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Part 3 – App-V 5.0 and Configuration Manager 2012 SP1 – App-V 5.0 Application Creation

Dafalk — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 11:49:00 GMT

Hi all,

In part 1 we introduced how you can leverage and use the Configuration Manager Powershell cmdlets and then in part 2 we showed you how to automatically create a user collection but let’s see how we can now add a new App-V 5.0 application.

Creating the Application

The first thing I need to do is load the Configuration Manager cmdlets. I’ve also added the following variables:

· $AD_UserGroup – AD Security group for application distribution

· $App_Name – The name I want to call the application in Configuration Manager

· $App_DT_Name – The display name of the deployment type

· $App_Source_Location – The location of my App-V 5.0 application

$CM_Module = "D:\ConfigMgr\AdminConsole\bin\ConfigurationManager.psd1"

$AD_UserGroup = "AppV_Notepad_5.9"

$App_Name = "Notepad++ 5.9"

$App_DT_Name = "Notepad++ 5.9 - App-V 5.0"

$App_Source_Location = "\\LAB-CONFIGMGR\d$\Source\App-V Applications\5.0\Notepad++ 5.9\Notepad++ 5.9.appv"

Import-Module $CM_Module

cd PRI:

Now the module has been loaded I’m going to create my application using the following cmdlet New-CMApplication, but before I do this I need to understand how to use it. To get this information you can run the following which provides me with all the syntax.

Get-help New-CMApplication

NAME

New-CMApplication

SYNTAX

New-CMApplication -Name <string> [-OptionalReference <string>] [-ReleaseDate <datetime>] [-AutoInstall <bool>]

[-Owner <string>] [-SupportContact <string>] [-LocalizedApplicationName <string>] [-UserDocumentation <string>]

[-LinkText <string>] [-LocalizedApplicationDescription <string>] [-Keyword <string>] [-Description <string>]

[-Manufacturer <string>] [-SoftwareVersion <string>] [-WhatIf] [-Confirm] [<CommonParameters>]

Before I run the cmdlet lets have a look at my “Applications” before running the script, as you can see there is no application called “Notepad++ 5.9” created.

The command that I’m going to run is below, I’m using the variable $App_Name to be the name of my Application. Note: You can review the help command above for the extra parameters.

# Create new application

New-CMApplication -Name $App_Name

Now the Application has been created and within the Console it’s now populated.

Powershell

Configuration Manager Console

As simple as that, my application has been created but as you can see there is no Deployment Type created, which means there is no application to deploy to our clients.

So how do I now create a deployment type through Powershell? We can leverage the Add-CMDeploymentType cmdlet.

Get-help Add-CMDeploymentType

NAME

Add-CMDeploymentType

SYNTAX

Add-CMDeploymentType -ApplicationName <string> -AppV5xInstaller -AutoIdentifyFromIntallationFile

-InstallationFileLocation <string> -ForceForUnknownPublisher <bool> [-DeploymentTypeName <string>]

[-AdministratorComment <string>] [-Language <string[]>] [-WhatIf] [-Confirm] [<CommonParameters>]

I’m adding the deployment type to the previously created application $App_Name, I’m then specifying the name for the deployment type from the variable $App_DT_Name and then the important parameter “-AppV5xInstaller”. Then final piece is the installation file location which is using the variable $App_Source_Location specified in my variable list.

# Add deployment using App-V 5.0 Source Files

Add-CMDeploymentType -ApplicationName $App_Name -DeploymentTypeName $App_DT_Name -AppV5xInstaller -AutoIdentifyFromIntallationFile -ForceForUnknownPublisher $true -InstallationFileLocation $App_Source_Location

Now the deployment type has been created.

Powershell

Configuration Manager Console

I’m really happy now, Application has been created, Deployment Type created but did anyone spot something that I didn’t have an option to configure????

I actually want to stream my application from the distribution point, not “Download content from distribution point and run locally”. So how do I do that?

I did some research and found the command Set-CMDeploymentType, the explanation is below.

