software/hardware inventory software

[mijohnst]

I'd really like some suggestions of a server side software that people have used to inventory the software and hardware on the LAN clients. Most of my machines are wk2. Thanks!

 

[Shift838]

Well the software inventory programs are only as smart as the software installers for the programs you are trying to find. What I mean is most Software Inventory scanners will scan the specific registry for installed software, however if a peice of software (which there are many) do not write to the registry to allow the software to be listed under your installed software area then you will not see it.

I wrote my own in Visual Basic that does this, but if the entry is not in the registry it becomes a manual process for some software.

 

[jschulman]

i've used AIDA. I think it's the best for hardware inventory, it runs on every machine and creates a report. I think you can load it in the logon script and save a report on the server... just try!!

 

[JockFrog]

Hello mijohnst,

I use a freebie called Belarc adviser. The commercial version is really good, but the freeware version lets you know everything you want to know including profiles connected(users) to this machine etc. Of course as previously stated by someone else only programs making a registry key or change during the installation will be reported. These reports are in HTML format.
What is handy is that it is very lightweight and doesn't involve restarting the machine where it is installed/ran.

http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html

Hope this helps

 

[mijohnst]

Thanks so much for the tips guys... There sure is some neat stuff out there. =)

 

[Digitalcandy]

Belarc is only free for personal home use, not business environment.