There are mainly 3 methods by which you can uninstall software using PowerShell.
WMI Method.
Using Package provider
Uninstallation String.
We will discuss here the WMI method to uninstall software.
With WMI class Win32_Product you can retrieve the list of software uninstalled in your local or the remote systems. If you need specific software, you can filter by its name. For example,
Get-WmiObject Win32_Product -Filter "Name='Vmware tools'"
Or You can retrieve the name of the installed software using the Where-Object pipeline command.
Get-WmiObject Win32_Product | Where{$_.Name -eq "Vmware tools"}
PS C:\Users\Administrator> Get-WmiObject Win32_Product | Where{$_.Name -eq "Vmware tools"} IdentifyingNumber : {D533345C-7F8D-4807-AE80-E06CE2045B0E} Name : VMware Tools Vendor : VMware, Inc. Version : 11.0.6.15940789 Caption : VMware Tools
Below are the supported methods for this WMI object command.
Get-WmiObject Win32_Product -Filter "Name='Vmware tools'" | gm -MemberType Method | Select Name, MemberType
Name MemberType ---- ---------- Configure Method Reinstall Method Uninstall Method Upgrade Method
There is an Uninstall() method supported by this command. We can use this method to uninstall the software. For example,
$vtools = Get-WmiObject win32_product -Filter "Name='Vmware tools'" $vtools.Uninstall()