NAME

Set-CMDeploymentType

SYNTAX

Set-CMDeploymentType [-WhatIf] [-Confirm] [<CommonParameters>]

Set-CMDeploymentType -DeploymentTypeName <string> -ApplicationName <string> -AppV5xInstaller

[-NewDeploymentTypeName <string>] [-AdministratorComment <string>] [-Language <string[]>] [-ContentLocation

<string>] [-PersistContentInClientCache <bool>] [-EnablePeertoPeerContentDistribution <bool>] [-OnFastNetworkMode

<OnFastNetworkMode> {RunLocal | RunFromNetwork}] [-OnSlowNetworkMode <ContentHandlingMode> {DoNothing | Download |

DownloadContentForStreaming}] [-AllowClientsToUseFallbackSourceLocationForContent <bool>] [-WhatIf] [-Confirm]

[<CommonParameters>]

Now I have the option to change the “OnFastNetworkMode” to streaming. As before I need to use the Application I previous created and then specify the Deployment Type I want to manipulate, you can then see the manipulation of the “OnFastNetworkMode” to RunFromNetwork and then setting “OnSlowNetworkMode” to Download and execute.

# Changing deployment type to stream application on fast network

Set-CMDeploymentType -ApplicationName $App_Name -DeploymentTypeName $App_DT_Name -AppV5xInstaller -OnFastNetworkMode RunFromNetwork -OnSlowNetworkMode Download -AllowClientsToUseFallbackSourceLocationForContent $true

Powershell

Configuration Manager Console

Now everything is set how I want, now lets look how I can automatically distribute my content. For this I’m going to use the Get-CMDistributionPoint cmdlet.

NAME

Get-CMDistributionPoint

SYNTAX

Get-CMDistributionPoint [-SiteSystemServerName <string>] [-SiteCode <string>] [<CommonParameters>]

Get-CMDistributionPoint -DistributionPointGroupName <string> [<CommonParameters>]

Get-CMDistributionPoint -DistributionPointGroupId <string> [<CommonParameters>]

Get-CMDistributionPoint -DistributionPointGroup <IResultObject#SMS_DistributionPointGroup> [<CommonParameters>]

When I run this command the following is outputted.

In my environment I only have one distribution point so this should be simple.

What I found in my testing was that when you start a deployment you have to specify the distribution point without the “\\” so I need to complete this with Powershell. What I’m doing in getting the DP with the variable $CM_DP, from there I’m setting the NetworkOSPath property in another variable $CM_NOSP so that I can manipulate it. Finally I need to remove the double backslash so I’m using the inbuilt TrimStart Method to remove these characters.

# Getting distribution point network path

$CM_DP = Get-CMDistributionPoint

$CM_NOSP = $CM_DP.NetworkOSPath

# Need to change the DP Path to remove the starting \\

$CM_DPN = $CM_NOSP.TrimStart("\\")

Now I’m ready to start my distribution of my content.

Note: If you have multiple distribution point you could easily put this in a for loop.

I’m using the Start-CMContentDistribution cmdlet to complete this.

NAME

Start-CMContentDistribution

SYNTAX

Start-CMContentDistribution -ApplicationName <string[]> [-DisableDetectAssociatedContentDependencies]

[-CollectionName <string>] [-DistributionPointName <string>] [-DistributionPointGroupName <string>] [-WhatIf]

[-Confirm] [<CommonParameters>]

Below is the command I used, again the $App_Name is used so it just distributes this application and then the Distribution point is specified.

# Distributing content to DP

Start-CMContentDistribution -ApplicationName $App_Name -DistributionPointName $CM_DPN

Powershell

Configuration Manager Console

The application has been created, the deployment type is created and configured and the content has been distributed

But you can see from the console nothing has been deployed so how do I deploy the application to a User Collection.

Now to the final Powershell cmdlet of this post, Start-CMApplicationDeployment.

NAME

Start-CMApplicationDeployment

SYNTAX

Start-CMApplicationDeployment -CollectionName <string> -Name <string[]> [-Comment <string>] [-DeployAction

<DeployActionType> {Install | Uninstall}] [-DeployPurpose <DeployPurposeType> {Available | Required}]

[-AppRequiresApproval <bool>] [-PreDeploy <bool>] [-SendWakeUpPacket <bool>] [-UseMeteredNetwork <bool>]

[-TimeBaseOn <TimeType> {LocalTime | UTC}] [-AvaliableDate <datetime>] [-AvaliableTime <datetime>] [-DeadlineDate

<datetime>] [-DeadlineTime <datetime>] [-UserNotification <UserNotificationType> {DisplayAll |

