🧪 WinAppVerifier

WinAppVerifier is a Windows-based utility built in Java to verify the presence, version, launchability, and termination of installed applications — including Microsoft Store apps, Winget packages, and vendor-supplied installers.

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✅ Features

• ✔️ Reads apps_config.json to validate a list of apps via sw_id

• ✔️ Supports MSI, EXE, Intune, MS Store, and Winget installations

• ✔️ Performs:

  • Installation presence check
  • Version match (from sw_id)
  • App launch and graceful close

• ✔️ Hybrid launch support:

  • .exe path for Win32 apps
  • start protocol: for MS Store apps

• ✔️ Parallel execution using --threads CLI flag

• ✔️ Generates an interactive HTML report with summary chart

• ✔️ Designed for scale — ready for thousands of apps

• ✔️ Log4j2 based logging.

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🛠️ Requirements

• Java 8 or higher
• Maven (for build and run)
• Windows 10 or 11
• PowerShell available on system path

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📦 Input: apps_config.json

{
  "apps": [
    {
      "sw_id": "7zip.7zip_Igor Pavlov_24.09",
      "name": "7-Zip",
      "path": "C:\\Program Files\\7-Zip\\7zFM.exe",
      "process": "7zFM.exe"
    },
    {
      "sw_id": "XP8BT8DW290MPQ_Microsoft Corporation_1.25.06502",
      "name": "MSTeams",
      "path": "start ms-teams:",
      "process": "ms-teams.exe"
    }
  ]
}

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🔎 PowerShell Commands Used for App Detection

The utility uses three different PowerShell-based techniques to determine whether an application is installed and what version is currently available. These commands are executed sequentially in order of performance and reliability:

Detection Method	PowerShell Command	Use Case
Registry (Fastest)	Get-ItemProperty from Uninstall keys	Detects Win32 apps installed via MSI or EXE setups that write to registry
MS Store Apps	Get-AppxPackage	Specifically used for apps installed via Microsoft Store (UWP)
CIM / WMI (Fallback)	Get-CimInstance -ClassName Win32_Product	Slow but exhaustive; used only if above two fail. Detects even legacy installer traces

Examples:

• Registry Example:

Get-ItemProperty 'HKLM:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\*' |
Where-Object { $_.DisplayName -like '*AppName*' } |
Select-Object -ExpandProperty DisplayVersion -First 1

*MS Store Example:

Get-AppxPackage |
Where-Object { $_.Name -like '*AppName*' } |
Select-Object -ExpandProperty Version -First 1

*CIM Example

Get-CimInstance -ClassName Win32_Product |
Where-Object { $_.Name -like '*AppName*' } |
Select-Object -ExpandProperty Version -First 1

🧠 Note: The registry method is fastest and safest. CIM/WMI should be used sparingly as it’s known to be slow and may even trigger application repairs on some systems.

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🚀 How to Run

1. Using Maven

mvn compile exec:java "-Dexec.args=--threads 4"

Defaults to 4 threads if not specified.

2. Using Jar

mvn clean package
java -jar target/WinAppVerifier-1.0-SNAPSHOT.jar --threads 4

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📊 Output: report.html

This file includes:

• 📋 App-wise results table
• 📊 Summary pie chart (Passed vs Failed apps)
• 🟢 Color-coded statuses
• 🔍 Overall result per app

All output is written to report.html in the project root.

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🔄 Launch Types

Type	Path Format
Traditional app	"C:\\Path\\To\\app.exe"
MS Store app	"start ms-teams:"

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🛑 Close Logic

Uses:

taskkill /f /im <process>

Ensure the process field in the config matches the real executable name shown in Task Manager.

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🔍 Version Detection Priority

1. Registry via Get-ItemProperty
2. MS Store via Get-AppxPackage
3. WMI fallback via Get-CimInstance (last resort)

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⚡ Parallel Execution

• Controlled via --threads <N> flag
• Guaranteed no skips or duplicates
• Order of apps in config is preserved in the report
• Fully thread-safe and isolated

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📈 Scaling Notes

• Validated for high-volume testing (10,000+ apps)
• Parallel execution ensures fast turnaround
• Easily extend config JSON to add apps

📈 Future Scope

• Feasibility for other OS
• Docker based execution for a limited number of apps for cloud based automated execution.

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📌 Maintainers

Created and maintained by: Rishab Kumar Singh | Rahul Kumar [Thoughtworks | QA Engineering]