Submitted by Igor Vinnykov

According to the Windows 7 Programs and Components info, I have 85 applications and 118 updates installed on my PC. No doubt, it’s hard to keep in mind all these installed programs even for a single PC, and I have to open the Programs and Components view every time I need to check the software installed on the PCs in my network. If you use the same approach when you need to audit installed software, let me show how you can optimize your software inventory procedures using the free Network Software Scanner utility from EMCO Software.

The Welcome screen of EMCO Network Software Scanner

EMCO Network Software Scanner Overview

As it should be evident from its name, EMCO Network Software Scanner is a network application that allows scanning network PCs to collect information about installed software. The collected information is stored in a centralized database and can be referred to anytime. Thus, you can use the application to check the list of installed software on a particular PC, detect changes in the list of installed application, export the software inventory information to a file and perform other actions. Let’s see how these features work.

The Application Requirements

In order to use the application, you should have an administrative access to the network PCs, because otherwise Windows security won’t allow you to connect to remote computers and extract software inventory information. It is worth mentioning that the application extracts inventory info directly from Windows Registry and doesn’t use WMI, so it should work in most network environments with no specific configuration of client computers required. If the application can’t connect to a remote PC or can’t extract information from it, a detailed error report is shown on the Application Log tab with useful hints how to resolve the problem, so it worth checking the log in case of problems.

Installed Software Scanning

To start a network scanning, you can click the Enumeration Wizard button on the Welcome screen. You will be prompted to select the enumeration scope by choosing from the available domains and workgroups or specifying the IP range of PCs manually. Once a scanning is started, you can start reviewing the scan results for already scanned PCs immediately, without waiting for the entire scan to complete. To see the scan results, switch to the Machine Scans tab and select the required PC in the Network Browser.

The list of installed applications on a selected PC

Installed Software Audit

For every PC, the application can display a list of installed applications and updates. Applications and updates are displayed in different views, and you can switch between them using the toolbar buttons. The default inventory view displays only general inventory information such as Application Name, Publisher and Version in the same way this info is displayed in the Programs and Components view in Windows. However, you can see more information if you choose to display additional columns in the grid. All the collected inventory information is also available when you export the data to a CSV file. Besides, you can use this information to create custom software inventory reports, if you like.

Using the described approach, you can collect software inventory information from network PCs, but what about auditing changes? That’s quite easy. You may notice that every time you perform a scan the application creates a new scan entry with a list of detected installations and updates, so you can compare two scans to see the applications and updates that were installed or uninstalled in the meantime. Any detected changes are displayed in a special view on the screen and can be exported to a file.

The detected installation changes

Conclusion

You can use EMCO Network Software Scanner as a basic software audit tool that can help you to quickly collect software inventory information from all PCs in the entire network, audit installation changes and export the collected data to files.

EMCO Network Software Scanner

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Role-based access control

Desktop Central 7 uses a role-based access control (RBAC) motif in which you can log into the system as a full-fledged administrator or as one of a series of dedicated sub-administrative roles, including the following:

• Patch Manager
• Auditor
• Asset Manager
• Remote Desktop Technician

Once you are logged in as an administrator, Desktop Central offers you a plethora of administrative action options for managed devices; some of these are shown in the screenshot below.

Desktop Central 7 administrative options

Network discovery

The Scan Systems option is particularly relevant because network discovery is key to creating managed computers as well as in most other aspects of the software. The Scope of Management page, shown in the next screenshot, lists managed computers and enables you to (among other things) install or uninstall the agent software.

Managing client devices

The Scope of Management report truly forms the foundation of your systems administration with Desktop Central 7. This list comprises the systems that are managed by Desktop Central; thus, all other Desktop Central processes (for instance, inventory scanning, managing software, etc.) operate from this systems list.

IT asset management

Does your IT shop subscribe to service management frameworks such as ITIL? Regardless, we need to be able to document exactly what hardware and software we have within our infrastructure. We also need to be able to account for software licenses, to limit or prevent user installation of unauthorized software, and so forth.

As you can observe in Figures 4 and 5, the Desktop Central 7 agent software thoroughly scours target systems, enabling you the administrator to know always precisely what each machine’s hardware and software loadout looks like.

Computer details

The rich reporting in Desktop Central 7 enables “at a glance” analysis of your target systems.

PC inventory

Desktop Central 7 can feasibly allow you to move away (partially or fully) from the often difficult-to-troubleshoot Group Policy infrastructure. For instance, with Desktop Central 7, we can perform the following hardware/software configuration tasks that are typically reserved for GPOs:

• Blocking or disabling USB devices on the network
• Performing power management on managed systems
• Applying Windows Explorer and Internet Explorer security policies
• Mapping drives, setting environment variables, customizing Control Panel
• Configuring Windows services (including firewall policy)

Software deployment and maintenance

The software deployment features that are built into Desktop Central 7 mean that you can possibly retire WSUS and Group Policy Software Installation.

If you seek to move away from the complex array of Windows OS deployment tools, then a related ManageEngine product is what you need: OS Deployer. OS Deployer includes functionality to manage all aspects of the operating system lifecycle: image capture, image maintenance, and image deployment.

However, Desktop Central 7 can be used to deploy service packs and any other .EXE or .MSI software installation package, and prevent specified software from being installed by your network users.

