Method and system for collecting information about applications on a computer system
First Claim
1. A computer-implemented method of collecting and storing information about the programs installed on and the services provided by a computer for subsequent retrieval, comprising:
- (a) extracting from the computer information including, but not limited to, information about the computer operating system, hardware, and processor and storing the system information in a log file in a standardized language;
(b) extracting from the computer executables information including, but not limited to, information about executables included in a defined set of folders stored on the computer and executables associated with services provided by the computer;
(c) for each executable whose information is extracted, determining if the executable is associated with the operating system, and if it is determined that the executable is not associated with the operating system, storing information about the executable in the log file, the stored executable information including attributes determined by the executables, each executable including a plurality of associated attributes, the attributes including at least one attribute, other than a version number, in the standardized language;
(d) extracting from the computer information regarding the application programs installed on the computer including linked executables and storing the application program information in the log file in a standardized language, the application program information including attributes determined by the application programs including the linked executables; and
(e) deriving a signature for each of the executables, the signature being based on more than one of the plurality of attributes associated with the related executable and storing the resultant signatures in the log file in the standardized language.
3 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
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.
45 Citations
22 Claims
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1. A computer-implemented method of collecting and storing information about the programs installed on and the services provided by a computer for subsequent retrieval, comprising:
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(a) extracting from the computer information including, but not limited to, information about the computer operating system, hardware, and processor and storing the system information in a log file in a standardized language; (b) extracting from the computer executables information including, but not limited to, information about executables included in a defined set of folders stored on the computer and executables associated with services provided by the computer; (c) for each executable whose information is extracted, determining if the executable is associated with the operating system, and if it is determined that the executable is not associated with the operating system, storing information about the executable in the log file, the stored executable information including attributes determined by the executables, each executable including a plurality of associated attributes, the attributes including at least one attribute, other than a version number, in the standardized language; (d) extracting from the computer information regarding the application programs installed on the computer including linked executables and storing the application program information in the log file in a standardized language, the application program information including attributes determined by the application programs including the linked executables; and (e) deriving a signature for each of the executables, the signature being based on more than one of the plurality of attributes associated with the related executable and storing the resultant signatures in the log file in the standardized language. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. A computer-implemented method of collecting and storing information about the applications installed on and the services provided by a computer for subsequent retrieval, comprising:
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(a) extracting from the computer executables information; (b) for each executable, determining if the executable is associated with a computer operating system; and (c) for each executable not associated with the operating system; (i) enumerating each executable associated with each application of a plurality of applications installed on the computer and each service of a plurality of services provided by the computer that has an associated executable; (ii) extracting information about the executable, the information including a plurality of attributes associated with the executable, the attributes including at least one attribute other than a version number, and storing the information in a log file in a standardized language; and (iii) deriving a signature from a combined set of attributes, the combined set of attributes including at least two of the attributes associated with the related executable and storing the signature in the log file in a standardized language. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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21. A computer-readable storage medium having computer executable components for collecting information about one or more applications on a computer, comprising:
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a selection component configured to select the most reliable source for obtaining information regarding attributes about an application on the computer and cause the collection component to retrieve the particular attributes from the most reliable source; a collection component operable to; extract from the computer information including the computer operating system, hardware, and processor and storing the system information in a log file in a standardized language; for each executable on the computer, determining if the executable is associated with the operating system; if the executable is not associated with the operating system, the collection component is further configured to generate a signature based on a set of attributes that are unique to the executable obtained from the source identified by the selection component; wherein to generate a signature based on a set of attributes that are unique to the executable includes enumerating through a plurality of files to identify each executable that is linked to the application; and a compatibility component configured to compare signatures of each executable obtained by the collection component to a compatibility database and determine whether an incompatibility exists between two or more applications installed on the computer based on the result of the signature comparison. - View Dependent Claims (22)
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Specification