Article: Lansweeper Review

Lansweeper is a powerful and highly customizable network inventory solution that will be useful for system and network administrators of any level. The program can collect information about software and hardware installed on remote computers, which helps the administrator to keep an eye on everything that's happening on the network: who is using a particular computer at the moment, what software is being installed, where anti-virus software is not updated or security patches are missing etc. You can create a list of allowed software and let Lansweeper notify you if someone is breaking the company's policy. The program also helps you track license usage for software products, that is, how many copies of a certain program are installed over the network, how many licenses your company purchased for the product and at what price, and so on. Lansweeper includes over 75 different reports based on the collected data, but using SQL queries you can create any type of report that you need. By the means of custom scripts you can extend the program, add your own actions.

There are two versions of Lansweeper. The freeware version includes all the above listed features and doesn't have any limitations. The premium version has a number of additional features, including active scanning, retrieving computer and user details by the means of active directory, scanning for Microsoft product keys (for the backup purpose), remote control over workstations without installing any client software, user-friendly report builder, the capability to take remote screenshots, and so on. These extended features are available for a modest price, comparing to similar products. It is worth of mentioning that the freeware version doesn't contain any spyware, adware or any other type of unwanted software.

All in all, Lansweeper is one of the most flexible network inventory applications. It is fast at scanning, professional in its design, it provides accurate and complete information about remote computers. If you are an administrator and want to be in control of your network, just give it a try.