Software grouping

You can classify discovered software into groups to control how it is tracked and managed.

Software grouping lets you categorize each detected application as:

• Required: Software that is approved, expected, or important in your environment, such as Microsoft Teams or Zoom

• Forbidden: Applications you want to block or monitor, such as uTorrent or Steam

• Regular: All other software. Anything that is not assigned to the Required or Forbidden group remains in Regular. By default, all software is assigned to the Regular group.

Software groups control two key aspects: change tracking and export into Alloy Navigator.

Change tracking

Software groups determine which software changes are tracked. It is generally recommended to track changes only for important software — Required or Forbidden — while leaving Regular software untracked. For example, browsers update frequently, and tracking every change is usually unnecessary. To follow this practice, mark software you want to track as Required or Forbidden, and then enable tracking for those groups in the Admin Center on the Change Tracking page.

Export into Alloy Navigator

Software groups determine which software is exported from AlloyScan into Alloy Navigator during synchronization. In most cases, it is practical to export only Required software. This ensures that Alloy Navigator tracks only software that participates in SAM processes — software that needs to be monitored, licensed, and managed — keeping the asset database clean and manageable.

For instructions, see Control software tracking in Alloy Navigator below.

Classify software products

You can classify software directly from the Software inventory one by one or in bulk.

1. Open the Software section.

2. To classify a single product, click the three-line menu button next to it, then select Mark as Required or Mark as Forbidden.

   

3. To classify multiple products at once, select them in the list, then click the three-line Actions menu at the top and choose the required option.

   

The selected software will be reassigned to the chosen group. Software that remains unmarked stays in the Regular group.

Control software tracking in Alloy Navigator

You can manage which software groups are tracked in Alloy Navigator and assign products to these groups:

1. Open the Software section.

2. Click the three-line Actions menu at the top and select Manage groups. The Classify software into groups dialog is displayed.

3. In the left pane, select the group you want to manage.

   The counters next to the group names show how many software products are currently assigned to each group. For the Regular group, no counter or list is displayed, as it automatically includes all software not assigned to Required or Forbidden.

4. If needed, you can manually enter product names in the text box, one per line, to add software to the group.

5. Use the Track software from this group in Alloy Navigator check box at the bottom to specify whether software in this group should be exported to Alloy Navigator durig synchronization.

   

6. Click Save.