Developed by NirSoft, InstalledPackagesView is a free portable tool that displays a list of software packages installed on a Windows PC with Windows Installer with the list of files, registry keys and .NET assemblies associated with them. It works on any version of Windows, from Windows XP and all the way up to Windows 10 with both 32-bit and 64-bit versions supported.
For every installed software package found and listed in the tool, the following information is displayed along with it:
- Display Name
- Display Version
- Publisher
- ID
- Install Date
- Registry Time
- Estimated Size
- Install Location
- Install Source
- MSI Filename
- Uninstall String
- Language
- etc.
Highlight any installed app at the upper section you will see the list of files associated with that app at the bottom section. It could be a file, a registry key, or a .NET assembly.
You can also generate an HTML report from the right-click context menu, or save the output as XML, CSV, or TXT files on your computer.
Behind the scene, all information is stored and pulled from the following two Registry Keys:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionInstallerUserDataProducts HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionInstallerUserDataComponents
Not only can you pull the info from a local computer but also an external hard drive as well. Go to Options and Advanced Options, then select the External drive option from the Load From drop-down list.
It’s worth noting that this tool only lists the software installed by Windows Installer, aka MSI. So you may see more or less installed software packages than the ones listed in Control Panel.