TrakPC is the auditing program that runs on PCs and sends back hardware and software information to the Asset Management server. For the software, it reads the registry and retrieves the software title that is displayed in Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs. Here are a few examples of software titles:
Adobe Acrobat 5.0
Citrix ICA Client
ENCORE! for Windows
Visio Professional
These are straightforward. You can easily run reports on licensing compliance. Here are other examples of software titles returned by TrakPC:
Microsoft Office 2000 Premium
Microsoft Office 2000 SR-1 Disc Two
Microsoft Office 2000 SR-1 Premium
If you want a report of PCs that have Microsoft Office 2000 installed, regardless of whether it is SR-1, SR-2, or the original release, this is a little more difficult but Asset Management can handle it!
There are two software tables involved with Asset Management -- one contains software titles, such as:
Adobe Acrobat 5.0
Microsoft Office 2000
The other contains the registry entries, such as:
Adobe Acrobat 5.0
Microsoft Office 2000 Premium
Microsoft Office 2000 SR-1 Disc Two
Microsoft Office 2000 SR-1 Premium
Each record in the registry table can be linked back to a record in the software title table. The registry table would then look like:
Registry Description Software Title
Adobe Acrobat 5.0 Adobe Acrobat 5.0
Microsoft Office 2000 Premium Microsoft Office 2000
Microsoft Office 2000 SR-1 Disc Two Microsoft Office 2000
Microsoft Office 2000 SR-1 Premium Microsoft Office 2000
When you enter a software purchase, you indicate a software title. You might record two purchases of Office 2000, one purchase for twenty- five licenses, and another for ten. Suppose you install twenty- three copies, and they show up in the registry as "Microsoft Office 2000 Premium". Then you install eight more copies, and they are named "Microsoft Office 2000 SR-1 Premium". By linking the two different registry descriptions back to the Software Title "Microsoft Office2000", your license compliance report would show something like:
Software Title Purchased Installed Remaining
Microsoft Office 2000 35 31 4
Note that the license compliance report only displays software for which you have recorded purchases. The reason for this is to eliminate software such as hot fixes from showing up on the compliance report.
When searching for asset items, you can search by the registry description or the software title. In the above example, searching on the software title "Microsoft Office 2000" would produce a list of thirty- one PCs. Searching on the registry description "Microsoft Office 2000 SR-1 Premium" would show eight.