Using Manual Mapper to gather missing software usage information
Author: Abhishek Mittal
Summary
How to enable usage tracking for the products which are detected as UNKNOWN PRODUCTS in usageagent.log
Synopsis
Sometimes an application is detected as UNKNOWN PRODUCT in the usageagent.log (c:\windows\temp\Managesoft\). This generally happens with click-to-run versions applications. When the usageagent.log is investigated, the running instance of the executable of the application is found to be marked as UNKNOWN PRODUCT. To make this UNKNOWN PRODUCT a KNOWN PRODUCT, we need to create registry entries under Manual Mapper key of Managesoft. In the absence of usage information, it becomes difficult for the Licensing team to right-size the licensing requirements. Usage information is helpful to claim unused licenses. Common applications which are detected as UNKNOWN PRODUCT are Microsoft Click-to-run applications and Adobe Acrobat. This issue happens with the applications which are not installed via an installer such as msi. The implementation of the solution to this issue requires a person with technical knowledge of deploying Flexera Management Suite such and agents and have sufficient administrative privileges in the environment to perform the changes.
Solution
- Enable Manual Mapper
- Create entries under Manual Mapper key of Managesoft in one of the following ways:
- During agent installation and upgrade: Entries to be created under Manual Mapper can be added to the ‘mgssetup.ini’ file which are created by the agent installer.
- Manually / through Registry GPO in an already installed agent: Entries are created manually in the windows registry of a machine. If the entries are required to be created on a large number of machines, then a Registry GPO can be created in Active Directory to push the entries on the machines.
- Enable Manual Mapper
Method 1: Through mgssetup.ini
Create the following entries under [Usage Agent]
Desc0 = CurrentVersion\UseManualMapper
Val0 = true
Method 2: Manual
Step 1: Browse registry to the following location:
HKLM\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\ManageSoft Corp\ManageSoft\Usage Agent\CurrentVersion
Step 2: Set ‘UseManualMapper’ value to ‘true’
2. Create entries for the unknown product under Manual Mapper either through Mgssetup.ini or manually
We must perform the following steps:
- First check if ‘Manual Mapper’ key exists under the following registry path, otherwise create the key
HKLM\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\ManageSoft Corp\ManageSoft\Usage Agent\CurrentVersion

- The following entries are required to be created by creating a key by the name of the exe / software which is being detected as UNKNOWN PRODUCT in the manual mapper and then add following values are added to it:
Application – Small Description
Executable Path – Full Path of the executable from the usageagent.log or wildcard / regex path
Regex – Set this value to ‘true’ if using regular expression or ‘false’ if using exact path
Version – The version of the executable, this will be reported in Flexera also.

Using mgssetup.ini to create the entries
Create the following entries in the mgssetup.ini under Manual Mapper section of the file
desc0 = Manual Mapper\javaw\Application
val0 = Java(TM) Platform SE (Binary)
desc1 = Manual Mapper\jawaw\ExecutablePath
val1 = .*\\javaw[.]exe
desc2 = Manual Mapper\javaw\Regex
val2 = True
desc3 = Manual Mapper\javaw\Version
val3 = All
More such entries can be created for various softwares which are detected as an UNKNOWN PRODUCT in usageagent.log either manually or through mgssetup.ini. To apply the changes to multiple machines through GPO, then the following entries can be created under the Registry GPO and pushed via Active Directory Domain Services.
If you would like to hear more information about Manual Mapper or assistance with using the tool, please reach out to us via email at info@tmg100.com or visit our website https://tmg100.com.