There are two ways of data entry available in the program: manual data entry and importing the hardware descriptions from the reports made by the computer configuration analysis software.

Steps of forming a database:

1. Creation of the database.
2. Filling the operators’ table.
3. Creation of the department structure.
4. Filling other database tables.
5. Generating the computer configuration reports by the AIDA32 or ASTRA software.
6. Importing hardware from the reports to the workstations that were created in the Step 3.

When entering the data manually, you may skip the steps 5 and 6, but you may as well combine the manual entry with the importing.

Of course, filling the database from the reports goes much quicker. Also, the manufacturers’ and the hardware models’ table get filled automatically. In the real life, importing information on one computer to the database from a generated report takes approximately 2-3 minutes. Therefore, within one day a database on the park of computers of a great size may be filled; especially if combined with automatic report generation by AIDA32.

When adding a device to a workstation, the program remembers many data fields (e.g. accounting information) and when entering the next device, the program automatically fills the fields with the remembered data. This speeds up the process of registering hardware purchased altogether in one place.

AIDA32 is a great software for analyzing a computer’s configuration under any version of Windows.

To import hardware information with Hardware Inspector, first – user should generate a report in Russian or English language. Also, you are recommended to include in the report only the sections actually related to the hardware – in order to minimize the size of the report file.

A report can be generated by simply starting the AIDA32 program on the computer, which’s configuration is being analyzed, then, on the menu, select generating the report.
But it is much more simple to generate a report by starting the AIDA32 program located on a local hard drive or on a server from the command line using the following arguments:

AIDA32 /R \\server\share\aida32-reports\report_$DATE\$HOSTNAME_$USERNAME.txt /TEXT /LANGEN /HW

Whereas:
/R \\server\share\aida32-reports\report_$DATE\$HOSTNAME_$USERNAME.txt is the command for the program to generate the report and save it as a file located in the specified folder;
/TEXT - tells the program that the report should be saved as a text file (ASCII);
/LANGEN - the report should be generated in English language;
/HW - include only information that is related to the computer’s hardware.

You may include the report generation call into the system’s login script, so that the report would be generated automatically on all computers or – simply place it to each computer’s Start Up programs group. In any case, the report files should be generated in a specified folder on the server, so that the authorized persons watching the hardware could easily access the files at any time.

Based on the experience, we should notice that rarely AIDA32 does not detect some information (usually, that is information on SPD modules or hard drives). Usually, that is related to operating system’s insufficient hardware access capabilities or to the blockage of the hardware by other processes during querying the devices by AIDA32.

More information on using the AIDA32 software, including the command line arguments – can me found in its manufacturer’s сайте ее изготовителя.

The ASTRA program, on one hand, has a restriction: it works only under DOS and Windows9x that makes it impossible to use the software with other operating systems. On the other hand, however, the program can be easily fit to a single floppy disk and thus placed and started on any number of computers, so that later the generated reports could be saved to a folder on the server for their further processing by Hardware Inspector. It is recommended also that ASTRA program is stored on a boot floppy, which it will start from upon the computer’s boot up.

Below is the list of situations where ASTRA is unavoidable or, at lease, convenient to use:

• Analysis of configuration of computers that are not connected to a network.
• Analysis of configuration of computers that do not have an operating system or even a hard drive installed.
• Analysis of configuration of computers that do not have a Windows-family operating system.
• Analysis of configuration of computers, where for some reasons the AIDA32 program did not detect some information on some components, e.g. – SPD modules.

Reports for importing with Hardware Inspector should always be generated in the RJS format.

To automate the report generation process, you may use the following command line arguments:

ASTRA /RJ [[path\]filename[.ext]] [/Q]

Whereas:
/RJ - tells the program to generate a report in the RJS format;
/Q - skip printing the progress information on the screen;
/nVESA - skip testing for VESA;
/nPNP - skip testing for ISA/PnP;
/nLPT - skip testing for LPT/PnP;
/nSPD - skip testing for SPD;
/nDMI - skip testing for DMI/SMBIOS;
/nSB - skip testing for a sound card.

Detailed information on the ASTRA program can be found in the program’s reference manual included in the program and on the manufacturer’s web site.

For the record keeping purposes, if may be often useful to stick a label with the unit’s profile number on each hardware unit. Those may be regular color stickers that are usually used in department stores and cost very little.

At the first sight, it may seem somewhat redundant, for it looks like it just adds more workload with labeling the hardware; besides, many hardware units already have serial numbers on them. Yet, our clients’ and our experience suggests that labeling the hardware units saves a great amount of time in the future and makes it simpler to keep records on moving the hardware across a number of workstations.

Benefits of labeling hardware:

• Hardware with labels cannot be mixed up.
• Sticker on a hardware unit informs that the unit is registered with the Hardware Inspector’s database.
• Short profile number on the sticker is remembered easier than is the long manufacturer’s serial number.
• Saves time on working with the database. For instance, when searching a hardware unit by the profile number rather than a long and complicated serial number.

In the work process, sometimes it may happen that a part of the company’s equipment is not being used. That may be the equipment sitting in the warehouse, the on-duty support service’s reserve equipment and the out-of-service equipment.

To maintain information on such equipment, one should create the fake departments and workstations. For instance, “Warehouse” or “On-duty Service” or “Out of Service”.

