anyway,

here is a VB Script that you can remote execute to get the Manufacturer of the machine as well as the serial number.   I have tested this with HP and the serial number displays just as it should... I tested it on a dell machine and was plesently suprised to see that it flawlessly displays the service tag so every dell I tried it on.  very handy to have that information remotely at a click of a mouse.

here is the code:

strComputer = "."
Set objWMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:" _
    & "{impersonationLevel=impersonate}!\\" & strComputer & "\root\cimv2")
Set colBIOS = objWMIService.ExecQuery _
    ("Select * from Win32_BIOS")
For each objBIOS in colBIOS
    WScript.StdOut.WriteLine "Manufacturer: " & objBIOS.Manufacturer
    WScript.StdOut.WriteLine "Serial Number: " & objBIOS.SerialNumber
Next

I got this script from HP's website and edited it so the output would work with VNC Manager.

the original script is located here:

http://h41111.www4.hp.com/hps/carepack/emea_middle_east/en/getserial.html

have to give credit where credit is due!