If a standard software registration process existed, keeping track of the installed applications and managing licenses would be relatively simple. Unfortunately, this is far from being the case!
To make things more complicated, software recognition depends on various factors which are not only inherent to software applications themselves, but that also depends upon the software distribution context. See things to take into account regarding software recognition
Many inventory programs claim to be able to manage software automatically, without any contextual adaptation. This is an illusion! And it is also easy to prove, since most of these applications use one of the following detection methods:
![]() | MS-Windows-based detection - as you saw in the topic things to take into account regarding software recognition, MS-Windows is absolutely not able to provide reliable information on the installed software. |
![]() | Executable-based recognition - executable files alone cannot always give enough information to allow precise software detection. |
![]() | Software recognition databases - under its appealing aspects, this method hides even more insidious traps. To create a database capable of recognising all software applications as soon as they become available on the market is an impossible task. To understand this, you must consider the incredibly large number of applications and sub-versions that are released annually. This would at least mean buying all software applications, in all languages and all versions. These applications would then need to be installed on all the OS and be applied all service packs and other existing patches! No Software Publisher can make such an investment. Software Recognition databases are always incomplete and systematically obsolete compared to market reality. The main danger of inventory systems that rely on such databases is to mislead the client by giving him the feeling that the system is infallible. The client will then trust a system that reports incomplete and even incorrect information. |
There's no miracle cure to software management problems. If that were the case, everyone would know about it! The solution, however, consists in applying a set of rules taking into account the technical aspects as well as the logical or contextual ones.
Our large experience in the field has led us to the following conclusions:
![]() | Every company has its own way of distributing software. For that reason, software recognition criteria vary from one company to another. That's why it's important to have a software recognition tool that can be adapted to you own context. |
![]() | It is best to invest a few minutes per year in setup and be able to perfectly master software management than to think a magic product will do it for you automatically. This will prevent you from losing time and money in case of doubt. Not to mention the problem that can arise regarding legal aspects related to software piracy. |
![]() | A well designed inventory software can be very helpful and radically ease software and licenses management |
From the beginning, Synexsys Inventory has been developed in this direction, and takes into account every single aspect described on this page.
SXSi eases software management processes while providing the most powerful software recognition tools. Basically, all you have to do is right-click on any collected file name and define the file properties that should be considered for software recognition. If a single file is not enough to ensure that a specific software is installed, you can combine several files and tracers for software recognition.
Synexsys Inventory performs software recognition based on the following criteria:
![]() | Executables or DLL - the executable or DLL files can have up to 15 header properties. All of them can be used by Synexsys Inventory. |
![]() | Files properties - other files can contain up to 4 properties. All of them can be used by Synexsys Inventory. |
![]() | Shortcuts (LNK) - the existence and properties of a shortcut that points to an executable file can play a major role in software recognition, especially when tracking remote applications. |
And also :
![]() | Partial properties - every property can be used as is in software recognition processes or can be modified by diverse substitution operators or characters. For instance, you can set a minimum file size for an EXE file or define part of the installation path to consider an installation on different disks. |
![]() | Software suites - a suite is most of the time a commercial concept more than a technical one. Suites can generally not be detected based on the presence of a single file. Of course, some suites copy specific files to the hard disk when they are installed manually. But those files are virtually never necessary for the suite to work correctly and when those suites are distributed automatically, the specific files that could help identify the suite are very often absent from the distribution package. To solve this problem, SXSi allows combining all the possibilities described above and furthermore, defining the minimum requirements that will make the difference between an individual software and a suite. |