SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR SOFTWARE USAGE DISCOVERY

• US 20100057905A1
• Filed: 09/02/2009
• Published: 03/04/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/02/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Belarc, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Belarc, Inc.
• Inventors: Enscoe, Christopher J., Newman, Gary H.
• Granted Patent: US 8,473,607 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/302 where the computing system component is a software system
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3051 Monitoring arrangements for monitoring the configuration of the computing system or of the computing system component, e.g. monitoring the presence of processing resources, peripherals, I/O links, software programs verification or detection of system hardware configuration G06F11/2247
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3055 Monitoring arrangements for monitoring the status of the computing system or of the computing system component, e.g. monitoring if the computing system is on, off, available, not available error or fault processing without redundancy G06F11/0703; error detection or correction by redundancy in data representation G06F11/08; error detection or correction by redundancy in operation G06F11/14; error detection or correction by redundancy in hardware G06F11/16
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/323 Visualisation of programs or trace data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3476 Data logging G06F11/14, G06F11/2205 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3495 for systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/865 Monitoring of software

Abstract

A method of obtaining information about usage of application executable files and associated software program in a network of computers or on an individual computer is provided. The method involves collecting information about last use of software programs, and associated executable files, on a computer or a set of managed computers from various resources on the computers. The information that is collected includes file name, directory, date and time the executable was last started, a security identifier of the last user, the method of last use, whether the executable was found to be running at the time it was found, and whether the executable is registered to run as a service. From this information, a list is generated regarding software items, and the list is merged such that a given executable has a single software item on the list. Reports are produced detailing information about one or more software items on the list. The reports may be displayed in a graphic user interface designed for that purpose.

Claims

1. A method of obtaining information about software usage in a network of computers, comprising:

in a network of computers that are in communication with a server, collecting information, at a given client computer, about executables installed on a computer in the network of computers, by;

generating one or more software items for each executable that includes a method of last use and one or more of the following;

1. file name,

2. directory,

3. date and time the executable was last started,

4. security identifier of the last user,

5. whether the executable was found to be running at the time it was found, and

6. whether the executable is registered and run as a service,

generating a list of software items containing usage data for executables found on the computer;

merging the information on the list so that a one software item for a given executable appears on the list; and

including information from the one software item on the list for each executable in a computer profile for that computer; and

collecting the computer profile data from respective computers in the network of computers;

storing computer profile data in an associated database; and

producing reports about executables, software programs comprised of one or more executables, or both, from the data stored in the database comprised of one or more executables.

2. The method as defined in claim 1 wherein determining the method of last use comprises retrieving a last access time maintained by a file system running on the given computer.

3. The method as defined in claim 1 wherein determining a method of last use comprises:

opening an application'"'"'s executable file by at least one of the following;

opening a document file associated with an executable;

typing an application name into a “

Run”

menu,

starting an application from its Windows®

Start Menu shortcut; and

extracting usage information including at least one of date and time the executable was launched, a cumulative count of the number of times the executable has been launched, and the user who launched the executable.

4. The method as defined in claim 1 wherein determining the method of last use comprises opening a Windows®

Pre-fetch folder and extracting a file path of the executable and a time stamp showing when the executable began execution.

5. The method as defined in claim 1 wherein determining the method of last use comprises querying the file system for information about currently running processes.

6. The method as defined in claim 5 further comprising determining at least one of the process owner and the actual start time of one or more running applications.

7. The method as defined in claim 1 wherein determining the method of last use comprises searching for applications that start running automatically when a user logs on to the computer.

8. The method as defined in claim 1 wherein the merging process comprises comparing two software items having the same file path in accordance with one or more of the following:

1. when an executable has a method of determining last use that is based upon last access time, and the other executable does not have such a method of determining last use, then discarding from the list the executable that has the method of determining last use that is based upon last access time, and retaining the other item;

2. otherwise, if the difference between the last use times of the two software items is greater than a predetermined threshold, then discarding the software item with the earlier time and retaining the other item;

3. otherwise, when the difference is less than or equal to the predetermined threshold, then discarding the software item that has no last user value and retain the software item with a valid last user value;

4. when a discarded software item has an IsRunning flag set, then transferring that flag to a retained software item;

5. when a discarded software item has an IsService flag set, then transferring that flag to the retained software item.

9. The method as defined in claim 1 further comprising producing reports setting forth information about one or more selected executables, software programs that are comprised of one or more of the executables, or both.

10. The method as defined in claim 1 wherein

producing reports setting forth information about executables and/or software applications includes producing reports that include usage information for all or a subset of computers in the network.