DisplaySoftwareCenterOnly | HideAll}] [-OverrideServiceWindow <bool>] [-RebootOutsideServiceWindow <bool>]

[-PersistOnWriteFilterDevice <bool>] [-SuccessParameterValue <int>] [-PostponeDate <datetime>] [-PostponeTime

<datetime>] [-FailParameterValue <int>] [-EnableMomAlert <bool>] [-RaiseMomAlertsOnFailure <bool>] [-WhatIf]

[-Confirm] [<CommonParameters>]

I’m using the variable $AD_UserGroup for the collection name which was created in part 2 then the name of the application. Now its time to choose how to install the application, you have two choices – Available or Required (As per any script or solution this is your choice, but I’ve chosen to set it to available).

# Deploying application to Collection and setting to Install and Available

Start-CMApplicationDeployment -CollectionName $AD_UserGroup -Name $App_Name -DeployAction Install -DeployPurpose Available -UserNotification DisplayAll

Powershell

Configuration Manager Console

The application has now been added, distributed and deployed through Powershell. If I now log onto my client machine with a user that’s a member of the AppV_Notepad_5.9 group, the application is available in the Application Catalog.

Disclaimer
The sample scripts are not supported under any Microsoft standard support program or service. The sample scripts are provided AS IS without warranty of any kind. Microsoft further disclaims all implied warranties including, without limitation, any implied warranties of merchantability or of fitness for a particular purpose. The entire risk arising out of the use or performance of the sample scripts and documentation remains with you. In no event shall Microsoft, its authors, or anyone else involved in the creation, production, or delivery of the scripts be liable for any damages whatsoever (including, without limitation, damages for loss of business profits, business interruption, loss of business information, or other pecuniary loss) arising out of the use of or inability to use the sample scripts or documentation, even if Microsoft has been advised of the possibility of such damages.

Conclusion

I hope this blog has helped you understand how to create your application and deployment type, distribute the content and then finally deploy it to your clients. More blogs posts of Configuration Manager and App-V 5.0 integration coming soon…

David Falkus | Premier Field Engineer | Application Virtualization

Part 2 – App-V 5.0 and Configuration Manager 2012 SP1 – User Collection Creation

Dafalk — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 21:31:00 GMT

Hi all,

In part 1 we introduced how you can leverage and use the Configuration Manager Powershell cmdlets but now it’s time to automatically deploy App-V 5.0 applications. What we’re going to do is the following:

· Automate the creation of the User Collection

· Automate the application import

· Automate the application distribution

· Automate the application deployment

Note: I’m not a Configuration Manager expert, I’m interested in how I can get a very similar experience to App-V 4.x full infrastructure functionality using Configuration Manager.

Creating the User Collection

Before we begin with some Powershell I want to give some context around how I’m going to deploy my applications. As per previous versions of App-V Full Infrastructure we used to use AD security groups to publish applications and that is what I want to do with Configuration Manager.

The first thing I need to do is enable “Active Directory Group Discovery” from within the Configuration Manager console, this is located in the following location “Administration - Hierarchy Configuration - Discovery Method”. Once I open this configuration I have enabled this discovery and set the scope to “LDAP://OU=App-V,DC=ConfigMgr,DC=Lab” so it just collects my App-V groups that I’ve created.

Once this has been enabled and the discovery has been completed the App-V Groups will be populated in the Users section of Assets and Compliance.

The first thing I need to do is load the Configuration Manager cmdlets. I’ve also added the AD User group for my Applications in the variable $AD_UserGroup.

$CM_Module = "D:\ConfigMgr\AdminConsole\bin\ConfigurationManager.psd1"

$AD_UserGroup = "AppV_Notepad_5.9"

Import-Module $CM_Module

cd PRI:

Now the module has been loaded I’m going to create my user collection using the following cmdlet New-CMUserCollection, but before I do this I need to understand how to use it. To get this information you can run the following which provides me with all the syntax.

Get-help New-CMUserCollection

NAME

New-CMUserCollection

SYNTAX

New-CMUserCollection -Name <string> -LimitingCollectionName <string> [-Comment <string>] [-RefreshType

<RefreshTypes> {Manual | Periodic | ConstantUpdate}] [-WhatIf] [-Confirm] [<CommonParameters>]

New-CMUserCollection -LimitingCollectionId <string> -Name <string> [-Comment <string>] [-RefreshSchedule

<IResultObject[]>] [-RefreshType <RefreshTypes> {Manual | Periodic | ConstantUpdate}] [-WhatIf] [-Confirm]

[<CommonParameters>]

Before I run the cmdlet lets have a look at my “User Collections” before running the script, as you can see there is no group called “AppV_Notepad_59” created.

