I find myself wondering why, why, why Schneider Electric (parent company of APC, maker of my brand-new uninterruptible power supply, or UPS) switched to forced registration and login for its latest generation of software. Seems like that’s a step backward, not forward, as its PowerChute software steps functionality back. I ended up visiting MajorGeeks to download the old version (3.1.0) which I’m using quite happily right now. It serves as the lead-in graphic above, in fact.
Why Say: PowerChute Software Steps Functionality Back?
The key to the new PowerChute Serial Shutdown (PCSS) software is registering the UPS device and setting up an online account. In turn that requires scanning and uploading or manually entering a device ID and a product key value from a preprinted label attached to the device. You can’t access the software without going through that process.
My problem is there’s no such label on my device. I’m not quite sure how I got one without that data, but that’s my situation. I’ve contacted Schneider’s online support forums to see if somebody can help. But in the meantime I can’t log into PCSS without a valid account, and I can’t validate my account without registering my device.
Frankly, I don’t understand why PCSS won’t work at all without that validation step. The old sofware — as you can see above — works just fine without it. That’s the basis for my assertion that this software steps functionality back. I can understand why Schneider wants to keep tabs on its customers and keep track of their devices. As I said, I can’t imagine why the software won’t work at all without jumping through such hoops.
Go figure! Sometimes, things in Windows-World make little or no sense. Ditto for access management decisions from some equipment makers. Good thing the old software still works (it’s scheduled to retire in January 2026). Hopefully, I’ll get things straightened out a lot sooner that that.
Successful, But Protracted Support Call Fixes Things
I got on the phone with Schneider tech support. Turns out they’ve got another version of the software that doesn’t require registration to let PCSS run. It took a while for the tech support person’s email client to figure out how to get me that file. We ended up having to use a link on Google Drive because my HTML email client was apparently bollixing their ZIP file (I could tell she was using a Salesforce environment, because the link resolved somewhere in Salesforce-land).
This time, when I started to install PCSS, it welcomed me and asked for configuration settings right away. No login or validation required. Why do I think this means this isn’t the first time the support folks have been down this road? It’s working now as it should be, but I must confess: I do like the old software version better. It told me more, in a more approachable form. Indeed, I prefer a native Windows app to a web-based interface for this stuff. But hey: that’s progress!
Along the way, I figured out I’d plugged my devices into the wrong outlets on the UPS (hence, the foregoing zero values). They’re in surge protected but not battery backed up outlets. I’ll switch that soon. Cheers!
