An office runs on devices nobody has counted. Endpoint Central's Inventory module quietly builds the true list — every PC's hardware, every installed program and version, licences, warranty and even USB usage — and keeps it current by itself.
Ask most office owners how many computers they own and you get a guess. Ask what software is installed, which licences are paid for, and whose warranty expired last month — and the guess becomes silence. The Inventory module of ManageEngine Endpoint Central exists to end the guessing. Its agent, already sitting on every managed PC for patching and remote control, also reports the complete hardware and software truth of that machine to one console. This guide walks through what it collects, how to read it, and how the License Manager, prohibited-software list and reports turn raw data into decisions.
Open any computer in the console and the hardware tab reads like the machine's identity card: processor, RAM, hard disk model and free space, BIOS version, network card and MAC address, manufacturer, model and serial number. Nothing is typed by hand — the Endpoint Central agent reads it from the machine itself during its inventory scan. That matters for two reasons. First, the data cannot be faked by a careless spreadsheet entry. Second, hardware changes are noticed: fit extra RAM or swap a disk on a PC, and the next scan quietly updates the record, so the inventory you read next month is the office as it is, not as it was on installation day.
The software tab lists every installed application with its exact version on that PC, and the console can flip the view around: pick a program and see every machine that has it. This is the view that answers real questions in seconds — which PCs still run the old accounting package, who has a browser from two years ago, where did that one licensed copy of a design tool actually get installed. In the video you can see Anshu move between the computer-wise and software-wise views; together they are the two directions every software question travels, and both come from the same scan data.
Below the software inventory sits the feature that pays for the whole module: the License Manager. Here you record what your office has actually bought — how many licences of each paid product the company owns. Endpoint Central then compares that number against what its scans find installed and flags both directions of trouble: over-usage, where more copies are installed than licences owned (a compliance risk), and under-usage, where the office keeps paying for licences nobody uses (wasted money). It also watches licence expiry dates and warns before they lapse. The console cannot know what you bought — that half is your honest data entry — but once entered, the comparison never sleeps.
Three smaller features turn inventory from a list into a watchdog. You can declare a prohibited software list — games, torrent clients, unknown remote tools — and the console alerts you when a scan finds one, and can be configured to remove it. USB device tracking records which removable devices are being plugged into managed PCs, the first place to look when data leaves the building on a pen drive. And alerts can be configured for inventory events themselves: a new device appearing on the network, hardware changing, or software being added or removed. Used with a written office policy, these are hygiene tools; the separate case guide on this page set covers setting them up fairly.
Inventory earns its keep when it leaves the console. Endpoint Central ships with predefined hardware and software inventory reports — computers by age, by manufacturer, by memory, low-disk-space machines, expiring warranties — and any of them can be exported to PDF or CSV or scheduled to arrive by email. A monthly exported report is what the owner reads, what the refresh budget is built from, and what a licence audit gets answered with. The rest of this page set takes each of these areas — freshness, licences, warranty, prohibited software, blind spots and audit proof — one at a time.
See every screen from this guide live in the video — hardware inventory, software inventory, the License Manager and the alerts, on a real Endpoint Central console.
▶️ Watch Full VideoNo. The same Endpoint Central agent that handles patching and remote control also performs the inventory scans and reports hardware and software data to the console. If a PC is managed, it can be inventoried.
Processor, RAM, hard disk details and free space, BIOS version, network card and MAC address, manufacturer, model and serial number, and the operating system — all read automatically from the machine during scans.
Yes, through the License Manager — but only after you enter how many licences you own. It then compares purchased vs installed and flags over-usage, under-usage and upcoming licence expiries.