Hi there, apologies for the delay with the reply. We are looking for the best way to resolve this and will get back to this post shortly.

Hi Jeff,

No apology necessary.

Many thanks.

NIA isn't differentiating between SQL Server and SQL Server Express instances.

Can you provide a sample of how exactly both software titles are treated in each case?

As for MS Exchange detection, I doubt this can be fixed easily. We could definitely add functionality to manually mark some titles to be skipped from analysis, but that would require many more resources than the benefits we get in return. You can manually remove information about software titles you don't want to appear in the report from the registry of the scanned nodes. If you are interested in this, let me know and we will provide the instructions.

Hi Jeff,

In what form would you like the sample? The difficult part of doing so is that both titles appear to be treated the same in NIA. Do you mean how are they treated in Windows?

It would handy to know how to make the suggested registry changes Jeff - is it safe to take this course of action?

Kind regards,
Ollie

In what form would you like the sample? The difficult part of doing so is that both titles appear to be treated the same in NIA. Do you mean how are they treated in Windows?

Yes,that's what we need. How exactly are both titles that get grouped shown in your local Control Panels -> Add/Remove Software (or Programs and Features)?

It would handy to know how to make the suggested registry changes Jeff - is it safe to take this course of action?

You can go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall at the scanned PC, locate the needed value and change its DisplayName to, say, Unused SQL Server.

Please, let me know if it helps

Hi Jeff,

I've been talking to a colleague who has more experience with SQL Server than do, and it sound as if there is very little to distinguish between a full and Express SQL Server installs in Windows. It may be that this registry change will be handy in this situation also. Does it completely remove the product from detection, or does it just change the name of the software in the associated entry?

If you change its name, it will be just changed at the detection side. If you remove the registry entry, the software will no longer be detected, in theory. And we definitely cannot recommend doing this type of changes in registry (I mean deleting entries).

Hi Jeff,

I suspected as much regarding entry deletions, thanks. Based on your description it sounds like NIA looks at the registry entry and validates it against a pre-defined list of apps before flagging it as present - is that correct?

Ollie

Generally, yes. Present software titles are collected based on uninstallation section of the registry.