App-V 5 standalone has become a lot easier to deploy as of the new release – we don’t need to configure the client in any particular way and any package can be deployed using an MSI generated automatically by the sequencer. There are certain topics that still need some configuration – Connection Groups is one of them. Lets get started!

Connection Groups allow for virtual applications to interact with each other – it’s the version 2.0 of the Dynamic Suite Composition (DSC). DSC had some major flaws that made its practical use limited and often caused complex scenarios that required extensive troubleshooting. Connection Groups so far looks a lot more improved and hopefully it can be more easy to manage. Within the App-V Server or the SCCM 2012 SP1 there are easy to use ways to administrate these connection groups and deploy – SCCM was previously discussed here.

Since App-V 5 is administrated via powershell and therefore we need to look into the requirements for setting up a Connection Group. I’ll assume that you have installed the App-V client and imported its powershell module. First – we need to define an XML-file that sets the order of the application packages.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<AppConnectionGroup AppConnectionGroupId="8601afe3-b565-3143-8ae1-e4f5bba61dcc" VersionId="0ff7a09e-8ed2-654d-80b5-f252ca9037d3" Priority="0" DisplayName="Freemind" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/appv/2010/virtualapplicationconnectiongroup">
<Packages>
<Package PackageId="5955a77b-b40f-4c1a-a9a4-b798591e8524" VersionId="8946295f-751e-4b4d-a887-eda103bb88f2">
</Package>
<Package PackageId="ea883402-3266-43ff-b4bc-a3bf0ad1905b" VersionId="3abd54ec-6055-43c1-95c5-11a827c6c992">
</Package>
</Packages>
</AppConnectionGroup>

Lets go through the XML-file

AppConnectionGrouId needs to be a unique identifier for Connection Group. In case you are out of imagination in creating one – you can run the following powershlle-command to get one;

 [guid]::NewGuid() 

This is the output;

You can repeat the same for VersionID – which needs to be updated for each version of the Connection Group.

DisplayName can be anything – SCCM sets a unique ID that it keeps track of. Since we are doing this manually – an easy to understand name might be good.

The next section is AppV Packages. You will need to know the PackageID and the VersionID from the packages you are connecting. This information can be retrieved by running the powershell command Get-AppVClientPackages

Once we have created the file – named freemind.xml in this case, we can actually go by setting up the connection group. The below one-liner will add the Connection Group and publish the Connection Group globally (for all users that is).

Add-AppvClientConnectionGroup -Path 'c:\media\freemind.xml' | Enable-AppvClientConnectionGroup –Global

If you want to disable a Connection Group -  you can use the name you set to easily locate it and disable the Connection Group.

 Get-AppvClientConnectionGroup -name freemind | Disable-AppvClientConnectionGroup

App-V 5 has introduced some new ways to configure an application – apart from whats available in the GUI. You can see two .xml-files (apart from the report.xml) generated along with the rest of the package – in three other blog articles these were posted and given some thought. Lets ponder though – how do you deploy these using Configuration Manager 2012 SP1 CTP2 ?

Well – its easier than you imagine. Lets begin with our package!

As you can see – this is the new standard-output of an App-V 5 sequence. Lets keep the names – that is very important. Don’t rename any files and keep the files intact within the folder. Especially the _deploymentconfig and _userconfig. You get to select the .appv file, but the others are needed aswell. Otherwise you might get this;

Unable to find the specified file.

or this;

Imported filed, fix errors and try again.

Those are some awesome error messages, right? Try to avoid renaming files (sometimes it works anyways) or removing them from the App-V folder – its for your own good.

So we have established that the _deploymentconfig.xml and _userconfig.xml are necessary files that are actually used. We can now move forward in the wizard.

Next up is to verify our Deployment Type and in particular the Publishing-tab within our Deployment Type configuration.

Under Publishing we can select what applications should be available . Its not quite clear when this goes into effect. Since we have imported the _deploymentconfig.xml already – that file isn’t modified when we toggle the publishing of an application. Verifying the contents within the distribution point shows an unaltered file, whereas the file has been modified once it reaches the client.

File on the distribution point;

File on the client;

We can review the appenforce.log to see what takes place once a client receives the deployment.

This is the command line for adding the package;

powershell.exe -ExecutionPolicy Bypass import-module 'C:\Program Files\Microsoft Application Virtualization\Client\AppvClient\AppvClient.psd1';  Add-AppvClientPackage -Path 'C:\Windows\ccmcache\d\Mozilla Thunderbird 9.0.appv'

Applying the deployment-configuration (because this was deployed to a machine)

powershell.exe -ExecutionPolicy Bypass import-module 'C:\Program Files\Microsoft Application Virtualization\Client\AppvClient\AppvClient.psd1';  Set-AppvClientPackage -PackageID 2d9b4db6-3386-4823-8d33-07c0caa4aaf4 -VersionID 7749fb34-1764-4f61-9161-3d0061bd8268  -DynamicDeploymentConfiguration 'C:\Windows\CCM\SystemTemp\AppVTempData\2d9b4db6-3386-4823-8d33-07c0caa4aaf4_DeployConfig.xml'

