5 replies to this topic

[AllToga]

I would like to see an add-in that would scan the Client PCs and provide a software and hardware inventory of each. Something along the lines of Belarc Advisor (http://www.belarc.co...e_download.html) or System Hound (http://www.systemhound.com/). The add-in would inventory each client PC, and then pop a notification if the hardware or software changes. It may even allow for some PCs to be ignored, or for some types of changes to be ignored (for example, WHS Back up always pops a notification when I add a USB hard drive to the client, even though it's just temporary)

This would allow several things:
1. Provide a hardware profile to indicate what is in the system by name and model number (mobo, ram info, cpu info, optical drive, etc)
2. Provide a notification when a change is made to the hardware
3. Provide a software profile to indicate what is installed on the system
4. Provide a notification when a change is made to the software, like when new software is installed. This could help families to alert when someone is installing silly software.

[TheWiz]

Hey AllToga,

Again this is a pretty cool idea. Note that in order for all that specfic info to be passed, you would need client software for the computers, but this is a very simple/cool/clean concept.

Chris

[AllToga]

Another addition to this would be some sort of License Key monitor / manager. It would be nice if it also collected the license keys for various software packages (the major ones at least), or maybe even have a way to define a key that was used for different programs. I'd really like it if this listing was exportable, maybe a comma separated format?

I think having this license key listing would make key management and re-installs of client PCs a lot easier. No more searching the e-mail archives for license keys.

[AllToga]

This could also make upgrading the PCs easier. If you see a deal on RAM, but have 5 different PCs on your network, you can see which ones need RAM, what the specs of the RAM is, and what will work.

[jmwills]

Just my opinion, but I sometimes think we ask too much of these little boxes. To create an add-in that does all this for such a limited market and be profitable for the creator may not be feasable.

A vbs script can do the same thing, set to be run on a scheduled task and do the reporting required. I manage an SCCM server at work, I do not care to do it at home.

[cskenney]

Just my opinion, but I sometimes think we ask too much of these little boxes. To create an add-in that does all this for such a limited market and be profitable for the creator may not be feasable.

A vbs script can do the same thing, set to be run on a scheduled task and do the reporting required. I manage an SCCM server at work, I do not care to do it at home.

I agree with this point. When I read the post the 1st time I thought it was starting to head to much in the direction of central management for WHS.