The command that I’m going to run is below, I’m using the variable $AD_UserGroup to be the name of my collection and then limiting the collection to “All User Groups”, you have an options to set it to either “All User Groups” or “All Users”, finally I’m setting the “RefreshType” to ConstantUpdate so if a user is added to that group its picked up by Configuration Manager.

# Create new User Collection using AD Group

New-CMUserCollection -Name $AD_UserGroup -LimitingCollectionName "All User Groups" -RefreshType ConstantUpdate

Now the User Collection has been created and within the Console it’s now populated.

Powershell

Configuration Manager Console

It is that easy? A single command creates my Collection and I’m ready to go?

The answer is no, if you check the membership rules from the properties of the collection there are no rules created, which means any application that I target to this collection will never be deployed.

So how do I now create a membership rule through Powershell? We can leverage the Add-CMUserCollectionDirectMembershipRule cmdlet.

Get-help Add-CMUserCollectionDirectMembershipRule

NAME

Add-CMUserCollectionDirectMembershipRule

SYNTAX

Add-CMUserCollectionDirectMembershipRule -CollectionId <string> -ResourceId <int> [-WhatIf] [-Confirm] [<CommonParameters>]

Add-CMUserCollectionDirectMembershipRule -CollectionId <string> -Resource <IResultObject> [-WhatIf] [-Confirm] [<CommonParameters>]

Add-CMUserCollectionDirectMembershipRule -CollectionName <string> -ResourceId <int> [-WhatIf] [-Confirm] [<CommonParameters>]

Add-CMUserCollectionDirectMembershipRule -CollectionName <string> -Resource <IResultObject> [-WhatIf] [-Confirm] [<CommonParameters>]

Add-CMUserCollectionDirectMembershipRule -Collection <IResultObject#SMS_Collection> -Resource <IResultObject> [-WhatIf] [-Confirm] [<CommonParameters>]

Add-CMUserCollectionDirectMembershipRule -Collection <IResultObject#SMS_Collection> -ResourceId <int> [-WhatIf] [-Confirm] [<CommonParameters>]

Looking into this cmdlet I realised I required the ResourceID of the group that had already been imported using the “Active Directory Group Discovery” which meant I had to find a way of finding this resourceID. If you right click on the group from the Users node you see the ResourceID specified as shown below.

So I started to look at some cmdlets to complete this. Straight away the Get-CMUser cmdlet seemed to make sense as I want a value from this part of Configuration Manager. I ran the following command to gather this information.

Get-CMUser | Select-Object Name,ResourceID

Running this within Powershell provided the below, but do you notice if something is wrong?

What’s wrong is that it hasn’t pulled any of the AD Groups. To cut a long story short, I can’t find a way of using the Configuration Manager cmdlets to complete this, but this value for the groups must be stored in SQL? And it is…

From an automation perspective I don’t want to manually check this value before I run my script so why not leverage the SQL cmdlets.

Note: My SQL DB is on the same server as Configuration Manager so the cmdlets are available to me.

# Importing SQL Module to get the ResourceID of the group

Import-Module SQLPS

cd SQLSERVER:

# Querying CM SQL database for AD Group specified as a variable

$SQL_CMD = Invoke-Sqlcmd -Query "SELECT * FROM [CM_PRI].[dbo].[User_Group_DISC] where Usergroup_Name0='$AD_UserGroup'"

# Getting the ItemKey (ResourceID) from the $SQL_CMD variable and placing it in a variable $ResourceID so I can use it will the Configuration Manager cmdlet

$ResourceID = $SQL_CMD.ItemKey

Now I have my ResourceID I can go back to Configuration Manager and run my cmdlet Add-CMUserCollectionDirectMembershipRule.

Note: Remember I have to go back to my Configuration Manager cmdlets using the “cd PRI:” command.

cd PRI:

# Adding Direct membership rule to collection created above with the AD User Group

Add-CMUserCollectionDirectMembershipRule -CollectionName $AD_UserGroup -ResourceID $ResourceID

Now when I check the User Collection membership rules it has been populated.

