Patent ID: 6976068

Claim:
A method to facilitate software management by applying network address-sorting rules on a hierarchical directory structure, comprising: creating the hierarchical directory structure, wherein the hierarchical directory structure reflects a logical coupling among a plurality of computers; sorting the hierarchical directory structure based on network address of constituent computers of the plurality of computers; establishing a software policy at root level of the hierarchical directory structure and a modifier for the software policy at a subordinate level of the hierarchical directory structure; inheriting the software policy at a computer within the hierarchical directory structure, where inheriting comprises inheriting the modifier for the software policy; compiling the software policy at the computer by applying the modifier for the software policy to the software policy to produce a modified software policy for the computer; and managing virus scan policies associated with the computer where managing comprises managing software on the computer using the modified software policy; wherein sorting the hierarchical directory structure based on network addresses of constituent computers includes first applying a sub-net mask to the network addresses.