I want to get the list of programs installed on a users machine. I found a view that returns the list of programs from "AddRemovePrograms", I will be using the views for my report now. This was added to my sms_def.mof file by our system admin. Could someone clarify something. I found the following two views in the SMS database:

v_GS_ADDREMPROGS
v_HS_ADDREMPROGS

What is the difference between them and which one I should be using to get the up to date list of installed programs?

I also want to find the operating system on the machine. I am using "v_GS_OPERATING_SYSTEM" view for getting the OS.

Are these the correct views for what I am looking for or is there another better approach that I can take?

Contributed By: Jeff LeBlanc [MSFT]
The view you want for Add/Remove Programs is the "v_GS_ADDREMPROGS" which stores the current snapshot. The HS one is the History. The "v_GS_OPERATING_SYSTEM" view is the correct one for the OS data.

As you're going through the views you will notice that there is both "v_GS" and "v_R" views.  The GS are Inventory Data returned by Hardware Inventory and the R views are Discovery information. Typically I have found Inventory data to be more reliable for OS information so stick with the GS view for that.