The collection has now been created successfully and now I can deploy application to this collection.

Conclusion

I hope this blog has helped you understand how to create your user collection automatically, in the next blog we will look at how you automate the application import.

David Falkus | Premier Field Engineer | Application Virtualization

Part 1 – App-V 5.0 and Configuration Manager 2012 SP1 Powershell Integration Basics

Dafalk — Wed, 29 May 2013 20:58:27 GMT

Hi all,

Recently I’ve been working a lot with App-V 5.0 and Configuration Manager 2012 SP1 integration and it’s time to share how you can use the Powershell cmdlets to automate package imports and deployments.

Before we go into the cool scripts we need to understand how we can use the Configuration Manager Powershell cmdlets.

Importing the Powershell Module

There are two options to load the Configuration Manager Powershell Cmdlets:

1. Connect via Window Powershell in the Configuration Manager Console

2. Import the module into the current Powershell session:

What you need to do is find the path to ConfigurationManager.psd1 file which is located in the AdminConsole folder structure of the Configuration Manager installation.

$CM_Module = "D:\ConfigMgr\AdminConsole\bin\ConfigurationManager.psd1"

Once I’ve set the path in Powershell I then need to import that module into my session so we use the “Import-module” cmdlet built into Powershell.

Import-Module $CM_Module

If you try and import the module from within a 64-bit session then you will receive the following error:

As it states the Configuration Manager Powershell cmdlets will only work in an x86 version of Powershell.

Now we have the Powershell module imported how can I use the new commandlets?

If you review the “about_ConfigurationManager_Cmdlets” on technet it tells you:

“The Configuration Manager module for Windows PowerShell includes a Windows PowerShell drive provider for individual sites. By using the CD command in the Windows PowerShell console, you can change the context of your session to a different site.”

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj849986.aspx

So I need to find out the drive that I need to connect to so I’m using the following command:

Get-PSDrive | select Name,Provider

You can see above there is the provider “AdminUI.PS.Provider\CMSite” and the name should represent your site name created when you installed Configuration Manager.

The next command shows how you can search for all the different CM sites that you could connect to:

Get-PSDrive | where { $_.Provider -like "*CMSite*" }

Now I know the name of my drive to connect to I can then go ahead and load the drive with the command below:

cd PRI:

Once the drive is loaded you can then get a list of cmdlets available in the session.

Get-Command -Module ConfigurationManager

You can then use the “Configuration Manager SP1 Cmdlet Reference” to understand what you can do with each cmdlet.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj821831.aspx

Conclusion

I hope this blog has helped you understand how to import the Configuration Manager Powershell module, in part 2 we will cover off how you can automatically Import App-V 5.0 applications, distribute the content to the DPs and the deploy the application to your users.

David Falkus | Premier Field Engineer | Application Virtualization

Introducing Shared Content Store in App-V 5.0

zarbie — Wed, 29 May 2013 15:04:11 GMT

Microsoft’s own Thamim Karim has a great article on a really cool new feature in App-V 5.0 called Share Content Store. What is Shared Content Store? Shared Content Store in App-V 5.0 allows us to stream directly from a content source without having to...(read more)

App-V 5.0 – Error: Virtual Fonts subsystem failure on first launch

Dafalk — Fri, 24 May 2013 21:14:00 GMT

Hi all,

I’ve been seeing the following error a few times with my own packages so I thought it was time to figure out what the issue is.

If you check the event log a more descriptive error is available, and it states the following:

Process 18672 failed to start due to Virtual Fonts subsystem failure. Package ID {5152004a-ed53-4435-a814-1ac15f070e7c}. Version ID {0361fd0e-c618-443b-b803-70e4bc663541}. Error: 0x83401D2A-0x80070490

Note: The App-V event log is located in the following location within Event Viewer:

Applications and Services Logs\Microsoft\AppV\Client\Admin

Workaround

If you want to workaround this issue then you can do the following:

1. Edit the UserConfig.xml for the package and set Fonts Enabled="false"

2. Once this is complete then republish the package using the custom userconfig.xml. I updated my package using the following powershell command:

Get-AppvClientPackage "Adobe Reader 11.0.03" | Publish-AppvClientPackage -DynamicUserConfigurationPath '.\Adobe Reader 11.0.03_UserConfig.xml'

Now when I launch the application, it launches as expected.

