Sometimes, when I get a support call with a weird-ever computer problem, I always wish I can have a tool handy that checks on user’s computer to find out what last 10 programs they ran on their computer before the problem emerged. Well, here you go. NirSoft just released a free tool that does just that.
ExecutedProgramsList is a new released tool that displays a list of programs and batch files that you previously executed on your system. When it’s launched, it scans your computer and collects a list of programs previously executed on the computer with information about each .exe file, such as name, last modified date, created date, file size, product name and version, and when was last time executed.
ExecutedProgramsList is complete free, works on any version of Windows, from XP and up to Windows 8. Both 32-bit and 64-bit editions are supported. Just like all other NirSoft tools, it’s also portable that doesn’t need the installation to run the program and can be run as a command-line in Command Prompt with a few options for saving the result in different format.
Lastly, if you wonder where this neat tool gets all these information, all data is collected from the following registry keys and the Windows Prefetch folder (c:\windows\prefetch).
- Registry Key: HKCU\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\MuiCache
- Registry Key: HKCU\Microsoft\Windows\ShellNoRoam\MUICache
- Registry Key: HKCU\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags\Compatibility Assistant\Persisted
- Registry Key: HKCU\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags\Compatibility Assistant\Store