Using Systemhound without "installing" the software

[RAL]

We have some "clean" lab. machines which need auditing where the installation directly from the server or locally on the client is not permitted due to the numerous registry modifications which are made. Is it possible to simply copy the SH files onto the machine and just create the systemhound registry key ?  

If yes, is there any way of manually determining the appropriate values for machine_id and machine_id2 and what do I have to do on the server when everything is in place ?

We only want to do a snapshot audit so the sceduling aspect is not important.

Many thanks for you support

[Nish]

To do a one-off audit in the scenario you explain above, do the following:

Firstly, you'll need to generate some unique GUID's (machine id's).

Install systemhound onto a machine where you have normal access and install rights. Install only using setup.exe/systemhound_3103.exe. Choose the User Machine option when prompted.

Once installed, export the machine_id and machine_id2 keys from HKLM\SOFTWARE\systemhound. (This machine will report to the SH server immediately, but don't worry about this).

Now copy the systemhound folder from Program Files\systemhound over to your 'clean' machine. Import the registry keys from the other machine. Map a drive to the SH server and run shrefresh.exe from systemhound\utils. This machine will now send its details to the server.

Now uninstall systemhound from the other machine (using Add/Remove Programs), and carry out the above process again for each of your 'clean' machines