Filtering Objects entries in PowerShell

Question

I started today to play with PowerShell and wanted to do a simple task. Read all my installed software, filter out "Microsoft related entries + null entries" and store them in JSON file.

Well, I was able to do that but I couldn't figure out the filtering part mostly because the whole script language is new to me and I couldn't successfully iterate to remove the entries I wanted.

Your help is appreciated!

$outputFile="C:\test.JSON"
$GetAppData= Get-ItemProperty HKLM:\\Software\\Wow6432Node\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Uninstall\\* |Select-Object DisplayName, DisplayVersion, InstallDate

    foreach ($Applications in $GetAppData.PSObject) 
    {

        foreach ($App in $Applications.Properties.Value) 
        {
         if ($App.'DisplayName' -like '*Microsoft*' -or !$App.'DisplayName' ) 
                {
                    $Applications.Value.PSObject.Properties.Remove($App)  
                }
         }
    }    
     
    $GetAppData| ConvertTo-Json -Depth 100 | Set-Content -Path $outputFile -Force

are you trying to use, !$App.'DisplayName', as a means of it being null/empty? — Abraham Zinala
– Abraham Zinala, Commented Mar 9, 2021 at 19:56

Lee_Dailey · Accepted Answer · 2021-03-09 20:20:07Z

2

a simpler way to get the info is to use the somewhat newer Get-Package cmdlet. [grin]

what the code does ...

sets the item pattern to exclude
you could make this into a regex OR list to exclude more than one item.
gets the list of all packages
filters out the MSU items
filters out the items with a blank .Name property
filters out the items that match the $DoNotWant pattern
saves the list to the $Result collection
displays the list on screen

you could add other steps to sort by name, rearrange the properties, or otherwise customize the props in the final objects.

the code ...

$DoNotWant = 'microsoft'

$Result = Get-Package |
    Where-Object {
        $_.ProviderName -ne 'msu' -and
        $_.Name -and
        $_.Name -notmatch $DoNotWant
        }

$Result

truncated output ...

Name                           Version          Source                           ProviderName
----                           -------          ------                           ------------
7-Zip 19.00 (x64)              19.00                                             Programs
AutoHotkey 1.1.33.02           1.1.33.02                                         Programs
Bulk Rename Utility 3.3.2.1...                                                   Programs

[*...snip...*] 

PSFileTransfer                 5.31.0           https://www.powershellgallery... PowerShellGet
PSFramework                    1.4.150          https://www.powershellgallery... PowerShellGet
PSLog                          5.31.0           https://www.powershellgallery... PowerShellGet
PackageManagement              1.4.7            https://www.powershellgallery... PowerShellGet

answered Mar 9, 2021 at 20:20

Lee_Dailey

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3 Comments

KpKi Over a year ago

This Works! Thank you very much. silly question: How was $Result linked to the $GetAppData without being mentioned in the code.

KpKi Over a year ago

Answering my own question: Get-Package. :D

Lee_Dailey Over a year ago

@ShortCircuit - you are most welcome! glad to have helped a bit. ///// yep ... almost any PoSh code block can be assigned to a $Var. it's the recommended way to save things to an array since it avoids the nasty gotcha when using += on an array ... arrays are fixed size. [grin]

Santiago Squarzon · Accepted Answer · 2021-03-09 20:34:32Z

1

For your specific question, this is how you can filter and export your $GetAppData. There are several ways of filtering an array and also there are some cmdlets / functions that can give you the same result as querying HKLM.

$outputFile="C:\test.JSON"
$GetAppData= Get-ItemProperty HKLM:\\Software\\Wow6432Node\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Uninstall\\* |Select-Object DisplayName, DisplayVersion, InstallDate

$GetAppData.Where({$_.DisplayName -and $_.DisplayName -notmatch 'Microsoft'})|ConvertTo-Json > $outputFile

Cheers!

answered Mar 9, 2021 at 20:34

Santiago Squarzon

65.6k5 gold badges26 silver badges60 bronze badges

1 Comment

KpKi Over a year ago

Also an acceptable solution. Thank you for the assistance.

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