Novell documentation sometimes leaves users wanting more. ZENworks Asset Management's documentation, as a case in point, talks about adding custom "things" to the inventory scan, without really telling you how and where.

Scanning for registry key settings that matter to you would seem to be an obvious thing to document. But I have had a hard time finding it. As it turns out the context-sensitive help is not too bad on this topic.

Use the Win32 Manager application. (It is called Manager. Not very descriptive, alas). Pick a Collection Option set, and on the General tab, turn on Collection Editor temporarily, then go to the Collection Editor tab. Select one of the four options as appropriate (User, Workstation, etc.).

Pick a field that you can use for the attribute you care about capturing as a Registry key.

In the blank field, start typing %HKEY: and then the registry key that you care about.
Set the next field to Always, so that it always collects the value on a scan.

You can report it on it, by using the field you chose to scan it to.

If you have any questions you may contact Geoffrey at geoffcTAKETHISOUT@TAKETHISOUTyorku.ca