VMware PowerCLI can be a very powerful tool in managing your vSphere environment. To get started there are two installs you will need to download and execute on to either a server or workstation that has visibility of your vSphere environment. Once installed you’ll be able to experiment with scripting commands and scheduling tasks. Remember to look out for a later post on using PowerCLI scripts with VMware Site Recovery Manager.
Microsoft Powershell 2.0
VMware PowerCLI 5.0
With application virtualisation legacy applications can be made available on newer operating system platforms, in particular 64 bit architectures. VMware ThinApp is designed to allow 32 bit application run on 64 bit operating system natively out of the box, however with some applications this doesn’t always work as expected.
Within the ThinApp packager there is an option you can enable that allows the emulation of a 32 bit platform for your virtualised application allowing its use on a 64 bit operating system. The following steps detail how to enable this feature.
Step 1. Before building your application, edit your package.ini file by uncommenting the wow64=0 entry as shown below.
Step 2. Save your package.ini file and built your application.
In this post I will be showing you a simple way to define the name of you ThinApp application as sometimes it doesn’t always show up as expected.
Step 1. Before building your application, edit your package.ini file with the following entry under the header of your chosen entry point.
StatusBarDisplayName=App name
Step 2. Save your package.ini file and built your application, the application launch name should appear something like this.
With a lot of Microsoft applications .NET Framework is commonly required during installation. When trying to ThinApp these applications .NET Framework can be required as part of the virtualised app. This post will detail a step you may fine yourself needing to take if you experience .NET related problems with your ThinApp applications.
Basically, when you install .NET Framework not all components are executed and compiled during the time of installation. Some of these components can remain uncompiled until the application calls for them. If this is the case with an application you are trying to virtualise you may run in to issues launching the ThinApped application.
To get around this, during the installation period (After prescan, Before postscan) run the following command in a command prompt window.
C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\ngen.exe executequeueditems
This will compile any remaining components within your .NET installation ready to be captured as part of your new ThinApp.
If all components have been compiled, the below message should be returned.
This post details a straightforward simple approach to creating your first virtualised application with VMware ThinApp. In this guide VMware ThinApp v4.7 is being used to virtualise Firefox v9.0.
Step 1. Load the ThinApp application and click next.
Step 2. When ready, click prescan to create a capture of your systems current state.
During the capture you can monitor the directories being scanned.
Step 3. Once the prescan has completed, install the application you wish to virtualise. In my case, Firefox.
Step 4. Once the application is installed and configured click postscan.
Step 5. After the post scan has completed you will be presented with a number of possible entry points for loading the application. Use the default selection and click next.
Step 6. Use the default setting of everyone and click next.
Step 7. Use the default setting of full write access and click next.
Step 8. On this step you can choose to have the application USB portable, or for desktop use by selecting where the application user data is written to. For this guide we will be using the default selection of writing application data to the users local profile and clicking next.
Step 9. In this step you have the option to specify a name for you application.
Step 10. Here you can select to use a single file to access your application or split it out into a data file and entry point. Splitting out the application is used when the application is particularly large or consists of multiple entry points. For this example I will stick with the default option and click save.
Step 11. Once the project has been saved, click build to start the application build process.
Step 12. Once the application has been build it will be visible withing the capture directory.
Step 13. Run the application.
Thanks for reading and look out for my future posts on advanced ThinApp configuration.
In this post i will detail how to use the AppSync feature within VMware ThinApp. This is one component of ThinApp that doesn’t appear to get much attention but is quite impressive all the same. AppSync basically allows you to update your ThinApps to a newer version by pre defining an AppSync location within the ThinApp ‘package.ini’ during the build sequence. When you run a ThinApp configured to check for updates, it will go off and query the defined AppSync target and download any updates in the background whilst the current version of the ThinApp is running. On completion, the new version will be available when the ThinApp is next launched. The below steps will detail how to use AppSync with any newly created ThinApps.
Step 1. Create a file repository on either a server or workstation and share this folder for all on your network. I created two shared folders called ‘Apps’ and ‘AppSync’. One for my live applications, and one for the updates.
Step 2. Once you repositories are setup and can be accessed over the network, processed to create a ThinApp capture of the application you want to use. In my case i used Firefox, I created two captures for version 9.0 and version 10. For help on this step see articles:
https://www.802dotwhat.co.uk/an-idiots-guide-to-vmware-thinapp.html
or
https://www.802dotwhat.co.uk/how-to-thinapp-firefox-with-integrated-flash-and-java.html
Step 3. Once you have captured and saved you application, edit the package.ini file before building you ThinApp. Within the package.ini file, uncomment the relevant AppSync parameters for both of your ThinApp applications as shown below:
The key parameter is the ‘AppSyncURL’ entry that’s defined where the ThinApp points to for AppSync updates. To defined a network shares you must enter the path with inverted slashes not commonly used for network paths, for example use file://thinappsrv/AppSync/Firefox.exe opposed to file:\\thinappsrv\AppSync\Firefox.exe. For reference on all of these parameters, see http://www.vmware.com/pdf/thinapp47_packageini_reference.pdf for further information.
