How to get list of running applications using PowerShell or VBScript

Question

I need to programmatically get a list of running applications as shown in the \"Applications\" tab inside the Windows Task Manager using PowerShell or VBScript.

All

Answer 1

stahler's answer converted to PowerShell:

$word = new-object -com 'word.application'

$word.tasks | ? {$_.visible} | select name

$word.quit()

Answer 2

@Steven Murawski: I noticed that if I used mainwindowhandle I'd get some process that were running, of course, but not in the "Applications" tab. Like explorer and UltraMon, etc. You could condition off of mainwindowtitle instead, since those process I encountered didn't have window titles -- like so

gps | ? {$_.mainwindowtitle.length -ne 0} | select name, mainwindowtitle

Answer 3

This gets you close in PowerShell:

get-process | where-object {$_.mainwindowhandle -ne 0} | select-object name, mainwindowtitle

Or the shorter version:

gps | ? {$_.mainwindowhandle -ne 0} | select name, mainwindowtitle

Answer 4

This should do the trick:

Set Word = CreateObject("Word.Application")
Set Tasks = Word.Tasks
For Each Task in Tasks
   If Task.Visible Then Wscript.Echo Task.Name
Next
Word.Quit

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb212832.aspx

Answer 5

from command line you are looking for:

tasklist /v the /v means verbose and will include list of "application running off each process

tasklist /v /fi "imagenaem eq POWERPNT.EXE" for example can be used to filter just application running under POWERPNT.EXE process.