Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS) provides support for launching ISV applications from a Tools menu in the SMS Administrator console in a context-specific manner. (The term context refers to the internal class name of the SMS multiple document interface (MDI) window that has the focus.)
Launching an application from the SMS Administrator requires adding data about the application under the following key in the Windows NT registry:
SOFTWARE\Microsoft\SMS\Applications
This key is located under both HKEY_CURRENT_USER and HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE. Applications registered under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE are available to all SMS users; applications registered under HKEY_CURRENT_USER are available only to the user who registered the application.
The registered data defines the characteristics of the application by specifying the command description, command name, command-line arguments, and so on.
SMS provides a command-line utility, SMSADDIN.EXE, that creates or removes the required registry settings based on command-line arguments and a data file.
SMS supports ISV application launching for several contexts. Applications registered in the General context are always available from the Tools menu regardless of the current context. Applications registered in a specific context are only available when that context is active (that is, when that context's corresponding MDI window has the focus). You can register applications in more than one context.
Registered applications are displayed in the Tools menu in the SMS Administrator console. When the user selects an application from the Tools menu, SMS forms a command line from the application's registry data and passes the command line to the underlying operating system for execution.