Pulling a list of entries from Registry key and checking them for anything that is contained in an array

Question

I am using the following code to try and pull a list of installed software on a system and check for certain entries within the list, so far I have managed to get the software list to run as desired using the following code:

$path = 'HKLM:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\*' 
Get-ChildItem $path | Get-ItemProperty | Select-Object DisplayName
if (ItemProperty -Name -eq ('Wacom Tablet')) { 
  start notepad.exe
}

I would like this to be an array that references the DisplayName list, but I get the following error:

ItemProperty : Cannot find path 'C:\WINDOWS\system32\Wacom Tablet' because it
does not exist.
At C:\Users\username\Documents\Scripts\win10test.ps1:39 char:5
+ if (ItemProperty -Name -eq ('Wacom Tablet')) {
+     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : ObjectNotFound: (C:\WINDOWS\system32\Wacom Tablet:String) [Get-ItemProperty], ItemNotFoundException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : PathNotFound,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.GetItemPropertyCommand

How could I achieve this?

Answer 1

ItemProperty is expanded to Get-ItemProperty, so your if condition

ItemProperty -Name -eq ('Wacom Tablet')

becomes

Get-ItemProperty -Name -eq -Path ('Wacom Tablet')

meaning that your code is trying to get a property -eq from an item Wacom Tablet in the current working directory (in your case apparently C:\WINDOWS\system32).

What you seem to want to do is something like this:

Get-ChildItem $path | Get-ItemProperty |
  Where-Object { $_.DisplayName -eq 'Wacom Tablet'} |
  ForEach-Object {
    # do stuff
  }

or like this:

$prop = Get-ChildItem $path | Get-ItemProperty |
        Select-Object -Expand DisplayName
if ($prop -eq 'Wacom Tablet') {
  # do stuff
}