Resolving Perceptive Content Linking Issues with Chrome or Edge 114.x

Background:

On June 1, 2023, Chrome was updated to version 114 which broke some background accessibility functions that Perceptive Content uses to be able to "read" the Colleague screen in order to pull data over for linking. The update eventually rolled out to Edge and other browsers that are based on Chrome, breaking linking in those as well. 

Steps to Resolve a Frozen Client: 

Follow these steps if your Perceptive Content client freezes and becomes unresponsive while trying to link. Click on the thumbnails to enlarge pictures. 

1. Open Task Manager by going to the Start menu and typing "Task Manager"

2. Find the entry in the list that starts with "Perceptive Content Full Client". Click to select it and then click the End Task buttonGo to the Start menu and type "Command Prompt". Right click it and run as administrator.

3. In the command prompt, type "net stop spooler" to stop the print spooler. 
4. Open File Explorer in your taskbar and go to C:\Windows\System32\spool\PRINTERS. You can copy/paste that path into the navigation bar like this: 
5. Delete all files in that folder. 
6. Back in the command prompt, type "net start spooler" to restart the print spooler
7. Reopen the Perceptive client and log back in

This video demonstrates how to perform the above steps

If you are comfortable running and using batch files, OIT has created a batch file that will handle this process automatically. Download the ResetPerceptiveContent.bat batch file, right click it, and select Run as Administrator:.

Fix for Perceptive Content Linking:

Initially, a "gold Chrome" icon called Chrome for Imaging was pushed to your desktop that disabled the offending features in the update as a short-term workaround. There were mixed results with this method and this shortcut will be removed as the following long-term solution takes its place. 

You should now see a new regular Chrome icon called "Google Chrome (Accessibility Enabled)" on your desktop and in the Start menu. This icon uses an alternate way of enabling the features that were disabled by the update and caused linking to stop working. This new shortcut should be used in place of your regular Chrome shortcut on your desktop or taskbar and can be used as your daily way to open and use Chrome. 

Perform the following steps to replace the existing pinned Chrome shortcut on your taskbar:

1. If Perceptive Content is frozen, follow the steps above first, or use the batch file
2. Reboot, or alternatively close out of all Chrome windows and make sure there is no Chrome icon in the bottom right area next to the clock
3. Right-click the Chrome icon on the taskbar, and select "Unpin from taskbar"
4. Right-click on the desktop shortcut called “Google Chrome (Accessibility Enabled)” and select “Pin to taskbar”
5. Alternatively, open the Start menu and search for "Google Chrome (Accessibility Enabled)". Right-click on the entry and select "Pin to taskbar". This may be hidden under the More menu as shown in the screenshot 
6. Hover over the new Chrome pinned shortcut to verify it is also named "Google Chrome (Accessibility Enabled)"
7. Now you can use the new shortcut as normal to open Chrome and perform all work. 

Advanced Steps:

The below steps can be followed if you are comfortable modifying shortcuts directly. 

1. Right-click the Google Chrome shortcut on your desktop or on the taskbar, and select Properties
2. in the Target box, add this to the end of the string ending in "...\chrome.exe" after the closing quotation mark:
   --force-renderer-accessibility
   
   
   ​​​​​​​
3. You can then open Chrome as usual using the shortcut.