Archive for the ‘News’ Category

PC Inventory Advisor 3.2.708

Sunday, January 18th, 2009

This minor update was uploaded yesterday. It fixes several critical issues, which were found in builds 628 and 704 uploaded in November and December (one of them reported at our forum, by fgriffith). These were fixed now.

We also updated tabular reports with a new available field (# of local printers) which can be added to your reports now, as well as Macs support, so they are also included in your reports.

Please, download PC Inventory Advisor 3.2.708 manually, as automatic update will not fetch it. Thank you

minor update - Major Improvements

Monday, January 12th, 2009

Jeff is here to let everyone know about the availability of the new version of PC Inventory Advisor. Today, it’s version 3.2.704. We did our best to analyze and take into consideration and further implementation all your feature requests and ideas. And we are here with this minor update with major new features. Yes, even though the version number is still 3.2, the features we added are really wanted and standing out.

Here’s the “what’s new list” for version 3.2.704, top new features in the beginning:

#1 Scanning scheduler with options to e-mail, upload and export multiple network reports

PC Inventoy Advisor - Scanning scheduler

With PC Inventory Advisor you don’t need to go and manually scan remote assets of yours, you don’t need to install anything on remote nodes to get them inventoried, and now you don’t even have to run PC Inventory Advisor! Automate all your inventory tasks once and forever with our hot “Scanning scheduler”. It lets you automate network scanning, reports building, alerts e-mailing, inventory data management and more. See the latest updated release for details.

#2 Custom security software detection mechanism for antiviruses, firewalls and antispyware

PC Inventory Advisor - Custom detection of scurity software

Many of you told us that PC Inventory Advisor does not detect your antivirus, especially antiviruses for servers (Windows 2003 and 2008), where MS Security Center does not exist. We heard you. We are introducing this custom detection mechanism so you no longer receive false alerts on unprotected systems. Our database that detects antiviruses, firewalls and antispyware software titles which do not (or cannot) report to Security Center will be automatically updated from our website, so even the newest editions of your network security software are listed!

#3 SQL & XML export, you can now export SQL scripts for MS SQL / MySQL and MS Access separately

PC Inventory Advisor - export options

Data consistency and exchange within PC Inventory Advisor and your in-house inventory systems are very important to us. And therefore we do our best to offer most requested export options to our clients. Within this release we concentrated on database export. And also enhanced XML and other export formats with snapshots timestamps and additional verifications for database tables existence.

…among the other minor tweaks we implemented, I’d like to highlight the following ones:

  • scanning log is now global and is represented in the bottom panel of the user interface
  • agent utility export is now more transparent and explained
  • tabular reports are now enhanced with “Currently logged on user” field
  • Security & Protection data category in software listing for each asset
  • scanning by IP and PC name internal algorithms
  • export to TSV format
  • complete User Guide (in English)
  • inventory data import status dialog

Thank you for selecting ClearApps as your trusted supplier of network inventory software solution! We’d be glad to hear what you think about our new release. If you have any ideas for new features feel free to request them any time.

PC Inventory Advisor 3.2 - more than expected

Sunday, November 23rd, 2008

After almost half a year without major upgrades, the whole ClearApps team welcome our valued clients and visitors with a new version of PC Inventory Advisor, our premium network inventory solution for small, medium and large networks. One of the key features that we invested most of our time in when preparing this release was _stability_ and …control.

Most of the features which we added were requested directly or inspired by you. And we truly hope you’ll love the new update, and send in even more usage scenarios so we can adapt PC Inventory Advisor to your IT environments and client networks. If you are interested in our future roadmap or have other questions, please, feel free to contact us any time.

What’s hot in PC Inventory Advisor 3.2?

First of all we concentrated on the following top new features:

#1 Tabular reports

Flexible Network Inventory: Custom Tabular Reports

Now you can easily select which data fields you are interested in, and compile your own network inventory reports adding target nodes dynamically. So, with tabular reporting, you will get a flexible dataset collected from the nodes of your interest. It works like the following: first, you select the nodes you would like to see on the list; secondly, you build a list of parameters you are interested in, you can choose among more than 40 software, hardware and other inventory data fields; sort the list; and go!

Pre-defined reports are still in place for fast 1-click inventory reporting. Probably, one of the next updates will feature creating your own pre-defined reports for future references and automation needs.

You probably noticed the new office address, and phone number, please, update your records accordingly, so we still stay in touch and provide only the highest level of services.

#2 Licenses compliance audit

Since version 3.2 “All software” tab in your network summary is also your single place to keep tabs on all the software installed in your network and also monitor the number of licenses you have for each title.

PC Inventory: Software Licenses Compliance Audit

PC Inventory Advisor will automatically calculate licenses shortage or notify you when if not all licenses are used. Additionally we added sorting to this list, so whenever you get the new network summary with PC Inventory Advisor, it’s more convenient and much easier to analyze software usage in your network.

