Network Auditing Software: Systemhound Easy Audit 

Some key issues an IT manager faces are managing license agreements, software versions, hardware-upgrades and removing illegal appli- cations. Systemhound aims to minimize many of these issues by giving a comprehensive inventory of all software and hardware on the network in a simple Web-based format. The software works for almost all Windows OSs, uses the client-server architecture and is easy to install and use. You need to install the software plug-in on every desktop, which you can do remotely, automatically or manually. Once the plug-in is installed, the clients communicate with the Systemhound server at a frequency that you can adjust. It could be in hours or days and can even be set uniquely for each OS. 

The software lets you generate reports about all the hardware and software on the network. There's a third option that detects whether any changes in the software and hardware have taken place. On the hardware front, it gives hardware information about every machine, including CPU and RAM size, and even generates charts for the same. This can be done for all the machines combined. It can also track all software installed on every machine and give information such as product name, manufacturer and the number of copies installed. There are options available by which the software report can be generated according to the manufacturer, license version, Windows service, etc. Reports can also be generated according to software or application. Sometimes it's also possible that some software or application isn't detected on a client machine. For this, the client machine needs to be scanned using a utility called shscan.exe. The output for this is saved in a file and then mapped to the server using the custom software tool option. Since the software report can be fairly elaborate, you have the option of hiding the ones you don't want to see in a report. For instance, it identifies all services running on a system, all applications listed in Program Files and all applications it finds in the registry. This list can be long and you may not want to view the entire thing in a report. You can also hide the clients you don't want to view in a report. All information generated by Systemhound can also be exported to Excel for further analysis.

Systemhound gives detailed reports on all software and hardware on your network

The bottom line: A useful software for making an inventory of all the Windows machines on your network. 

Sushil Oswal