Introduction
Microsoft Endpoint Manager is a very mature product and consequently it is full of little features that are often overlooked and under used. One such feature is the ability to configure up to five tabs in the the Software Center application. These tabs will have an admin assigned name and will point to a content URL. This might be useful for users who are very much familiar with the Software Center and may find it easy and quick to open up Software Center and click on their required tab. They then may have quick access to whatever assets that URL provides, for instance: driver downloads or an industry related partner website. In this article I will detail how to use the feature, limitations of the feature if used prior to the Technical preview version 2012, and how the latest release fixes these limitations.
The Feature
Configuring and using the feature is very easy. As an administrator you will open the SCCM console and navigate to Administration\Overview\Client Settings. You will right click on your particular client settings object and select Properties. You will then select the Software Center option in the left column and then click on Customize in the right pane and next to Software Center settings.
When you have clicked on Customize you are presented with the Software Center Customization window. You can then select the Tabs tab and then click on Add Tab.
You are then able to enter in a name for your custom tab and also the required URL. In this example I have entered in https://www.microsoft.com as my required URL.
All that is remaining is to click on OK three times and your new tab will begin appearing in your user's Software Center application.
The Problem
Before the release of SCCM Technical Preview 2012, Software Center relied on the built in Internet Explorer browser control. This now results in many script type errors revealing themselves whenever the user attempts to access this tab using the Software Center application.
This can be seen, in my example, if I open up the Microsoft tab in the instance of Software Center on the server itself.
The Fix
It would be a bit too obvious if upgrading the SCCM agent client to version 5.00.9043.1000, which is the client version shipped with SCCM 2012 Technical preview, completely fixed the issue. In addition to upgrading the client, the fix will also require installing Microsoft .NET Framework v4.6.2 or higher. In addition we are required to install Microsoft Edge WebView2 runtime on the user's device.
To find out more about WebView2 browse to:
The download of WebView2 can be found at:
You only need to download the Evergreen Standalone Installer.
And having ensured all requirements are met on the Windows 10 20H2 client I can open up the Software Center application and navigate to my custom tab. And I receive none of the script errors. And the page is nicely formatted, just the way the author intended it to be displayed.
I hope you enjoyed reading this article and I hope you have the same success in your SCCM upgrade and testing exercises.
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