The Site Management Portal (SMP) and SCT are Java applications, requiring a JRE plug-in on the local client computer. Security vulnerabilities were often discovered in the public version of the JRE, which required the developer to release updated versions and for Johnson Controls to issue patches to the SMP and SCT software. To alleviate this problem, the Metasys system no longer relies on a public JRE plug-in for Release 6.0 or later. Instead, it uses an internal private JRE that is bundled with the Metasys application and is installed locally on the computer for that application only. The private JRE is not exposed to possible security risks and is compatible with IT department policies.
To support the use of the private JRE, an application called the Launcher was developed to allow you to manage a list of all network engines, Metasys servers, SCT, LCS85, Metasys UI, Metasys UI Offline, and Metasys Advanced Reporting, or any generic website links. The Launcher is a simple software tool that launches the user interface for any Metasys release, but only manages the local Java files for Release 6.0 or later systems.
If you need to configure your proxy settings, you must do so in the Launcher tool, not in the Java control panel. For details, refer to Launcher Help (LIT-12011742).
Public JRE files are still required for older versions of the Metasys system. Public JREs are installed in a public location (such as C:\Program Files\Java\) and are known by the operating system to allow certain applications, such as Internet browsers, to access that JRE.