Hardware management

But I didn't have the time to write a database to track all the inventory and equipment, so I use a "Home Inventory Manager" that I downloaded online. It's used for insurance purposes so not only does it have a place for Make, Model, S/N etc..it has date purchased,purch price, location, and some empty fields where I can track who I gave it to, and a big space for notes. Reports can be customized easily by different fields. You can also upload a picture of the equipment. Why reinvent the wheel? Hope this helps.

I used to use a program called LanAuditor. It would do a hardware and software inventory of every computer at predefined intervals at login (also things like autoexec, config.sys, win.ini and so forth). It made it easy to see who was adding (or trying to add) programs, made support easy by allowing me to pull up the configuration before going on a call, and made inventory a breeze.

Well, if you are letting these people share laptops, that is going to be tough on you and the equipment. If it is just about asset management, you need to create a small db using Excel, Access or whatever is handy. Get make, model, SN.

Standardize all of your laptops to one image. That way if a system goes down, you can restore the image in a matter of an hour and have the user back online. OR, worst case is you take another system out of inventory, load the image and they are on their way. For updates, use SUS or SMS (if you have the infrastructure) and keep them up to date. Limit the rights the users have on the units so that they are not loading AIM or Pokerstars or Quake.

Lastly, make the users and their managers aware that there is a level of responsibility that goes along with this. If people think the laptop is their personal toy, you are going to get a lot of broken units back.

Good luck.