Patent ID: 8346752

Claim:
A method of discovering installed software applications, comprising: performing a first software application search on a computer system, creating a first set of discovered software application information; performing a second software application search on the computer system that is different than the first software application search, creating a second set of discovered software application information; merging the first set of discovered software application information and the second set of discovered software application information by: collating the first set of discovered software application information and the second set of discovered software application information into a combined set of discovered software application information, employing a predefined set of rules to reconcile the first and second sets of discovered software application information that refer to similar software applications, creating a merged set of discovered software application information, and removing duplicate information from the combined set of software application information; and storing the merged set of discovered software application information, wherein the first software application search employs an operating system defined interface for obtaining software application information.