Publishing it for the users – since its deployed to a machine the –Global is used.

powershell.exe -ExecutionPolicy Bypass import-module 'C:\Program Files\Microsoft Application Virtualization\Client\AppvClient\AppvClient.psd1';  Publish-AppvClientPackage -PackageID 2d9b4db6-3386-4823-8d33-07c0caa4aaf4 -VersionID 7749fb34-1764-4f61-9161-3d0061bd8268 –Global

As you can see – C:\Windows\CCM\SystemTemp\AppVTempData is a temporary working folder for the SCCM-client to store these configuration files for when they are needed. The files can be reviewed in clear text and gives a chance to see what is actually deployed. Mozilla Thunderbird was deployed successfully (according to SCCM), but no application is visible. Since we can verify the configuration file used – we can see that the application was disabled entirely. This could either be done by the configuration-file we imported or through the GUI within SCCM.

What happens if we alter a configuration file after we have imported it? We can easily choose to create a new Deployment Type and reimport the package;

Since we reimport the package – the configuration files will be re-read and available for deployment. Since the distribution point now only stores a file once – we don’t need to worry about how many times we import a specific package (as long as the files are the same). We could have 5, 20 maybe even 100’s of Mozilla Thunderbird – all tailored for different needs within our configuration files!

Just created a Compliance-baseline for the App-V 4.6 client to be used within System Center Configuration Manager 2012 .

Above is a sample screenshot of the items that are beeing checked – some of them contains remediation tasks, others are just for information. There are quite a few checks there that should be verified if they suite your environment – this is the recommended practices of me, myself and not Microsoft or anyone else. The CAB-file can be download here; SCCM2k12MSAppV46baseline.cab

The checks;

AllowDisconnectedOperation
Enables or disables disconnected operation. Default value is 1 enabled, and 0 is disabled. When disconnected operations are enabled, the App-V client can start a loaded application even when it is not connected to an App-V Management Server.
Checks for 1
Remediate: Yes

AllowIndependtFileStreaming
Indicates whether streaming from file will be enabled regardless of how the client has been configured with the APPLICATIONSOURCEROOT parameter. If set to FALSE, the transport will not enable streaming from files even if the OSD HREF or the APPLICATIONSOURCEROOT parameter contains a file path.
0×0=False (default)
0×1=True
Checks for 1
Remediate: Yes

App-V Version
Checks the version of sfttray.exe
Checks for 4.6.1.30121
Remediate: No

AutoLoadTarget
Indicates what will be auto-loaded when any given AutoLoad triggers occur. Bit mask values:
(0) None: No auto-loading, regardless of what triggers may be set.
(1) PreviouslyUsed (default): If any AutoLoad trigger is enabled, load only the packages where at least one application in the package has been previously used—that is, started or precached.
(2) All: If any AutoLoad trigger is enabled, all applications in the package (per package) or all packages (set for client) will be automatically loaded, whether or not they have ever been started.
Checks for between 0-2
Remediate: No

AutoLoadTriggers
AutoLoad is a client runtime policy configuration parameter that enables the secondary feature block of a virtualized application to be streamed to the client automatically in the background. The AutoLoad triggers are flags to indicate events that initiate auto-loading of applications. AutoLoad implicitly uses background streaming to enable the application to be fully loaded into cache. The primary feature block will be loaded first, and the remaining feature blocks will be loaded in the background to enable foreground operations, such as user interaction with applications, to take place and provide optimal perceived performance.
Bit mask values:
(0) Never: No bits are set (value is 0), no auto loading will be performed, because there are no triggers set.
(1) OnLaunch: Loading starts when a user starts an application.
(2) OnRefresh: Loading starts when the application is published. This occurs whenever the package record is added or updated—for example, when a publishing refresh occurs.(4) On
Checks for between 0-5
Remediate: No

Cache Percent Free Space
This information is captured on the client computer by a performance counter called “App Virt Client Cache” and it has three components; “Cache size (MB)”, “Cache free space (MB)” and “% free space”. You can use Performance Monitor to display the information graphically.
http://blogs.technet.com/b/appv/archive/2009/04/06/how-to-determine-the-space-remaining-in-the-app-v-client-cache.aspx
Checks for greater than 20 %
Remediate: No

Drive Letter
Drive where App-V file system will be mounted, if it is available. This value is set either by the listener or the installer, and it is read by the file system.
Checks for Q:
Remediate: No

File Size
Maximum size in megabytes of file system cache file. If you change this value in the registry, you must set State to 0 and reboot.
Checks for must exist
Remediate: No