Notice how in the following figure the software packages list resembles the Programs and Features Control Panel item—deploying software with Desktop Central 7 is much easier than with comparable tools!

Software deployment with Desktop Central 7

In a nutshell, the software deployment feature in Deskop Central 7 enables you to completely manage the installation and uninstallation of approved software packages. The basic workflow for this works as follows:

1. Create a central repository to host the software installers
2. Create a schedule for installation (you can schedule installation on a per-user or per-computer basis)
3. Determine application lifetime (you can schedule software updates or product installation automatically)

Patch management is another selling point of Desktop Central 7. The software allows the deployment of both Microsoft as well as non-Microsoft patch code. Desktop Central 7 also enables you to automatically deploy antivirus updates for clients that use the Microsoft Forefront Client Security software.

One interesting aspect of the patch management/security management feature in Desktop Central 7 is their online vulnerability database. The way this works is that the Desktop Central 7 software periodically queries this online database for the release of any Microsoft hotfix code, downloads the code to your Desktop Central management server, and notifies administrators as to its availability. This makes it easier for systems administrators to remain on the forefront (pun intended) of IT security.

Conclusion

Notice that this review only scratched the surface of ManageEngine Desktop Central 7′s capabilities. I encourage you to download the free trial and have a closer look at this easy-to-use desktop management software. If you already have experience with the product or any questions about it, then please feel free to leave that feedback in the comments portion of this post.

If you want to have a chance to win a 100 computers annual subscription license (worth $995 USD) or a 50 computers annual subscription license of the Professional Edition (worth $545 USD), please send an email with the subject “Desktop Central” to . The deadline of this contest is January 7, 2012.

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Reports

Whereas the inventory View Details tab, which I described last time, allows you to retrieve detailed information about a particular computer, the Table Report tab gives you an overview about a configurable set of inventory data fields. TNI is delivered with a few predefined report templates, such as installed software, hard disk drives, removable drives, printers, and user accounts.

Total Network Inventory – Table Report

For instance, the software report generates a table with installed programs and their version number, publisher, installation date, and so on. You can create your own report templates easily with the Report Constructor. You have to first select a particular object type—for example, the processor. TNI will then display the available fields for this object, such as clock speed, manufacturer, or number of cores. A simple click on a field adds it to your custom report.

Total Network Inventory – Report Constructor

Reports can be copied as text or CSV to the Windows clipboard. You can also export reports as text, CSV, or HTML files, and you can print them.

Software accounting

The Software Accounting tab in TNI is for the task that most admins love: managing software licenses. If you counted licenses with a simple Excel sheet, you will most likely be surprised at how faulty your calculation was.

TNI groups all programs and shows you how many copies of each application have been installed in your network. If you expand a row, you can view the computers on which a certain application has been installed.

Total Network Inventory – Software Accounting

In the Licenses column, you can enter the number of copies you have purchased. The Balance column shows how many licenses you have left or how many licenses you have to buy in addition. You can also add your license keys with the corresponding number of copies.

Since every Windows machine runs many programs that don’t require licenses, TNI offers several features that allow you to focus only on those programs that interest you when it comes to software accounting.

You can assign stars and tags to applications, and then use TNI’s filter to only display these selected programs. TNI also enables you to track the presence and the absence of software. The purpose is to find computers that lack must-have software or have forbidden software installed.

If you want to have a chance to win one of the two licenses of Total Network Inventory, each worth $1,490 USD, please send an email to with the subject “TNI.” The deadline of this contest is October 26, 2011.

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TNI users who have worked with version 1.6 will notice that version 2 has a completely revamped user interface. The new UI is appealing, and you will be able to use it without studying the manual first.

Scanning computers and devices

The first thing you have to do is tell the scanner which machines you want to scan. Essentially, you have three ways to do this. You can select IP networks, select Windows networks (for Windows Workgroup), or leverage Active Directory to select individual computers or containers. Active Directory support is new in TNI 2. Computer selections can be saved, which allows you to easily re-scan specific computer sets at a later time.

Since TNI has to authenticate at remote computers, you should configure the credentials used to log on remotely. For Windows computers TNI uses the current user as default login, but you can change this setting. For SSH and SNMP logins, you have to specify the credentials in the Edit tab.

Total Network Inventory – Scanning options

TNI comes with a few scanner options that have an effect on the scanning speed. For instance, you can skip assets that have already been scanned and configure different ping methods and timeouts. You can also limit the number of stored snapshots and the maximum snapshot age. TNI scans multiple machines simultaneously and displays progress bars for each computer separately.

Access software and hardware inventory details

Once the scan process is completed, you can access the inventory data through the View Details tab. The Group Summary gives you an overview of your network’s status. You see the number of physical and virtual assets and the number of different operating systems. You also see alerts that inform you about computers that require Windows updates or have no up-to-date antivirus software installed.

Software and Hardware inventory details

The inventory data is divided into three sections: software, hardware, and other data. The navigation pane on the left enables you to select a particular computer to access its inventory data.

Other data informs you about environment variables, network shares, autorun applications, status of system services and running processes, and information about users.

The latter feature is quite useful if you want to get an overview of all the user accounts in your network, because TNI lists domain user accounts and local user accounts in one place. In the Edit tab, you can add information about users or add new users that you don’t want to have in Active Directory (for instance, employees that share accounts).

