App-V 4.5 Service Pack 2 provides the latest updates to Microsoft Application Virtualization 4.5 code line. This is the first time the team has delivered via Windows Update. App-V 4.5 SP2 introduces:

• Enhanced failover protection or disaster recovery of your virtual application infrastructure: App-V data-store failover protection enables administrators to quickly recover from disasters and/or recycle servers for maintenance.
• Enable highly available application infrastructure: App-V 4.5 SP2 load balanced management servers can now leverage SQL server mirrored data-store to support high availability scenarios for line of business applications; with automatic failover protection not available with the previous versions of App-V.
• Data replication is now possible across geography: this enables organizations to recover from site wide failures faster.
• App-V 4.5 SP2 clients can now deploy Office 2010.

App-V 4.5 SP2 Release Notes

App-V 4.5 SP2 FAQ

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 : http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=8c4dfab6-7ef5-4188-a531-346cf9bfe7bf

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…

Since a lot of people are looking for the details on how to implement this feature I will point you into the right direction.

To begin with, First Justin Zarb has posted an article about this on his Blog. Which you can find here.

The official document that describes this feature can be found on this Microsoft Technet page.

• ActiveApp Scanner - Monitor which applications are actually used during a user’s Windows session and collect information about the user environment, like keyboard, regional settings, network mappings and connected printers.
• Virtual Battery Indicator - Displays the battery level of your local laptop battery inside a Remote Desktop session, and provides a warning when the level drops below a certain value.

Download from www.immidio.com/resourcekit

Migrate but innovate

What my story is about now, is to convince you that this is exactly the right time to innovate in your desktop infrastructure as well. Don’t just upgrade each component and think you’re done. Because you will end up with a brand new infrastructure with a lot of the same issues you have now. Also, requirements for the desktop infrastructures must have changed for your IT infrastructure during the last couple of years. Take new technologies into consideration when designing your new desktop infrastructure.

Most migrations to Windows XP within companies were done between 2002 and 2005. It’s been a while, a lot of things have changed in the mean time and everyone has gotten more dependent on IT –often more than they realize. And most probably your company is using more desktop applications than 5 to 10 years ago. The longer a company exists, the more legacy (applications) they have.

Besides the growing dependency and application landscape, technology in the desktop infrastructure area has progressed. Some examples:

• The deployment of Windows has improved
• The way drivers are handled is much better
• It’s possible and even easy to maintain one image for different types of hardware
• Deployment tools like WDS and Microsoft Deployment Tool (MDT) have matured
• Enterprise management solutions like System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) have matured
• The overall user experience has improved dramatically. It will in anyway feel new and not old for users. It could even be a boost of image for the IT department.

Your biggest migration issue

So, taking all this into consideration we can agree it’s time to start preparations to migrate to Windows 7 and try to do everything better that was done wrong the last time when designing and migrating to a Windows XP environment.

But I have one question: what was the biggest issue in your last desktop migration project?

I can hear you thinking: “the applications”.

Probably the desktop infrastructure was ready to go, but not all applications were packaged, (regression) tested or they simply did not work on the new platform. Probably the whole migration planning was not met because of those applications. There are two reasons why applications are such a problem with each desktop migration:

1. People tend to underestimate the work and wait until the migration project has begun, before starting to handle the applications for the migration. There is just so much time-consuming work to do. Especially running user acceptance tests tends to take a lot of organizational time.
2. The technical issues around the traditional form of application “installation” cost a lot of time and effort. For each application you need to create new packages or at least test them on the new platform to see whether the installer and application work, check for conflicts, etcetera. All time-consuming work mostly caused by the concept of “installation”. This is where Microsoft Application Virtualization (App-V) comes in-to play.

We all know the benefits and flexibility we gain from machine virtualization, but it does not generally solve application installation issues. Microsoft App-V does so by applying virtualization on another layer, decoupling the application from the underlying operating system. No more worries about application conflicts, no more regression testing on a app-to-app level. For more general information on how Microsoft App-V works, visit: http://www.microsoft.com/systemcenter/appv/techoverview.mspx

App-V migration benefits

Because most time constraints in a desktop migration project are caused by the technical issues around applications, using Microsoft App-V will provide many benefits to help achieve your planning goals.

