Registrations to Open-AudIT forums are now closed. To ask any new questions please visit Opmantek Community Questions.

Open-AudIT

What's on your network?
It is currently Tue Mar 19, 2024 9:25 pm

All times are UTC + 10 hours




Forum locked This topic is locked, you cannot edit posts or make further replies.  [ 9 posts ] 
Author Message
PostPosted: Mon Oct 12, 2009 8:53 pm 
Offline
Newbie

Joined: Sat Sep 19, 2009 12:40 am
Posts: 11
Location: Uk based
Is there a way to include the "last used on" field from add and remove programs.
a client I am working on wants to see if we can look at "Harvesting" licences based on apps not used.

Urgent replies please!

Thanks,

_________________
Loving the System - Hating the problems - Understanding the interfaces between Chairs and Keyboards ARE the problems!


Top
 Profile  
Reply with quote  
PostPosted: Tue Oct 13, 2009 2:55 pm 
Offline
Contributor

Joined: Fri Jul 04, 2008 6:46 am
Posts: 153
Location: USA - WI
Two interesting threads on this ...

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/55552 ... ogram-date
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.comp ... 13a12e1f1a

So, in short, it seems like it's not well documented on how to reliably get the data and even when you get it it may not be all that accurate. I know there are actual software usage agents out there to track software use, as one of the first places I worked at used one and it was actually pretty reliable.

_________________
OA Server: Debian Squeeze w/ Apache2
Auditing: 700 Workstations, 250 or so Retail Terminals, about 75 Servers
OS's: Windows XP/2003/2008/2008 R2/Vista/7, Debian
LDAP: Active Directory 2008 R2


Top
 Profile  
Reply with quote  
PostPosted: Tue Oct 13, 2009 3:40 pm 
Offline
Site Admin
User avatar

Joined: Mon Jun 07, 2004 11:48 am
Posts: 1964
Location: Brisbane, Australia
[quote]I know there are actual software usage agents out there to track software use, as one of the first places I worked at used one and it was actually pretty reliable.


What was the software ?

_________________
Support and Development hours available from [url=https://opmantek.com]Opmantek[/url].
Please consider a purchase to help make Open-AudIT better for everyone.


Top
 Profile  
Reply with quote  
PostPosted: Tue Oct 13, 2009 6:45 pm 
Offline
Moderator
User avatar

Joined: Tue Jan 25, 2005 3:09 am
Posts: 2140
Location: Scotland
I agree that this can be unreliable. Just take a look at your Add/Remove programs if you have any doubts.

Mine thinks I use 7-zip rarely, Open Office rarely, and Eset Anti-virus rarely, when in fact all three are used every day of life. It also says I use Microsoft Office frequently, when in fact I only ever use Outlook ('cos I use Open Office as my default .DOC, XLS and PPT application).

If I relied on this information, it would suggest I should uninstall everything except Office, when in fact this is the one thing I could easily do without.. If I decided to bin Office I can use the company Web Mail, Thunderbirds or Evolution (Yes it also runs on Windows http://www.dipconsultants.com/evolution/features.htm )

Which licensed products are you trying to check?

_________________
Andrew

[size=85]OA Server: Windows XP/ XAMPP, Mandriva/Apache, Ubuntu
Auditing: 300+ Wstns, 20+ Srvrs, Thin clients, Linux boxes, Routers, etc
OS's: Windows XP , W2K Srvr, W2K3 Srvr, W2K8, Vista, Windows 7, Linuxes (and a Mac at home)
LDAP: Active Directory[/size]


Top
 Profile  
Reply with quote  
PostPosted: Wed Oct 14, 2009 4:50 am 
Offline
Contributor

Joined: Fri Jul 04, 2008 6:46 am
Posts: 153
Location: USA - WI
[quote="Mark"][quote]I know there are actual software usage agents out there to track software use, as one of the first places I worked at used one and it was actually pretty reliable.


What was the software ?

It has been so long that I can't begin to remember. I remember that we used Novell Zenworks with the application explorer builtin to the start menu for application management/deployment.

So my guess is it probably tried to detect how often the user launched the application from there, as the apps were all isolated to that location, no desktop shortcuts/start menu entries were created for them on install.