Stepm 4. Once you have built your ThinApps, place the most recent version into the file location the ThinApps are pointing to for AppSync updates. In my case i will place Firefox version 10 in this folder, followed by placing Firefox version 9 in the Apps folder where users will access the app from. On running the older version of your application, you will be able to witness the AppSync updates being pulled over the network to the application folder.
To see this process in action please view the below video as it illustrates in detail how to setup your AppSync environment after building your ThinApps.
Thanks for reading this post and lookout for future ThinApp articles.
In this post we will be discussing the Windows visual effects under the performance settings and how to automatically apply them. Windows performance settings allow you to tweak the visual aspect of your desktop to either improve it visually or speed up its performance. If you aren’t aware of these options, click right on Computer and select Properties, click Advanced Setting, under the Performance section select the settings button as shown below.
Q1. Why would you want to change these setting?
A1. In my case I use these setting to increase the performance of a VDI session over high latency Internet links. Disabling these options reduces how much is refreshed on the screen when receiving a PCOIP connection from VDI remotly.
Q2. Why would you want to automaitly set these options?
A2. As mentioned, VDI is my main use for these options and unfotunanlty you cannot pre define these option on on a per desktop basis. These options are reflecedt on a per user basis meaning if i login to a machine and turn off all visual effects options the log out. The next person that logs in will also have to set these options as there are defined in the users local profile. unfortunanly redirected profiles do not carry these options.
As with a VDI enviroment you cannot expect every user that logs on to modify there own settings for best performance, i needed a way to automate this. To do so i created two registry files that apply the correct setting on logon and log off. Sadly not all optiosn apply from a simgle execution of thye script.
The way i managed to do this was by creating a batch scprit to pull the registry files from a file share and apply them through a login script assigned in group policy. Simple but effective.
Registry files: Download Here
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\VisualEffects] “VisualFXSetting”=dword:00000003
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop] “UserPreferencesMask”=hex:90,12,01,80,10,00,00,00
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop] “DragFullWindows”=”0”
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop] “FontSmoothing”=”0”
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics] “MinAnimate”=”0”
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System] “NoDispCPL”=-
Batch script: Download Here
REGEDIT.EXE /S \\yourfileserver\share\VisualFX.reg
How to apply: Once you have you batch script and registry file, place them on a file share where all users have atleast read access. Enter group policy manager for your domain and create a new GPO. Edit the GPO and navigate to the following:
User Configuration > Windows Settings > Scripts (Logon/logoff). Double clike this item and click Add then enter the path to the batch script including its extention. See below for me detail.
I would rcomment adding this as both a logon and logoff script to minimise the number of logins a user has to perform. With both logon and logoff set, a single login / logout will fully apply the changes.
Thanks for reading and remember to lookout for future posts on perfromance tweaking.
If you are attempting to remotely manage a Microsoft Exchange 2003 environment but your current operating system is Windows 7, you may find it quite hard to locate the correct tool for the job as i found when i upgraded my computer. To save everyone’s time I’ve avoided linking to an existing download site, and have decided to host the tool myself. The link to the tool is located at the bottom of this post. Unfortunately these tools only work with Windows 7 x86 and to date there have not been any Windows 7 x64 tool released.
There are a couple of different ways of locking down the desktop on a windows operating systems but the one this guide will be focusing on it by way of permission passed enforcement via a GPO. With help from the image below, the following steps will help you achieve this lock down method:
1. Create a new GPO and link to an OU that the client computers are contain in
2. Edit the GPO and under Computer Configration > Windows Settings > Security Settings then File System, click right and select New
3. Within the file path enter %UserProfile%\Desktop this will automatically resolve the users profile name saving you from adding each users profile path manually.
4. Press OK and select remove all security groups and users from the permissions menu and add the user security group or names you want this restriction to apply to. Set the permissions for the group of user to only have Read access and also add an administrative group with full control.
5. Within the Security Policy Settings windows, select the option forReplace existing permissions on all subfolders then click OK. This is the policy now configured.
6. Return to the Group Policy Management Console and set the security settings of the policy to either Authenticated User for define the security group you want this policy to apply to.
PushVNC
