Use of SoftInt

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The existence of an exe file on a PC is sufficient proof that the relevant software is loaded on that PC and that a proper licence is therefore required.

You should be aware that there may be other copyrighted software on the PC (eg fonts, music files) that will not be picked up by the program.

The SoftInt program is run as follows.

Although it can be run from a drive located on the PC, for the purposes of the audit it is assumed that it will be run from a floppy disc.

Initialise a floppy disk, by clearing it of other data and then transferring onto it the files softint.exe and softintp.txt.

Insert the floppy disc into the a: drive

From 'My Computer' or Windows NT Explorer (or the START button) call up the contents of the floppy disk by pointing to the a: drive.

You should see at least two files, named softint.exe and softintp.txt. There may be other files with .txt extensions according to the progress of the audit.

Double click on softint.exe After a few minutes it will run and show some windows headed "Software Inventory Data Capture"

There will be a box headed "Starting File Number" which will already have a number in it (probably 1 to begin with, although it will be the next number in the sequence).

Accept this number by clicking the OK box.

In the box headed 'Starting Directory' enter the letter of the drive that you wish to search. This will usually be c: (unless you are searching the network drive, which you would only need to do once for each local network - and would need to ascertain the drive letter from the user or manager). Alternatively you can use the box at the foot of the left hand side, clicking on the arrow to see the available drives and double clicking on the one required. That will give you a directory listing for that drive. If you want to search the whole drive (which you probably do), just click on the drive letter. If you want to search a particular directory click on it. Whatever you select will appear in the 'Starting Directory' box. The programme will only search that particular directory (eg it would not start at C: and work its way to Z:)

[NB Some local drives may be partitioned so you may need to search on drive D and E]

When you have the required directory entered in the 'Starting Directory' click on GO!

In the field "I/D of PC under review" enter any reference that will be meaningful for the audit. If the PC has been given an inventory number (such as CT0064) enter that, or use any reference that will help link the data to the PC (eg receptionpc). Be careful of using punctuation in the name as it may interfere with later analysis.

Press OK

The file consists of a series of records each of two or more lines. The first line of each record is the pathname where the executable program is loaded. (This is the line with several back slashes). Following this there will be one or more lines for the .EXE files found under that path. The numbers following the .exe are firstly, a representation of the date /time the file was created, and secondly the file size in bytes.

(If there are no exe files in the directory the program will list nothing and there will be no message to indicate that no data has been selected)

A file holding this information will automatically be created and held on the a: disk under the name selected above eg 0001.txt

You can start reviewing this data immediately by closing the program (click Close, or the X in the top right corner) then opening the file (named 0001.txt or whatever) by clicking on it.

The file will open in Notepad and can be saved as a Notepad file as it is onto a directory of your choice when you are back in the office. You can also copy part or all of the file and save it as a Word document for later review, printing and formatting

You can scan through the Notepad file by using the sliders or search for a particular word (such as the software being audited) by selecting Find from the Edit tab and keying in the word, eg "EXCEL", into the 'Find What' box then clicking 'Find Next'.

If there are any occurrences the cursor will go to it.

Repeat the above process for the other PCs being audited.

To check which files relate to particular PCs (assuming you have used the "I/D of PC Under Review" for this purpose) click on the 'softintp.txt' file on the floppy disc. This will show two columns. In the first column is the file number (from the "Starting File Number" box); in the second column is the text entered as "I/D of PC Under Review".

Close the file by clicking the X in the top right hand corner.

It will be possible to hold several of the files collected on the same floppy disk. The number will depend on the volume of data collected.

To make the operation more manageable it is suggested that the number be restricted to 9 per disk.

This means that the disks initialised ready for audit can be preset with a non- repeating range of numbers (ie the first starts at 1, the second at 10, 3^rd at 20 etc).

A Whiteley

5 December, 2002

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