1. Sequencing an application (i.e. packaging for App-V), generally speaking is faster than (re-)packaging an application into .MSI format.
2. Almost no regression testing necessary. Applications run isolated in their own virtual environment. Virtualized applications do need to be tested on the OS to which you want to deploy. Most problems around virtualized applications that do not work once they are deployed are caused by inadequate app-to-OS testing.
3. Application delivery through App-V streaming technology is on-demand and very fast compared to “traditional” software delivery, keeping OS images small and making them fast to deploy. Also there is much less worry about lengthy waits for the applications to be deployed to the users on their freshly installed PC.
4. Updates are only made to the central package, no more praying that your 10.000 advertised update packages were successful.

If you have not experienced a desktop migration in detail, please talk to someone who has and you will see that these three points would have saved a lot of time and issues at that time.

Not migrating any time soon

The reality is that not all environments will be migrated to a Windows 7 desktop environment right away. Still I have advised a lot of my customers to start using App-V in their current Windows XP environment and make sure that all new applications or major application updates are delivered through Microsoft App-V technology as this will get them ready for migration. I also tell them to test all those sequenced applications (App-V name for package) on Windows 7 as part of their packaging process, making sure these virtualized applications will work once the desktop is migrated to Windows 7 in the future. Each application you virtualize now is one less application to virtualize when migrating to Windows 7. You can get started by reading the App-V sequencing whitepaper or by watching the video on how to create a virtual application using App-V.

So, clearly my advice is to start using Microsoft App-V now because it provides benefits for the future.

NOTE: It is important to realize that there is no guarantee that an application virtualized on Windows XP will automatically work on Windows 7. You still need to test and in a worst case scenario virtualize the application once for each operating system.
App-V benefits after migration

Besides the migration benefits, App-V also provides a lot of benefits in a Windows 7 or even Windows XP environment. Some of them overlap with the migration benefits, but here is the list for completeness.

1. Faster than packaging and less worries about conflicts. Meaning you can respond to business demand faster. Also changes on applications are much easier and faster.
2. Run conflicting legacy applications side-by-side on the desktop.
3. Because of application streaming no more waits on application delivery, especially for users that roam between desktops.
4. Application updates

App-V and Windows 7

Microsoft App-V has been around since 2006 when Microsoft acquired Softricity which have been developing the application virtualization technology since 1998. Since Service Pack 1 for Microsoft App-V 4.5, the 32-bit version of Windows 7 has been fully supported way ahead of other vendors in this space with the following feature set specific for Windows 7:

• Seamless user experience regardless of application format (pin to taskbar and leverage jumplists)
• AppLocker integration. Increase IT control, enforcing compliance of virtual applications
• BranchCache support. Leverage BranchCache technology to deploy virtual applications over the WAN, eliminating the need for streaming servers in every branch.
• BitLockerToGo support. Stream virtual applications from USB storage devices, allowing only authorized users to access the virtual applications.
• Integration with 3rd-party LDAP directories

But now Microsoft releases App-V 4.6 which was designed with Windows 7 and Office 2010 in mind. The following features have been added to App-V to support Windows 7, Remote Desktops Services (including VDI) and Office 2010 even better:

• Enable App-V to run on 64-bit Windows Desktops and Servers
• Enable App-V to launch true 64-bit applications
• Thirteen new languages added for localization in support of global businesses
• Extend virtual Office 2010 usage
• Improved SharePoint integration to Open, Save, Edit files.
• Find your email items quickly with Outlook’s Fast Search
• Connect to your inbox using Microsoft Outlook Send To functionality
• Print your documents directly to OneNote
• Find contents within your documents using Office Document Indexing
• Open Web based calendar items and RSS Feeds in Outlook
• Perform advanced mail configuration using the Virtual Mail Applet
• Point to shared cache instead of streaming into virtual desktops or mount within virtual desktops
• Reduces storage requirements on SAN by eliminating redundancy of application binaries
• Improved Sequencer experience with ability to sequence true 64-bit applications
• Faster virtual application availability when using System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM)

I really think the future of application deployment is to do this through application virtualization and no longer worry about the concept of “installation” on devices; “Apps can now follow users versus devices”. And all the developments around version 4.5 SP1 and 4.6 of App-V really show that this technology is here to stay and Microsoft is putting in all efforts to become the standard on application virtualization (bye bye .MSI).