LogMinSeverty
Controls which messages are written to the log. The value indicates a threshold of what is logged—everything less than or equal to that value is logged. For example, a value of 0×3 (Warning) indicates that Warnings (0×3), Errors (0×2), and Critical Errors (0×1) are logged.
Value Range: 0×0 = None, 0×1 = Critical, 0×2 = Error, 0×3 = Warning, 0×4 = Information (Default), 0×5 = Verbose.
The log level is configurable from the Application Virtualization (App-V) client console and from the command prompt. At a command prompt, the command sftlist.exe /verboselog will increase the log level to verbose. For more information on command-line details see
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=141467http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=141467
Checks for between 0-4
Remediate: No

LogRolloverCount
Defines the number of backup copies of the log file that are kept when it is reset. The valid range is 0–9999. The default is 4. A value of 0 means no copies will be kept.
Checks for between 1-4
Remediate: No

Online
Enables or disables offline mode. If set to 0, the client will not communicate with App-V Management Servers or publishing servers. In disconnected operations, the client can start a loaded application even when it is not connected to an App-V Management Server. In offline mode, the client does not attempt to connect to an App-V Management Server or publishing server. You must allow disconnected operations to be able to work offline. Default value is 1 enabled (online), and 0 is disabled (offline).
Checks for between 0-1
Remediate: No

Requireauthorizationifcached
Indicates that authorization is always required, whether or not an application is already in cache. Possible values:
0=False: Always try to connect to the server. If a connection to the server cannot be established, the client still allows the user to launch an application that has previously been loaded into cache.
1=True (default): Application always must be authorized at startup. For RTSP streamed applications, the user authorization token is sent to the server for authorization. For file-based applications, file ACLs control whether a user may access the application.
Restart the sftlist service for the change to take effect.
Checks for 0
Remediate: Yes

SystemEventLogLevel

Indicates the logging level at which log messages are written to the NT event log. The value indicates a threshold of what is logged—that is, everything equal to or less than that value is logged. For example, a value of 0×3 (Warning) indicates that Warnings (0×3), Errors (0×2), and Critical Errors (0×1) are logged.
Value Range
0×0 = None
0×1 = Critical
0×2 = Error
0×3 = Warning
0×4 = Information (Default)
0×5 = Verbose
Checks for between 0-4
Remediate: No

TrayVisibility
Checks for 2
Remediate: No

Update as of 2012-09-06
Multiple MDM
You may also see these client launch errors, especially on Terminal Servers:
 
xxxxxx-xxxxxx03-00001002
xxxxxx-xxxxxx0A-0000E005
xxxxxx-xxxxxx 0C-0000003C
 
Instead of, or in addition to these, you may also notice periodic hangs, as well as a frequent depletion of paged pool memory resources.
 
To prevent this issue, during the initial sequencing of Office 2007 (or via modification of the existing package) we recommend that you remove the Microsoft Office Diagnostics and Office Source Engine services from any sequenced package running Office 2007 or any sequence that includes any Office 2007 application.  This will require the removal of these virtual services under the Virtual Services Tab in the Softgrid/App-V Sequencer

http://blogs.technet.com/b/appv/archive/2009/01/22/reducing-resource-requirements-for-computers-running-virtualized-microsoft-office-2007.aspx
Checks for less than 1
Remediate: No

Multiple OSE
You may also see these client launch errors, especially on Terminal Servers:

xxxxxx-xxxxxx03-00001002
xxxxxx-xxxxxx0A-0000E005
xxxxxx-xxxxxx 0C-0000003C

Instead of, or in addition to these, you may also notice periodic hangs, as well as a frequent depletion of paged pool memory resources.

To prevent this issue, during the initial sequencing of Office 2007 (or via modification of the existing package) we recommend that you remove the Microsoft Office Diagnostics and Office Source Engine services from any sequenced package running Office 2007 or any sequence that includes any Office 2007 application. This will require the removal of these virtual services under the Virtual Services Tab in the Softgrid/App-V Sequencer

http://blogs.technet.com/b/appv/archive/2009/01/22/reducing-resource-requirements-for-computers-running-virtualized-microsoft-office-2007.aspx
Checks for less than 1
Remediate: No

Multiple Office Diagnostics
You may also see these client launch errors, especially on Terminal Servers:

xxxxxx-xxxxxx03-00001002
xxxxxx-xxxxxx0A-0000E005
xxxxxx-xxxxxx 0C-0000003C

Instead of, or in addition to these, you may also notice periodic hangs, as well as a frequent depletion of paged pool memory resources.

To prevent this issue, during the initial sequencing of Office 2007 (or via modification of the existing package) we recommend that you remove the Microsoft Office Diagnostics and Office Source Engine services from any sequenced package running Office 2007 or any sequence that includes any Office 2007 application. This will require the removal of these virtual services under the Virtual Services Tab in the Softgrid/App-V Sequencer

http://blogs.technet.com/b/appv/archive/2009/01/22/reducing-resource-requirements-for-computers-running-virtualized-microsoft-office-2007.aspx
Checks for less than 1
Remediate: No

Citrix – LogoffSyscheckModules
If you are running Citrix XenApp on a Terminal Server/RDS Server, you could be waiting on another seamless session to logoff. A good thing to verify is that the Citrix WFSHELL process releases SFTDCC properly
http://madvirtualizer.wordpress.com/2011/08/03/
Checks for sftdcc.exe
Remediate: No

If you have attempted to import a license into a Citrix License Server 11.9 and only got the following as feedback;

Could not transcode to local code page

Well – that could be because you have attempted to download several licenses into a single file. You should select one license and download it into a single file – that file will import successfully.