Total Network Inventory – Security view

The software section provides detailed information about the installed software and hotfixes, as well as security-related information (firewall status, antivirus, update configuration, and so on). And, just in case installed software isn’t registered properly under Windows, you can also view the contents of the Program Files folder. TNI also shows what database engines and codecs are installed. The hardware inventory section offers all the information that the Windows Device Manager provides.

Hardware Inventory – Total Network Inventory

Useful is the feature that allows you to add custom information. You can manually add data, such as the date when you installed the computer or its price. It is also possible to add new data fields and organize the data into folders.

I like the search feature. If you type in the search field, TNI will highlight all hits as you type. The filter function allows you to hide sections that don’t contain your search term. If you select a particular computer in the navigation pane on the left hand side, you can also search the inventory data of a particular computer.

In my next post, I will discuss TNI’s reporting and software accounting features.

If you want to have a chance to win one of the two licenses of Total Network Inventory, each worth $1,490 USD, please send an email to with the subject “TNI.” The deadline of this contest is October 26, 2011.

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Softinventive Lab is raffling off two licenses, each worth $1,490 USD, of its software and hardware inventory solution Total Network Inventory(TNI). The license allows you to scan an unlimited number of nodes nationwide. The deadline of this contest is October 26, 2011. If you want to have a chance to win this license, please send an email with the subject “TNI” to .

Inventory Software – Total Network Inventory 2

Version 2 of TNI was released just a few weeks ago. If you have worked with a previous edition, you will notice quite a few changes and enhancements. Most noteworthy is that you can now not only scan Windows machines but also Macs, Linux, FreeBSD, and generic devices that support SNMP. This makes TNI a complete inventory software that allows you to keep track of all the hardware and software in your network.

Installing Total Network Inventory

What I like about TNI is that the installation is very fast. Essentially, you only have to start the setup file and tell TNI where to store the data, and you are done. The database can be located on a desktop or, if multiple admins need access, stored on a file server.

Once TNI is running, you can immediately start scanning machines without further preparations. That is, you don’t have to take care of the deployment of agents. TNI automatically installs the agents on remote computers; this is so fast that I first thought that TNI is an agent-less inventory solution.

Inventory Software – Total Network Inventory – Scanning

Agent-based vs. agent-less inventory

The main advantage of agent-based inventory software is that they can retrieve the inventory data much faster and more reliably than inventory software that just leverage the RPC protocol to connect to the client’s WMI service. The reason is that once the agent is installed on the client, it can collect all inventory data first and then send the compressed data to the server.

By contrast, a remote WMI connection generates significant network traffic and also increases the load on the inventory server. And if the network connectivity is slow or unreliable, the inventory process will suffer as well.

A downside of agent-based solutions is that you have one more piece of software on all your machines that has to be updated or removed when you change your inventory software. However, with TNI, this problem doesn’t exist because once the data is collected the agent is removed automatically. This leaves the machine in the exact state it was in before the scan. TNI is therefore as easy to manage as an agent-less inventory solution and as reliable and fast as an agent-based tool.

TNI 2 still supports remote scanning through RPC for environments where the deployment of the agent via SMB is not possible, but the agent-based inventory approach is certainly the preferred method in most scenarios.

Both methods have one common disadvantage. They only work for clients that are online when you start the scanning process. For these situations, TNI allows you to install and run the agent through logon scripts. The inventory data is then stored at a central location and can be imported manually or automatically into TNI’s database. The data on machines with no network connection or Windows XP Home computers can be imported in a similar way by starting the agent manually from external media.

Linux machines, FreeBSD computers and Macs are scanned in a way similar to scans performed on remote Windows computers. The difference is that Total Network Inventory uses SSH instead of the SMB protocol to deploy the agent.

In my next post, I will explain how you can scan computers and view software and hardware inventory details.

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Submitted by David Homer

CENTREL Solutions raffles off an Enterprise license of their centralized network documentation and audit software – XIA Configuration Server, to 4sysops readers. The winner will receive an enterprise license worth $1,000 USD. The deadline of this contest is August 11, 2011. If you want to take part in this raffle, please send an email with the subject “XIA Configuration” to .

XIA Configuration Server – Network documentation and audit software

Centralized network documentation with XIA Configuration

XIA Configuration is an enterprise level server product that allows you to document, track changes and audit the configuration of a range of network systems.

• Windows Servers and Workstations
• Microsoft Exchange
• Microsoft DNS
• Active Directory and Group Policy
• SQL Servers and Databases
• Microsoft Clusters
• VMware ESX hosts, virtual machines and vCenter servers
• Microsoft IIS Web Sites, Application Pools
• WINS Services

Reporting

You can use XIA Configuration’s built in reports or you have the flexibility to create your own using standard SQL commands to access any data within the XIA Configuration repository.

XIA Configuration Server – Reporting

Regardless of whether you are viewing the configuration of a VMware vCenter server or an Exchange Organization XIA Configuration presents a high level of configuration detail and a standardized user interface.