Especially considering that the App-V for RDS CAL license is provided for free for each RDS CAL you purchase for Windows 2008 R2 there seems to be no reason left to not start using App-V. And since we all are migrating to Windows 7 the coming years there is no better time than doing so right now.

When I’m at a customer that are starting with application virtualization, they ask me frequently: “Ment, should we be virtualizing Microsoft Office?”

The answer to this question has always been “well, it depends…”

Technically you can sequence Microsoft Office just fine. The benefits of virtualizing Office includes running multiple versions of Microsoft Office on a single machine. Particularly useful in scenarios where organizations have LOB applications that are tied to specific, usually older, versions of the Office product. No more need for multiple computer running different versions of Office.

But there is a downside to this approach as well. The most often heard complaint from users is that not all features from Microsoft Office seem to be working, especially those that tie deep into the Operating System.

Now I’m not a heavy Office user and above all a technical guy. I find my way around the application. I start an Office application like Word, Excel, Powerpoint and Outlook from the start menu or from a file type association. I don’t mind that I can’t edit a document in Sharepoint, I just download en open and I don’t mind that I have to configure the mail settings through the virtual environment (how often does this change). On the other hand I do mind that Outlook Fast Search wasn’t working though, because I don’t seem to organize my stuff efficiently and this feature helps me a lot.

But I can understand that end users simply don’t understand this approach. All functionality in Microsoft Office simply needs to work. For these users Microsoft has been all ears. With the release of Microsoft Application Virtualization 4.6 and the Microsoft Office 2010 Deployment Kit for App-V these downfalls are now fixed, making the user-experience closer to natively installed than ever.

The Office Deployment Kit for App-V enables the following functionality while Office is running virtualized:

• Extend your usage of virtual Office 2010 through improved SharePoint integration to Open, Save, Edit files.
• Find your email items quickly with Outlook’s  Fast Search.
• Connect to your inbox using Microsoft Outlook Send To functionality.
• Print your documents directly to OneNote.
• Find contents within your documents using Office Document Indexing.
• Open Web based calendar items and RSS Feeds in Outlook.
• Perform advanced mail configuration using the Virtual Mail Applet.

The Deployment Kit offers proxies to deliver the functionality above. These proxies are simply additional entry points to the virtual environment. Normally shortcuts, file type association etc. are providing these entry points, but because the above functionality is so tight with the operating system, additional entry points had to be created. They will simply pick up a request (an API) and send it to an application in the virtual environment.

When it comes to deployment scenarios, the following will be supported:

In this post I will provide you with some guidance how to virtualize Microsoft Office 2010 based on information from Microsoft (Prescriptive Guidance for Sequencing Microsoft Office 2010 on Microsoft App-V 4.6), information on Technet and my personal experience.

I will go for the first scenario in the table (highlighted in green). You must use App-V 4.6 as the proxies are not available on App-V 4.5. For demonstration purposes I will install all of the Microsoft Office 2010 applications and setting up all of the proxies. You can adjust this to fit your own organizational needs.

Preparation

Sequencing preparation involves setting up a machine that is representative for and end user device in your environment. Microsoft offers best practices in that area and I do advise you to keep them in mind (and read the sequencing guide), because I will not cover these basics in this post. You will need to:

• Install Microsoft Application Virtualization Sequencer 4.6 on the sequencing machine.
• Clients with Windows XP should install Windows Search 4.0, Microsoft XML Paper Specification Essentials Pack and .NET Framework 3.0.
• Clients with Windows 7 should have Windows Search, XPS Services and .NET Framework installed by default, but you can check through Windows Features in Add / Remove programs.

Other best practices include:

• Disable and stop the Windows Update service (net stop wuauserv)
• Normally you would disable the Windows Search service, but since we are explicitly are elevating this features, we leave it enabled.

Preparation also includes installing the Deployment Kit on a elevated command prompt and configured with some of the following parameters:

• If activation of Microsoft Office 2010 is done through KMS activation:
  • PROFESSIONALPLUS=1, VISIOULTIMATE=1, PROJECTPROFESSIONAL=1 depending on which Office installation you are installing
  • KMSSERVICENAME and KMSSERVICEPORT
• If activation of Microsoft Office 2010 is done through MAK:
  • Option 1: Volume Activation Management Tool (VAMT)
  • Option 2: PIDKEYS=”xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx”
  • USEROPERATIONS=0 if you want only Administrators to activate Office. USEROPERATIONS=1 if you want to let Non-administrators (e.g. Users) to activate Office.

