During software inventory, the Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 software inventory client agent retrieves information from files installed on clients. File information, including the names of the manufacturers that produced the files and the names of the files (or software products) themselves is inventoried. After file data is collected, you can view the software inventory for a client using Resource Explorer. For more information about Resource Explorer, see About Resource Explorer.

Because manufacturer and product names are retrieved from file header information, any inconsistencies in the way these names are entered in the header information will also appear in Resource Explorer and in any query results based on inventoried file display names. Such inconsistencies can make it more difficult to read and query against software inventory information because the data appears under multiple manufacturer or product names rather than under a single name.

To resolve this problem, you can set display names for inventoried products on the inventoried names tab of the software inventory client agent tab. For more information about the inventoried names tab of the software inventory client agent properties, see Software Inventory Client Agent Properties: Inventory Names Tab. For example, you can change variations of a manufacturer name to a single display name as follows:

Change these inventoried names	To this display name
Northwind Traders	Northwind Traders, Inc.
Northwind Traders Inc	Northwind Traders, Inc.
Northwind traders inc	Northwind Traders, Inc.

When you refresh the view of software inventory in Resource Explorer you will see the manufacturer name "Northwind Traders, Inc." instead of the three variations of this name. You will also see this manufacturer name when you run queries.

See Also

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