Weblog Sander Wilmink

Explorer and Streaming integration has some issues, as explorer.exe is by default running outside isolation and Streamed applications run inside isolation. For example, Explorer won’t be able to identify that Outlook profile is available and it can access it, as Outlook profile is isolated.

Explorer features listed below wont work with Streamed applications:
1. Right click on File Explorer and select “Send to Mail Recipient”
2. Right click a Office Document on File Explorer and say “Edit, Print, Open or New”
3. Most of the features on explorer, except FTA (FTA coming thought XenApp Server)
4. Any 3rd party app doing some content display using explorer.exe

So is there a workaround for the above items? Yes!

On Windows 7, we can launch multiple Explorer.exes and get our work done. Publish an Application (as part of profile) which will do an operation similar to “explorer.exe /n” on the client to launch explorer.exe inside isolation. I’m launching explorer from and isolated command prompt as shown below.

We can use all the context menu options including Send to mail Recipient, once we launch explorer, you can even observe “Open, New, Edit and Print” for Office Documents, which was earlier only possible if we had locally installed apps. Below image is of Streamed explorer and streamed office!

All the context menu items will now with Streamed applications as well. As the explorer can be launched inside isolation, using other streamed 3rd party applications will also have better experience for users while using Streaming.

Today I found a message on the WSUS Product Team Blog. Microsoft will be adding a new product family to your WSUS server – Microsoft Application Virtualization.  The Microsoft Application Virtualization product family will include updates for all Microsoft Application Virtualization products. It will include a variety of update types, e.g. service packs, optional updates, critical updates and security updates.  Additionally, Microsoft Application Virtualization updates will be available through Microsoft Update and the Microsoft Update Catalog.

A new product category will be added to your WSUS server under the Microsoft Application Virtualization family, entitled Microsoft Application Virtualization 4.5. The Microsoft Application Virtualization 4.5 category will allow all classifications of updates to be offered to the Microsoft Application Virtualization 4.5 product.  You will see this new category when new updates are available for this product.

You should sync the Microsoft Application Virtualization family if you have these products in your managed environment. For additional information about Microsoft Application Virtualization see:http://www.microsoft.com/systemcenter/appv/default.mspx.

Microsoft’s Support Engineer Steve Bucci recently posted this great video that shows you how to collect the logs and information from your App-V environment. With almost any App-V support call we will ask you for this information but knowing where to find these logs will prove invaluable when troubleshooting any issue you might run into.

We also have some additional information on the App-V log files here:

Troubleshooting App-V with log files

KB931803 – Log options for SoftGrid Client 4.x

KB930871 – How to interpret the messages in the SoftGrid Virtual Application Server log

Today I was searching the Microsoft site for information about the App-V client on Windows 7, when I found a Proof of Concept from Microsoft about a combination of Windows 7, Office 2010 and App-V. A nice combination of a stable operating system with the new version of the Office suite and a powerfull agent for the virtualization of applications. I’m curious to test it myself and I will keep you in the loop, as soon as I have implemented the Proof of Concept myself.

You can find the Proof of Concept here.

The Microsoft Office 2010 Deployment Kit for App-V enables Office 2010 client products to be sequenced and deployed with Microsoft Application Virtualization (App-V).

The Microsoft Office 2010 Deployment Kit for App-V is required for sequencing and deploying Office 2010 client products with Microsoft Application Virtualization (App-V). This kit includes the components required for Office license activation.

This product must be installed on the App-V sequencing station prior to monitoring the Office 2010 client installation.

This product must also be installed on the client machines to which virtualized Office 2010 client packages will be deployed. It can be configured to enable certain system components to interact with virtualized Office 2010, including:

• Fast search in virtualized Outlook 2010 using Windows Desktop Search
• Ability for virtualized Office 2010 applications to open, edit, and save Office files hosted with Windows SharePoint
• Search indexing support for Office file types
• URL protocol redirection to virtualized Outlook 2010
• Print to virtualized OneNote 2010
• Mail control panel applet for virtualized Outlook 2010

For all the details and to download the deployment kit see this link.

Additional Information:

The Office 2010 App-V RTM Recipe is available as a KB article here:http://support.microsoft.com/kb/983462

The Office 2010 App-v Deployment kit is available from the Microsoft Download center athttp://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=479f12f2-5678-493e-bce1-682b3ece5431

AppPlus has just announced a beta program. It is designed to allow the App-V community to trial the functionality of OSD+, offer feedback and make feature requests, before the first fully available version is released to the public.

There are some really handy features in this tool;

• No App-V infrastructure required for application testing
• File streaming capabilities into App-V client
• Launch Application from inside the GUI
• Launch troubleshooting tools inside the application’s virtual environment
• Create manifest files for SCCM and 3rd party delivery software integration
• Edit OSD files safely
• Create “dynamic suite compositions” with the click of a button
• Import registry files into the OSD file
• Restore OSD files to previous save points
• App-V 4.6 support

I have been using it for some time. And there are some cool items such as osd restore points for the times when you played with the OSD a little bit too much.

Give the beta a shot….

The SuperFlow interactive content model provides a structured and interactive interface for viewing documentation. Each SuperFlow includes comprehensive information about a specific dataflow, workflow, or process. Depending on the focus of the SuperFlow, you will find overview information, steps that include detailed information, procedures, sample log entries, best practices, real-world scenarios, troubleshooting information, security information, animations, or other information. Each SuperFlow also includes links to relevant resources, such as Web sites or local files that are copied to your computer when you install the SuperFlow. This SuperFlow provides detailed information about the Application Virtualization Sequencing process.

Download here  

I think it’s really good to see that Microsoft is putting a lot of effort in making the Sequencing process more easy. And this is a step in the right direction. But there is still a lot they can and probably will improve in this area…