How to Create a Mac Application Inventory

Step by step

1. 1 min

   Open the Terminal application

   Press Command + Space to open Spotlight search. Type Terminal and press Enter to launch the command line interface.

   Note: Command + Space
2. 30 sec

   Run the application list command

   Copy and paste the command 'ls /Applications > ~/Desktop/AppInventory.txt' into the Terminal window. Press Enter to execute the command.

   Note: This command creates a plain text file on your Desktop containing every item found in the Applications directory.
3. 30 sec

   Review the generated inventory

   Navigate to your Desktop and locate the file named AppInventory.txt. Double-click the file to open it in TextEdit and confirm the list is populated.

4. 2 min

   Capture deep system details

   Hold the Option key and click the Apple Menu (). Select System Information. In the sidebar, navigate to Software and click Applications.

   Note: This view includes version numbers and installation dates, which the basic Terminal command excludes.
5. 1 min

   Save the system report

   With the Applications list selected in System Information, go to File > Save in the menu bar. Choose a destination on your desktop and select Plain Text format to save the full report.

   Note: Command + S