After removing Adobe Flash Player from computers, It still shows up in Software Inventory

Products

• Client Management Suite
• IT Management Suite

Issue/Introduction

Adobe Flash Player was manually removed from a computer and it is no longer showing in Add and Remove Program, the registry, or WMI.

The following files were deleted:

C:\Program Files\Altiris\Altiris Agent\Agents\SoftwareManagement\data\SoftwareCache.xml
C:\Program Files\Altiris\Altiris Agent\Agents\SoftwareManagement\data\SoftwareCache_v2.xml

After running a Full Inventory the Adobe Flash Player application is still showing up in the SMP Console inventory as installed for the computer.

Environment

ITMS 8.5 RU4

 

Resolution

Check the following registry locations:

• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\{Flash Player GUID} – Removes entry from Add and Remove Programs
• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Installer\Products\ProductGUID – Removes entry from WMI
• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Installer\UserData\S-1-5-18\Products\ProductGUID – Altiris inventory agent no longer detects that Adobe Flash Player ActiveX has a component

If the last registry key in the list above still exists, then the computer under Manage > Computers in the SMP Console would still show that Adobe Flash Player was installed. Once this was deleted, the Inv_InstalledSoftware table no longer showed the computer had Adobe Flash Player installed.