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Customize Support Center

Applies to: Configuration Manager (current branch)

The Support Center tool includes a configuration file that you can customize. By default, when you install Support Center, this file is in the following path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Configuration Manager Support Center\ConfigMgrSupportCenter.exe.config. The configuration file changes the behavior of the program:

To make these changes, you need local administrative permissions on the client where you've installed Support Center. Make these customizations using a text or XML editor, such as Notepad or Visual Studio.

Important

The Support Center configuration file is an XML-formatted file. It's essential to the operation of Support Center. Modifying this file is only recommended for users who are familiar with XML and regular expressions.

Before you customize the Support Center configuration file, save a backup of the original. This backup allows you to recover the original Support Center functionality if you make mistakes while editing the file. If you don't create a backup, and Support Center doesn't function correctly after you modify the configuration file, reinstall Support Center. You can also copy a configuration file from another installation of Support Center.

Customize data collection

To customize the collection of data on the client, modify the Support Center configuration file using XML elements contained within the <dataCollectorSettings> element.

WMI data collection

The <CcmWmiDataCollector> element contains a <collectionScopes> element. Use this element to change the WMI namespaces from which Support Center collects data. It also includes an <ignoreScopes> element. Use this element to filter out the collection of data from portions of the namespaces defined in the <collectionScopes> element.

Example for WMI data collection

The default configuration file collects data from the root\ccm namespace. It includes this path in an <add/> element in <collectionScopes>.

It also ignores everything under the \cimodels, \invagt, \events, and \policy paths for this namespace. It includes these paths in <add/> elements contained within <ignoreScopes>.

<CcmWmiDataCollector>
  <collectionScopes>
    <!-- Collect these namespaces (ignoring the sub-scopes in the ignoreScopes block) -->
    <add key="root\ccm"/>
    <add key="root\cimv2\sms"/>
  </collectionScopes>
  <ignoreScopes>
    <!-- Collecting these namespaces is known to be problematic/unnecessary -->
    <add key="root\ccm\cimodels"/>
    <add key="root\ccm\invagt"/>
    <add key="root\ccm\events"/>
    <!-- Do not collect policy, there's already a separate policy collector.-->
    <add key="root\ccm\policy"/>
  </ignoreScopes>
</CcmWmiDataCollector>

Registry data collection

The <RegistryDataCollector> element contains a <registryKeys> element. Use this element to change the registry keys and subkeys that Support Center collects under the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE path. Support Center doesn't support the collection of registry data from other root registry paths.

Example for registry data collection

To collect registry keys for the classic programs installed on the device, add the following <add/> element in the <registryKeys> element: <add key="software\\microsoft\\windows\\currentversion\\uninstall"/>

<RegistryDataCollector>
  <registryKeys>
    <!-- Registry keys (and all subkeys) to collect -->
    <add key="software\\microsoft\\ccm"/>
    <add key="software\\microsoft\\sms"/>
    <add key="software\\microsoft\\ccmsetup"/>
    <add key="software\\microsoft\\windows\\currentversion\\uninstall"/>
  </registryKeys>
</RegistryDataCollector>

Customize log file groups

To customize which log files Support Center collects, and how it presents them in the Log groups list, use elements in the <logGroups> element. When you start Support Center, it scans this section of the configuration file. It then creates a group on the Log groups list for each unique key attribute value found in the <add/> elements contained in the <logGroups> element.

  • Component log group: The <componentLogGroup> element uses a key attribute to define the name of the log group that appears in the list. It also uses a value attribute that contains a regular expression (regex). It uses this regex to collect a set of related log files.

  • Static log group: The <staticLogGroup> element uses a key attribute to define the name of the log group that appears in the list. It also uses a value attribute that defines a log file name.

If the same key attribute value is used in an <add/> element within both the <componentLogGroup> element and the <staticLogGroup> element, Support Center creates a single group. This group includes the log files defined by both elements that use the same key.

Example for log file groups

<logGroups>
  <componentLogGroup>
    <add key="Application Management" value="^(app.*|ci.*|contentaccess|contenttransfermanager|datatransferservice|dcm.*|execmgr.*|UserAffinity.*|.*Handler$|.*Provider$)"/>
    <add key="Client Registration" value="^(clientregistration|locationservices|ccmmessaging|ccmexec)"/>
    <add key="Inventory" value="^(ccmmessaging|inventoryagent|mtrmgr|swmtrreportgen|virtualapp|mtr.*|filesystemfile)"/>
    <add key="Policy" value="^(ccmmessaging|policyagent_.*|policyevaluator_.*)"/>
    <add key="Software Updates" value="^(ci.*|contentaccess|contenttransfermanager|datatransferservice|dcm.*|update.*|wuahandler|xmlstore|scanagent)"/>
    <add key="Software Distribution" value="^(datatransferservice|execmgr.*|contenttransfermanager|locationservices|contentaccess|filebits)"/>
    <add key="Desired Configuration Management" value="^(ci.*|dcm.*)"/>
    <add key="Operating System Deployment" value="^(ts.*)"/>
  </componentLogGroup>
  <staticLogGroup>
    <add key="Application Management" value="ccmsdkprovider.log"/>
    <add key="Desired Configuration Management" value="ccmsdkprovider.log"/>
    <add key="Software Updates" value="ccmsdkprovider.log"/>
  </staticLogGroup>
</logGroups>

Collect other log files with wildcards

To collect other log files, use wildcards in the file path or filename. These wildcards include system-wide environment variables such as %WINDIR%, but exclude user-scoped environment variables such as %USERPROFILE%. To collect other log files using this non-recursive log file search, use an <add/> element within the <additionalLogFiles> element.

These examples show how Support Center uses this feature in the default configuration file.

Example 1: Collect all Windows Update log files in the Windows directory

The following element collects any file named WindowsUpdate.log found in the Windows directory:

<add key="%WINDIR%\WindowsUpdate.log" />

Example 2: Collect all log files in the Windows Logs directory

The following element collects any file that ends in .log found in the Windows logs directory:

<add key="%WINDIR%\logs\*.log" />

Full example XML

<CcmLogDataCollector>
  <additionalLogFiles>
    <!-- Collect these additional log files. Can pass in a wildcard for the filename. System variables are also supported. -->
    <!--
    <add key="%WINDIR%\WindowsUpdate.log" />
    <add key="%WINDIR%\logs\*.log" />
    -->
  </additionalLogFiles>
</CcmLogDataCollector>
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