It is reasonable to create the fake departments when there is a substantial amount of miscellaneous hardware. For instance, you can create the department “Warehouse”. The department may have the workstations including: “Monitors”, “Printers”, “System Units”, “Components”, etc. Otherwise, having one workstation may be enough.

The built-in “Administrator” operator is not intended for the every-day database operations. Upon having created a database, you should create a new username for the real administrator (e.g. yourself), which should further be used for the work. The matter is that all operations on the database are being recorded; that makes it possible to find out who exactly has performed a certain action on the database. Using the “Administrator” operator de-personalizes the real person introduced the modifications to the database.

Besides, the “Administrator” operator is a back-up entry point for the case when an administrator’s account’s password has been lost.

Do not forget: right after having created the database, assign a password to the “Administrator” operator, which is absent by default.

Do not forget to back up your database on a regular basis (recommended once per day).

Usually, the database is located on a server; the server software usually includes some utilities for the back-up purposes. It is recommended that you include the database folder to the list of folders being backed up.

This is the program’s main form.

The structure of the form:

The left side of the form has a tree of the organization’s departments and workstations. The final node on the tree (the “leaf”) is a workstation.

Below the departments’ tree, there is the quick-search box for searching a department or workstation. The search starts in the current node and is performed for matching a sub-string in any part of a node name.

The right side of the screen has the current department or workstation’s properties and the tree of the hardware units located within the workstation.

Modifying the trees:

All the trees’ nodes have a context menu, which depends on the node’s type. This menu provides means for editing the trees, generating reports, etc.

Reports:

The reports can be obtained via the toolbar also. Besides, if a workstation is active (highlighted), the report is generated for the workstation. If a workstation’s device is active, the program generates the “Hardware Profile” report.

You may even not need to use this form while working with Hardware Inspector. It is much simpler to launch the hardware import from the departments’ tree’s context menu right from the main form – “Hardware Location in Departments”.

Moreover, we are planning on quitting storing the histories of revisions (reports), which will consequently lead to removing this form from the program.

If you use the program frequently, you may find it helpful to know the program’s hotkeys.

General:

• F1 - Help.
• Ctrl+O - open a database.
• Alt+X - exit from the program.
• F6 - switch to next window (form).

Opening forms:

• Ctrl+W - "Hardware Location in Departments".
• Ctrl+F - "Hardware Search".
• Alt+P - "Database Properties".
• Ctrl+U - "Users Table".
• Ctrl+S - "Sellers Table".
• Ctrl+D - "Manufacturers Table".
• Ctrl+T - "Hardware Types Table".
• Ctrl+M - "Hardware Models Table".

Working with text:

• Ctrl+C, Ctrl+Insert - copy the selected text to clipboard.
• Ctrl+V, Shift+Insert - paste the clipboard’s contents to the cursor position.
• Ctrl+X, Shift+Delete - cut the selected text and copy it to clipboard.
• Ctrl+A - select all text.
• Ctrl+Z - undo the last action.
• Ctrl+R - redo the last action.

Nothing prevents you from installing any number of Hardware Inspector’s copies on one computer. It is especially useful for testing the program’s new beta-versions. The only condition is – the programs must be installed in separate catalogs. Although all the copies can work simultaneously with the same database.

WARNING! You cannot work with different versions of the database structure at the same time. When you open an old-format database with a new version of Hardware Inspector, the program will suggest you to convert the database into the new format. If you proceed with the conversion – the old version of Hardware Inspector will be unable to work with the database!

The events of changing the database structure are told about separately, and they usually happen a just a few times per year, i.e. much less often than the program itself gets updated.

The working database can be located on a local hard drive – if it is not supposed to be accessed by other workstations on the network. For accessing the database from a number of workstations, it is necessary to allocate it on a file server. Hardware Inspector supports simultaneous multi-user operations with one database.
Each database must be stored in a separate catalog.

The program can as well be installed on a server and be run from the workstations. The benefit of such approach is the ease of its maintenance (updates, editing the templates, etc.) The disadvantage is the increase of the program’s load time due to being loaded over the network. The optimum approach is installing a separate copy of the program on each workstation and storing the common database on the server.

For the purposes of easing up the process of registering a new user in the database, you can use the command line arguments that may be defined in the program’s start-up shortcut:

HWINSP.EXE [/Open=<database>] [/UserID=<User ID> [/Psw=[<password>]]]

/Open=<database> - full path to the database being opened (no quotes);
/UserID=<User ID> - connecting the operator with the username to the database. The username can be seen in the Operators’ Table. If the database does not have an operator with the specified UserID – the “/UserID=” key is ignored;
/Psw=<password> - the operator’s password. If the key “/Psw=” does not specify the password – the program considers it a blank password.

Application examples:

1. hwinsp.exe /UserID=1 /Psw=
   Connect to the database that was previously opened as the user "Administrator" with the blank password.
2. hwinsp.exe /UserID=1 /Psw=123
   Connect to the database that was previously opened as the user “Administrator” with the password "123".
3. hwinsp.exe /UserID=1
   Connect to the database that was previously opened as the user “Administrator”. The password is not specified and will be prompted separately.
4. hwinsp.exe /Open=C:\Program Files\Hardware inspector\demodata\russian\hardware.dbc /UserID=1 /Psw=
   Connect to the database C:\Program Files\Hardware inspector\demodata\russian\hardware.dbc as the user “Administrator” with the blank password.