I will be executing the following command:

msiexec /i OffVirt.msi PIDKEYS="xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx" USEROPERATIONS=1

Check out the video below how to prepare for sequencing Microsoft Office 2010:

Sequencing

Once you have prepared your sequencing machine for Microsoft Office 2010, it’s time to start sequencing. Installing Microsoft Office is pretty straightforward since I’m going to install all Office applications, but you can choose otherwise.

Start a New Package and give the package a descriptive name, like “Microsoft Office 2010”

The following actions should be done during monitoring:

• Install Microsoft Office 2010 to an 8.3 directory on your mount drive (i.e. Q:\OFF2010.V01) or if you are following strict sequencing guidelines you might want to install in a subdirectory. You’d might not want to include spaces in this path, just to be sure. (i.e. Q:\OFF2010.V01\MsOffice)
• Don’t select Install on First Use for any Office application. Either install or don’t install. I will be selecting the entire suite here just for demonstrating purposes.
• The Office installation does not have to be activated during sequencing.
• Start your preferred applications (like Word, Excel etc) and configure settings to fit your needs.
• I personally like to change the shortcut location from "..\Start Menu\Programs\Microsoft Office" to "..\Start Menu\Programs\Microsoft Office 2010". This would make sure that the shortcuts don’t end up in the same area as a potential local (or other virtual) installation of Microsoft Office.

Execute the following registry commands. Make sure that start an elevated command prompt during monitoring:

reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Search\Preferences" /v "{4154494E-BFF9-01B8-00AA-0037D96E0000}" /t REG_DWORD /d "1" /f
reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Search\Preferences" /v "{C0A19454-7F29-1B10-A587-08002B2A2517}" /t REG_DWORD /d "1" /f
reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Search\Preferences" /v "{70fab278-f7af-cd11-9bc8-00aa002fc45a}" /t REG_DWORD /d "1" /f
reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Search\Preferences" /v "{c34f5c97-eb05-bb4b-b199-2a7570ec7cf9}" /t REG_DWORD /d "1" /f
reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Search\Preferences" /v "{0077B49E-E474-CE11-8C5E-00AA004254E2}" /t REG_DWORD /d "1" /f

Warning: the following commands hold registry keys for the 32-bit OS installation only. If you are sequencing 64-bit OS, you’ll need other registry key, see the Microsoft Recipe for more info.

reg add "HKCR\CLSID\{9203C2CB-1DC1-482d-967E-597AFF270F0D}\TreatAs"
reg delete "HKCR\CLSID\{9203C2CB-1DC1-482d-967E-597AFF270F0D}\TreatAs" /va /f reg add "HKCR\CLSID\{BDEADEF5-C265-11D0-BCED-00A0C90AB50F}\TreatAs"
reg delete "HKCR\CLSID\{BDEADEF5-C265-11D0-BCED-00A0C90AB50F}\TreatAs" /va /f

Also run the next registry commands, but be careful with copy and paste here, because the installation path and SFT_MNT drive is referenced. Be sure to change it to your situation:

reg add "HKCR\CLSID\{3FD37ABB-F90A-4DE5-AA38-179629E64C2F}\InprocServer32" /t REG_SZ /d "Q:\OFF2010.V01\VFS\CSIDL_PROGRAM_FILES\Microsoft Office\Office14\OWSSUPP.DLL" /f

reg add "HKCR\CLSID\{62B4D041-4667-40B6-BB50-4BC0A5043A73}\InprocServer32" /t REG_SZ /d "Q:\OFF2010.V01\VFS\CSIDL_PROGRAM_FILES\Microsoft Office\Office14\OWSSUPP.DLL" /f

reg add "HKCR\CLSID\{9203C2CB-1DC1-482D-967E-597AFF270F0D}\InprocServer32" /t REG_SZ /d "Q:\OFF2010.V01\VFS\CSIDL_PROGRAM_FILES\Microsoft Office\Office14\OWSSUPP.DLL" /f

reg add "HKCR\CLSID\{BDEADEF5-C265-11D0-BCED-00A0C90AB50F}\InprocServer32" /t REG_SZ /d "Q:\OFF2010.V01\VFS\CSIDL_PROGRAM_FILES\Microsoft Office\Office14\OWSSUPP.DLL" /f

