Useful Windows 'inventory' tool

[Carol Haynes]

Check out http://www.dogkennels.net/filemap/

It is a really simple tool that takes a snapshot file list of three main windows directories and can tell you if files have been added or deleted.

It can be set to run on system boot and warn you if the system directories have changed since last boot.

Interesting if you want to know what is installed in the background during programme installation and/or potential spyware threats hiding in the system folders.

I have to say the user interface is a bit clunky (to many confirmation boxes to click) but the author is aware of that and will probably sort it out some time. Meanwhile it is a useful little utility.

[mouser]

having a good program to list changes in files and registry is important - we need to do a review on this category of tool soon.
i have been unsing ashampoo uninstaller for this purpose, and its quite good at reporting registry and file changes/additions/deletions, but there are probably better tools too.

[AbteriX]

I used "Total Uninstall 2.34" free from http://www.geocities.com/ggmartau/
I know
- Total Uninstall 2.35 shareware from http://www.martau.com/
- InstallWatch Pro 2.5
- InstallSpy 2.0 free from http://www.mjleaver.com/
- InCtrl5 from pcmag


also Regshot FREE from http://the7thlab.mybesthost.com/
and RegSnap Share from http://lastbit.com/regsnap/default.asp
may belong to this theme ?

[mouser]

i keep meaning to try total uninstall, i hear good things about it.

there are some good standalone registry snapshot tools but at this point i think an all in one registry+file snapshot is preferable most of the time.

[AbteriX]

Just FYI

[Darwin]

I use Winalysis 3.0 (it's shareware at http://www.winalysis.com -$55). I purchased a license back when I was running Win2k as I wanted something akin to system restore. I'm still running it under WinXP Pro, but use it primarily to compare snapshots of my system (particularly my registry) rather than as a restore tool, which it is certainly capable of. In fact, it can be configured to create zip files containing files/folders/drives and restore them. You can search through these snapshots and select specific files to restore (rather than being forced to restore everything within the zip file). You can set it up to take automatic snapshots via a scheduler.

This is from the website:

Make compressed Snapshots of local and remote computer configurations. 
Archive Event Logs from multiple machines to a central database.
Restore a system from a snapshot.
Analyze changes and security vulnerabilities.
Generate Alerts when critical events occur.

Apparently, there is a new release of Winalysis on its way, as the developer was receptive to a suggestion that I e-mailed him a few months ago and promised to try to incorporate it into the next version. He didn't give me any sort of a timeline, though.

Anyway, no doubt this goes way beyond the scope of the software that Carol posted about, and it's certainly not free, but I thought I'd mention it anyway...

[zridling]

mouser, you need, I mean need Total Uninstall. As a programmer, you will appreciate its sound design and good performance. Its forum support is excellent, too.

[gekko]

Take a look at:

http://wistinga.sourceforge.net/safarp/

Safarp is a small and fast alternative to the Add or Remove Programs Control Panel applet of Windows 2000/XP. It displays a list of the installed programs and allows one to uninstall / repair them.

Greetings,

gekko

[mouser]

wow safarp looks great, definitely going to try this - nice find!

[Carol Haynes]

SAFARP ... Neat find ... installed for good