A thread on the matter;
11.9 License Server won’t read license file

Within the Technet-forums there was an issue posted regarding a problem with sequencing Open Text Document Pipeline Base and it referred to several error messages that were generated while attempting to run the installer in monitoring mode when using the App-V 4.6 SP1 / SP2 beta sequencer

The main culprit seems to be that as part of the installation - a service is started, or as happens while sequencing; it tries to start the service that was installed. This actually assumes the fact that you would install the service to run within the local-system context – and not as a service account as that is not supported within App-V 4.x. Since the service can not be started - if you cancel, the installation rollbacks and renders your capture useless.

This service is called Archive Spawner – or spawner for short. If opening services.msc and choosing manually to initiate the startup – you get a message that tells you the service started and then stopped again. If attempting to check the properties of the service you would receive another error message with saying this;  ”The parameter is incorrect”.

Obviously – we don’t care about any parameters as the service started – and then stopped. The question here is - why it stopped? Lets attempt to start the process that would normally run in the context of the local-system account or a service-account for this piece of software;

C:\Program Files\Common Files\Open Text\Spawner\bin>spawner.exe
spawner: cannot open file \00SPAWNER.conf

Well – thats odd. A file that attempts to be opened using the path of \00SPAWNER.conf. Verifying the activity with Process Monitor you can see that the service (spawner.exe) attempts to read the file c:\00SPAWNER.conf – which isn’t there. (yes – you can run Process Monitor while in monitoring mode – you just need to ensure that its properly started and loaded its device driver before you start any monitoring.). Poking around the package tells you that the file is placed here; C:\ProgramData\Open Text\CONF_DIRS.
As an installation while not beeing in monitoring mode doesn’t generate this error – what could be different while in monitoring mode?

Poking around the system we can see that the following system environment variables are created;

If checking via a command prompt – the following happens;

As you can see – no EMC variables are seen from within the Command-Prompt. This seems odd. As the Technet-forum post above stated – this seems to be succesfully sequenced within App-V 5 – so there has obviously been improvements to that area. Comparing the Command-Prompt output of “SET” while installing this application natively – does show our EMC environment variables and also shows them in the GUI.  What can we do to resolve this problem? Creating the variables via the GUI does not seem to make any difference (they are already there), setting them via the SETX -command doesn’t do anything while we are in monitoring mode (not more visible after we run the command) – however, we could attempt to reset everything and set them as a prerequisite.

Run the following commands on the sequencer before you start the sequencer;

setx ECM_CONF_DIRS "C:\ProgramData\Open Text\CONF_DIRS" /M
setx ECM_DOCUMENT_PIPELINE_BASE "C:\Program Files\Open Text\BASE Document Pipeline 9.7.1" /M
setx ECM_DOCUMENT_PIPELINE_CONF "C:\ProgramData\Open Text\BASE Document Pipeline" /M
setx ECM_LOG_DIR "C:\ProgramData\Open Text\var\LogDir" /M
setx ECM_VAR_DIR "C:\ProgramData\Open Text\var" /M

Once you are in monitoring mode – the installation will now pass on without issues. Since there isn’t any entry point (aka virtual extension) for this application – there will not be an OSD-file generated. OSD-files usually contain the environment variable configuration – so you will need create a dummy file (shortcut to whatever you like) inorder to verify if the environment variables are captured within your package (most likely not) and actually show up within the OSD-file. You could attempt to run the setx-commands while in monitoring mode, that will unlikely ensure that they end up in the package as they already exist within the sequencer. Worst case – simply choose to open this in Edit Mode and then add the environment variables under the OSD-tab in the sequencer.

So – this topic has surfaced quite a few times. So, here is a guide on howto update Microsoft Sharepoint Designer 2010. This assumes that you have a created a package of Microsoft Sharepoint Designer 2010 already.

1. Revert you sequencer and ensure that you are allowed to use Windows Update.
2. Ensure it has Microsoft Update is installed
3.  Ensure that Microsoft Update can be started within the sequencer;
Open the .SPRJ-file with Notepad.

Locate the line AllowMUADuringMonitoring and check the Value=”Yes”. If it doesn’t – change it and save the file.

4. Ensure that Office 2010 Deployment Kit for App-V is installed with the property SPD=1. You will need the bits the corresponds to your operating system version.

5. Start the Application Virtualization Sequencer. Choose to Modify an existing Package and choose to Add new application.

