PDQ Inventory pulls the hardware, software, updates and configuration of every Windows PC on your network into one console — with no agent installed on the PCs. This guide walks the complete first-time setup in the right order: install, credentials, adding computers, the first scan, and the collections that turn raw data into answers.
Every IT admin knows this scene: the boss asks which PCs still have 4 GB RAM, which machines missed the last security update, or how many copies of an expensive program are installed — and the honest answer is nobody knows, because the record lives in someone's memory or an old spreadsheet. Walking desk to desk and checking manually does not scale beyond a handful of machines. PDQ Inventory fixes this by scanning the whole network from one console. It is agentless: using an administrator account you provide, it connects to each PC, copies a small scan service over the network, collects the data through WMI and other built-in Windows channels, and stores everything in its own database. Set it up once, in the order below, and the inventory keeps itself current.
Download PDQ Inventory only from the official pdq.com website. As shown in the video, PDQ asks for a business email address and gives a 14-day trial with the full feature set — enough time to scan your whole network and judge the tool honestly before paying anything.
Most first-time setup confusion comes from PDQ's three separate accounts. Mixing them up is the number one reason a fresh install appears to "not work".
Before adding a single computer, go to Options → Credentials and add the scan account — a domain account that is a local administrator on your PCs is the cleanest choice in a domain network. In a workgroup, the account must exist as a local admin on the targets, and PDQ also supports LAPS accounts if your environment uses Windows LAPS.
One honest warning: the Test button in the credentials window only checks that the username and password are valid. It does not verify administrator rights. A credential can pass the test and still fail every scan — the scan itself is the real test.
PDQ Inventory gives you three routes, and most admins use more than one:
Start with a small pilot group — one department or one floor — instead of the entire company. Prove the scans work there, then expand. It is far easier to fix credentials for ten PCs than for three hundred.
Select your pilot computers and run the Standard scan profile. It collects the data the video walks through: hardware (processor, RAM, disks, motherboard), operating system, installed applications with versions, Windows updates, Windows services, startup programs and signed-in user information. Custom scan profiles with WMI, PowerShell, Registry and Files & Directories scanners exist for special questions, but the standard profile answers 90 percent of daily questions.
Watch the status column while it runs. A mostly-green list with a few failures is normal on day one — every failed PC is telling you something specific, and the fix order for each error is covered in the companion guide on failed scans.
Raw inventory is a warehouse; Collections are the answers. A collection is a live, filtered list of computers — "PCs with less than 8 GB RAM", "computers missing the latest Chrome" — that updates itself after every scan. PDQ ships a maintained Collection Library of ready-made collections for applications, hardware, operating systems, runtimes and Windows updates, so import those before building your own.
Finish the setup by putting scans on a schedule and saving your first report, so the data stays fresh without you remembering to run anything. From here, the daily work of PDQ Inventory is simply asking it questions.
Installation, network discovery, hardware and software inventory, updates, services and remote tools — the full PDQ Inventory walkthrough, beginner to advanced.
▶️ Watch Full VideoPDQ offers a 14-day trial with full features. After the trial, a limited free mode exists, but the features admins rely on daily — the Collection Library, scheduled scans and reports and multi-console access — are part of the paid licence, which is priced per admin rather than per PC. Check pdq.com for the current split and price before budgeting.
No. It is agentless: the scan account connects to each PC with administrator rights, copies a small scan service over the ADMIN$ share, collects the data, and the console stores it centrally. Nothing permanent is installed on the target computers.
Only when they are reachable — on the office LAN or connected over VPN — at scan time. A laptop that never connects will keep showing its last known data. PDQ's separate cloud product, PDQ Connect, exists for fleets that are mostly remote.