Image forming apparatus capable of managing configuration information of multiple modules

[0029] A description is given below, with reference to the accompanying drawings, of an embodiment of the present invention.

[0030] According to an image forming apparatus of this embodiment, the configuration information of application modules and service modules and the configuration information of all the modules contained in a nonvolatile storage medium are compared at the time of a system startup, and if there is a difference therebetween, a manager is notified of the difference.

[0031]FIG. 1A is a diagram showing a network system 1 including an image forming apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention. The image forming apparatus of this embodiment has the same basic configuration as a conventional image forming apparatus, but is different therefrom with respect to a modular configuration test. Referring to FIG. 1A, the network system 1 includes a network 2 such as the Internet or a LAN (Local Area Network), and multiple client terminals 3 (also referred to col