XIA Configuration Server – Microsoft Exchange

Audit and Track Changes

Every item audited by XIA Configuration can be compared against any other item of the same type. This can be used to

• Track changes made to any item over time to detect unauthorized change
• Compare an item against a golden build
• Compare items within the same role for differences – for example compare all DMZ Web Servers for differences

XIA Configuration Server – Auditing

Relationship Mapping

Quickly see the relationships between items in XIA Configuration visually

XIA Configuration Server – Relationship Mapping

PDF Report

Regardless of the type of item or report XIA Configuration can export this information to high quality PDF documents that support the following

• Document treeview outline
• Password protection
• Branding including your own company logo and color

XIA Configuration Sever – PDF Report

You can download a free trial of XIA Configuration Server here.

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Thus, you can use EMCO Remote Installer to quickly get an overview of the installed software in your network. If you already have software inventory software, you can compare the results in cases where you are uncertain whether the scan results are correct.

After you install EMCO Remote Installer, you must scan your network. The software inventory tool lists all computers that are currently online; then, you can either scan all computers or only particular PCs for installed software.

By clicking a particular computer name, you can view all installed software on this PC. If you want to know on which PCs a particular application is installed, you have to select the symbol for the entire network or a domain/workgroup in the navigation pane and then sort the result list according to the application names. The software inventory tool also allows you to search for applications.

You can save software inventory scans so that you can view the data of former scans. I find the comparison feature, which allows you to compare two scans, very useful. The software inventory software shows which applications have been added or removed. To compare two scans, you just have to click them while pressing the CTRL key.

EMCO Remote Installer can also search for specific applications that are not registered as installed programs under Windows. For this, you can tell the tool for what files or registry entries it has to search. Those applications then appear in the inventories of those PCs that meet these scanning conditions.

EMCO Remote Installer

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Submitted by Jeffrey Botts, November 2007

You want network management software that works for you, not software that makes you work. You wish you could have it… without spending a fortune. Your wish is granted.

Introducing the free Spiceworks IT Desktop. Designed, tested and used by 160,000 IT pros in 185 countries (Michael’s update: Spiceworks is now used by 900,000 IT pros). Spiceworks has the everyday IT features you need:

• Automatic PC and software inventory and IT asset reporting to simplify your job.
• Network monitoring and troubleshooting to keep things running smoothly.
• Run an IT help desk for your company that’s easy to use and join the fastest-growing IT community.

It takes less than 5 minutes to get up and running. No agents. No scripts. No manual. No hassles. Just download Spiceworks and go.

Michael’s update: In addition to the above mentioned functions Spiceworks now also supports:

• Manage IT assets
• Manage changes & configurations
• Map your network
• Audit your software
• Manage power consumption
• Monitor SQL Server
• Be an MSP (Managed Service Provider)
• Talk to IT pros

Spiceworks 4.7 new features and screenshots

• Monitor and manage hosted email (more information)
• Get real-time Windows performance monitoring
• Track Dell warranty expiration dates (tracking for other manufacturers coming soon)

Spiceworks 4.6 new features and screenshots

View & Kill Processes Remotely – See and terminate device processes directly from Spiceworks without having to leave your desk or run your remote control utility

Discover Your Virtualization Servers - Automatically detect VMWare virtualization servers to get a more complete inventory of your virtual machines, along with allocated RAM and hard disk space.

Get (Even) More Out of Your Help Desk – Resize your help desk to see more tickets at once. Get email notifications to see when tickets have been assigned so you avoid duplicating efforts. Customize ticket attributes right from you smart phone or PDA.

Search & Buy CDW Products from the Toolbar* – Increase your purchasing power by searching for and instantly buying CDW products you need without leaving  Spiceworks to open a new browser. (*Only available in North America)

Get More Network Mapping Functionality – View all devices connected to your WAP, spread your network maps across your entire monitor, and locate all devices contained in your network map.

View Alerts Right in Your Spiceworks Toolbar – Pop-up notifications will keep you in the loop, whether it’s info on the latest Spiceworks plugins and reports, newly-added help desk tickets, or the latest Community posts.

Let Intel Help Save You Time & Money – Schedule your Intel vPro machines to remotely boot, suspend, or shut down to conserve power. And with Intel’s new SOL/IDEr Terminal plugin, you’ll have serial over LAN access to remotely boot and control the bios of your vPro enabled PCs.

View & Kill Processes Remotely
Discover Your Virtual Servers
Expand Your IT Help Desk
Help Desk Email Notifications
Customize Tickets On-the-Go
WAP Support for Network Maps
Network Alerts in Spiceworks Toolbar
Search & Buy CDW Products from the Toolbar
Track Power Management Consumption
See More Spiceworks (without Scrolling)
New Featured Plugin: Intel’s SOL/IDEr Terminal

Spiceworks

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Purgos is an agent based, desktop management software that supports remote control of Windows PCs. It uses WMI for software and hardware inventory, and VNC for remote management.

Unfortunately, the original author has recently EOLed the project. But this tool is so useful I had to post it. It works on all current versions of Windows.

Michael’s update:  Just after I published the article the Purgos website disappeared. The successor, Desktop Management Software  3.1, is  no long free and is now sold by Swift Water Software. For the time being the old free version 3.0 can still be downloaded from 4sysops. I can’t make any guarantees!

Here is the description from the (original) Purgos website:

Purgos gives its users complete administrative control over large numbers of computers from a single, easy to use console. Utilizing WMI for computer administration, it has the ability to instantly manage hundreds of NT workstations (Windows 2K3, 2K, XP) and server class operating systems, virtually eliminating the amount of IT work needed to meet the high demands of a thriving business.

