Category: App-V

Microsoft recently released Hotfix Package 5 for App-V 5.0 SP2. The first two below are items that I’ve wanted for a while:

1 – Enabling user-publishing in the Administrator context through Windows PowerShell

This hotfix release enables user-publishing to be done in the Administrator context through the following four Windows PowerShell cmdlets:

Publish-AppVClientPackage
Unpublish-AppVClientPackage
Enable-AppVClientConnectionGroup
Disable-AppVClientConnectionGroup

To do this, use the optional -UserSID parameter, and pass in the SID of the intended user.

2 – Connection groups cannot support both user-published and global-published packages

With this hotfix release, App-V 5.0 SP2 supports creating user-entitled connection groups that contain user-published and global-published packages by using Windows PowerShell.

3 – Deprecation of PackageStoreAccessControl support in App-V 5.0 SP2

Effective immediately, the PackageStoreAccessControl (PSAC) setting that was introduced in App-V 5.0 SP2 is being deprecated in both single-user and multiuser environments.

Download the hotfix and get more information here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2963211/en-us

Finally! The hotfix package we all have been waiting for.

For starters, grab the hotfix package here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2956985

The fixes are as follows:

• Enhancements to publishing and refresh performance have been made in all App-V deployment scenarios (RDS, Traditional Desktop, and VDI).
• Publishing and start performance have been implemented in non-persistent VDI or RDS deployments together with a user environment management (UEM) technology.
• Package converter has reported low success rates and low detection diagnosis.
• Virtual application packages that require write access to any files and folders in the virtual environment are incompatible with App-V 5.0.
• Upgraded versions of virtual application packages cannot be deployed in parallel with the original version of the package on the client.
• Virtual application packages that contain shortcuts to executable (.exe) files on a network share cannot start those executables if the system account does not have access to the network share.
• App-V Deployment configuration does not handle certain registry settings correctly.
• The Windows PowerShell window is listed on the taskbar during App-V Client startup.
• App-V Service crashes when packages are deployed through System Center Configuration Manager.

All things considered, I would consider this App-V 5.1 with the way Microsoft has been naming their product updates as of late. Things that caught my eye: Writable VFS, improved performance in VDI environments, and application shortcuts on the network.

As always, please use caution when deploying an update and test on a non-production system first.

An associate of mine recently discovered that we had two App-V 5 packages with the same GUID. This was not a case of mistakenly adding onto an existing package or anything weird like that. These were two new sequences made by reverting the snapshot on the virtual machine back to clean. This was a strange predicament because these are supposed to be randomly generated GUIDs with little chance of ever coming across the same GUID again. As we dug into it some more, we found two more packages with similar GUIDS, but different from the first. In total we have four sequences in our library that had duplicate GUIDs.

A quick search of the interwebs brought us to an article by Tim Mangan (godfather of App-V). I recommend anyone that will be sequencing applications read that article, but to sum up- Don’t take a snapshot of your virtual machine with it powered on. Make sure your snapshots are taken with the machine powered off. This will ensure the seed that creates the unique GUID will be different than the one that was saved in your snapshot. It may add a few seconds to your process, but its worth it in the end to avoid this issue.

Read more here: TMurgent

Back in Februrary, I reported that Hotfix Package 1 was out for App-V 5.0 SP2 which fixed an issue we saw with QuickBooks. A little over a week ago Microsoft released Hotfix Pakcage 2 for App-V 5.0 SP2 and has the following fixes:

Issue 1

Certain App-V 5.0 Service Pack 1 (SP1) packages do not work with the App-V 5.0 Service Pack 2 (SP2) clients.

This is an issue in AppV 5.0 SP2 that may appear to prevent some applications from starting. This includes packages that were sequenced on earlier versions of App-V 5.0. A valid App-V 5.0 package starts correctly and displays a GUI under App-V 5.0 SP1. Under App-V 5.0 SP2, the same package does not display a GUI, or it appears not to start.

Issue 2

A sharing violation occurs during profile synchronization when you use App-V 5.0.

When an App-V user on a Remote Desktop Services (RDS) server logs on after a period of inactivity, a sharing violation may occur when the profile is synchronized to the local cache. Therefore, some required files are not copied over, or they are renamed. In this situation, the profile becomes corrupted.

Issue 3

App-V client handlers leak in Remote Desktop Services (RDS).

When an RDS user logs off, App-V does not release some handles that it held specifically for this session, and therefore the resource cannot be reused. In this situation, the Session ID monotonically increases without reusing IDs from previously finished sessions.

Issue 4

A virtualized Excel Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) application fails if the path for the application contains Chinese or Japanese characters.

Issue 5

Certain applications don’t start after Hotfix Package 1 for APP-V 5.0 Service Pack 2 is applied.

Selected registry key values were removed after the deployment of Hotfix 1 for APP-V 5.0 Service Pack 2. This prevents some applications from starting. By reverting Hotfix Package 1 for APP-V 5.0 SP2, you restore these registry values to their default state. However, any existing customizations will be lost and will have to be redone.

You can request the download from Microsoft here.

Have you ever rebooted your App-V 5 sequencer and expect to continue sequencing, but was greeted with the following error?

Well, I certainly have and I had a feeling it had to do with joining the VM to the domain. Searching the web doesn’t bring up a lot of information on this specific error and the event log isn’t helpful either. What I did find was that Nicke has great a article about issues one may encounter when rebooting an App-V 5 sequencer.

Everything on the VM checked out until I got to the Scratch directory. I setup a test sequence and performed a reboot, but before I logged back into the machine I browsed to the Scratch directory via UNC and noticed it was empty. Well, if the Scratch directory is empty, how can you expect the sequencer to resume after a reboot? I made sure the directory was accessible and was being written to during a sequence. After some digging, I noticed the entire temp directory was cleared out upon reboot. This was confusing to me because there was no GPO applied to delete temp folders, redirect folders or set mandatory profiles. So I went ahead rolled my VM back to clean and set the following GPO:

Now I can reboot during the sequence and resume sequencing without any issues!