The following need to be executed after monitoring (in the Configure Applications step of the App-V Sequencer wizard):

• Add the following applications to enable the proxies:
  • Proxy MailTo
    • %commonprogramfiles%\microsoft shared\virtualization handler\MapiServer.exe
  • Proxy Virtual Search Host
    • %commonprogramfiles%\microsoft shared\virtualization handler\VirtualSearchHost.exe
  • Proxy Virtual OWSSupp Manager
    • %commonprogramfiles%\microsoft shared\virtualization handler\VirtualOWSSuppManager.exe
  • Proxy Virtual Mail Cpl
    • %windir%\system32\Control.exe Q:\OFF2010.V01\MsOffice\Office14\mlcfg32.cpl. Watch out here, there’s a link here that depends on your installation path. So be careful with copy and paste.
• Not obligatory but I like these additional shortcuts to the virtual environment, because they might help me during troubleshooting and in other scenarios:
  • Command Prompt
    • %CSIDL_SYSTEM%\cmd.exe
  • Internet Explorer
    • %CSIDL_PROGRAM_FILES%\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe
  • Internet Connections Cpl
    • %CSIDL_SYSTEM%\inetcpl.cpl. Might become handy to define proxy server connections.
• By default the Add Applications wizard will create a shortcut for each added application. Because the proxies don’t need a shortcut, you can go ahead and remove that in the wizard.
• I personally like to rename all proxy applications to start with a similar word, so they sort out neatly in the screen.
• Make sure that the versions of all the Applications (including the proxies) are equal (for example: 14.0.4536.1000). You can change this in the Add Applications step of the wizard, but also manually change the OSD files after saving the entire project with Login Consultants OSD Editor.

Optionally you can define Primary Feature Blocks by launching each of the application during the Launch Application step of the sequence wizard.

When all monitoring is done you should do the following steps in the sequencer do the following:

• Set the following registry key to “Merge with local”
  • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0
• In each of the OSD’s add the LOCAL_INTERACTION_ALLOWED tag under SOFTPKG -> IMPLEMENTATION -> VIRTUALENV -> POLICIES -> LOCAL_INTERACTION_ALLOWED. Set the text to “TRUE”.
  • Alternatively you could save the project and edit the OSD’s through Login Consultants OSD Editor (registration required). This is what I would recommend!
• Not mandatory but you can clean up your sequence as well. I would check out the following directories and decide whether or not to include them:
  • C:\Windows\Installer
  • Q:\MSOCache
• You should also decide whether or not to Compress the package (I like to do so).

Save the project and you’re done sequencing! Check out these video where I demonstrate the actual sequencing steps.

Part 1/2

Part 2/2

Deployment

Once you have created the sequencing of Microsoft Office 2010 you can deploy it to a target machine.

Install Microsoft Application Virtualization Client 4.6 on the target machine. Depending on your infrastructure you should supply property values that fit your needs, which you can find here. For demonstration purposes I’m using a standalone configuration:

"setup.exe" /s /v"/qb-! SWICACHESIZE=\"6000\" AUTOLOADTARGET=\"NONE\" REQUIREAUTHORIZATIONIFCACHED=\"FALSE\" SWIFSDRIVE=\"Q\""

Install the Deployment Kit the same way it was installed on the sequencer. In my case:

msiexec /i OffVirt.msi PIDKEYS=xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx USEROPERATIONS=1

Then you need to activate the Deployment Kit proxies through the following command line:

msiexec /i OffVirt.msi ADDDEFAULT=Click2runOneNoteProxy,Click2runOutlookProxies,Click2runWDSProxy,Click2runOWSSuppProxies PACKAGEGUID={F5E9C7F8-1EF1-4486-AB9D-C491000695E9} PACKAGEVERSION=14.0.4536.1000 OUTLOOKNAME="Microsoft Outlook 2010 (Beta)" ONENOTENAME="Microsoft OneNote 2010 (Beta)" MAPISERVER="Proxy MailTo" VIRTUALSEARCHHOST="Proxy Virtual Search Host" MLCFG32CPL="Proxy Virtual Mail Cpl" OWSSUPPServer="Proxy Virtual OWSSupp Manager"

Be sure to alter the command line above with the following in mind:

• PACKAGEGUID can be obtained from any OSD. It’s the value of GUID in the CODEBASE tag of the OSD file (don’t confuse this with the GUID in the SOFTPKG tag).
• PACKAGEVERSION should match the application version used during sequencing
• The values of the properties representing the proxies should match the names used during sequencing.

