
$timeoutseconds = new-timespan -seconds $timeout
$EnumerationOptions.set_timeout($timeoutseconds)
$assembledpath = "\\" + $computername + "\" + $namespace

$Scope = new-object System.Management.ManagementScope $assembledpath, $ConnectionOptions

try {
    $Scope.Connect()
} catch {
    $result="Error Connecting " + $_
    return $Result 
}

$querystring = "SELECT * FROM " + $class + " " + $whereclause
$query = new-object System.Management.ObjectQuery $querystring
$searcher = new-object System.Management.ManagementObjectSearcher
$searcher.set_options($EnumerationOptions)
$searcher.Query = $querystring
$searcher.Scope = $Scope

trap { $_ } $result = $searcher.get()

return $result
}

Function Get-RemoteSoftware{
<#
.SYNOPSIS 
Displays all software listed in the registry on a given computer.

.DESCRIPTION
Uses the SOFTWARE registry keys (both 32 and 64bit) to list the name, version, vendor, and uninstall string for each software entry on a given computer.

.EXAMPLE
C:\PS> Get-RemoteSoftware -ComputerName SERVER1
This shows the software installed on SERVER1.
#>

param (
[Parameter(mandatory=$true,ValueFromPipelineByPropertyName=$true)][string[]]
# Specifies the computer name to connect to
$ComputerName
)

Process {
    foreach ($Computer in $ComputerName)
    {
        $ChangeStateBack=$False
        $RemoteRegistryObj=""
        $ServiceWMIObj=@(get-wmicustom2 -class "win32_service" -namespace "root\cimv2" -whereclause "WHERE name='RemoteRegistry'" -computername $computername –timeout 60 -erroraction stop)
        if ($ServiceWMIObj.Count -gt 0) {
        $RemoteRegistryObj =  $ServiceWMIObj[0]
        if ($RemoteRegistryObj.State -ne 'Running') {
                $ChangeStateBack=$true
                $RemoteRegistryObj.InvokeMethod("StartService",$null) | Out-Null
                Start-Sleep -m 1800     
                #give it a chance to actually start. 1.5 second delay
        }
}
    #Open Remote Base
    $reg=[microsoft.win32.registrykey]::OpenRemoteBaseKey('LocalMachine',$Computer)

    #Check if it got 64bit regkeys
    $keyRootSoftware = $reg.OpenSubKey("SOFTWARE")
    [bool]$is64 = ($keyRootSoftware.GetSubKeyNames() | ? {$_ -eq 'WOW6432Node'} | Measure-Object).Count
    $keyRootSoftware.Close()

    #Get all of they keys into a list
    $softwareKeys = @()
    if ($is64){
        $pathUninstall64 = "SOFTWARE\\WOW6432Node\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Uninstall"
        $keyUninstall64 = $reg.OpenSubKey($pathUninstall64)
        $keyUninstall64.GetSubKeyNames() | % {
            $softwareKeys += $pathUninstall64 + "\\" + $_
        }
        $keyUninstall64.Close()
    }
    $pathUninstall32 = "SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Uninstall"
    $keyUninstall32 = $reg.OpenSubKey($pathUninstall32)
    $keyUninstall32.GetSubKeyNames() | % {
        $softwareKeys += $pathUninstall32 + "\\" + $_
    }
    $keyUninstall32.Close()

    #Get information from all the keys
    $softwareKeys | % {
        $subkey=$reg.OpenSubKey($_)
        if ($subkey.GetValue("DisplayName")){
            $installDate = $null
            if ($subkey.GetValue("InstallDate") -match "/"){
                $installDate = Get-Date $subkey.GetValue("InstallDate")
            }
            elseif ($subkey.GetValue("InstallDate").length -eq 8){
                $installDate = Get-Date $subkey.GetValue("InstallDate").Insert(6,".").Insert(4,".")
            }
            New-Object PSObject -Property @{
                ComputerName = $Computer
                Name = $subkey.GetValue("DisplayName")
                Version = $subKey.GetValue("DisplayVersion")
                Vendor = $subkey.GetValue("Publisher")
                UninstallString = $subkey.GetValue("UninstallString")
                InstallDate = $installDate
            }
        }

        $subkey.Close()
    }
    $reg.Close()
    if ($ChangeStateBack){
                            $RemoteRegistryObj.InvokeMethod("StopService",$null)  | Out-Null
    }
}
}  
}

      

        
        
        
      

    

This uses a custom WMI wrapper that someone wrote in MSFT, so if this snippet is completely copied it will work as it is. You can change it back to the standard get-wmiobject function, but there is no timeout for that. In some [not all rare] situations, the WMI remote responder will hang indefinitely with the default WMI, so this adds a timeout. -Dane