Hi @Ralph_Crowley Software Identification Tags (ISO Standard 19770-2) is meant to provide additional evidence of what software is present on that device.  This SWID tag is an XML file that contains information on the application (i.e. name, version, edition, version, etc.) that the tag was included with at the time that application was installed. More info from the ISO ITAM Standards website here: http://www.itamstandards.org/iso-iec-19770-1-2/ These tags would not stamp each file that was installed as part of an application, rather it stamps the machine with the application that resides on that machine, whether that application is made up of 1 file or 1,000 files. This adds additional file evidence that FlexNet Manager Suite can use to determine what applications are installed. Determining how a file made it on a machine is tricky at best; it's why there is not a tool to accurately recreate an installer for an application that's already installed. AdminStudio can create these SWID tags as part of the preparing the application for eventual deployment through methods including creating a transform file for each MSI and including the tag in any repackaged MSI created. This tag will be installed along with the rest of the application. It doesn't affect the installer itself nor does it affect the application's execution but instead adds additional file evidence that's more definitive that trying to piece together what's installed just by the files and registry entries present on that machine. Finding unapproved software typically means looking at the executables on a machine and determining what applications they go with (and which can be ignored as part of the operating system). In this, FlexNet Manager can pull in machine inventory and identify unrecognized file evidence from applications it does recognized (this is rate is improved thanks to the SWID Tags). This would allow you to focus time on the unrecognized file evidence and determine what application the executable is associated with, and then if that application is approved software or not. More info on FlexNet Manager Suite Unrecognized Evidence here: Cloud and On-Premises ... View more

If you activated your AdminStudio license using an activation code from Flexera (in the format XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX), whether it was done online or offline, to deactivate AdminStudio from that machine would follow the same procedure. When you uninstall AdminStudio and you are connected to the internet, it will attempt a deactivation automatically. To return your license, in the Application Manager or the AdminStudio (main) program, go to Support > About Application Manager or Help > About AdminStudio (respectively), check the checkbox next to your license, and check click Return License: If you do not have internet access back to Flexera's Product and License Center on your AdminStudio workstation to do this automatically, then follow the same process as Offline Activation: Choose to perform an "Offline Activation" in AdminStudio to generate an offline activation request code (saved as License.request by default) Copy the file to an machine with internet access and upload this file to http://www.installshield.com/offlineactivation following the instructions on the site Copy the response code file (activation.xml) generated from the website back to your AdminStudio workstation Load this file into AdminStudio on the Offline Activation wizard and it will successfully complete the license return Now you can safely uninstall AdminStudio and reimage your machine. ... View more

Hi @terobinson  When you say "AdminStudio server", I assume you mean the Application Catalog databases that AdminStudio uses to import packages for customization, testing, and then deployment over to ConfigMgr / SCCM, correct? If you have multiple AdminStudio Professional or Enterprise licenses, each user that has a license on their workstation can connect to and utilize a single shared Application Catalog and any work done in this shared Application Catalog will be accessible by all users. Depending on your workflow for your IT Pros, each user could have their own separate catalog as well, that's up to you. Usually AdminStudio Enterprise users will share their Catalog across their users, as they have access to additional reporting and they can utilize the PowerShell automation on one central Application Catalog as well.  AdminStudio can publish from one or more Application Catalogs into one (or more) ConfigMgr instance. Mostly, it's a one-way street of application packages and their related meta-data going from the AdminStudio to ConfigMgr.  AdminStudio does pull back some information from ConfigMgr, including if an application that was published from AdminStudio is still present in ConfigMgr and, if so, some current statistics on how many deployments have been successful or have failed, etc. The Softw are Repository feature is optional when setting up the Application Catalog (and only available to AdminStudio Enterprise users). There are some added features like check-in/out of application similar to a code repository, but because it saves every instance of a package it can take up a significant amount of disk space. Since most of our AdminStudio customers already have an established file share where they store all of their packages while work is being done, the Software Repository option is usually skipped. I hope this helps clarify. Let us know if you have further questions on this. ... View more

Hi @sanderson , The AdminStudio Package Feed Module is an add-on feature and service to the AdminStudio Professional and Enterprise editions. It allows you to search and download over 3,000 installers from hundreds of software vendors along with supported silent command-line options right from within AdminStudio.  AdminStudio's Distribution Wizard can quickly publish installers, MSIX, and virtual packages up to ConfigMgr (formerly SCCM), whether those packages were downloaded from the Package Feed Module or imported into AdminStudio from other places like your file shares. The Distribution Wizard will take the package and publish it along with all of the Application Model information like Dependencies, Requirements, Detection Methods, and more, providing you the same end results as using the ConfigMgr admin console, but saving you a fair number of clicking. AdminStudio Enterprise users can even publish multiple package to ConfigMgr in one action, saving even more time.  Package Feed Module is hosted in Flexera's cloud but requires AdminStudio to download the packages and silent command-line options. It is not available and is not used as a standalone product, but rather it's a new source to import packages from into AdminStudio to start the Application Readiness journey, saving time from researching the correct packages and silent switches. The packages and their silent switches from Package Feed Module would be downloaded in AdminStudio, at which point you have multiple options to prepare that application depending on with what you are working. Since you would be downloading these packages and switches into AdminStudio, it's easy to then prepare them and then publish them by working within AdminStudio. AdminStudio uses industry standards like MSI and popular technologies like the PowerShell App Deploy Toolkit & WiseScript for wrapping applications, so you're not locked into any proprietary technology or method.  Once those packages make it into ConfigMgr (or another supported deployment solution), you can use all the other deployment tools and processes to manage and update those packages. AdminStudio makes it quicker and easier to manage these packages, so you're going back and using AdminStudio to help prepare new versions as they come out; it is your pre-deployment solution for all of your application packages to prepare them for ConfigMgr. ... View more