6. Select your package, pass-through the report. Choose to perform a custom installation

7. Run Microsoft Update and apply the desired updates.

8. Check I am finished installing and click Next.

9. If there are new configurations that require you to start Sharepoint Designer – you may do so. Otherwise its recommended to skip the manage first use tasks step when performing an upgrade. Click Next

10. Skip the post-package report and click Next. Choose Stop Now (unless you wish to optimize the package).

11. Save the package.

When you download the new bits for the Visual C++ 2012 redistributable – it comes with an .EXE. This .EXE file is very nice for the common end-user, but working as an Configuration Administrator you are taught the hard-life of using MSIs. By providing the SCCM GUI with an MSI you are provided with so much improvement in the deployment process that doing it manually just seems like a lot of hardwork. For example, you get autodetection if the component is placed on the machine already!

For the older versions of Visual C++ 2010 redistributable you could either via a command-line switch or using an extraction tool (such as Winrar) get the msi-file from the package. The new breed of .EXE-file wasn’t so kind to us and there required some work (and a minor challenge) before it gave up the goods.

1. Install the software
2. Review the registry and find the following keys (these examples are for x64);
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\{A2CB1ACB-94A2-32BA-A15E-7D80319F7589}]

As you can see – the install source is; C:\ProgramData\Package Cache\{A2CB1ACB-94A2-32BA-A15E-7D80319F7589}v11.0.50727\packages\vcRuntimeMinimum_amd64\
The name is Microsoft Visual C++ 2012 x64 Minimum Runtime.
Minimum ? Sounds like there could be more…

Looking at; HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\{AC53FC8B-EE18-3F9C-9B59-60937D0B182C}
There is;

We can now extract two MSI-files – from the directories;
Additional runtime; C:\ProgramData\Package Cache\{AC53FC8B-EE18-3F9C-9B59-60937D0B182C}v11.0.50727\packages\vcRuntimeAdditional_amd64\

Minimum; C:\ProgramData\Package Cache\{A2CB1ACB-94A2-32BA-A15E-7D80319F7589}v11.0.50727\packages\vcRuntimeMinimum_amd64\

If simply executing the extracted MSIs you get the following;

To install this product, please run Setup.exe. For other installation options, see the Installation section of ReadMe.htm.

Simply add the property ADDEPLOY=1 to bypass the check!

Ever wondered howto check the “On fast networks, connect using HTTP first, then connect using TCP/IP” from an Exchange 2010 environment and its Autodiscover functionality? Per default when configuring a profile – it is not checked. This is best practice from Microsoft if your users are connecting internally once in a while. Unfortunately there isn’t any logical name for this anywhere, but if you review the documentation for Powershell commands within Exchange 2010 – it all becomes clear. Set-outlookprovider (which is primarily used to configure the Certificate Principal Name) is the command to use and there is even an example which states the following;

This example causes Outlook 2010 clients to connect exclusively through RPC over HTTP (Outlook Anywhere) before trying RPC over TCP connections when connecting over the Internet

Reading the clarification for the OutlookProviderFlags makes it even more clear;

The OutlookProviderFlags parameter specifies that Outlook 2010 clients should connect using RPC over HTTP (Outlook Anywhere) before trying RPC over TCP connections. This increases the speed at which Outlook 2010 clients will connect when clients are primarily accessing Exchange over the Internet. The value can be set to ServerExclusiveConnect or to None to clear the flags. For Outlook 2010 clients that access Exchange over both organization intranets and the Internet, the recommended value is None, which is also the default setting.

So – to set the “ On fast networks, connect using HTTP first then Connect using TCP/IP “ you simply run the following powershell command;

Set-OutlookProvider EXPR -OutlookProviderFlags:ServerExclusiveConnect 

After you run this command you might require to restart World Wide Web Publishing Service – as per a more extensive blog-article.

Its unchecked in the below screen shot;

Well.. SCCM 2012 makes a lot of things easier… For example – getting all the Visual C++ Redistributables in place.

The above is a picture of all the things that are layed down when deploying the App-V 5 Beta 2 client. Most of the list can be found in the older article on howto setup a packaging machine, some are new (such as the Windows Management Framework 3.0 or http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2533623) and others are skipped (J# 1.1..).

If you are sequencing or deploying Skype (now provided by Microsoft) within your enterprise (using the business edition), it might be worth knowing howto disable updates.

Set this registry key;

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Skype\Phone]
"DisableVersionCheck"=dword:00000001

A couple of notes on howto sequence SAP GUI successfully within Application Virtualization 4.6. This requires that you know howto install SAP GUI. This recipe will not contain the steps to install SAP GUI. It will only contain App-V specific parts. This recipe is based on SAP GUI 7.2

This is not for anyone who does not know howto install and configure SAP GUI and all its prerequisites.

I am not kidding on that part – if you have questions on the below steps, don’t try this.

Pre sequencing

Ensure you have a clean sequencing machine with no Microsoft Office components installed.

Run the following command;

REG ADD HKCR\CLSID\{00020820-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}\InprocHandler32 /f
REG ADD HKCR\CLSID\{00020820-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}\InprocServer32 /f

This is prep work to resolve exports to Excel and the Excel-in-place feature – especially when you get the blank spreadsheet.