11. A system for managing a set of computers in a network of computers, comprising

a plurality of client computers and a server;

one or more client computers embodying program instructions for determining the usage of installed executables using a plurality of methods of last use to create a respective software item describing executables that are components of software programs, the client computers uploading the software items to the server;

a software module embodying program instructions for performing a merge of the software items that relate to the same executable and producing a list of software items that includes one software item for a given executable;

the server, in communicating relationship with the client computers, embodying program instructions relating to collecting the usage information associated with the respective client computers;

producing reports regarding usage of executables and software programs comprised of executables or both that are installed on one or more of the client computers.

a computer information database in which selected information about software usage in the system is stored in one or more database records.

12. The system as defined in claim 11 further comprising a server producing reports based upon the database records which reports include information about one or more of usage of executables, software programs comprising executables, versions thereof, users thereof, and frequency of use of given executables, software programs or both.

13. The system as defined in claim 11 wherein the client computers are grouped based upon computer grouping criteria that are selected from information in the database, and the reports are produced for the computers within a given group and subgroups thereof.

14. The system as defined in claim 13 wherein said groups are based upon primary and secondary criteria.

15. The system as defined in claim 11 wherein the software module operates within a given client computer, and uploads the list to the server.

16. The system as defined in claim 11 wherein the software module operates within the server.

17. The system as defined in claim 11 wherein said graphic user interface comprises a display of software versions of a particular software program that are being used in the client computers or an individual computer, and at least one of the computers upon which the item being displayed, at least one of a date of last use of the software items, and the last user.

18. The system as defined in claim 11 wherein said graphic user interface comprises a depiction of a list of computers that are using a particular version of software.

19. The system as defined in claim 11 wherein said graphic user interface comprises a depiction of the installed software on a particular computer and the date each program was last used by the computer.

20. The system as defined in claim 11 wherein said graphic user interface comprises an install directory for a particular software program on a specific computer and at least one of a path name for each software item, the name of the software item, the version number, the filename and size, the date of last use and the identity of the last user.

21. The system as defined in claim 11 wherein said graphic user interface comprises a list of software programs and the version of each and an indication of the recency of use of the software item.

22. The method as defined in claim 21 wherein said graphic user interface includes an information box providing further details about a software program selected by the user.

23. The method as defined in claim 11 further comprising a computer workstation for administration of the client computers which monitors the usage of one or more executables, software programs or both on one or more selected client computers in the network of computers and at which said reports can be visually displayed in a graphic user interface for inspection by a user.

24. A method of obtaining information about software usage in a stand alone computer, comprising:

collecting information, at a computer, about one or more software application executable files installed on the computer;

generating one or more software items for each software executable that includes a method of last use and one or more of the following;

1. file name;

2. directory;

3. date and time the executable was last started;

4. security identifier of the last user;

5. whether the executable was found to be running at the time it was found; and

6. whether the executable is registered and run as a service.

generating, a list of software items containing usage data for executables found on the computer;

merging the information on the list so that one software item for a given executable appears on the list; and

producing a report detailing information about one or more software items on the list.

25. A system for managing a computer, comprising:

a computer memory embodying the computer program instructions for monitoring the usage of installed executables on the computer, including at least one of;

collecting information, at the computer, about one or more executables installed on the computer;

generating for a given executable, one or more software items that each include a method of last use and one or more of the following;

file name;

directory;

date and time the executable was last started;

security identifier of the last user;

whether the executable was found to be running at the time it was found; and

whether the executable is registered and run as a service; and

a computer workstation for administration of the system which monitors one or more executables, that are installed on the computer, to determine usage of the executables, software programs comprised of the executables, or both, and producing reports relating to the collected usage information.

26. The system for managing a computer as defined in claim 25 wherein reports are visually displayed in a graphic user interface for inspection by a user.

27. A database management system, comprising:

a network of client computers and a server;

one or more client computers embodying program instructions for determining the usage of executables on one or more of the client computers using a plurality of methods of last use, creating unique software items describing the executables and including the software items in computer profile data; and

a server in communicating relationship with the client computers, the server embodying program instructions for collecting the computer profile data in a computer information database and producing records relating to the information contained in the software items, producing reports regarding usage of executables installed on one or more of the client computers.

28. A method for discovering software usage, comprising:

collecting data about usage of executables from a number of sources within the memory of one or more computers, including data collected using a variety of different methods;

generating a software item for each executable determined by each of such methods that were used to locate each application executable file that is discovered on one or more computers;

sorting the software items into a list;

merging the list including

applying multiple queries to items on the list that refer to the same file path to determine whether a duplicate software item is found for a given application executable file;

when a duplication is found, transferring desired data from the duplicate item to a retained item and discarding the duplicate item;

combining the data to produce a list of retained software items that include the best usage information about each executable that is installed on that computer; and

storing the information contained in the retained software items as one or more records in an associated database.

29. The method as defined in claim 28 further comprising

at an associated server, generating one or more reports from the records relating to one or more of the computers as requested by an administrator.