AdminStudio does not currently have specific support for Git repositories. The AdminStudio Application Catalog uses standard Windows file/folder structures and read/write access in order to import application packages into the Catalog and reference back to those package files. While local file structures (e.g. C:\share) are supported and will work, with shared Application Catalog across multiple team members, it's recommended to store your working packages on a network share and import them from using UNC paths (e.g. \\file_share\packages) in order to maintain consistency and access across your AdminStudio IT Pro users. If a Git or other kind of repository is used and the folder path to the package is fluid and changes over time as packages are checked in and out from this repository, then this will not operate consistently with the Application Catalog. This would require constant updating of the package's folder path each time it changes, which is not ideal. AdminStudio expects a constant path back to the packages, so the OS compatibility testing can be done as well as publishing these packages up to your distribution system by using the AdminStudio Distribution Wizard. I would recommend you submit support for Git and/or repositories as an idea to our Flexera Feedback section of our Community. You can see other AdminStudio users' ideas and vote on which ideas are Nice-to-Have, Important, or Critical for you; conversely other users can vote for your ideas the same way. ... View more

If you have several InstallScript-based packages that you want to move to MSI, the Repackager in AdminStudio would allow you to migrate them to this format. You run each of your InstallScript EXE installers on a clean virtual machine and the Repackager captures the result of that installer (including the files and folders it put down, the registry keys and entries it created, shortcuts, and INI file changes). You can automate the spin up of VMs and copying files in and out of them through the use of the Automated Application Converter: https://docs.flexera.com/adminstudio2019r2sp1/adminstudio.htm#helplibrary/Vam_RootTopic.htm We don't typically recommend the use of InstallScript after this repackaging process, as an InstallScript MSI adds complexity back into the package MSI that we removed when Repackaging was done. Our recommendation would be to keep it as a Basic MSI installer utilizing all of the MSI standard actions. Using the InstallShield Editor included with AdminStudio, you can augment these Standard actions with build-in Custom Actions to perform other takes not available with the MSI format (e.g. create and write to XML and Text files, connect to a SQL database, install a website to IIS, etc.). A list of these Custom Actions that InstallShield can optionally include are found here: https://docs.flexera.com/installshield25helplib/installshield25helplib.htm#helplibrary/Ref-ISCustomActions.htm If you also need to do pre/post-installation tasks outside of the MSI, I'd suggest you look at the wrapping functionality in AdminStudio Professional/Enterprise: https://docs.flexera.com/adminstudio2019r2sp1/adminstudio.htm#helplibrary/Wrap_MSI_EXE_Packages_Using_the_Wrap_Package_Wizard.htm Most users don't know InstallScript and while its very powerful, there is an upfront learning curve.  However, its ultimately up to you to decide what's best for your environment. (These are the latest links at the time of this post; please check https://docs.flexera.com/ for the current product documentation) ... View more

When you copied the response code from Flexera, did you first save the file?  While it looks the same, if the next is not encoded using Unicode UTF-8, then when you paste the text into the text box in AdminStudio, this error will come up. More info on converting ANSI (another common text encoding to UTF-8) can be found at this third-party link: https://smallbusiness.chron.com/convert-file-ansi-utf8-43115.html Error 51306 refers to our FlexNet Operations product we use to manage license activation. I found this KB article on our Supplier division's Knowledge Base about the issue: https://community.flexera.com/t5/FlexNet-Operations-Knowledge/Activation-not-possible-when-NOTICE-filed-is-not-UTF8/ta-p/2621 Following these instructions, you'll be able to load the saved file into the offline activation dialog to insert the response code that way. If you are experience any issues with activating AdminStudio, please contact our Technical Support team and they can help you resolve this.  ... View more

The AdminStudio Application Catalog (App Catalog) requires the use of Microsoft SQL Server in order to operate, this is a requirement spelled out in the System Requirements in the AdminStudio release notes: https://helpnet.flexerasoftware.com/adminstudio2019r2sp1/rn/AS2019ReleaseNotes.htm#asreleasenotes_3152363033_1041418 (This is the System Requirements for the current version of AdminStudio as of this post, please check out Flexera HelpNet for the latest version of AdminStudio documentation, including the Release Notes: https://helpnet.flexerasoftware.com/?product=AdminStudio) SQL Express is the free, limited version of SQL Server and can be used to host an AdminStudio Application Catalog, particularly when you're first evaluating the solution.  Do know that because it's free, SQL Express has some limitations compared to the full-feature licensed versions of SQL Server, particularly how large a single database, and thus Application Catalog, can get. More information on these limitations of SQL Express can be found on this third-party site here: http://www.capstanservices.com/technology-news-1/2019/7/11/sql-server-express-limitations-of-the-free-version-of-sql-server (This is a third-party site and posting this link does not mean Flexera recommend or otherwise support this third-party.) Using SQL Express or a full SQL Server instance to host an Application Catalog, the Package Feed Module functionality in AdminStudio would becomes available to use. ... View more