During sequencing

Install SAP GUI to the Q: – drive

Create new folder:  Q:\<suite name>\SAP\Common
Move (not copy) the following files from C:\Windows\system32 to Q:\<suite name>\SAP\Common: librfc32.dll, SAPbtmp.dll, icuin34.dll, and libsapu16vc90.dll
From Control Panel, add Q:\<suite name>\SAP\Common to the PATH environment variable.

The above action resolves any error messages relating to launching SAPLOGON.exe

Run the following commands;

REG DELETE HKCR\CLSID\{00020820-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}\InprocHandler32 /f
REG DELETE HKCR\CLSID\{00020820-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}\InprocServer32 /f

This actually resolves the issues when using Excel-in-place feature and getting a blank spreadsheet.

Post sequencing

Remove the following keys

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Installer

The above action resolves the conflict that occurs when installing SAPs packaged VC++ redists  (which are installed silently in the background) ontop of all other VC++ redists and causing errors when using a native Office.
Error message is; “Microsoft Excel has not been installed by the current user. Please run setup to install the application”

Ensure LOCAL_INTERACTION_ALLOWED is set to true

The above ensures interaction with locally installed applications and sequenced prerequisites

[repost]

To continue to highlight successful sequencing and the efforts and mindset that goes into it – here comes the a second interview. Fellow Microsoft MVP, who I actually have met in person, Tsuneyuki Mitsugi from Japan who posted a very specific fix for resolving a PDApp.exe crash – quite common when sequencing several Adobe applications. Tsuneyuki unfortunately doesn’t speak English and therefore this interview is only possible by using the powers of interpretation and Google Translate. Even though there is a barrier of lacking a common language, lets hope that everyone can enjoy the below answers and understand the importance of sharing knowledge.
(another fix by Tsuneyuki for Quicktime)

Hi Nicke Källén san

It answers your question.
Please E-mail when you do not understand the translation. English

>How long experience do you have of App-v (or softgrid?) and what type of environments have you been working with  (TS, desktop)?
From 2005, since it was Softricity Softgrid – working with a lot of desktops.
Original;
It is from 2005. It does from Softricity SoftGrid. There are a lot of Desktop.

>What communities are you active in? Any public blog / forums that you might show up in?
It acts in a Japanese Microsoft forum of App-V
Twitter @tunemicky
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/forums/ja-JP/appvja/threads/

>What is installed on your computer? Whats the must-have application you always use?
Microsoft Office2010（Excel,Word,PowerPoint,Access,Outlook）
Visual Studio 2010
Firefox
Google Chrome
IE9

>Since you posted a recipe for Photoshop Elements – lets ask how that came about
>How long did it take?
3 takes
First time is fail
Information on the forum was found by the Google

Second time is succuess
It moved when executing it based on the information.
But PDapp.exe crash issue happen
Third time is success perfectory
It moved without trouble when the DLL version of the module of the third error was updated and it corresponded.
It fed back to the forum.

>What problems did you experience and how did you find the solutions to them?
Because PDapp.exe had crashed by the application error, the event viewer was confirmed.
Side by Side (SxS) error had occurred.
The “Resource Hacker” confirmed PDapp.exe.
http://angusj.com/resourcehacker/
Embedded Application Manifest file is setting fixed version Microsoft.VC90.CRT Runtime requirements
It is difference version dll.
Next I check it from c:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\OOBE\PDApp\core\Microsoft.VC90.CRT files version
Next step
I check it from Q:\<PACKAGE_ROOT_DIR>\VFS\CSIDL_PROGRAM_FILES_COMMON\Adobe\OOBE\PDApp\core\Microsoft.VC90.CRT
This problem is that perhaps, DLL of the version difference is in the Microsoft.VC90.CRT folder.

>Any special tools in use while troubleshooting?
Sysinternal Tools
SoftGrid Sequencer version 4.1.0.56
version 4.1.0.56 sequencer is not generation *.config files , Microsoft.VC90.CRT folder
Because it sequencer version not support SxS

>How many applications have you sequenced?
over 200 apps

>Was the solutions above mostly based on experience or from the general documentation of MS / elsewhere?
I read MS documentation English ,Japanese
Aaron Parker’s Blog
http://blog.stealthpuppy.com/appvrecipes/

SoftGridGuru
http://www.softgridguru.com/

AppDeploy.com
http://www.appdeploy.com/

>How come you decided to share your solution?
It acts in a Japanese Microsoft forum of App-V
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/forums/ja-JP/appvja/threads/

>Any special thanks you wish to send-out?
Aaron Parker
Aaron Parker’s Blog!! very nice

>What improvements do you wish to see in app-v?
Not generation *.config files , Microsoft.VC90.CRT folder!
like a version 4.1.0.56 sequencer
it is not generation *.config files , Microsoft.VC90.CRT folder
Because it sequencer version not support SxS

best regards
@tunemicky

Virtualizing applications using App-V 4.X and even App-V 5 does not allow to virtualize drivers, as they are injected directly into the Windows kernel (simplified, of course). Using App-V 5 there has been new progress in easing the delivery of both driver and the application. With a few exceptions, drivers can often be easily extracted from the source-files or the installed application itself. Looking at Dymo Label Writer – you can see that there is a sub-folder within the installation directory called drivers.

