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Configuration

PC-SysInfo supports a lot of configuration settings.

gearwheels.pngThe Button Settings opens an editor to define the configuration settings.

The editor for the individual configuration settings is divided into categories.

Configuration Settings by Category

BIOS
Setting
Default Value
Description
BIOS Information

Defines a lookup table that is used to determine valid BIOS versions. The table consists of three columns: the manufacturer, the model, and the version. The first two columns determine the version number that must match the BIOS version of the computer. Version numbers can be entered in two different ways and are also interpreted in two different ways:


  1. If it is a classic version of type 1.2[.3][.4] PC-SysInfo determines whether the BIOS version of the computer has at least the value of the default version (greater or equal to).
  2. Any other notation of a version, such as V1, R2, 9800, or 1.2 can only be used to verify that the BIOS version of the computer contains exactly this string. If a version V1 is assumed to be a minimum version, but the BIOS version of the computer is V2, the condition is not met because V1 is not equal V2, although the version V2 is more recent than the version V1. In order to avoid misinterpretation, in such cases the version number can be noted as V1|V2|V3.... In this case, several possible versions can be specified by a pipe character | separately. PC-SysInfo then uses the or operator to determine whether the BIOS version of the computer matches one of the specified versions (V2 = V1 or V2 or V3).

Comparisons of strings (manufacturer, model and version numbers of type 2) are performed in this context without case. In addition, a comparison using the equals operator is not applied. Instead PC-SysInfo uses the contains method to determine whether a specified string (e.g. version) occurs within another string (for example, BIOS version).


In order to edit the lookup table, a corresponding editor has been implemented:


bios-version-lookup-table.png


The editor supports importing data using a CSV file without column headings. Each row within the file must consist of three columns separated by a TAB.


The columns must have the following content:


  1. Manufacturer
  2. Model
  3. Version (see also points 1 and 2)

Example:

Dell ⇥ Dell Precision Rack 7920 ⇥ 2.5.4 ↵
Exone ⇥ D3243-S1 ⇥ 1.34.0 ↵
Fujitsu ⇥ IntelliEdge G700 Gateway ⇥ V1|V2|V3 ↵
Getac ⇥ Getac S410 ⇥ R1|R2 ↵
Hewlett-Packard ⇥ HP ZBook 15 G2 ⇥ 1.24 ↵

During the import process, duplicates are detected and eliminated, and version numbers are cleaned up (01.02 becomes 1.2). Invalid entries are ignored. If a warning appears after the import process, please check the result before saving.

BIOS Passwords

Defines the default password for each Hardware. This value is used to determine if the default password has been set.

General
Setting Default Value Description
Event Logging Level Errors

Defines which messages should be written into the Application Event Log.

Logging Level
Full

Defines which messages should be written into the log file (SysInfo.log).

Max Log File Size 8192000

Defines the maximum size in bytes of the log file.

Package Source Folder

Specifies where to copy those files that are required for packaging within a Systems Management environment.

Start Maximized False

Defines, if the application should start in full screen.

Well-known Security Identifiers

A lookup table that contains the SIDs and their official identifiers. This table is used in the context of the Local group memberships. Note that the first column SID contains a regular expression. The column group is only a description that is not evaluated.


WellKnownSIDs.png

Group Memberships
Setting Default Value Description
List of Local Groups

Contains the list of well-known SIDs and the list of groups to be used when determining group memberships. The group list can either be edited manually, or you can add items from the list of well-known SIDs using drag-and-drop. If the list is left blank, the group memberships of all local groups are determined.


LocalGroupList.png

Mobile Broadband Interface
Setting Default Value Description
Provider ID Network List

The provider ID consists of a combination of the following two parts: The Mobile Contry Code (MCC) and the Mobile Network Code (MNC) . At this point a list can be configured to resolve the network by the provider ID, e.g.: 26206 becomes Telekom, 26202 becomes Vodafone D2, 26203 becomes E-Plus etc. Matching pairs of values can be entered or changed by hand. A complete list can be found here.


ProviderIDNetworkList.png


Monitor
Setting Default Value Description

Active Monitos Only

True

Defines, if only active monitors should be displayed.

Ignore Laptop Displays

True

Defines, if laptop displays should be ignored.

Monitor Manufacturer PNP IDs


Contains the new lookup table to get the monitor manufacturers by their PnPID. In order to quickly get an up-to-date list of all PnP IDs, it can be imported directly from uefi.org using the corresponding button.