Add and load the virtualized version of Microsoft Office. I’m using command line for demonstration purposes and because of standalone deployment, but you can use the deployment model that fits your environment. More information on adding applications through the command line options of the client can be found here.

sftmime add package:"Microsoft Office 2010" /manifest "Microsoft Office 2010_manifest.xml"

sftmime load package:"Microsoft Office 2010" /sftpath "Microsoft Office 2010.sft"

Keep the following in mind when copying the command lines above:

• Package should represent the name of the application that was used during sequencing (first step of the wizard).
• Manifest should represent the name of the manifest file created by the sequencer.
• Sftpath should represent the name of the SFT file created by the sequencer. By default the sequencer adds the version number of the package to this file (something like Microsoft Office 2010_5.sft).

Once you have deployed the Microsoft Office 2010 sequence to your machine you are ready to start using the product. Check out this last video where I demonstrate how to deploy Microsoft Office to a machine and start using it.

Closing thoughts

The Microsoft Office 2010 Deployment Kit for App-V does add tremendous functionality to the use of Microsoft Office running as a virtualized application. For a typical end-user the product reaches a level of confidence by overcoming some of missing functionality in earlier versions of the product. Especially the use of “Mail to”, “Fast Search” and “Sharepoint integration” make running Office virtualized very mature.

As an independent consultant I do still have some additional thoughts with this approach:

First of all the Deployment Kit for App-V was created for the exact purpose of overcoming the missing functionality described earlier in this article. It leverages integration from the Operating System (including Internet Explorer) to the virtualized Office product. This means that not all downsides of virtualizing the application can be overcome, one of them being integration with other applications.

Because other available applications (running installed or virtualized) don’t “see” the virtualized Office they can not integrate with it. More than often I see applications add toolbars or plugins in Excel or Word that simply won’t work if the product is running virtualized, unless…

• The application is running virtualized itself and joined with the virtualized Office environment through App-V’s Dynamic Suiting Composition (DSC) technology.
• If the application can’t or won’t be virtualized (for whatever reason) it can still be started “through” the virtualized environment of Microsoft Office. In my opinion this scenario however will create an administrative…well…challenge to say the least.

It would be really nice if Microsoft would focus on 3rd party integration in Office while running it virtualized. Starting with toolbars and plugins since I think that those are the biggest issue in organizations. Or maybe create something like a Software Development Kit (SDK) where other vendors could extend the Deployment Kit to make their product integrate better.

Secondly I would really like see not only the shortcomings in virtualizing Office to be fixed, but to create a more general layer for App-V so that other applications can benefit as well. Office is not the only product that installs Control Panel items you know or that creates customized URL protocol handlers. Indeed, Microsofts very own Live Meeting does this with the “meet” protocol.

Apparently Microsoft Office uses parts of the Operating System and Internet Explorer that are so tight, they can only be fixed by installing additional software on the OS, while installing software locally was what we are trying to avoid in the first place by using application virtualization.

Why not create a general layer on top of the OS (specifically for App-V) that would overcome some of the current limitations in the product? This layer could either be part of the OS (as a Windows feature?), be installed as an application virtualization additional layer (like the Deployment Kit) or even be part of the App-V client installation. This way it would be generally available for all products to benefit from.

With the release of Microsoft Office 2010 Deployment Kit for App-V we can conclude that Microsoft is listening to their customers and that these kind of thoughts do exist. As an MVP I will try to talk and share as much as I can with the Product Teams, making virtualizing applications even more commodity than it is already today.

Which brings me back to the initial question: “Ment, should we be virtualizing Microsoft Office 2010?”

My answer would still be “…it depends…”

From the website:

Immidio AppScriber gives users the freedom to activate applications in a secure self-service manner. IT departments save on labor while remaining in control. Immidio AppScriber 2.0 introduces delegated authorization based on workflow.

Some videos that explain the functionality, configuration and administration in short have been posted on the Immidio youtube channel.

