Q. How can I list packages and features from the command line for my current OS or an offline-mounted OS?

A. The Windows 7 Deployment Image Servicing and Management (DISM) tool is great for managing your online OS and offline OS images. It includes the ability to list the installed features and packages of the selected OS.

To list packages for your online OS, use the command

dism /online /get-packages

For an offline-mounted image, substitute /online with /image:. For example,

dism /image:d:tempmount1 /get-packages

A lot of information is generated by this command, so you might want to add

> output.txt

to the command so the output goes to a file.

If you want detailed information about a specific package, use /get-packageinfo and pass the package name. Below is a sample of the /get-packages output.

Package Identity : Package_for_KB958488~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.2.7600.16513
 State : Installed
 Release Type : Update
 Install Time : 10/28/2010 2:40 PM

You can pass the package identity to /get-packageinfo to get full information, as shown here.

C:>dism /online /get-packageinfo /packagename:Package_for_KB958488~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.2.7600.16513

 Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool
 Version: 6.1.7600.16385

 Image Version: 6.1.7600.16385

 Package information:

 Package Identity : Package_for_KB958488~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.2.7600.16513
 Applicable : Yes
 Copyright : Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
 Company :
 Creation Time :
 Description : Microsoft .NET Framework 4.0 Shared
 Install Client : WindowsUpdateAgent
 Install Package Name : update.mum
 Install Time : 10/28/2010 2:40 PM
 Last Update Time :
 Name : KB958488
 Product Name : Package_for_KB958488
 Product Version :
 Release Type : Update
 Restart Required : Possible
 Support Information : http://support.microsoft.com
 State : Installed

 Custom Properties:

 (No custom properties found)

 Features listing for package : Package_for_KB958488~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.2.
 7600.16513

 (No features found for this package)

You can do the same listing for features, just replace /get-packages with /get-features and /get-packageinfo with /get-featureinfo.