Writable and AppStack app problem

[hunterok]

I've installed an app v1 in my Instant Clone so this installation stored in writable volume. Then I installed the newer version of the same app v2 into an AppStack. After login I see v1 app but not v2. We don't use UEM, just writable volumes.

I understand that it's a normal behavior as writable volume has higher priority than AppStack but how can I delete writable volume v1 app and use Appstack v2 app? Some of our users can't use Skype v8.34 as Instant Clone show this application as uninstalled though it was recently updated in AppStack. I assume that somehow the users uninstalled the app and this change stored in writable volume so they can't use the new version from AppStack.

I tried to google something about it but with no success.

[Ray_handels]

Simple answer, it won't work. This is one of the downsides of the writable volume.

If you were to delete the application while the writable is attached it will mark the application as deleted, meaning it will place some registry keys in the writable masking the information in your golden image or appstack.

In this case you have 2 options.

1. Just recreate the writable which is the quickest but most painful option

2. (USE AT YOUR OWN RISK) there, I said it . You can attach the writable to a machine that does not have an appvolumes agent installed and remove the actual files from the writable (you need to go to the svroot folder on the writable) and remove the registry keys related to those files. You will need to attach the snapvol.dat to the registy.exe tool and search for the FS root and remove the keys there. Quite cumbersome  and hard to do if you don't know exactly how Appvolumes works and how the application itself works..

[hunterok]

(you need to go to the svroot folder on the writable) and remove the registry keys related to those files. You will need to attach the snapvol.dat to the registy.exe tool and search for the FS root and remove the keys there. Quite cumbersome  and hard to do if you don't know exactly how Appvolumes works and how the application itself works..

Thanks for your help. It's not a problem to do that in general but you need to know all the registry keys which refer to the app and that could be a problem. It's kind of an investigation for each app.

[Ray_handels]

Yes, I totally agree with you on that point. To be honest I have no idea how you would be able to do that with applications that have multiple folders.

If the application is straight forward it wont be such a big deal..

[hunterok]

I think this problem only occurs applications which don't check user rights before install/update. We had an app which could start update process (user w/o admin rights) and even copy a few files and then it says something like that "No permissions to write to folder" then the app becomes to be corrupted.

[Ray_handels]

Nope, unfortunately not. The moment a user is able to change the files (either with or without administrative permissions) it will break the appstack if application is in writable. Even if the application in the writable is corrupted and does not work, it will also break the application in the appstack unfortunately.

[hunterok]

But if an app which change any system files, registry keys or other admin related things would check the user rights before any actions, it wouldn't become corrupted. Otherwise the app could change files which can be changed w/o admin rights and it would corrupt itself. It would be great if users could have something like installation sandbox which check if the user could finish all the installation process without user elevation