May 2009 - Posts
Cumulative Update 1 for MS App-V 4.5 is out. Instructions on how to obtain this is found here. Reading through the notes, the most interesting point(outside of Windows 7 support) contained in them is the detailed support for .NET with sequenced applications.
Recently this has been a minefield – and if you were wondering why this page should explain in sufficient detail.
It boils down to the following as far as I can see:
• If you run Vista or Windows 7 – the local installation of .NET on the target machine must be greater or equal than the .NET version required by the virtual application.
• If you run Windows XP – all versions of .NET up to and including .NET 3.5 RTM can be sequenced with the application. .NET 3.5 SP1 (and assuming beyond?) must be locally installed on the target machines.
• Nothing mentioned as far as I can see regarding Windows Server 2003/2008 TS.
• Legacy sequences with .NET included need to follow these guidelines, so some resequencing required.
Clear? As mud.
Recently encountered an interesting Softgrid issue whereby the Windows Installer (Preparing to install) would pop up during the Application Launch phase (to pre-populate feature block 1). This became problematic as it would not go away, as this process was convinced some files were missing (ISKernel).
The following blog post from the Softgrid/App-V team was very useful. Use of the MSI Cleanup utility during the application installation phase worked a charm.
Unless I have missed the Gorilla an obvious missing feature (once again) is the inability to natively mount ISO files. My first reaction to this was, seriously? Doesn't technet distribute ISOs?
Is there some great technical barrier that I am unaware of here? Hold on, the Windows loading logo pulses on startup. Ooooh, shiny! That makes it all better.
MagicISO seems to have done the job. No bluescreens. I hate to install 3rd party software for such simple tasks - Especially when the alternatives don't have this problem.
One of the things which immediately irritated me was the fact that if you use WindowsKey+E Explorer opens (and if you didn't know this, you just tried - right?) with My Computer as the default view, whereas the Taskbar icon by default opens up the Libraries location.
Credit for this goes to this page .
Also learned from this that pressing shift before right clicking on an icon on the taskbar reveals some extra options.
The world and their dog are aware of the impending release of Windows 7. I've been running the RC for a little while on my aging Dell D620 and would agree with the general consensus that the experience is better than that of Vista in general on the same hardware.
One change I made right away was to put the taskbar to the top of the screen immediately (being a part time Mac user) this seemed to be a better choice than the default lower position. However an issue with Windows 7 leaving a graphical artifact underneath put me right off, plus the fatter taskbar left less vertical room for the likes of RDP sessions.
Enter Stage Left...
So far, so good. So good in fact I'm quite happy to leave it at this and consider it my default - it seems so much more natural. It allows for the greatest vertical room (so no scroll bars for RDP sessions). And while I'm aware that repositioning the taskbar is not a new feature in Windows, I've always felt it was a bit flaky before. The only oddity is that some applications don't seem to be aware of the change and still pop up bottom right seemingly unaware of the notification area.