During software inventory, manufacturer names and product names are retrieved from the header information of files installed on clients in the site. Because these names are not always standardized in the file header information, when you view software inventory information in Resource Explorer or run queries, different versions of the same manufacturer or product name can sometimes appear.

Use this procedure to identify whether there are variations of a manufacturer or product name, and to change those variations to a single, consistent display name.

Note
You must have Modify permissions for the Site security object class or instance to perform this procedure. Also, you should configure and collect software inventory at least once so that you can view this information in Resource Explorer.

To set display names for inventoried products

  1. In the Configuration Manager console, select a client and start Resource Explorer.

  2. In the left pane of the Resource Explorer console, expand Software, and then expand Product Details.

  3. Under Product Details, review the list of manufacturer names. Note whether there are different versions of the same manufacturer name and whether you want to change these variations to a single, consistent display name.

  4. For each manufacturer, click the manufacturer name to view the inventoried names of files or software products. Note whether there are slightly different versions of the same product name.

  5. In the Configuration Manager console, navigate to System Center Configuration Manager / Site Database / Site Management / <site code> - <site name> / Site Settings / Client Agents.

  6. In the results pane, right-click Software Inventory Client Agent, and then click Properties.

  7. In the Software Inventory Client Agent Properties dialog box, click the Inventory Names tab.

  8. Complete the settings in this tab to define the manufacturer and product names to display in software inventory reports or queries. Specify the display names you want to use, and then specify the inventoried names you want to change to the display name. The display names that you specify in this tab will then appear in Resource Explorer instead of the original inventoried names.

    Note
    If a file name contains the % character, it is replaced with a blank space.

See Also