Troubleshooting the Error

Firstly I knew the error was due to the Virtual Fonts subsystem and I know that the Fonts subsystem is written to the AppxManifest.xml file. So I opened up the .appv and had a look in the AppxManifest.xml. The following was set for <appv:Extension Category="AppV.Fonts">

<appv:Extension Category="AppV.Fonts">

<appv:Fonts>

<appv:Font Path="[{Windows}]\Installer\$PatchCache$\Managed\68AB67CA7DA73301B744BA0000000010\11.0.0\MinionPro_Bold.otf" />

<appv:Font Path="[{Windows}]\Installer\$PatchCache$\Managed\68AB67CA7DA73301B744BA0000000010\11.0.0\MinionPro_BoldIt.otf" />

<appv:Font Path="[{Windows}]\Installer\$PatchCache$\Managed\68AB67CA7DA73301B744BA0000000010\11.0.0\MinionPro_It.otf" />

<appv:Font Path="[{Windows}]\Installer\$PatchCache$\Managed\68AB67CA7DA73301B744BA0000000010\11.0.0\MinionPro_Regular.otf" />

<appv:Font Path="[{Windows}]\Installer\$PatchCache$\Managed\68AB67CA7DA73301B744BA0000000010\11.0.0\MyriadPro_Bold.otf" />

<appv:Font Path="[{Windows}]\Installer\$PatchCache$\Managed\68AB67CA7DA73301B744BA0000000010\11.0.0\MyriadPro_BoldIt.otf" />

<appv:Font Path="[{Windows}]\Installer\$PatchCache$\Managed\68AB67CA7DA73301B744BA0000000010\11.0.0\MyriadPro_It.otf" />

<appv:Font Path="[{Windows}]\Installer\$PatchCache$\Managed\68AB67CA7DA73301B744BA0000000010\11.0.0\MyriadPro_Regular.otf" />

<appv:Font Path="[{AppVPackageRoot}]\Reader\plug_ins3d\prc\MyriadCAD.otf" />

<appv:Font Path="[{AppVPackageRoot}]\Resource\Font\AdobePiStd.otf" />

<appv:Font Path="[{AppVPackageRoot}]\Resource\Font\CourierStd-Bold.otf" />

<appv:Font Path="[{AppVPackageRoot}]\Resource\Font\CourierStd-BoldOblique.otf" />

<appv:Font Path="[{AppVPackageRoot}]\Resource\Font\CourierStd-Oblique.otf" />

<appv:Font Path="[{AppVPackageRoot}]\Resource\Font\CourierStd.otf" />

<appv:Font Path="[{AppVPackageRoot}]\Resource\Font\MinionPro-Bold.otf" />

<appv:Font Path="[{AppVPackageRoot}]\Resource\Font\MinionPro-BoldIt.otf" />

<appv:Font Path="[{AppVPackageRoot}]\Resource\Font\MinionPro-It.otf" />

<appv:Font Path="[{AppVPackageRoot}]\Resource\Font\MinionPro-Regular.otf" />

<appv:Font Path="[{AppVPackageRoot}]\Resource\Font\MyriadPro-Bold.otf" />

<appv:Font Path="[{AppVPackageRoot}]\Resource\Font\MyriadPro-BoldIt.otf" />

<appv:Font Path="[{AppVPackageRoot}]\Resource\Font\MyriadPro-It.otf" />

<appv:Font Path="[{AppVPackageRoot}]\Resource\Font\MyriadPro-Regular.otf" />

<appv:Font Path="[{AppVPackageRoot}]\Resource\Font\PFM\SY______.PFM" />

<appv:Font Path="[{AppVPackageRoot}]\Resource\Font\SY______.PFB" />

</appv:Fonts>

So I now know all the paths to the fonts that are expected. As I’m already looking in the package I thought I would check to see if these were available.

I first checked the path [{AppVPackageRoot}]\Resource\Font\ and as seen below all the fonts are there.

I then checked the path [{AppVPackageRoot}]\Reader\plug_ins3d\prc and the font is available.

But when I checked for “[{Windows}]\Installer\$PatchCache$” the files or even the folder weren’t captured in the package.