• User Interface - Introduction
• Initial Configuration
• Administration - Part 1
• Administration - Part 2

For more information visit the Immidio website.

Keep in mind that you must have set the client to “Standalone Mode”, as decribed here

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Softgrid\4.5\Client

· Configuration\RequireAuthorizationIfCached = 0

· Configuration\AllowIndependentFileStreaming = 0

I’ll show you how to do this is in 6 easy steps with a sequenced version of Microsoft Office Live Meeting 2007

Step 1. Copy the binaries to the local machine in a temporary folder (i.e. C:\Temp)

Step 2. Open the command line as an Administrator (right click while pressing SHIFT)

Step 3. Browse to the temporary location and type “notepad [the name of any osd file in the sequence]”

Step 4. In notepad copy the [Package Name] to the clipboard and close notepad.

Step 5. On the command line type “sftmime add package:”[paste your clipboard]” /manifest [name of the manifest file]”

tip: press the [Tab] or SHIFT + [TAB] key after /manifest to locate the correct file.

‘

Shortcuts and File associations should appear on your machine now.

Step 6: On the command line press up to bring back the previous command line. Alter the command line to “sftmime load package:”[Package Name]” /sftpath [name of the sft file]”

That’s it the package is now made locally available.

Version 2.0 of AppScriber now finally adds a configurable workflow engine, which allows you to optionally configure “Approvers” for applications. Which means, that besides users can automatically enable ”General” applications for themselves, for some applications you decide on (Managed applications), upon user request, a notification e-mail will be sent to the associated “Approver”. The approver can then Accept or Reject this request. After this an e-mail will be sent back to the user with the decision the approver made and if accepted the application will be automatically deployed.

I created a video which demonstrates Immidio AppScriber 2.0 in conjunction with Microsoft App-V from a user and approver perspective.

For more information about Immidio AppScriber go to http://www.immidio.com/

The first step in such a project is to identify which applications are installed and used in your environment. If your application delivery method currently consists of automating applications you probably have a good insight in this information. Software distribution mechanisms (like Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager) usually provide great reports for this particular scenario.

If you don’t have an ESD in your environment you might want to look at the freely available Microsoft Application Compatibility Toolkit, which has some basic inventory functionality as well.

Now having software installed on your enterprise workstations doesn’t mean that the application is mandatory for the end-user or the organization. More than once when I support customers in this particular process, application reduction is one of the most time consuming activities. Mostly due to political discussions.

Once you know which applications need to be deployed throughout your organization you should find out if there are good virtualization candidates.

Microsoft evaluates the potential candidate and places the application into one of three categories:

Ideal Candidate. Applications meet all of the possible candidate criteria and have no identifiable roadblocks to success.

Possible Candidate. Applications do not meet disqualifying criteria but may require additional research or validation.

Not a Candidate. Applications are more expensive to virtualize than the benefits achieved from virtualization. This category also includes applications that technically cannot be virtualized because of current limitations.

Remember that virtualization candidates are not only based on technical limitations of the application virtualization product you are using. Sometimes functional restrictions can weigh just as much.

Original article here.
Microsoft case study here.

It consists of some code that needs to be installed on the Sequencer machine prior to Sequencing Office 2010 and some code that needs to be installed (yes, a real install) on each client device where you want the optimal interaction experience.

Some important notes:

• It only works for Microsoft Office 2010
• It only works with App-V 4.6 RC Client / Sequencer and later 
• This will NOT solve ALL interaction/integration issues you potentially can run into when virtualizing Office.

The interaction possibilities that are fixed, are:

• 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

Click here for more information and the download of the deployment kit.

Thanks to Ivan de Mes for providing the info!

This is achieved by decoupling and segmenting personal application settings from the underlying Windows OS and Profile, making these settings available cross-Windows Platform and creating a consistent user experience no matter what Windows OS the user is working on.

While this way of handling Windows User Profiles provides a lot of benefits in a scenario where applications are installed traditionally (i.e. no virtualization), it can also be used to decouple personal application settings from App-V enabled (sequenced) applications.

What are the benefits?

• Decouple personal application settings from App-V Delta files (.PKG) proprietary format.

