How can I uninstall an application using PowerShell?

Question

Is there a simple way to hook into the standard 'Add or Remove Programs' functionality using PowerShell to uninstall an existing application? Or to check if the application is installed?

Answer 1

$app = Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_Product | Where-Object { 
    $_.Name -match "Software Name" 
}

$app.Uninstall()

Edit: Rob found another way to do it with the Filter parameter:

$app = Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_Product `
                     -Filter "SELECT * FROM Win32_Product WHERE Name = 'Software Name'"

Your mileage my vary, but I can't get this version to work on my machine. I get this error (with what I think is a valid 'Software Name'):

Get-WmiObject : Invalid query

Answer 2

Jeff Hillmans answer is pretty much it, I would say that it may be better to use IdentifyingNumber rather than the name, just in case.

Answer 3

Note that looking at WMI will only work for products that were installed via an MSI.

Answer 4

To fix up the second method in Jeff Hillman's post, you could either do a:

$app = Get-WmiObject 
            -Query "SELECT * FROM Win32_Product WHERE Name = 'Software Name'"

Or

$app = Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_Product `
                     -Filter "Name = 'Software Name'"