MonitorPNPIDs.png

Registry
Setting Default Value Description
Byte Array Separator True

Defines the separator between two bytes when reading REG_BINARY values from the registry.

List of Registry Settings

Contains the list of registry values to read.


registry-items.png


Note on the validity of registry values:

Valid characters include lowercase letters (a-z), uppercase letters (A-Z), numbers (0-9), and the underscore character (_) character. A property name ending with (_) is an invalid property name. Property names must start with a letter.

Registry values that do not meet these requirements cannot be inventoried.

String Array Separator True

Defines the separator between two strings when reading REG_MULTI_SZ values from the registry.

Software ID Tags
Setting Default Value Description
Array Separator |

Defines which separator should be used to distinguish original values from an array.

List of Scan Paths %PROGRAMDATA%

Defines a list of paths to search for *.swidtag files. This list can include environment variables.


ScanPaths.png

System
Setting Default Value Description
Enable Main User Discovery False

Defines whether to determine the main user or not. If this feature is turned on, the corresponding watcher is activated and the data is collected in an internal WMI class. If the feature is disabled, the watcher stays disabled and the internal WMI class containing the logon events is deleted.


Logon Event Exclusions Beispiel:
DWM\-+?
UMFD\-+?

Defines a list of logon names which can be excluded by regular expressions.


LogonExclusions.png

Number of Logon Event Days 90

Defines how long logon events should be saved.

Windows Updates
Setting Default Value Description
CAB File Location

Defines the UNC path to the wsusscn2.cab file. This setting will only be used if Use CAB File is True.

Patch Search Criteria IsHidden=0

Defines the search criteria for patches.

Server Location ssDefault

Defines which server should be used.

Use CAB File False

Defines, if the file wsusscn2.cab should be used.

XML
Setting Default Value Description
List of XML Settings

Contains the list of XML values to read.


xml-items.png


PC-SysInfo reads values of attributes and values of nodes by an XPath. Similarly, the XPath must be specified to return values, not the node itself, an example:


The following XML file should be given:


<ParentNode>
	<ChildNode>
		<SearchNode MyAttribute="foo">baa</SearchNode>
	</ChildNode>
</ParentNode>

For the identification of the attribute value foo the following XPath must be used:


/ParentNode/ChildNode/SearchNode/@MyAttribute


If, on the other hand, the value baa of the node is to be read out, the following XPath must be used:


/ParentNode/ChildNode/SearchNode[@MyAttribute]/text()


The column Name contains the column name as it should be stored later within WMI.


Note on the validity of column names:

Valid characters include lowercase letters (a-z), uppercase letters (A-Z), numbers (0-9), and the underscore character (_) character. A property name ending with (_) is an invalid property name. Property names must start with a letter. Column names that do not meet these requirements cannot be inventoried.


The XML File column contains the path and name of the XML file. The path portion can be supplemented by environment variables, which are later resolved accordingly at run time, e.g.:


%LOCALAPPDATA%\Company\Product\Settings.xml


... will be resolved to:


C:\Users\JohnDoe\AppData\Local\Company\Product\Settings.xml

[...] Inventory Settings
Setting Default Value Description
Inventory Enabled True

Defines, if this inventory class should be used.

WMI Class [History]

Defines the name of the current WMI class in which the inventory data should be saved.

WMI Name Space root\smcTeam

Defines the WMI name space which should be used for the current WMI class.

Custom configuration files

PC-SysInfo internally uses the configuration file SysInfoSettings.dat. This file is in the same directory as PC-SysInfo itself. In larger environments, it may be necessary to work with different configuration files. To create these configuration files, the Settings Editor can be used. It has its own controls whose function are described below.

SettingsMenu.png

New.png

New creates a new configuration file with default values.

Open.png

Open opens an existing configuration file.

Save.png

Save saves the current configuration file under the name specified in the status line.

SaveAs.png

Save As saves the current configuration file under a new name. The file extension must be .dat to be later recognized as a configuration file.

Note: Basically, during the execution time of PC-SysInfo, there should be only one configuration file in the current directory to ensure uniqueness. If there are still multiple files, the following selection procedure is used internally:

First, it checks whether a settings file exists that is not called SysInfoSettings.dat. If it is found, it will be used. If not, the default configuration file is used. In short, custom configuration files take precedence over the default configuration file.