System Profiler

I am wanting to get some system information from 20 Macs running 10.4 before we upgrade them to Leopard. I know I can use System Profiler to get the information I require but the problem I am having is that the information I am getting out is either not detailed enough (mini or basic) or way too detailed (over 200 pages of it in a Full Report!).

I just want to get the basic system info - Machine Name, Processor type, speed, serial Number etc and also a list of applications installed on the Mac, I don't need detailed info about the software just the name of the apps.

Is there any utility out there that will allow me to extract only the data i require? I have searched numerous posts and googled for hours but can't find anything useful. I am mainly a Windows Support Engineer so don't know great deal about Apple OS (but learning fast).

If anyone has any ideas I would be grateful to hear them!

gselliott said:

I am wanting to get some system information from 20 Macs running 10.4 before we upgrade them to Leopard.
I just want to get the basic system info - Machine Name, Processor type, speed, serial Number etc and also a list of applications installed on the Mac

Click to expand...

I've just done a check using the parameters you've outlined and System Profiler does the lot. I see what you mean about printing a report though.

Next step - Select All from a window eg. Hardware Overview, Copy, and paste to a word processor. Fine for small amounts of text but Applications was a nightmare and caused my eMac system to seize.

The only workaround I see is screenshot (Cmd-Shift-4,) because the OS doesn't allow Print Window. Transfer the screenshots at each stage to Preview, from where you can print.

I'm very happy with the information I can get out of the system Profiler but unfortunately I need to print it out (to be presented to management) and it's either all or nothing situation, I can try the Screenshot way but it's going to take some time on 20+ Mac's. I thought there might have been a utility that could have manipulated the info i want into something readable. I thought about a script but i haven't got a clue where to start with AppleScripts!