Purgos offers a complete solution by providing the ability to:

• Instantly install and manage software applications to any number of computers
• Collect and manipulate real time hardware, software, and system information
• Track the inventory of computers within a network and provide an ownership mechanism Schedule or instantly run detailed reports on a wide range of computer information and configurations
• Remotely control a computer as if physically in front of the computer
• Execute commands, processes, and batch files on any number of computers
• Manage a network of computers both locally or from remote locations

Purgos

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At 1MB, PC Audit is small, and it doesn’t have to be installed. Thus, you can just send it via email to an end user. Because the tool has no whistles and bells, everyone will know immediately how to export the data.

PC Audit can also display product keys of the installed software and also of Windows. However, in my test, the latter only worked on Windows XP but not on Vista and Windows 7. Aside from that, the tool also works fine on the latest Windows version.

PC Audit

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I couldn’t live without this marvelous little tool. Take any machine in any AD domain and it will display a plethora of data about it as well as letting you control services, uninstall software, create scheduled tasks as well run standard stuff like MMC consoles, VNC etc. For such a small application it’s amazing how many features are packed into it.

From the publisher’s site:

ManagePC is an open source .NET application for PC management in Windows environments.

Using ManagePC you can inventory all aspects of PCs on your domain including:

• Hardware
• Services
• Software
• Hot-Fixes
• Processes
• Local Users and Groups
• Group Policies
• Codecs
• ….and much more

Manage PC also lets you take control of PCs through familiar interfaces. Use remote desktop, VNC, reboot, start/stop services, uninstall software and more directly from the ManagePC interface.

Michael’s note: Just in case you wonder how you can launch the tool after you installed it. You have to navigate to its program folder (C:\Program Files\ManagePC) and launch the executable (ManagePC.exe). The author forgot to add a link to the program in the Start Menu).

ManagePC

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Note: You can win a TNI license for an unlimited number of computers. More information is at the end of the article.

TNI’s inventory user interface is mostly for getting information about a specific computer. Thus, you have to switch to the reporting interface if you want to know more about all the assets in your network. TNI has two types of reports: printable reports and tabular reports.

Printable Reports

Printable reports generate lists that itemize one computer after the other with its properties. TNI supports full and brief printable reports. These two types don’t differ with respect to the properties listed. Full reports just offer more details. For example, a full report would include the manufacturer of a CD drive, whereas the brief report only tells you the number of CD drives the computer has.

It is possible to configure which inventory categories are to be included in the list. You just have to choose the categories in the category selection bar and then rebuild the report. For instance, if you want to generate a list of your computers with their system memory properties, it will only cost you two mouse clicks or so. This demonstrates that the reports are an integral part of TNI that helps you get a quick overview of your infrastructure.

Tabular Reports

Printable reports allow you to quickly retrieve specific properties of certain machines in your network. By contrast, tabular reports allow you to compare the properties of multiple machines. The columns are for the inventory properties and the rows for the computers.

TNI supports three tabular report types: Software reports, detailed reports, and custom reports. I already mentioned the software reports in my article about TNI’s inventory features. Once you’ve entered the purchased licenses for each product with TNI’s Software Accounting tool, you can use the software reports to get an overview of the used licenses.

The detailed reports give you an overview of important inventory properties: Installed software, hard disk drives, removable drives, partitions and logical drives, network adapters, and printers. The installed software report is not for licensing but gives you a summary of application properties, such as version numbers, publishers, and install dates. Just to give you another example, the partition and logical drives report lists all computers with the capacities of their disks and their free space.

The detailed reports just cover inventory properties that are of interest for most scenarios. If you need more specific information, you can use TNI’s custom reports. They allow you to create your own tabular reports that can contain all of the inventory properties that interest you.

Tabular reports can be exported to CSV files, so you can process them with any spreadsheet program. There are more export options for printable reports. All in all, TNI supports 14 different exports formats; among them are PDF, XML, HTML, and XLS.

The easy-to-use inventory and reporting system is TNI’s strength. You don’t have to consult its manual to use the tool. You only have to know how to operate a mouse. Furthermore, TNI collects all important software, hardware, and configuration properties of the Windows machines in your network. This makes it a complete inventory solution.

If you want the chance to win a Total Network Inventory license for an unlimited number of computers, worth $1695, please send an email with the subject line “TNI” to:

This contest closes August 27, 2009.

• FREE: EMCO Network Software Scanner – Audit installed programs (0)
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Note: You can win a TNI license for an unlimited number of computers. More information is at the end of the article.

User Interface

TNI’s user interface basically consists of three panes: The Network View on the left-hand side, the main windows in the middle, and the Category Selection on the right-hand side. The toolbar of the Network View allows you to sort computers and to search for computer names or IP addresses. I like that TNI also can show you which computers are currently online. The main window in the middle displays inventory data TNI has collected. You can use the Category Selection to navigate quickly to the inventory categories and properties that interest you.

Inventory Categories

There are three inventory categories: Hardware, Software, and Other Information. Each of these categories has a couple of subcategories and each subcategory is divided into properties. The properties are also structured and quite detailed. For example the “system memory” subcategory offers general information about the computer’s RAM, the paging files actually on disks, the paging files possible to store, and specific information about each memory slot. For the subcategory system memory alone, you have about 20 data fields (see screenshot).

