1 Start with the log
Open Log in SoftwareCentral and look for error messages from the time of the problem.
Set Severity to Warnings and Errors to see only the problems. See Search the log for the filters. The messages in the table below are the ones SoftwareCentral writes for these problems.
2 Problems and what to do
| Symptom | Cause | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| When I try to launch a tool, nothing happens. | The usual cause is that the SoftwareCentral link is not registered on the computer. The log shows why. | See if the log in SoftwareCentral gives any error messages. If it shows one of the URI Scheme messages below, follow the row for that message. |
| The RPC server is unavailable. The log shows "Failed to connect to client 'computer name'." | SoftwareCentral could not connect to the client. The RPC (Remote Procedure Call) connection to the client fails. By default SoftwareCentral uses WMI to reach the client. | Enable the Remote Registry service on your computers, then tick Remote Registry Service Enabled under Settings › SCCM › Clients in SoftwareCentral. If your DNS is not working properly, register the link by hand: see How the link is registered. |
| The log shows "Failed to register the SoftwareCentral Client to the URI Scheme on client 'computer name'." | SoftwareCentral could not register the link on the computer. The details of the entry show why. | Read the details of the entry. If DNS cannot name the computer from its IP address, fix DNS, or register the link by hand: see How the link is registered. |
| The log shows "Failed to register protocol 'SoftwareCentral' to the URI Scheme on client 'computer name'." | The link could not be written to the registry of the computer. | Read the details of the entry, then register the link by hand. See How the link is registered. |
| When launching a tool, it only opens a command prompt with an error message. | The command of the tool fails. | Follow the instructions in the command prompt, if any. Verify that the path to your tool is correct and that it is accessible from the computer you try to launch it from. |
| When launching a tool, the user is redirected to an error page. | SoftwareCentral is most likely not registered to the URI Scheme. | See the log in SoftwareCentral for details. If SoftwareCentral is registered, restart the computer. |
3 How the link is registered
SoftwareCentral registers its link on a computer by itself, unless you tell it not to.
When you open the Remote Control page or a custom tool, SoftwareCentral registers the link on the computer you are using. It finds the computer's name from its IP address, so DNS must be able to resolve that address.
If your DNS is not working properly, you should manually deploy the script that registers SoftwareCentral to the URI Scheme. See the section Manual registration in Installing the client.
4 Best practice
- Enable the Remote Registry service on your computers and tick Remote Registry Service Enabled where it runs on all of them. Without it SoftwareCentral uses WMI, which is noticeably slower.
- Make sure DNS can name every computer from its IP address. The link is registered under the name that DNS returns, so a computer without a working reverse lookup can fail to register.
- Tick the manual registration setting only when you deploy the link yourself. Otherwise the link is not registered automatically, and tools do not launch on a computer where it was never registered.
- Check the log after you change a setting. Registration errors are written there.