#3 …

Among the rest of new features, I would like to highlight the fact that we fixed more than 100 glitches in reporting and inventory modules, invested hundreds of hours in core stability and also concentrated on the following:

  • sorting of reports on network software and tabular reports
  • improved CSV export
  • resizable scanning dialog
  • new pre-defined report “Inventory by brand”
  • highlighting the nodes with new reports available
  • new export format selection
  • better detection of currently logged on users
  • separated scanning for domain users, so you no longer see hundreds of users in your asset report
  • enhanced troubleshooting
  • RMB-menu in reports
  • enhanced pre-configuration window
  • support of Macs in custom and pre-defined reports
  • categorization of reports on Windows assets, so you can select which data should be collected, and which can be omitted
  • refreshed Reports tab and intro
  • your top feature requests

You can download the latest PC Inventory Advisor right away! …if your automatic update notification hasn’t arrived for any reason.

Plus… we refreshed our website. Talk to you soon. And thanks for staying with ClearApps!

Post-release bug-fix upgrade

Friday, July 4th, 2008

We uploaded PC Inventory Advisor 3.1.518 yesterday. It is mostly a bug-fix recommended update. Here’s what we enhanced:

  • Several random crashes fixed
  • Comma-delimited and semicolon-delimited CSV export improved and is correctly processed now
  • Automatic updater was refreshed a little bit
  • Export into SQL no longer produces empty files (if it still does in your system, please, report this urgently)
  • PC Inventory Advisor now supports working with Central Repository located elsewhere from the admin PC
  • several other enhancements

Thank you for downloading the update ;)

It’s here! Version 3.1 is available: Macs inventory, Export into SQL and more

Wednesday, June 25th, 2008

Yes, PC Inventory Advisor 3.1 hits the stores now. It is the first major upgrade since the release of the 3rd edition of our network inventory solution back in March. Since that time we were attentively listening to our clients’ feedback and were doing our best to implement only the top requested features, still keeping to the main project roadmap which we have in mind. Now, after several closed betas, we are ready to present PC Inventory Advisor 3.1 to the public.

Download the new version now

The major new features which we introduced are:PC Inventory Advisor to scan Macs!

  • Macs inventory: now you can easily inventory Mac OS X computers which are on your network, get all their details on applications and hardware, as well as preferences, network configuration, video and audio settings and even system logs
  • New export format: now you can export your inventory and assets reports directly into SQL, so you can sync your inventory data easily with your database. Additionally, CSV and XML export options are completely re-designed now
  • Logon script scanning: add a special agent call to your Domain Logon Script and inventory all your network assets automatically whenever users logon to the domain, PC Inventory Advisor will automatically notify you when there’s a new asset available for reviewing

More flexibility in scanning options

  • Standalone audit agent export: do you want to track any assets which are not on your network but still in your area of responsibility? And you still want to keep all of them in one convenient place for centralized inventory and reports? Wait no more! Simply export an agent utility directly from your admin PC where PC Inventory Advisor is installed, copy it to your Flash drive or whatever, and run this inventory agent at the target system. That’s it, now you have a special inventory data file which you can easily import into your Assets tree, and have all your assets in one place
  • Central Repository: with the new options for logon or e-mail scanning (or by simply asking all your users to run the inventory agent when they have time), you can collect all the inventory data and import it into your admin copy of PC Inventory Advisor automatically with the help of publicly accessible Central Repository, which can be easily configured in program’s settings
  • Pre-configuration wizard: if you are not familiar with PC Inventory Advisor settings being a first-time user, you will be presented with a very simple pre-config wizard; answering just 3 simple questions, you will help pre-configure software settings to match your network configuration better
  • More data snapshots settings: we introduced 2 new settings to make your experience with going back into your inventory history much more fluent. One is snapshot age, and the other one is snapshots pruning. They will help you prevent constant re-scanning of the assets when you build a report, and will also make sure you are not overwhelmed by the number of data snapshots which you have in your repository for numerous assets which you handle
  • Updated ‘All software’ report: network summaries show you the list of computers you manage, all software installed in your net as well as hardware and more. Now you can easily compare the version and installation date of software titles present in your network to make sure you have theall critical updates on every asset of yours

New report on users on your net

  • New repors on users logged on: now PC Inventory Advisor will show you who is logged on where, and provide you with up to 20 parameters on every user on every PC you manage
  • New Icons: now you can easily visually distinguish your assets, as the icons in the Assets tree now reflect the type of the device (laptop, desktop PC, server, Mac) and notify you when there’s a new inventory snapshot which you haven’t reviewed yet

Is this all? No, of course not. Add several hundres minor glitches and bugs fixed, new ribbon look, extended options in inventory wizard, enriched Settings dialog, new network factsheet, etc, etc, etc… and you will get all new greatly enhanced PC Inventory Advisor 3.1, which is by the way a free upgrade to all current users of version 3.x.

Happy network inventorying and downloading!