Sequencing applications with App-V 5.

1
Best Practices Edition
Kenny Buntinx Roy Essers
@KennyBuntinx @RoyEssers
Kbu@Coretech.be Roy.Essers@Skynet.be
Kenny Buntinx

Brussels, Belgium @KennyBuntinx

Enterprise
Http://www.scug.be Mobility

#MMSMOA
Roy Essers

Brussels, Belgium @Royessers

Application 5 years
- MS App-V Forum
Repackaging Product
- Appvirtguru.com
Engineer experience

#MMSMOA
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

Demo
Basic application sequencing :
Firefox ESR
Demo
Sequencing Add-ins for Firefox :
Silverlight / Flash
Plugin Scenario - Firefox

Firefox

Flash

Silverlight

…
Plugin Scenario - Firefox

Firefox Flash Silverlight …

Demo
Unattended sequencing by using
PowerShell
Demo
Advanced sequencing options
and custom script's
Demo
When everyone said: “it cannot
be done” sequencing
Troubleshooting App-V
some 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

Demo
When 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
 Discuss…
Ask your questions-real world answers!
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