Reviewing the contents you can see that there is an executable file named dpinst.exe and if you run dpinst.exe /?, the following help is shown.

dpinst.exe: installs and uninst alls driver packages. By default, the tool searches the current directory and tries to install all dri ver packages found.</pre>
Usage: dpinst.exe [/U INF-file] [/S | /Q][/LM][/P][/F][/SH][/SA][/A][/PATH Path][/EL][/L LanguageID][/C][/D][/Lo gTitle Title][/SW][/? | /h | /help]

/U INF-file    Uninstall a driver package (INF-file).

/S | /Q        Silent (Quiet) mode. Suppresses the Device Installation Wizard and any dialogs popped-up by the operating system.

/LM    Legacy mode. Accepts unsigned driver packages and packages with missing  files. These packages won't install on the latest version of Windows.

/P     Prompt if the driver package to be installed is not better than the cur rent one.

/F     Force install if the driver package is not better than the current one.

/SH    Scans hardware for matching devices and only copies and installs those drivers for which a device is present. Only valid for Plug and Play drivers.

/SA    Suppress the Add/Remove Programs entry normally created for each driver  package.

/A     Install all or none.

/PATH Path     Search for driver packages under the given path.

/EL    Enables all languages not explicitly listed in the XML file.

/L LanguageID          Tries to use the given language in all UI. Useful for l ocalization tests.

/SE    Suppress the EULA.

/C     Dump logging output to attached Console (Windows XP and above).

/D     Delete driver binaries on uninstall.

/SW    Suppresses the Device Installation Wizard, the operating system might s till pop-up user dialogs.

/? | /h | /help        Shows this help.

Once you wrap up your App-V 5 package you can see that there is a file called DymoLabel Writer 8.4_DeploymentConfig.xml. This contains the setup for a package once its added to a computer and can be used to provide an elevated way of performing actions when deploying a package. Using Powershell or SCCM 2012 this deployment file can be used to provide additional configuration when deployed.

Lets leave the file intact for the most part – it contains any options that were set during sequencing as a standard sample file. Find the section;
<!– Machine Scripts Example – customize and uncomment to use machine scripts –>

Adding this;

<!-- Machine Scripts Example - customize and uncomment to use machine scripts --></pre>
<MachineScripts>

<AddPackage>

<Path>C:\media\Drivers\dpinst.exe</Path>

<Arguments>/s</Arguments>

<Wait RollbackOnError="false" Timeout="30"/>

</AddPackage>

</MachineScripts>

The script explains itself. When the package is added – it will be executed. The timeout is 30 seconds and it will not rollback the package deployment if it fails.

To add it using Powershell (SCCM does this automatically for you), fire up a Powershell console and start coding. First, allowed remotely signed scripts to run

Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned

Import the App-V Client module

Import-Module AppVClient

Add the package with the configuration file and then publish it in a globla-context

Add-AppvClientPackage '.\DymoLabel Writer 8.4.appv' -DynamicDeploymentConfiguration '.\DymoLabel Writer 8.4_DeploymentConfig.xml' | Publish-AppvClientPackage –Global

If you haven’t enabled package scripts to run, you will get this error in the App-V Operational Log;

Log Name:      Microsoft-AppV-Client/Operational
Source:        Microsoft-AppV-Client
Date:          10/15/2012 11:05:18 PM
Event ID:      4004
Task Category: Execute Embedded Scripts
Level:         Information
Keywords:      Embedded Scripting
User:          APPVCLIENT\AppV Win7 x86 Client
Computer:      appvclient
Description: Running machine script defined in package {2b838582-4925-4a53-99a2-0aaf216df77d} for event AddPackage. Script execution was initiated by User Account: 'S-1-5-21-1739582198-759874057-429165515-1000'; command line: 'C:\media\Drivers\dpinst.exe /s'.

You can enable scripts to run for the App-V Client via Powershell;

Set-AppVClientConfiguation –EnablePackageScripts 1

This shows up under Programs and Features once we are done;

Yeah – its pretty cool. Create a folder with the installation file named c:\source. As sample media VLC will be used. The installation-file is called; vlc-2.0.2-win32.exe

Run the following from Powershell to setup the sequencer cmdlets.

Set-Executionpolicy RemoteSigned
Import-module appvsequencer

Run the below to create two directories and then run through the installer.

$package = 'VLC'
new-item c:\source\$package -type directory
new-item c:\$package -type directory
New-AppvSequencerPackage -Name $package -Path c:\source\$package -Installer C:\source\vlc-2.0.2-win32.exe -PrimaryVirtualApplicationDirectory C:\$package –FullLoad

The final package gets created within c:\source\VLC

App-V 5 provided the option to separate the reporting that the App-V Client enables from both SCCM and App-V Management server, and it even makes it possible to use with a standalone deployment using Powershell and MSI.

