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PDQ Inventory uses two Windows services; PDQInventory and PDQInventory-Scanner to perform its operations. These services are critical to program function; if the PDQInventory service is not enabled on the console computer, then PDQ Inventory cannot scan properly.
The PDQ Inventory background service, PDQInventory is a Windows service that processes all scans and reports on the console computer.
NOTE: In Windows Services, each service has a Display Name and a Service Name. We refer to this service as the “Background Service” but, in Windows, the Service Name is “PDQInventory” and the Display Name is “PDQ Inventory”.
The background service requires local administrator credentials (or a domain account with local administrator rights) to access computers on the network. By default, the first set of credentials entered when configuring PDQ Inventory are used; however, you can change the credentials used for the the background service in Options > Background Service. If the service isn’t running with the proper credentials on the console computer, then all scans are queued until the service is restarted with appropriate credentials.
You can start and stop the background service in the Options > Background Service window or you can use the standard Windows administrative tools (services.msc). By default, the PDQInventory service starts when you boot the computer where the PDQ Inventory console is installed.
IMPORTANT: No scans are executed unless the background service, PDQInventory, is running.
The PDQ Inventory target service—PDQInventory-Scanner-n (e.g. PDQInventory-Scanner-1)—is a Windows service that is created and executed on target computers to perform scans. During scans, the target service is copied to a directory on the target computer which is on a default share. The default location is ADMIN$\Admin Arsenal\PDQInventory-Scanner. This location can be configured in Options > Target Service, however, the default settings should be changed only if your environment has policies against using the ADMIN$ share on target computers.
NOTE: The ADMIN$ share is created by Windows using File and Printer Sharing and is the Share name of the Windows directory.
IMPORTANT: Enterprise mode is required to change the PDQ Inventory target service settings in Options. This is a global setting therefore changing the Target Service affects how PDQ Inventory connects to all computers in its database.
After the target service is creating on the target computer, PDQ Inventory remotely starts the service, then the target service initiates the scan of the local computer.
The target service (PDQInventory-Scanner-n) is created using the Scan User account. By default this is the account that was used to import the computer into the database. This can be changed in the Computer window, Computer > Select Scan User (or right-clicking the target computer and selecting Select Scan User).
While the Scan User account is used to create the PDQInventory-Scanner service on the target computer, once created this service is set to run as Local System. This means the actual scanning is performed by the builtin Local System account.
After the scan has complete, PDQ Inventory deletes the PDQInventory-Scanner service from the target computer.
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