Generating an Application Inventory

  • Article

Applies To: Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2003 with SP1, Windows Server 2003 with SP2

To determine the scope of the project, you need to conduct an inventory of the applications used in your organization. If you do not already have a complete software inventory, gather information about both client and server applications that are installed on your computers. Include limited-use applications for special projects within the organization and nonapproved software that will inevitably be present. By having a complete inventory of the applications used in your organization, you can ensure that an otherwise overlooked application is not incompatible.

Several tools are available for creating a software inventory. The Application Compatibility Analyzer, included in the Windows Application Compatibility Toolkit, gathers data that can make your application compatibility testing project easier and more efficient to implement. You also can use SMS or third-party tools to inventory your software. SMS is a robust systems management tool, which, although not designed specifically for application compatibility projects, provides adequate inventory information for application compatibility testing.

Regardless of which tool you use to generate your software inventory, your inventory should include the following information:

  • The application name, vendor, and version number

  • Service packs or hot fixes that have been applied or are required

  • An evaluation of how critical the application is to the success of your business

  • The target platform for the application and a description of the client/server components

  • The development platform used to create the application

  • Historical data, including any known problems or bugs that were identified in previous testing

Some of this information is gathered by the tool that you use to generate the software inventory. You will need to manually collect any additional information that is required. For information about the type of data that a tool collects, see the documentation for the tool.

Note

  • In addition to generating an inventory of the applications currently in use in your organization, be sure to account for applications that you plan to introduce with the new operating system. Because these applications cannot be inventoried, you need to collect information about them manually.