macOS get installed apps

This script scans the /Applications directory on a macOS system and generates a CSV file with a list of installed applications, excluding Apple applications and any applications specified in a separate CSV file. If no CSV file is found, it will still run and you will get a list of all non-Apple apps. The generated list includes the app name, version, bundle identifier, and installation date.

Requirements

Python 3.x

Usage

1. Save the script as a file named app_tracker.py (or any other name you prefer).

2. Create a CSV file named excluded_apps.csv in the same directory as the script. This file should contain the names of the apps you want to exclude from the generated list. The first line should be a header with "name", and each subsequent line should contain one app name. For example:

name
Code
VLC media player
Apparency
DiffusionBee
Topaz Gigapixel AI.app
Retrobatch
1Password
BetterSnapTool
Cardhop
Topaz DeNoise AI.app
Chrome
Self Service
Dropbox
LaunchBar
Topaz Sharpen AI.app
Microsoft Remote Desktop
OneDrive

3. Open Terminal and navigate to the directory where you saved the script and the excluded_apps.csv file. You can use the cd command to change the directory. For example:

cd /path/to/your/script

4. Run the script using the Python interpreter:

python3 app_tracker.py

5. The script will create a new CSV file called installed_apps.csv in the same directory. This file contains the list of installed applications, excluding the ones specified in the excluded_apps.csv file.

Customization

To change the location of the excluded_apps.csv file or the output file, modify the file paths in the main script execution section:

if __name__ == '__main__':
    excluded_apps = read_excluded_apps_from_csv('path/to/excluded_apps.csv')
    ...
    save_apps_to_csv(apps, 'path/to/installed_apps.csv')

Replace path/to/excluded_apps.csv and path/to/installed_apps.csv with the actual file paths you want to use.