Method and system for collecting information about applications on a computer system

• US 20050044057A1
• Filed: 08/20/2003
• Published: 02/24/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 08/20/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Stephens, Maoni, Bluvshteyn, Vadim, Heinz, Steven S., Carroll, Mark S., Munsil, Donald J., Sciacqua, Michael, Lupu, Corneliu
• Granted Patent: US 7,529,775 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/60 Software deployment

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.

Claims