Client Management Suite

Is there a way to inventory products such as those from the Adobe family to detect if it is a trial install or not?
I'm looking for something concrete, hopefully in the registry or a config file, that states it is a trial and how many days before it expires.  Or confirm it has expired so we can create a collection/filter to uninstall it.

I used Process Monitor to install Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro, and I found that it creates TrialEncoder.dll and TrialExpiredAlert.exv.  You may also find registry entries with these values.  I don't believe there's any difference between Trial and Registered, and these values may continue to exist on a registered version.  They just server as the storage points for days expiring and for showing you the alert.  (TrialExpiredAlert.exv is language-specific, so there are several versions.)

You could write a custom inventory to key off of those files.

software such as Lansweeper Software Inventory might be able to help you out, you can detect all installed software and perform specific querries based on registry keys or specific versions of the installed software

If you can find a registry key that differs between the trial and paid for version, you can create 2 different software resources with those detection checks.

 

In the paid for app resource, have it require the paid-for registry key.

 

In the trial app resource, have it require the trial key and also make sure that it looks for "NOT paid for key".

the latter rule should cover any issues with someone having the trial version and upgrading to paid for, assuming that would keep the trail key in the registry.