SoftwareCentral Update

We are excited to announce the release of SoftwareCentral 24R3. As many of you have noticed, the loading speed of SoftwareCentral has been an issue in the last few releases. These performance issues have been addressed and should be resolved with the release of 24R3.2 and later versions.

We are in the process of modernizing SoftwareCentral by moving away from the older .NET Framework. During this transition, we have replaced much of the old functionality and dependencies on the .NET Framework with newer .NET Core and Standard libraries. These updated libraries, combined with several new Intune features, had previously placed significant demands on the outdated ASP.NET compiler, which has now also been updated.

With the recent updates to both our libraries and compiler, we have measured a performance improvement in SoftwareCentral 24R3.2, which is now (with fear of sounding like an Apple event) up to 13 times faster than SoftwareCentral 24R2.2.

For the best experience, we recommend enabling the “Enable recommended site settings” option in the SoftwareCentral Installer. This will install an additional Windows feature (Application Initialization) on your server. It does not require a server restart to install this feature, and it will further reduce the loading time of SoftwareCentral.


SoftwareCentral Installer

We have added support for user management directly from the Manage Intune Endpoints interface. Support for LAPS for Intune has also been added, found under the devices in Manage Intune Endpoints.

Our Web API can now be called by an app instead of a user, enhancing security on that front.

Last but not least, our new package download module now supports the creation of phased deployments.

See the full list of changes in the release notes.

Version 24R2.1 has been very well received and in just 2 weeks it is has been implemented across more than 50 of our clients.
We have identified some issues that we are addressing in this latest release.
We hope you will warmly welcome version 22R2.2 and hopefully, you won't see a 22R2.3 ;)

The SoftwareCentral team wishes you a wonderful summer and looks forward to introducing many exciting new features this fall.

Intune Apps
In 24R2.1 we updated the Microsoft SDK. This unfortunately resulted in a few problems, that now has been resolved.
• Intune application templates got their Windows Architectures shifted. We cannot fix this issue, as we cannot distinguish which templates has been manually update.
  So please be aware that Intune application templates created prior to 24R2, will have to be manually updated with the correct Windows Architectures after you update to 24R2 or above.
• Applications created in 24R2.1 may have gotten wrong operators for their detection methods. This has now been fixed in this release.
  We apologise for the inconvenience, as you will have to manually update the affected applications.
  The affected applications are applications created or updated with:
    • Detection methods with an operator.
    • Additional application requirement rules with an operator.
  Applications that have been updated, but where the detection methods and additional requirements were not changed is not affected.

Robopack
• We have listened to your feedback and improved Robopack and squashed some bugs.

See the full list of changes in the release notes.

In this version of SoftwareCentral we have continued to improve on the existing Intune functions.

Introducing Robopack v2
• New and simpler interface when importing new applications.
• Added a new deployment template to control automated deployment to both SCCM and multiple Intune Tenants.
• Added the possibility to automatically download, import and deploy application to both SCCM and multiple Intune Tenant when Robopack release a new version.
• Can now create SoftwareCentral own phased deployments for SCCM
• Can now create test deployments for Intune
• See status for phased deployments directly in status window
• Fixed various bugs related to searching and filtering of the interface.

Please contact support@softwarecentral.com for a free and simple trial (setup time 10 minutes).

Manage Intune Endpoints
The Manage Intune Endpoints interface has been significantly updated to allow software management and advanced troubleshooting.
• Can now install, clean and uninstall apps on single devices.
• Can now assign software to multiple devices, users and groups.
• Can now uninstall software.
• Can now display more detailed error messages when clicking on the installation status.
• After you have changed the primary user, the effect will now immediately show in the interface.
• Improved the search box to make it easier to find users.
• Can now display compliance policies.
• Can now view detailed status messages for configuration policies.
• Can now manage device Entra ID group memberships.
• Now displays user friendly Windows versions (e.g. Windows 11 23H2).
• Everything can be customized to each security role.
Read more here

Installer
The SoftwareCentral installer can now create app registrations in Azure.

Other news
• The entire AD module is now available in the Intune only version.
• Added a delay between creating a computer object and applying variables, to help resolve a problem where variables did not get registered with newly created computer objects.
• Can now assign required permissions to app registrations from the settings/configuration menu. (Requires an existing app registration with Application.ReadWrite.All)
• License Harvesting has gotten support for Intune Applications for co-managed devices.
• PrestageComputer app has been updated to version 1.4.0.1.
Read more in the release notes.

Introducing Robopack
We're excited to introduce our new add-on for Softwarecentral Plus.
• Get access to more than 19000 apps ready for SCCM and Intune deployment.
• Robopack integrates with Winget, Softwarecentral Plus and MS Store to provide an extensive library of packages.
• All packages are tested thoroughly on demand and are made available within 30 minutes after the vendor has released a new version.
• Please contact support@softwarecentral.com for a free and simple trial (setup time 10 minutes).

Intune only
Intune only installations no longer requires that the web server is a member of a domain.
All functionality like authentication, security roles and approval flows can now run on Microsoft Entra ID.

Intune Dashboards
Based on customer feedback, we have greatly optimized the performance of our Intune Dashboard.

Imporant information
In our effort to add support for the latest technologies, we have had to update some old .NET Framework libraries to their newer .NET Core counterparts.
This means that connections to databases are now actively enforced as encrypted. Don’t worry, connections were also encrypted before if your database was configured to it and had the proper certificates installed.
When you install this version of SoftwareCentral, the installer will let you know if the SSL certificate is missing on your SQL server or if something else is wrong to prevent encryption.
You will get the option to ignore this and continue or you can update the security on your database.
This will happen before the installation begins, so you can take action without interrupting your environment.

Also note that SQL logins are no longer considered safe, as this exposes the password in the connection string.
If you are using SQL login, it will be removed by the installer. If you want to keep using the SQL login, you must add this manually to the ConnectionString.xml file after the update.
The recommended authentication method for SQL databases is now Windows Authentication. We are working on introducing Microsoft Entra password authentication in a later update.

If you are using our “Untrusted domain”-solution and have a SoftwareCentral server in multiple domains without trust, but connected to the same database, then please contact us at support@softwarecentral.com before you install this update.

New SoftwareCentral Plus Packages:

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SoftwareCentral Plus is a package subscription service. Read more about SoftwareCentral Plus. You can contact us anytime at info@softwarecentral.com if you are interested in our products and services.


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