I will not provide a guide on howto setup the server components, it’s a separate topic and shouldn’t be to complex. However, configuring the client can be a bit tricky, at the same time it is very easy to verify that it is setup properly.

Configure it through Powershell;

After you have imported the App-V Client Powershell module;

Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned
Import-Module AppVClient

You can access the current configuration of the App-V Client;

Get-AppVClientConfiguration

You can see that per default – all configuration relating to reporting is blank. Use the below command-line to setup the functionality;

Set-AppvClientConfiguration -ReportingEnabled 1 -ReportingServerURL urlforyourserver -ReportingStartTime 0 -ReportingRandomDelay 10 -ReportingInterval 1

The above will enable reporting at 00:00 with a 10 minute randomized interval to not overload the server and update the server every 1 day. The server-url is as provided for –ReportingServerUrl (urlforyourserver).

This will actually setup a Scheduled task – which you can easily verify (apart from getting the set configuration using the Powershell example above);

I assume that you can tweak the time-intervals on your own.

This is quite easy and is very well documented at Technet.

You can also use Group Policy to provide the above configuration; ADMX-template

Application Virtualization 5 can be deployed with SCCM 2012 quite easily, but there are some prerequisites that needs to be sorted out and as a good practice several Visual C++ needs to be natively deployed. First of all – we need to collect all the prerequisites

Windows Management Framework 3.0
Visual C++ 2005 SP1 ATL Security Update
Visual C++ 2005 SP1 MFC Security Update
Visual C++ 2008 SP1
Visual C++ 2008 SP1 ATL Security Update
Visual C++ 2008 SP1 MFC Security Update
Visual C++ 2010 SP1
Visual C++ 2012
.NET Framework 4.5
Microsoft Security Advisor: Insecure library loading could allow remote execution

Next step is to extract all MSIs and / or any MSU files. Using 7zip most of the above executable files can be extracted by simply opening it in 7zip. Others might require a switch. See this as an example for VC++ 20;
Extract MSI from Visual C++ 2012 Redistributable

Next is to download the exported SCCM Application;
AppV5.zip

Within SCCM 2012 you simply open the applications node, right-click and choose Import Application;

After that you locate the downloaded ZIP-file;

After some workloads – all the applications will be defined.

Some words before you get started;

You need to test this within your environment. Your computers may reboot. It may not be the desired configuration. There may be specific configurations which aren’t tested. Test this and do it thoroughly within a lab-environment.

When you create a new package and deploy it, there usually are some things that might resurface after the initial testing of a package. Such details might be the placement and name of a shortcut.

If you open an existing package in the sequencer you have three options;

Select Update Application in Existing Package will present you with a stripped version of the sequencing wizard. Aiming for the Edit Package will head you straight to tab-based part of the wizard where we can review and edit the package on a more detailed level;

Ponder this image above for a few seconds and lets continue with the Add New Application option.

Selecting the Add New Application is the route of upgrading packages that I personally recommend. The reason are simple;

There are no options removed while performing the updated sequence.

The Edit Package route (obviously) takes us to the tab-based edit mode and doesn’t allow us to capture any additional installers.

What might havechanged in the App-V 5 sequencer as the ability to edit and alter shortcuts actually shows up in the Edit-mode after you have finished either Update Application in Existing Package or Add New Application and choose Customize. The below tabs can be seen. For some reason – Shortcuts and FTAs isn’t visible when selecting Edit, but for the rest of the possible routes the full view of tabs is visible.

There seems to be “light” Edit and “advanced” Edit. Advanced Edit seems to only be available by strolling along the two wizard-based routes, where as light Edit can be directly accessed when opening a package. Light Edit does not allow you to alter shortcuts and file type associations.

Microsoft best practice states that you should match your sequencing platform to your target platform. App-V has always given us an extremely well working platform to avoid that and still does. However, we have a game changer; Extension Points

What are extension points? More integration into the operating system to allow users to use their virtual applications in a manner they expect that it should simply work.

Did you just pop-in a music CD (not really ?) and had the default media player virtualized?

In App-V 4.X that would cause an issue due to the fact that the operating system had no awareness that you had a media player. Autoplay was not a supported extension point within App-V 4.

As you can see there are several possible choices in the above list on what todo when an Audio CD is inserted. If the application is virtualized – in an App-V 4.X environment it would not be visible in the above list.

App-V 5 changed the game and extended the list to support this scenario and much more. However, there is a new found reason of actually doing what Microsoft has been telling us todo all along.

Your sequencing platform should match your target platform.

For Windows 7 64-bit, you should sequence on Windows 7 64-bit.

In App-V 5 this is even more valid as several extension points are not following along if you attempt to sequence on a 32-bit platform and deploy to a 64-bit platform.

This coming February (8th) I will be speaking at the European App-V User Group. See the video from last time around at Vimeo. Hopefully we will have the chance to get all the sessions aswell!

Sign up now to attend this great event, close by the airport, in Amsterdam!