TN 1307 How to Reset Security System in an Intouch Machine Edition or Edge application

Description

• Author: Mario Meza
• Published: 12/15/2022
• Applies to: InTouch Machine Edition 7.1, 2017 and Edge 2020 and Above 

Details

If an application is implementing Security System you may find yourself in a scenario where you have lost access to an administrator account (passwords may have been changed, forgotten or are simply unknown). This article provides an unofficial workaround to reset an application with Security System enabled. 

BE AWARE: The process RESETS project security to the factory default (i.e., no security). As a result, users and groups will need to be recreated.

This example in this article uses ITME 7.1 but has also been validated on Machine Edition 2017 and AVEVA Edge 2020.

If your application is Indusoft Web Studio 6.1 or older additional steps must be taken for this procedure to work. These are outlined at the bottom of this article. 

When you try to access project resources (screens symbols scripts etc) in a secured application you will be met with the pop up below.

You can try to simply disable Security System but sometimes that isn’t enough.

To reset Security System:

1. Stop your project and close the IDE / Development Studio if running.
   
2. Open the project .APP file (located in the project folder) in Notepad or text editor.
   
3. Look for a line beginning with ConfigurationFlags and remove the entire line.
   
4. Save the file and close Notepad.
   
5. Open Windows File Explorer and navigate to the Database subfolder in your project folder.
   
6. From the project Database folder delete the files called
   tagl.bin,
   tagl.bin_autobck
   taglex.bin
   taglex.bin_autobck 
   ***** Do not accidently delete the file called tagl.txt*****
   Delete any file that ends in .61 (e.g., tagl.bin.61)
   
7. Now open the project in the IDE / Development Studio. A development license is not required, you just need to open the project in the development tool. It will see that the project security has been removed and set it to the factory default (i.e., no security).
   
   You should now be able to access Scripts, Screens, Buttons, and object properties etc.
   
   
   NOTE: If the application was developed in Indusoft Web Studio version 6.1 or older (example below is IWS 6.1 SP6) …
   
   An additional line must be removed from the .APP file
   
   ReservedCHK123=
   
   
   The first time the application it is run after the procedure a pop up with the following message will be observed, after which the message will no longer be seen.
   
   
   Use the section below to describe additional considerations that were omitted for brevity and to guide the reader to further how-to's.