How to configure software inventory in Configuration Manager

Applies to: Configuration Manager (current branch)

This procedure configures the default client settings for software inventory and applies to all the computers in your hierarchy. If you want to apply these settings to only some computers, create a custom device client setting and assign it to a collection. For more information about how to create custom device settings, see How to configure client settings.

To configure software inventory

1. In the Configuration Manager console, choose Administration > Client Settings Default Client Settings.

2. On the Home tab, in the Properties group, choose Properties.

3. In the Default Settings dialog box, choose Software Inventory.

4. In the Device Settings list, configure the following values:

   • Enable software inventory on clients - From the drop-down list, select True.

   • Schedule software inventory and file collection schedule - Configures the interval at which clients collect software inventory and files.

5. Configure the client settings that you require. The Software inventory section of the About client settings article has a list of the client settings.

   Client computers will be configured with these settings when they next download client policy. To initiate policy retrieval for a single client, see How to manage clients.

   Tip

   Error code 80041006 in inventoryprovider.log means the WMI provider is out of memory. That is, the memory quota limit for a provider has been hit and inventory provider cannot continue. In this case, the inventory agent creates a report with 0 entries so no inventory items are reported.
   A possible solution for this error would be to reduce the scope of the software inventory collection. In circumstances when the error occurs after limiting the inventory scope, increasing the MemoryPerHost property defined in the _ProviderHostQuotaConfiguration class can provide a solution.

To exclude folders from software inventory

1. Using Notepad.exe, create an empty file named Skpswi.dat.

2. Right-click the Skpswi.dat file and click Properties. In the file properties for the Skpswi.dat file, select the Hidden attribute.

3. Place the Skpswi.dat file at the root of each client hard drive or folder structure that you want to exclude from software inventory.