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Frequently Asked Questions

  1. What goals does the SWID Tags Generator Maven Plugin offer?
  2. Does the SWID file need a special program to read it?
  3. What kind of information will these tags give me?
  4. Where are SWID Tags located on a system?
  5. Which customers do you think will see the most benefit from these tags?
  6. Do all SAM providers and deployment vendors support reading and reporting the Software ID tags?
  7. What’s the different between ISO/IEC 19770-1 and ISO/IEC 19970-2?
  8. Where can I get a complete copy of this standard?
  9. Where can I find more info about Software ID tags?
What goals does the SWID Tags Generator Maven Plugin offer?

The plugin offers the swid:generate goal for generating SoftWare IDentification (SWID) Tags based on the Maven POM.

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Does the SWID file need a special program to read it?

No. The .swidtag XML file is human readable and can be opened in a Text or XML editor.

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What kind of information will these tags give me?

These SoftWare IDentification tags are simply small XML data files that are installed with the software. They contain the following mandatory data elements: Entitlement Required (yes/no), Product Title, Product Version, Software Creator, Software Licensor, Tag Creator, and Unique Software Identifier.

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Where are SWID Tags located on a system?

The location of .swidtag tag files is platform specific:

  • Windows XP: %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Application Data\<regid>
  • Windows Vista & Windows 7, 8: %PROGRAMDATA%\<regid>
  • Mac OS: /Library/Application Support/<regid>
  • UNIX flavours and Linux: /usr/share/<regid>

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Which customers do you think will see the most benefit from these tags?

Corporate & Government customers of all sizes will likely find these tags helpful in managing their enterprise IT environments. Small and medium business can also benefit from the simplification of the inventory reconciliation that these tags can bring.

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Do all SAM providers and deployment vendors support reading and reporting the Software ID tags?

Implementation of the ISO standard into SAM and deployment solutions has been slower than anticipated, but many major vendors made commitments to the standard. Please contact your solution provider for more info on their support.

Support for SoftWare IDentification (SWID) Tags in Labs64 NetLicensing is planned.

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What’s the different between ISO/IEC 19770-1 and ISO/IEC 19970-2?

ISO/IEC 19770 is a multi-part standard for Software Asset Management (SAM), currently with two parts publicly available for implementation and one 'work-in-progress' part. Each part is identified by a unique suffix.

  • Part 1 (ISO/IEC 19770-1:2012) outlines business processes for successful software asset management.
  • Part 2 (ISO/IEC 19770-2:2009) outlines the structure for software identification tags, which can be used to improve the accuracy of software inventory collection as part of SAM.
  • Part 3 (ISO/IEC 19770-3:20yy) will provide a software asset management data standard for software licensing entitlement tags.

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Where can I get a complete copy of this standard?

A complete copy of the official ISO/IEC 19770-2:2009 standard can be purchased hereorhere.

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Where can I find more info about Software ID tags?

tagvault.org

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