Windows 8 comes with free hardware/software inventory tool

imageYesterday I wrote about the Windows 8 CP WebSetup installer and told you that the Application Compatibility check creates a few XML files in the folder %AppData%\Local\Microsoft\WebSetup\Panther.

So what can we do with them?

The XML files are created by a separate exe in the WebsetupExpanded folder called WicaInventory.exe with the arguments: /apps /fast /ext “exe,sys” /output <XML file> /log <LOG file>

In my case the commandline was:

WicaInventory.exe /apps /fast /ext "exe,sys" /output "C:\Users\rweijnen\AppData\Local\Microsof\WebSetup\Panther\WICA_Programs_REMKOLAPTOP.xml" /log "C:\Users\rweijnen\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WebSetup\Panther" "c:\Users\rweijnen\AppData\Local\Temp\1fd52b5b-2609-4156-ac02-49dca27a0a8d\WebSetupExpanded"

Let’s see what’s in WICA_Programs_REMKOLAPTOP.xml.

 

I opened it in Excel as an XML Table and the result is a nice inventory of the software on my machine:

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It contains ao applications, version, publisher, how it was installed, path to the msi etc etc.

The file WICA_Devices_REMKOLAPTOP.xml contains a detailed overview of the hardware and drivers:

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Not sure what the EULA says but this looks like a nice, free, hardware and software inventory tool!