App Scanner

A cross-platform Python utility to find installed applications on Windows, macOS, and Linux.

This library provides a simple function, get_installed_apps(), that returns a list of installed applications on the host operating system.

Features

Cross-Platform: Works on Windows, macOS, and Linux.
Simple API: A single function to get the list of apps.
Lightweight: No external dependencies.

Installation

pip install installed-apps-scanner

Usage

from app_scanner import get_installed_apps

apps = get_installed_apps()

for app in apps:
    name = app['name']
    # On Windows, 'appid' is used as identifier; on macOS/Linux, 'path' is used
    identifier = app.get('appid') or app.get('path', 'N/A')
    print(f"Name: {name}, Identifier: {identifier}")

Return Values

The get_installed_apps() function returns a list of dictionaries, where each dictionary represents an installed application. The structure varies slightly by platform:

Common Keys

name (str): The display name of the application.

Windows

appid (str): Application ID used for launching (e.g., from Start Menu).

macOS

path (str): Full path to the .app bundle.
bundle_id (str, optional): CFBundleIdentifier from Info.plist.
version (str, optional): CFBundleShortVersionString or CFBundleVersion.
executable (str, optional): CFBundleExecutable.
icon (str, optional): Path to the .icns icon file if found.
source (str): 'spotlight' or 'scan' (how it was discovered).

Linux

path (str): Path to the executable or .desktop file.
package (str, optional): Package identifier (e.g., 'snap:firefox' or 'flatpak:org.mozilla.firefox').
icon (str, optional): Path to the icon file.
categories (str, optional): Application categories from .desktop file.
description (str, optional): Description or comment from .desktop file.
wm_class (str, optional): Window manager class.
desktop_id (str, optional): Desktop file ID.
variant (bool, optional): True if it's a specialized launcher variant.

How it Works

Windows: Uses PowerShell commands (Get-StartApps or Get-AppxPackage) to find installed applications from the Start Menu and returns app IDs for launching.
macOS: Uses mdfind (Spotlight) to locate all .app bundles and reads their Info.plist for metadata.
Linux: Scans for .desktop files in standard application directories including /usr/share/applications, ~/.local/share/applications, and additional paths for Snap, Flatpak, AppImage, and other package managers.

AIgrator/app-scanner