Agent for collecting information about installed programs on a computer system

Abstract

A standard reporting schema to represent applications and other information on a computer in a hierarchical manner, such as via an XML (extensible markup language) file. An agent or engine is provided to inventory a computer for installed applications or services and to output a report, or log file, conforming to the schema standard. A calculation may be performed on a subset of attributes stored in the log file for an application or a service so as generate a signature representing the subset. The signature may be stored with the log file, and may be accessed quickly in a database to determine whether or not the application is a particular application, or, if more particular resources are defined, to determine more specific information, such as whether the application is a particular version or run of the application.

Description

REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION [0001] This application is a continuation application of U.S. application Ser. No. 10 / 644,264, filed Aug. 20, 2003, and incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0002] The present invention generally relates to computers, and more specifically to collecting information about applications on a computer. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0003] The identification of software applications on a computer is often desirable to communicate the status of the applications on the computer. For example, in a network environment, an administrator may desire to know the identification of software applications on a particular machine, or on multiple machines within the network. The information wanted by the administrator may include, as examples, application compatibility, vendor information, version information, or the like. Assembling such information by hand is often not a viable option, because the volume of the information m...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The invention provides a way to represent applications and information on a computer in a hierarchical manner, using an XML file. An agent or engine is provided to inventory the computer for installed applications or services and output a log file conforming to the schema standard. The log file for each computer can be maintained in a central location and searched or accessed by an administrator or other user. A calculation can be performed on a subset of attributes stored in the log file to generate a signature that can be used to identify specific information about an application or service.

Problems solved by technology

Assembling such information by hand is often not a viable option, because the volume of the information may be prohibitive, and some information, such as version information, may constantly change due to updates or other changes on individual computers within the network.

Moreover, if the information is gathered by an individual and entered into a database, the information may be prone to errors, and a search of the information may not result in all matches for the particular item for which the search is being conducted.

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