Sequencing applications with App-V 5.1Best Practices Edition

Kenny Buntinx

@KennyBuntinx

Kbu@Coretech.be

Roy Essers

@RoyEssers

Roy.Essers@Skynet.be

#MMSMOA

@KennyBuntinxBrussels, Belgium

Kenny Buntinx

Enterprise MobilityHttp://www.scug.be

#MMSMOA

@Royessers

Application Repackaging

Engineer

- MS App-V Forum

- Appvirtguru.com

5 years

Product experience

Brussels, Belgium

Roy Essers

Assumptions

Assumptions

• You’re a ITPro that knows how an

operating system works

• You know at least what App-V

does

Key takeaways

Key takeaways

• Reason to move to 5.1 rapidly…

• Best practices to sequence advanced App-V Applications.

• How to detect common cross-application interactions and how to

handle them.

• Creating a Dynamic Connection group(s).

• Tools necessary to troubleshoot affecting virtual apps.

What’s lingering around ?

What App-V is certainly not doing for you

• Is NOT an application compatibility solution !

• Sequenced 64 bit apps cannot run on 32 bit platforms

• Is NOT a security product and does not provide any

guarantees for a secure environment !

Different Versions

• App-V 4.6

• Move away ASAP -> Extended support since June• Migration ? Running a test on 50 apps (running around 500)

• Experience 4.6 5.0 process sucked 50% resequencing• Experience 4.6 5.1 process improved 15% resequencing

• App-V 5.0 / SP1

• Just an alpha version

• App-V 5.0 SP2

• Application delivery speed improved (publishing times)• VC++ redist detected by sequencer• New extensions (drag-n-drop, Shell-handler, BHO, ActiveX, etc)• Folder redirection (for the user’s roaming AppData directory)• VFS Write (with Hotfix4)

Different Versions

• App-V 5.0 SP3

• Improved connectiongroups (optional, mix user/global, ignore package version, merge package

paths, set prio through GUI)• PVAD hidden by default (can be enabled by using the –EnablePVADControl switch)• User based RunVirtual• Publish/Unpublish restriction through GPO

• App-V 5.1

• Windows 10 support• Modernized HTML5 Server Management console• Reduced COW extensions exclusions (only exe, dll, com, ocx instead of 59)• Merged Environment variables (while in connectiongroups)• New Sequencer features• Consolidated client eventlog (just 1 instead of 30+)• Multiple scripts ability through Scriptrunner.exe

Building your sequencer The right way !

Best Practices - Preparing your sequencer

• Disable virusscan / Windows Defender

• Disable software updates

• Disable Configmgr client

• Disable scheduler tasks

• Perform Dot .Net optimalisation ! ( include link to article )

• Install Office yes/no ?

• Install VC++ redist yes/no ?

• Domain join yes/no ?

Best Practices - Preparing your sequencer

• Use virtualization snapshots to limit sequencing time

• Use an unattended installer (script)

• Fake PVAD (if you’re not on <SP3)

• Reboot yourself (manually) if software asks for it

• Understand what you cleanup

• Use an Exclusion list

• GPO’s will be ignored by default (can be removed from global exclusion)

• Fonts slow down

Best Practices - Preparing your sequencer

Use PowerShell to the rescue to prep you Sequencer !

You will find the script at Http://www.scug.be/sccm/blogs

Sequencing scenarios Demo

Sequencing Office

To be or not to be ? That is the ultimate question…

Tooling for Office Virtualization:

• Office 2010 : App-v deployment kit needs to be on the machine

Office 2010 Sequencing Kit for App-V

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2830069

• Office 2013 / 2016 : Use ODT

Deployment kit is included in App-V bubble

Sequencing Office

Office supported Microsoft scenarios

DemoBasic application sequencing : Firefox ESR

DemoSequencing Add-ins for Firefox :Silverlight / Flash

Plugin Scenario - Firefox

Firefox

Silverlight

Flash

…

Plugin Scenario - Firefox

Firefox SilverlightFlash …

DemoUnattended sequencing by using PowerShell

DemoAdvanced sequencing options and custom script's

DemoWhen everyone said: “it cannot be done” sequencing

Troubleshooting App-Vsome guidelines

Steps to troubleshoot

• Sequencer Report

• DCOM/COM+ : http://tinyurl.com/appvcomplus

• Drivers detected : extract from C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository

• Files Excluded through template ?

• Google it … for sure

• Expand package locally

• If ok, something is missing in the package (pre-req, removed file, etc)

• Or application isolation issue : Change COM Options, disable Objects.

Steps to troubleshoot

More Investigation needed ?

• ProcesExplorer -> Procmon

• Search for NAME NOT FOUND, PATH NOT FOUND and ACCESS DENIED, highlight them …

• Multiple locations checked before reporting SUCCESS, so not all NOT FOUND results are relevant

• SpyStudio

• Runs in user mode (no elevation needed), hooks the application directly, resulting in less noise

• Visual tree views of loaded/modified COM objects, files and registry keys

• Ability to compare traces between natively installed and virtualized apps

• Can also compare Procmon traces

Steps to troubleshoot

• Straight forward things to check:

• Deploy prereqs native : Fyi - Visual Studio Shell 2010 Redist

• Exclude folders : like C:\Programdata\Adobe\SLStore

• Don’t capture already at first launch

• Fix file paths that are too long

• Enable VFS-write

Steps to troubleshoot

• Not so straight forward things to check:

• In some cases use PVAD

• Apply Shims (such as WinXPSP3) :

Via registry

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags\Layers

Compatibility Toolkit (ACT) http://tinyurl.com/Appv5Shim1 http://tinyurl.com/Appv5Shim2

Steps to troubleshoot

• Not so straight forward things to check:

• If SP3 or lower, think of COW exclusions: http://tinyurl.com/appvcow

• If package is unable to find dll’s under SysWOW64 : place them next to your

executable

More read material : http://tinyurl.com/AppV5TroubleshootingGuide

DemoWhen troubleshooting comes into play : Notepad ++

Known issues yet to be fixed by Microsoft

Still to be fixed by Microsoft

• Manually adding regkey, last char will be stripped : add extra space at the end

• When removing a second/third AD-group when using custom configs, all will be set to default

• VFS-write not checked when using template through PowerShell (bug or feature)

• Publishing fails using HTTP, works using SMB : replace spaces with underscores

• IE 10/11 hangs : fixed with 5.1Hotfix1, or remove IE from virtual components

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