SiteKeeper Tech.-Info

Sitekeeper 3.0 even easier to use than Sitekeeper 2.5 with Revamped GUI

Among the New Features, you will find...

• View and manage hundreds or thousands of systems as Active Directory objects and/or as Logical Groups and/or by Domains and Machines.


• Quick Filtering allows you to drill down to the data you're looking for with a couple of mouse clicks.


• Faster system scanning


• New "Set It and Forget It" Task Manager schedules an unlimited number of software deployment and system scanning tasks.


• Enhanced License Tracking Database helps you easily maintain a detailed audit trail for license compliance.


• Systems Scans are automatically saved to help you track changes.

November 2002 Executive Software's SiteKeeper promises to do three things: track software inventory across the network, track software license usage, and push Windows 2000 and XP logo-compliant software across the network. I've been working with SiteKeeper for about six months; I must say that, over that time, it has evolved into quite a powerful product. SiteKeeper can now be used to monitor and manage target computers running Windows NT 4.0, Win2K, Windows XP, Windows 98 and Windows Me, with support coming later this year for Windows 95 systems.

After an easy installation, you complete a two-step setup process to get to work. Although SiteKeeper makes use of SQL Server 7.0 or SQL Server 2000, you can also install the Microsoft Desktop Engine (MSDE). It took about 10 minutes to configure SiteKeeper and get it to work.

The only anomaly is that you need to restart the machine that SiteKeeper is installed on after installing the MSDE. This interrupts the Specify Database Wizard process, so you'll need to rerun it to finish the configuration of the SiteKeeper database. Failure to do so will prevent you from being able to use SiteKeeper.

The only other real caveat comes into play when you're using SiteKeeper to work with Windows 98 or Windows Me computers: You'll need to install the SiteKeeper Agent on these computers before scanning them or attempting to push software to them across the network.

Figure 1 shows the output you can expect to receive if you attempt to work with these legacy clients without installing the SiteKeeper Agent.