Exclusion Rules
To keep software out of the inventory, use the Exclusion Rules tab. It holds the filters that keep noise out of the inventory. OpenLM Platform checks every application a scan reports against the active rules before anything else happens. A match means the application is dropped on the spot and never reaches the Applications view or the Unmatched queue.
Product Discovery includes about 100 built-in System rules covering four categories of noise: operating-system components (OS), device drivers (Driver), vendor bloatware (Bloatware), and runtimes and update packages (Update). Product Discovery doesn't exclude products that organizations commonly track: Microsoft Edge, Teams, OneDrive, and Office stay in the inventory even though Windows ships some of them. If you don't want them, mark them as noise yourself.
The following image shows part of the built-in rule set:
Exclusion Rules tab with part of the built-in rule set
Review the rules grid
The following table lists the columns of the rules grid:
| Column | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Enabled | Whether the rule is active. Custom rules toggle individually. System rules toggle only by category, as the following section describes. |
| Rule Name | The rule's display name. Rules created by Mark as Noise are named Noise: <application name>. |
| Pattern | The text pattern the rule matches. |
| Match Type | Exact, Wildcard, or Regex. |
| Match Field | The field the pattern is tested against: the product name, the publisher, or the install path. |
| Category | OS, Driver, Bloatware, Update, or Custom. |
| Type | System (built-in, shared) or Custom (created by your organization). |
System rules can't be edited or deleted. Their row shows a dash where Custom rules show Edit and Delete.
To turn a whole category on or off for your organization:
- Select the Categories drop-down list.
- Clear a category to turn off all of its rules at once, or select it to turn them on again.
To add a rule, select Add Rule. The Add Exclusion Rule dialog opens. The following image shows the dialog:
Add Exclusion Rule dialog
In the dialog, enter the following:
| Field | What to enter |
|---|---|
| Rule Name | A name that says what the rule blocks, for example Block HP Support Assistant. |
| Match Type | Exact for a literal, case-insensitive name. Wildcard for glob patterns (*, ?). Regex for a regular expression. |
| Match Field | Product Name, Publisher, or Path. |
| Pattern | The pattern itself, for example *HP Support* (wildcard) or ^KB\d{6,} (regular expression). |
| Category | Usually Custom. Select one of the noise categories if you are extending them. |
Select Create Rule to save.
To edit a custom rule, use the same dialog, which also has an Enabled check box.
When rules take effect
A new or changed rule applies from the next scan of each workstation. Rules are not retroactive. An application that is already in the inventory is not deleted when a rule starts matching it. It stops being refreshed, and after it has been absent from three consecutive scans it is marked inactive and drops out of the active inventory on its own.
Related
For related tasks, see the following pages:
- Product Discovery: Overview of the tabs and how discovery works.
- Applications: Mark an already-inventoried application as noise from its row.
- Unmatched Applications: Mark as Noise from the queue sets the entry's status to Excluded.
The documentation team might draft this page using a large language model. A technical writer reviews every page and verifies it against the product before publishing it. A human makes the final decision.