As for as the name of the software though, beats me =/ As reliable as it seemed to be though, every so often it wouldn't report right and we would get people calling wondering why they are missing an application they always use...heh.

_________________
OA Server: Debian Squeeze w/ Apache2
Auditing: 700 Workstations, 250 or so Retail Terminals, about 75 Servers
OS's: Windows XP/2003/2008/2008 R2/Vista/7, Debian
LDAP: Active Directory 2008 R2


Top
 Profile  
Reply with quote  
PostPosted: Wed Oct 14, 2009 12:12 pm 
Offline
Contributor

Joined: Fri Jul 04, 2008 6:46 am
Posts: 153
Location: USA - WI
[quote="A_Hull"]
Mine thinks I use 7-zip rarely, Open Office rarely, and Eset Anti-virus rarely, when in fact all three are used every day of life. It also says I use Microsoft Office frequently, when in fact I only ever use Outlook ('cos I use Open Office as my default .DOC, XLS and PPT application).


I think they had the same guy working on the last used date/time as they did on the copy dialog :D

[img]http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/estimation.png[/img]

_________________
OA Server: Debian Squeeze w/ Apache2
Auditing: 700 Workstations, 250 or so Retail Terminals, about 75 Servers
OS's: Windows XP/2003/2008/2008 R2/Vista/7, Debian
LDAP: Active Directory 2008 R2


Top
 Profile  
Reply with quote  
PostPosted: Thu Nov 12, 2009 2:01 am 
Offline
Newbie

Joined: Sat Sep 19, 2009 12:40 am
Posts: 11
Location: Uk based
Hi,
This particular discussion has cause many a "p.m" between Mark and myself.
infact the MSDN forums clearly state this is a best (although lame) guess.
If an application is launched using the start menu program shortcut, the used date will be registered. but.

Launching a file which is associated with an application (i.e. a .doc or .docx file launches word when being clicked on) doe not register.

Infact additional testing for looking at the "last accessed" field indeed changes the "last Accessed" field as it is interogated.

therefore; if an app isn't used at all, but OA checks for it's last used date, the date would be when it was audited!

I have seen "agent" based software which is supposed to do this, but purchasing a nuber of licences THEN integrating it to OA seems to defeat the object.

So - in short guys, thanks for all of your hard work, but software licence harvesting needs to be done at an agent level (i think!)

Wayne.

_________________
Loving the System - Hating the problems - Understanding the interfaces between Chairs and Keyboards ARE the problems!


Top
 Profile  
Reply with quote  
PostPosted: Thu Nov 12, 2009 11:39 am 
Offline
Site Admin
User avatar

Joined: Mon Jun 07, 2004 11:48 am
Posts: 1964
Location: Brisbane, Australia
Wayne,

What's the name of that software ?
Do you know the vendor's website ?
I want to check this stuff out, and I'll bet that when you REALLY get down to it, they have big caveats and without meeting those strict guidelines, would be just as inaccurate as us (if we were to bother).

_________________
Support and Development hours available from [url=https://opmantek.com]Opmantek[/url].
Please consider a purchase to help make Open-AudIT better for everyone.


Top
 Profile  
Reply with quote  
PostPosted: Mon Jul 16, 2012 10:23 am 
Offline
Newbie

Joined: Sat Jun 23, 2012 3:18 am
Posts: 1
[quote="Mark"]Wayne,

What's the name of that software ?
Do you know the vendor's website ?
I want to check this stuff out, and I'll bet that when you REALLY get down to it, they have big caveats and without meeting those strict guidelines, would be just as inaccurate as us (if we were to bother).


Hi guys,
Did you ever figure out what is the the name of that software that you used before and you couldn't remember the name? I need something reliable, thank you. sorry for my bad english.

_________________
Thank you for your [url=http://www.losangelescaraccidentattorney.co][color=#323D4F]help[/color][/url]. I appreciate it.


Top
 Profile  
Reply with quote  
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Forum locked This topic is locked, you cannot edit posts or make further replies.  [ 9 posts ] 

All times are UTC + 10 hours


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 2 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot post attachments in this forum

Search for:
Jump to:  
Powered by phpBB® Forum Software © phpBB Group