Error: "Machine Name not Unique" when opening System Release on a Terminal Server Environment

This support note applies to:

AE System Release (AU)
AE MAS (AU)
AE Tax (AU)

These instructions require technical expertise

Make sure you know what you're doing and are using one of the products listed. If you're not sure, ask your IT professional or MYOB.

Article ID: 33430

When opening System Release in a Terminal Server environment, you may experience the error "Machine Name not Unique".

Each workstation using System Release must be identified by its own unique machine name. When System Release detects that the machine name is already in use, it triggers the above error. For example, when all users log onto the same Terminal Server.

You can resolve this error by following the three steps. This will allow System Release to identify users by their windows username instead of their machine name.

Prior to commencing these steps, we recommend that you have file extensions turned on. Step-by-step instructions are available in Viewing hidden files, folders and drives or enabling file extensions in Windows.

1. Create the SystemRelease.cmd file

Open My Computer and browse to the drive where the SOL64 or TAX folder is located. The contents of the drive appear.

For details of how to determine the location of your SOL64 folder please refer to Finding the SOL64 or Tax directory.
Right-click in the drive and from the New menu select Text Document. A new text document .txt appears.
Change the name of the New Text Document.txt to SystemRelease.cmd and press ENTER. The SystemRelease.cmd file is created.
Right-click the SystemRelease.cmd file and select Edit. The SystemRelease.cmd file opens.
Copy the following script and paste it into the SystemRelease.cmd

@ECHO OFF
set clientname=%username%
cd /d X:\sol64
start "SystemRelease" "sr.exe"

Where X:\ is the drive which of your server where the SOL64 share is located.

The script is pasted into the SystemRelease.cmd file.
From the File menu select Exit and save your changes to the file. The SystemRelease.cmd is now saved.

2. Create the desktop shortcut

Right-click the SystemRelease.cmd file created above, and from the Send to menu select Desktop. A shortcut is created on the Windows desktop.
On the Windows desktop, right-click the Shortcut to SystemRelease.cmd file and select Properties. The Shortcut to SystemRelease.cmd Properties window opens.
Click the Change Icon button. The Change Icon window appears.
Click the Browse button and navigate to your SOL64 or TAX folder. The contents of the SOL64 / TAX folder appear.
Locate and select the sr.ico file and click Open. The icon image file is selected.
Click OK twice. The Shortcut to SystemRelease.cmd now displays the System Release icon.
Right-click the SystemRelease.cmd file and select Rename. The name becomes editable.
Change the icon name to System Release and press ENTER on the keyboard. The name of the desktop icon now displays as System Release..

3. Copy the desktop icon to all user desktops

Right-click the System Release desktop icon and select Copy. The icon is copied.
Right-click the Windows Start button and select Explore All Users. The All Users Start Menu appears.
Select the Desktop folder in the left-hand navigation pane. The contents of the All Users Desktop folder appear in the right-hand pane.

Alternatively, from Windows Explorer you can navigate to C:\Users\All Users\Desktop.
Delete the existing System Release shortcut. The shortcut is deleted.
Right-click in the All Users Desktop folder and select Paste. The System Release desktop icon appears in the folder.
Click Close. The All Users Desktop folder closes.

The batch file created appears on all users' desktops when they log onto the Terminal Server. When users log into System Release using the new shortcut, System Release will recognise their Windows Username instead of the computer name of the Terminal Server.

If this does not resolve the error right-click on the icon and select Run as Administrator.