Patent ID: 8006242

Claim:
A method implemented at least in part by a computing device for identifying configuration data associated with software, said configuration data being stored in a memory area, said method executed by a processor of the computing device, said method comprising: identifying binary files belonging to the software from the memory area in the computing device, said binary files comprising one or more executable files, said binary files being identified either from an installation log created when the software was installed or from an uninstallation log created when the software was installed; extracting strings from the identified binary files according to a rule, said rule defining requirements associated with the configuration data, said requirements comprising: a sequence of said extracted strings; a string length of said extracted strings; and a terminating character of said extracted strings, said extracted strings identifying configuration data and being inserted into the binary files by a compiler of the software in response to a function call of the software; deducing a set of one or more types of deduced data from the extracted strings by comparing data referenced by the extracted strings with the stored configuration data of the software to determine whether the extracted text strings exist in the memory area; generating a list of strings from the deduced set of one or more types of deduced data, each of the strings in the generated list of strings referring to configuration data in the memory area, said configuration data in said memory area including data associated with an environment to operate the software and including data associated with the computing device where the software is installed; and employing the configuration data identified by each of the strings in the generated list of strings.