I am writing an IT technical report and raising an issue in it, generally using a passive voice. I am struggling to find a phrase that is concise, does not have an alternative or confusing meaning yet is still valid (British) English.
The phrase I have is:
"Unused objects not deconfigured, disabled and assigned to unused groups"
Though 'deconfigured' appears often on the Internet in a variety of technical documents by renowned firms it doesn't appear in the OED or any other authoritative source so I am hesitant to use it. I see 'deconfiguring' something as the act of removing configured settings or attributes from the object. This does not place it in the same default state as an object that has not yet been configured
A possible alternative could be:
"Unused objects not configuration reset, disabled and assigned to
unused groups"
Though that just sounds awkward and making it sound less awkward always seems to end with it becoming too long and convoluted.
The alternative could be:
"Unused objects not reset, disabled and assigned to unused groups"
Which sounds better, though resetting one of these objects has a different meaning to changing its configuration and I think that would be confusing for the reader.
Is it best to just use 'deconfigured' in this context (despite its absence from the dictionary, as my reader will probably understand it) or are there any alternatives that can be suggested?
Best Answer
I would say that "Unused objects not having configuration deleted, disabled and assigned to unused groups" but I have also seen Decommissioned used in the sense of having the configuration, (usually applied during commissioning), removed.