I'm trying to write a PowerShell script that reports which applications installed on my home PC have updates available. I found the Evergreen PowerShell module and initially thought I could read application names from the uninstall registry keys, then pass each name to Find-EvergreenApp. My registry sources are HKLM:SOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionUninstall*, HKLM:SOFTWAREWOW6432NodeMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionUninstall*, and HKCU:SOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionUninstall*. However, applications with spaces in their display names do not seem to match as expected. For example, searching for Telegram returns Telegram Desktop. Is there a better way to pass the full application name to Evergreen, or should I use another tool for this?
3 Answers
You may want to use winget for this instead. It isn’t perfect and won’t cover every application, but it handles a broad selection of commonly installed software and can check for upgrades with `winget upgrade`.
Looking at how Evergreen works, its application data appears to come from JSON manifests. Find-EvergreenApp seems intended to locate matching manifest data rather than perform the update itself. You could search those manifests using the complete display name, then use the matching application identifier. It may also be worth suggesting an `-Application` parameter to the module so exact names with spaces can be passed directly.
The basic command is `winget upgrade`. It reports the installed application, package ID, current version, available version, and package source. That may be simpler than matching registry display names against Evergreen records.
I had overlooked winget because, when I last checked, I thought it mainly covered Store applications. I’ll take another look, especially to see how well it handles software such as 7-Zip.