Straight away I had realised what the problem was…

I always try to clean up my packages at the end of the sequencer by deleting files and folders that I see are not required in the package and the installer folder is one of them.

Inadvertently the sequencer had picked up there were fonts in that folder that it referenced in the AppxManifest.xml file, so when you try and launch the application the App-V client reads the AppxManifest.xml and if it can’t find the fonts in the package itself then you will receive this error.

Fix

To fix this issue you have two options:

1. As shown above specify a custom userconfig.xml and disable Virtual Fonts. When you publish the package make sure that the custom xml file is specified.

2. Be very careful on what you delete in the sequencer, as you can see by doing a simple clean up operation caused an error which took some time to track down.

My fix was to re-sequence the application and I ensured that the folder that contained the fonts wasn’t deleted at the end of the sequencing procedure.

Conclusion

I hope this blog has helped you understand why this error occurs and explains what you should do to ensure this doesn’t occur in your environment.

David Falkus | Premier Field Engineer | Application Virtualization

App-V error code 06-0000000E Explained

Dafalk — Wed, 22 May 2013 21:11:00 GMT

Hi all,

Recently I’ve been onsite with a few customers and the following App-V error keeps occurring when a user tries to launch an App-V application.

Research

If you search on the internet you will find the following KB that we (Microsoft) provide to our customers to troubleshoot this message.

Error message in the Microsoft SoftGrid Client when you try to start an application: "Error code: xxxxxx-xxxxxx06-0000000E"

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/930633

As you can see this is referencing our previous version Softricity, the resolution in the article is below.

To resolve this issue, use Registry Editor to verify that the path of the SoftGrid "user data" directory is valid. To do this, follow these steps:

1. From the SoftGrid Client, start Registry Editor.

2. Locate and then expand the following subkey:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Softricity\SoftGrid Client\CurrentVersion\Configuration

3. Right-click UserDataDirectory, and then click Modify.

4. Review and, if it is necessary, correct the path that is specified in the Value data box.

5. Exit Registry Editor.

If you try to start an application and you do not have access to the path that is specified in the Value data box, the application will not start, and you will receive the errors that are mentioned.

As we are using App-V 4.6 SP2 the same error occurs but when we check the new registry location the default location is %APPDATA%

X86 Client - HKLM \SOFTWARE\Microsoft\SoftGrid\4.5\Client\Configuration

X64 Client - HKLM\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\SoftGrid\4.5\Client\Configuration

Troubleshooting Steps

So what did we do to figure out what the issue is?

Firstly as the user we opened a command prompt and ran a “set” to check the environment variable for %APPDATA% and the following was returned:

APPDATA=C:\Users\Dave\Appdata\Roaming

This is what we expected so where do we go now? Next we though lets check the App-V client is pulling the correct variables when the application launches. We enabled verbose logging by running the following command:

Sftlist /verboselog

We then reproduced the issue and the log pulled the correct value as shown.

[05/22/2013 12:37:55:041 SWAP VRB] {hap=12:app=Remote Desktop Connection Manager 2.2.2.426:tid=A88:usr=Dave}

SetEnvironmentVariable(name=APPDATA, value=C:\Users\Dave\AppData\Roaming)

As a note, to reset to log back to default run a sftlist /infolog so the log doesn’t grow rapidly and affect the clients performance.

Where do we go from here?

Well, how many people know that the App-V client has two configuration locations in the registry?

As above we have the Local Machine keys depending on the Client version installed:

X86 Client - HKLM \SOFTWARE\Microsoft\SoftGrid\4.5\Client\Configuration

X64 Client - HKLM\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\SoftGrid\4.5\Client\Configuration

But we also have configuration on a per user basis in the following location:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\SoftGrid\4.5\Client

Within this part of the registry there is a key UserInfo which also holds a string name called “DataDirectory”. So when a user launches an application the App-V client reads the UserDataDirectory key from HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE and then sets the “DataDirectory” value under HKEY_CURRENT_USER. If this path isn’t available, incorrect or the user doesn’t have write access to this location then the 06-0000000E error will occur.

This value was a path wasn’t a valid location which meant the application wouldn’t launch. We changed the value of the key to the correct %APPDATA% environment variable stated above and then guess what the application launched.

Conclusion

I hope this helps with troubleshooting this error code and explains why this error can occur.

David Falkus | Premier Field Engineer | Application Virtualization

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