You can't anticipate how many words the application name will contain, but you can count on the application name always being the last set of words in the output string starting from the third word. Thus, the script uses the command sequence that callout B shows to capture the entire application name. In this command sequence, the switch "Tokens=1,2,*" %%i tells the For command that you want to capture column 1 in the %%i variable, column 2 in the %%j variable, and the remaining text, starting from the third word, in the %%k variable. If you want to suppress the REG_SZ and Displayname strings, you simply output only the third token. Because you started the token count by using the variable %%i, the %%k variable will contain the third token. (If you're unfamiliar with iterator variables such as %%i, see "Shell Scripting 101, Lesson 8," http://www.winnetmag.com/windowsscripting, InstantDoc ID 21984.)
The %%k variable is the parameter you want to pass to the :getappname section of code, which callout C shows. This code outputs the application name. You could omit using a separate section of code to output the application name by using the Echo command as part of the For loop. However, I chose not to do so because some applications don't have a display name, which means that the %%k variable would be empty. The code in the :getappname section accounts for this variation. Rather than displaying a blank line if the displayname value is missing, the script goes to the end of the file and quits.
Running the Script
QueryInstalledSoftware.cmd has only one dependency: The reg.exe utility must be in the same directory as the script or in a directory that's part of the user or system path. I tested this script on Win2K Service Pack 3 (SP3) and SP4 and on NT 4.0 SP6a. The script also should work with Windows XP, but note that although XP has a built-in reg.exe command, its version doesn't let you query the registries of remote computers. You'll need to obtain the version of reg.exe that lets the \\computername parameter query remote workstations and servers.
Using the Script
This highly functional but simple script remotely displays a list of applications installed on a computer, which might not seem too exciting. However, the script also lists installed hotfixes as part of its output, which can be useful when you're trying to determine whether any of your workstations or servers are vulnerable to attack because a hotfix wasn't installed. If you want to use this script for auditing your entire network, all you need to do is to run the script once for each workstation on your network.
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