Using App-V there is practically no control over what gets stored into the user delta (.PKG), which in some cases can grow extensively. With Flex Profiles Advanced you can explicitly configure what application settings need to be restored and saved at application startup and shutdown, making you independent of the .PKG files. With Flex Profiles Advanced application settings are stored in an open format (.ZIP).

• Migrate user application settings from installed instance to virtual instance.

When moving from traditional installations (e.g. MSI) to App-V enabled (sequenced) applications, users lose their personal application settings for those applications because these settings are stored in the “real” registry of their Windows User Profile. When using Immidio Flex Profiles Advanced in such a transition scenario, it is possible to migrate settings you specify to the App-V enabled applications.

This even works in a scenario where you now run Windows XP with MSI installations and you are migrating to Windows 7 with App-V enabled applications!

• One transparent way to administrate all user/application settings.

This is especially a good way to manage user settings for scenarios where different deployment solutions are being used and users work on different Windows platforms. For example when users are connecting to remote desktops on TS or VDI and are also working on traditional desktops. With Flex Profiles Advanced it is also possible to manage user settings for both virtual and installed applications in the same way.

How do I configure this within App-V?

Without going into detail on how to implement Immidio Flex Profiles Advanced, which is explained in the Admin Guide, I will shortly explain the App-V configuration part of it.

When managing user settings for App-V enabled applications, it is necessary to restore and save these settings at application startup and shutdown, because the “real” registry and file information does not apply for the Virtual environment these application run in.

Microsoft App-V supports running custom commands and scripts at application startup and shutdown from the App-V application config file, which exists for each application. This file has the .OSD extension and each .OSD file needs to be edited for Flex Profiles Advanced to work.

Editing the .OSD file can be done during sequencing or afterwards using any text editor, XML editor or the App-V OSD editor from Login Consultants.

In each .OSD file there is a DEPENDENCY section. This is where the FlexEngine commands should be placed. Here is an example:

  <DEPENDENCY>
    <SCRIPT EVENT=”LAUNCH” TIMING=”PRE” PROTECT=”TRUE” WAIT=”TRUE” TIMEOUT=”">
      <HREF>c:\flex\FlexEngine.exe /r “%homedrive%%homepath%\PaintNET.zip”</HREF>
    </SCRIPT>
    <SCRIPT EVENT=”SHUTDOWN” TIMING=”POST” PROTECT=”TRUE” WAIT=”TRUE” TIMEOUT=”">
      <HREF>c:\flex\FlexEngine.exe /i \\fileserver\FlexINIs\Paintnet.ini /s “%homedrive%%homepath%\PaintNET.zip”</HREF>
    </SCRIPT>
    <CLIENTVERSION VERSION=”4.5.0.0″ />
  </DEPENDENCY>

For more information about the command line parameters of the FlexEngine, please consult the Flex Profiles Advanced Admin Guide, or type “FlexEngine.exe /?” on the command line.

In the current version of Flex Profiles Advanced, App-V integration is already fully supported! You only need to configure this manually like shown above for each App-V enabled application you want to manage with Flex Profiles Advanced.

In the upcoming version of Flex Profiles Advanced, the Flex Profiles Management Console will provide a wizard for integrating the FlexEngine into the App-V OSD files. This new version of Immidio Flex Profiles Advanced will be available Q1 2010.

Download a trial version of Immidio Flex Profiles Advanced.

Check out the detailed article on http://blogs.technet.com/mdop/

 ”We are proud to announce the availability of the white paper “Application Virtualization 4.5 for Terminal Services.”  This white paper discusses the benefits, configurations, and considerations when planning a Terminal Services (TS) solution with Microsoft Application Virtualization for TS (App-V for TS).  Many customers want to find out the best way to configure and/or deploy App-V for TS on terminal servers.  This paper includes topics ranging from choosing an App-V for TS application delivery method to configuring RemoteApp and App-V for TS to work together.  We hope you find this document an indispensible read if you are implementing App-V for TS.”

Download the whitepaper here 

Part of the download process is the registration of your 20 digit Windows Server 2008 Terminal Server Product Identification Key or your Windows Server 2008 R2 Remote Desktop Services Product Identification Key.

Download here.

Note: although the article indicates that Windows Server 2008 R2 is supported this particular download can’t be used on that platform since it’s 64-bit only. App-V 4.6 (currently in development) however will support 64-bit and is planned to be available H1 2010.