App Volumes and MS Word 2013

[Peteisneat]

Howdy - We just got App Volumes and I'm having trouble with it and Office 2013, Word specifically.  I'm using linked clones and my gold image has Office 2013 installed on it.  I work at a law firm and we have a template package written for Word with VB which allows us to quickly created documents from templates.  All of this is also in the gold image.  Everything, including our document management client (integrated with Word), works great until I assign an app stack to a user. 

Here's what happens

1. Word works great

2. Assign an app stack (e.g. Firefox 39.0)

3. Firefox works great

4. Open Word (our Word is set to not open a blank doc at startup)

5. Click an icon on the ribbon to open a template

6. Error appears telling us "Cannot open macro storage"

7. Click through all the errors and close the open doc

8. Unassign app stack

9. Word works great again (i.e. as it should)

When the app stack is attached I can open a blank document, but when I try to view the VB code (Alt+F11), I cannot.

I have tested this by creating the app stack from an image containing no apps, and a clone of our gold image.  Nothing seems to work.

I need some help with this and thank you in advance for your help.

[jrp1]

There's a very similar issue in our environment when a mail merge is attempted from an Excel 2013 data source to a Word 2013 document.  As soon as all App Stacks are detached, it works.  If any App Stack is attached, it errors out.  I've had a support request open for a bit and am still waiting on a resolution.  I referenced this post in the case too so thanks for posting!

[Peteisneat]

JRP1 - I'm still waiting for support (engineering, actually) to get back to me.  I was told today they have not yet identified the root cause.  They've known about it since the end of July.  I'm trying to figure out how to get my money back in the event they don't fix it very soon.

[Jason_Marshall]

Can you share the SR number support gave you?

[Peteisneat]

VMware Support Request 15720032007

[Jason_Marshall]

Thank you. Ok looking quickly at it need to verify a couple items.

Provisioning machine should never have had ANY Office components installed, an uninstall is not sufficient.

Is the provisioning machine from the same golden image as the end point VM's?

[Peteisneat]

I went over both of these items in depth with the original support tech.  We used two provisioning machines - one with a gold image with only Windows, one with all the apps the end point (linked clones) use - and neither one worked. 

[jrp1]

This is a bug, not a gold image or provisioning issue.  I have an open case since July (15712725007) with an almost identical issue as Peteisneat.  I checked the status today and it's still waiting on Engineering.  VMware has acknowledged that it is a bug.  I'm waiting for another update later this week.  Turnaround time for this is really disappointing and slowing down our roll out.

[Jason_Marshall]

Could be but in looking at the case notes it appears to be an image issue. That said I will take a look at this tomorrow and see if we can repro.

[Peteisneat]

I don't know if you're referring to my SR or jrp1's.  In my case I was assured it was not related to any image and was certainly a "critical" system bug. It seems to me such a serious problem would normally be handled with a bit more urgency.

[jrp1]

If it's an image issue, what needs to be changed on the image then?  It should be a simple fix.  Sorry to be so direct but this has taken way too long to resolve whether it's an image issue or a bug.

[VirtualSven]

Having the same issue at a customer with App Volumes 2.10. Any news on how to fix this bug? Tried to exclude the Office directory in snapvol.cfg, but then there is no integration between the locally installed Office and applications in appstacks.

[Ray_handels]

Just checking something but could you try and see if this exclusion has been added to snapvol.cfg? This is the registry key that holds activation information for Office.

Please DO NOT add this key to the Office appstack where activation has taken place. Otherwise my guess is you won't have any activation at all..

exclude_registry=\REGISTRY\MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\OfficeSoftwareProtectionPlatform

[VirtualSven]

No, it was not included. But I just tested it and it makes no difference. Still the macro error. No Appstacks attached and it works, 1 appstack attached with just putty in it for example, and Word gives an error with macro's. Office 365 Click to run is installed in the base image. Doesn't matter if I create appstack on clean Windows OS or with a Windows machine with the same office installed.

[jrp1]

Not sure if this helps with your macro issue but I had to add this to the snapvol.cfg just between the last "virtualize_to" entry and the first "exclude_path" entry: exclude_registry=\REGISTRY\MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\15.0\ClickToRun\REGISTRY\ . Mail merge now works with App Stacks attached.

[VirtualSven]

Yes, that does seem to do the trick, thanks!