The Software category includes all information about the operating system with installed hotfixes and applications, but also informs you about important settings like autostarting applications, security settings (firewall, automatic updates, etc.). “Other Information” includes environment-variable settings, running processes, services, user accounts, and more. I found that TNI’s inventory capabilities are very comprehensive. I suppose that is where the tool’s name comes from.

Custom Information

If necessary, you can add your own custom information to each computer. The corresponding input mask is quite flexible. It has three tabs: General Information, User Information, and Custom Information. Some of the fields in the General Information tab, like the computer name, or the IP address, can’t be changed. But you can add information, such as the inventory number or the computer’s date of deployment . Under User Information, you can enter data about the owner of the computer and the Custom Information tab allows you to define your own fields.

Software licensing

An important function of any inventory tool is software license management. TNI’s Software Accounting tool lists installed applications with the number of installations. You can assign the number of purchased licenses and attach a comment to each application. Usually, only a fraction of the installed software is relevant for software licensing. Some applications belong to a suite, others are free, and some are part of the operating system. TNI allows you to select the programs for which you have to manage licenses. If you then click on “Run software report”, TNI will present you a list with only the relevant applications. This report will also give you an overview of the available licenses for each application.

If you want the chance to win a Total Network Inventory license for an unlimited number of computers, worth $1,695, please send an email with the subject line “TNI” to:

This contest closes August 27, 2009.

In my next and last post in this series, I will introduce TNI’s reporting capabilities.

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Even if you already have a systems management solution with inventory capabilities, TNI could be useful because it allows you to quickly retrieve very detailed information about the computers in your network without hassle. I tested TNI and liked the tool immediately because of its straightforward user interface. As you have noticed, I am testing many Windows administration tools, and TNI certainly belongs in the click-as-you-go category.

TNI is an inventory solution that supports all Windows versions later than Windows 95. Today, I will describe how TNI gathers information. In my next posts, I will discuss its inventory interface and its reporting capabilities.

TNI supports several ways to scan PCs. It can upload and run the agent automatically, you can run the agent in a login script, it is possible to run the agent manually, and TNI can also scan without agent using Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI).

Agent-based scanning is more reliable, especially if you have the Windows Firewall enabled. It can be a bit tricky to configure it correctly for WMI. Since TNI deploys the agent automatically, it doesn’t cost you extra time. However, in my tests, scanning without agent was always a little faster. Thus, if you find that TNI always reliably retrieves the data you require, you can disable agent deployment. But if you run the agent in a login script, then the scanning time doesn’t matter anyway. The agent will store the inventory data as an XML file on a UNC path from where it will be imported automatically by TNI.

TNI has some nice features that speed up the scan process. You can tell TNI to keep the agent on the hosts once it is uploaded. This reduces the time needed to get the agent operational when you re-scan your network.

Another option is to let TNI ping the hosts before it starts scanning. This speeds things up because the ping timeout usually happens much faster than denial of connection by SMB or RPC protocols. Hence, offline machines won’t slow down scanning if you chose this scanning method.

And last but not least, you can select the scan categories to be retrieved from the hosts. If you only need to know a few specific properties, say installed software and security settings, then TNI will only download this information. This not only speeds up scanning, it also keeps your inventory database slim.

There are two ways of selecting scan categories. You can configure this in the options menu, which means that TNI will use this setting for all its scans. Another way is to choose the properties to be scanned in the Category Selection Bar on the right-hand side (see screenshot) and then click on “Re-scan (fast)” in the toolbar. This latter option is quite useful if you have to quickly retrieve certain information, and don’t want to run a complete scan. You have to enable the multi-category view to be able to use the latter option. Note that this feature doesn’t currently work in the trial version.

It is also possible to scan only specific computers. You can select computers or groups in the Network Overview on the left-hand side. Computers can be grouped by just dragging them to the folders you’ve created. Of course, TNI also allows you to scan IP ranges.

If you want the chance to win a Total Network Inventory license for an unlimited number of computers, worth $1695, please send an email with the subject line “TNI” to:

This contest closes August 27, 2009.

In the next article of this series, I will discuss TNI’s user interface and its software accounting capabilities.

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I already mentioned in my first article that Network Inventory Advisor has two tabs, the Inventory and the Reporting tab. The Inventory tab has four sub tabs: Summary, Software, Hardware, and Alerts. The contents of these sub tabs depend on the selected objects in the assets tree on the left hand side.

If you select the root node, the tabs will contain general information about the complete network. The Summary tab will then give you an overview of all of your assets. It displays the number of machines with their operating systems, the latest alerts, your different networks, and recently added assets. The Software tab lists all of the applications that Network Inventory Advisor has found in your network. You can assign the number of available licenses for each product. If the number of installed instances exceeds the available licenses, you will be informed about it in the Shortage column. The Hardware tab focuses on the most important hardware components, i.e. the CPU types, motherboards, the hard drives, the video adapters, and the peripherals. And finally, the Alerts tab has information about problematic machines in your network; for instance, about computers where Windows Update is disabled or in which no antivirus software is installed.

