How to Determine If You're using the Managed Software Center (deprecated) or the Self Service Software Portal

On Friday, December 6, 2024, Franklin OIT will officially discontinue the use of the legacy Managed Software Center (or MSC for short), a set of tools used for managing software installation and configuration. Most Franklin faculty and staff will be unaffected by this change, as Franklin has transitioned almost all Apple devices less than four years old from MSC to Self Service, a program also used for managing software installation and configuration. However, there are still some Franklin computers running MSC. After the decommission date, any software managed by MSC on these computers will no longer receive updates. The purpose of this article is to help you determine if your computer is running MSC or Self Service, and what to do in the event Self Service is not installed on the machine.

1. Open Finder on your Mac. It should be located in the leftmost corner of your Dock (the section of icons at the bottom of your screen).

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   Look for the blue-and-white smiley face.

2. Navigate to the Applications folder by clicking on it in the left sidebar.

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3. Once in the folder, look for two applications: Managed Software Center:

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and Self Service:

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4. If you see both applications, or if you see Self Service but no MSC, then Self Service is installed and there’s no further action needed. Though MSC is still technically installed on some computers running Self Service, all the application does is redirect to Self Service and it’ll eventually be removed entirely.

5. If you see MSC but no Self Service, then Self Service is not installed, and you’ll need to submit a ticket to us as soon as you can, as much of the software on your computer won’t be able to properly update otherwise. To submit a ticket, go to our submission form, fill it out and attach any screenshots if necessary, submit it, and an agent will respond to you at the earliest possible convenience.