Managing Inventory Names
When software is developed, individual files are often identified with the product name and manufacturer name in a header. These properties are displayed when you view the properties of a file in Windows Explorer.
However, the product name and manufacturer name are sometimes misspelled or recorded inconsistently in headers. For example, "Microsoft," "Microsoft Corporation," and "Micorsoft" might all be found in different header blocks yet refer to software created by the same manufacturer - Microsoft Corporation. In SMS, inventory name conversion rules are used to map misspellings or inconsistencies in the inventoried software product or manufacturer names. You can use conversion rules to map the misspelled and inconsistent names to any name you choose.
For example, in SMS Resource Explorer, the manufacturer name is one of the nodes that software is grouped under, so if each variation of one manufacturer was left as is, there could be a lot of nodes for each manufacturer, even though they are essentially the same. The same is true when running queries or reports where software is grouped by manufacturer name. To avoid this, set inventory names.
To set inventory names
Click the Inventory Names tab in the Software Inventory Agent dialog box.
Select either Product or Manufacturer from the Name type.
Select the Display name if the product or manufacturer already has an entry. Otherwise, click the New icon above the Display name list, and then type the name of a product or manufacturer you want the names to be consolidated to.
Click the New icon above the Inventoried names list and then type the name of a product or manufacturer as it would be inventoried. Use "%"as a wildcard in the name where the name might vary by zero or more characters. Use "_" as a wildcard in the name where the name might vary by only a single character.
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