If you need information about a particular computer, you only have to select its icon in the assets pane on the left hand side. The inventory tabs will display all relevant information about this computer in a clearly arranged manner. What I like is that Network Inventory Advisor organizes the information in collapsible sections (see screenshot), which correspond to the inventory categories. For example, the Software sub tab has six sections: OS information, Hot fixes, Software, Program Files contents (directories and files), Autorun applications, and Security & Protection. The arrangement in sections will prevent you from being overwhelmed by all of the data and it lets you quickly find the information you are seeking. For instance, if you want to find out the last time a computer has been updated, you only have to expand the Security & Protection category.

Network Inventory Advisor creates a snapshot of the inventory database every time you scan your network for new assets. This allows you to access former inventories, which can be useful if you want to figure out what things have been changed in your network. For example, if you deployed an application, you can find out in this way how many machines have had the software successfully installed. You can also use this feature to determine how many computers have been added to your network during the last year.

The Inventory tab is mostly for looking for specific information; for example, whether you have sufficient licenses for the applications in your network, or what peripherals are installed on a particular machine. On the other hand, the reports tab will give you an overview of all of the assets in your network. Network Inventory Advisor comes with six pre-defined reports that allow you to extract the most common information from your inventory database. For example, you can create a inventory by brand or a list of computers with low disk space.

It is also possible to generate custom reports. Network Inventory Advisor supports two different custom report types: Detailed and Tabulator reports. The Detailed reports list one asset after the other and include all of the parameters you specify. The Tabulator reports allow you to generate a table where the rows represent the assets and the columns the configurable parameters. For both report types, you can define what asset groups or individual machines will be included. Reports can be exported in the following formats: HTML, CSV, MS Excel, TSV (tab separated values), MySQL, MS Access, MS SQL, and XML.

Network Inventory Advisor’s strength is certainly its modern user interface. It not only looks good, it is also quite effective. Each feature and its information can be accessed with a minimum of clicks this way.

If you would like to have the chance to win a license for 100 nodes, worth $289, please send an email to

with the subject line ClearApps. The contest closes August 7, 2009.

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The system requirements of this inventory tool are fairly low. It even runs on Windows 95. Of course, it is recommended that you install it on a more modern Windows version. You can’t install Network Inventory Advisor 3.5 on a Mac, but it is possible to include Macs in your inventory.

Network Inventory Advisor is advertised as an agent-free software, but this is not entirely true. What is meant here is that can you work without an agent if you want to and that you don’t have to worry about deploying the agent, in case you decide otherwise. When you scan a remote machine, Network Inventory Advisor will automatically upload and run the agent. The agent then stays on the client (piaagent.exe in system32), but it will be updated whenever you‘re scanning the machine. As the agent has only about 200KB, this won’t affect your bandwidth. If launching the agent fails, the tool will just use Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) to gather the inventory data. You can disable agent-based scanning, but this is not recommenced, since WMI is less reliable than the agent.

It is also possible to deploy the agent via login scripts or to run it manually. The latter is useful for offline nodes. It allows you to copy the inventory data to a USB stick, from which you can then import it to Network Inventory Advisor. If you decide the run the agent through a login script, you can upload the inventory data either to a network share or directly to Network Inventory Advisor. The user interface doesn’t have to be running for this, because Network Inventory Advisor’s service will accept the data.

Running the agent through a login script has the advantage that you don’t need to scan the network to keep your inventory data up-to-date. Especially in large networks, scanning all of the machines can take a while. However, in small networks, the automatic deployment method is more convenient because you don’t have to deal at all with the agent. Since you can schedule scans with Network Inventory Advisor, your inventory data will always be up-to-date, even if you work with the agent-less method.

I think this concept is quite interesting. Most systems management tools either require an agent or manage to work without installing software on the clients. Tools with agents are often more powerful, but it is more time consuming to manage them because you have to take care of another piece of software in your network. Network Inventory Advisor plays in both leagues. Note that there currently is no agent for OS X. Network Inventory Advisor will use SSH to scan Macs.

Network Inventory Advisor has a modern user interface that looks like the one in Office 2007. There are no menus and no toolbars. Instead, there are two tabs that contain ribbons. The Inventory tab offers all the functionality you need for scanning and accessing inventory data. The second tab is for creating reports. The advantage of this ribbon-based user interface is that you learn to use the tool very quickly and you can reach all of the functions with a minimum of mouse clicks. You might have heard that some apps in Windows 7 also have this Office-like interface. I have no doubt that this style will dominate graphical user interfaces for the next years to come. And best of all, it wasn’t invented by Apple.

If you would like to have the chance to win a license for 100 nodes, please send an email to

with the subject line ClearApps. Please, add your name and the name of your organization. The contest closes August 7, 2009.

In my next article I will discuss Network Inventory Advisor’s features.

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XIA Configuration provides a centralised management system for the inventory and technical documentation of your network infrastructure.

The Configuration Client can be deployed as a Windows Service which can then use several methods to detect and document Windows Servers, Windows Workstations, DNS Services, SQL Instances etc.

Reports can be quickly generated for items saving hours that would be required to write the documentation manually.

The information is then sent either automatically via Web Services to the central configuration Server that holds the definitive list of items within the environment or can be stored via XML and uploaded manually if required.

The system has a customisable reporting interface as well as a full Web Services API to allow it to be interrogated and linked to 3rd party applications.

The system can be licensed either FREE which has some limitations on the number of items or per item within the environment.

XIA Configuration Server

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Desktop management/inventory tool with web interface.

From the publisher:

Lansweeper solves these network inventory problems with a simple line in the logon script of each user. The first time somebody logs on at a new computer the computer is automatically scanned and all hardware and software inventory is done.

Features:

• User data, pictures, groups, logon times, …
• All hardware information you could ever need
• All installed software, patches and available licenses
• All computer configuration information
• All windows configuration information
• All Active Directory user and computer details
• All running processes
• Custom registry keys that you specify
• Custom file version and other information
• Internet Explorer addons, bars, BHO’s and activeX controls

Lansweeper

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The focus of LanHelper, however, is not on gathering information about computers, but on basic remote management tasks such as Wake-On-LAN, Remote Shutdown, user and user group management, remote execution, shares and open files management, services control, and user notifications.

LanHelper supports several ways to find computers. You can scan the LAN, scan IP ranges, and scan in domains and workgroups. The tool only finds computers that are currently online. But you can save the list of found computers. It would be nice if LanHelper were able to access Active Directory to gather the computer list.

LanHelper uses the task scheduler to perform tasks remotely. Therefore, the task scheduler service has to be running on the machines you want to manage. This is the default setting in Windows, but some admins disable it for security reasons.

It is possible to perform a certain task on multiple computers. For this, you have to select the machines with the mouse in the scan result by holding the control key. A right-click opens the context menu with all available commands. Selecting a command will bring up a pop-up window with further options. It lists the IP addresses of all selected computers; I would prefer to see computer names here, but it is only possible to change this default setting for the execute command.

In my view, the remote execute feature is the best part of LanHelper. You can specify the credentials which LanHelper will use to logon to the remote machine and you can schedule the execution of the command. The executable has to be available on the remote machine. If it is not yet there, you can tell LanHelper to copy it to system32 of the remote system. Another option is to launch the command via a network share, for example NETLOGON, which can be accessed by all domain computers.

LanHelper comes with several useful predefined commands (see the screenshot for a complete list). For example, you can lock the mouse and the keyboard, logoff the user, or open the CD-ROM drive of the remote computer. The latter could be useful if you want to impress the pretty secretary next door. You can also use LanHelper to send her a message to apologize and to invite her for lunch. I suppose this feature won’t convince your boss to let you buy the tool. But perhaps the fact that you can use LanHelper to reset all local administrator passwords is more convincing.

The users dialog offers four different actions: view, create, delete, membership, reset password. The view command retrieves the user databases from all selected computers. You can then perform user-related tasks on a single computer. The other three actions can be executed on multiple computers. For example, you could create a new user on all computers and assign it to the local administrators group. The other functions of LanHelper work similarly. For instance, the services command allows you to carry out common service-related tasks on multiple machines.

LanHelper works fine on Vista, but some features are not supported: screenshots, lock mouse / keyboard, and send messages. All in all, I find LanHelper a very useful tool. The scripting guys might object that you can do all these tasks with a PowerShell program. But I think a self-written script costs your company a little more than $69.95 if you take into account the time you need to do all the programming yourself.

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AdvancedRemoteInfo (ARI)

ARI has eight panes: Overview, Process, Services, Drivers, Software, Shares, User and Groups. The Overview displays information such as the DNS name, MAC-Address, UP-time, registered owner, logon server, logged on user, and many more. You can also send messages to the user who is logged on. Please check out the screenshot for more.

The process tab lists all processes of the remote machine and enables you to start and end processes remotely. The services pane has the same functionality. Under “Drives” you see all storage media with their size and their available capacity. The software pane displays all installed programs, but not all of them can be uninstalled via ARI. Actually, I didn’t find a program which could be uninstalled. The shares tab allows you to add and delete shares. The last tab shows all users and groups. Unfortunately, you can’t add or delete users here.

ARI also allows you to start a couple of Windows management tools. You can launch Computer Management, initiate a Remote Desktop connection to the last scanned computer, edit its registry and access the event log.

It is also possible to take a screenshot from the remote desktop. However, this only works if you install the screenshot extension on the local computer. I suppose it wasn’t integrated into ARI because of privacy considerations. The user on the remote desktop doesn’t notice if you take a screenshot. Thus, I would be careful about using this feature. Don’t do it without the user’s permission!

Another interesting feature of ARI is its batch mode. It allows you to perform several operations on multiple computers. Computer names can be added manually or imported from a text file. You can send messages to users, shut down and restart computers, and scan computers for information and installed software. The results will be exported to a text file.

ARI has one major downside. It doesn’t support Windows Vista. You can run the tool on Vista, but it will be a bit unstable. You also can scan Vista machines, but ARI will only be able to retrieve limited information. This won’t bother those of you who want to skip Vista anyway. But it is annoying that every time one starts the ARI, it asks you for downloading the latest version even though there is none. However, I really hope that ARI’s author, Matthias Zirngibl, will update the tool again. This review is about version 0.6.5.7

I wonder if there are comparable tools out there that support Vista. If you know of a free one, you can submit it here, leave a comment to this post, or leave me a note via my contact form. I will have a look at it and add it to the 4sysops list of free admin tools. If you have a favorite commercial tool with similar functionality, it would also be nice if you’d share your experience.

AdvancedRemoteInfo

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