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Maarten_Caus
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App volumes 2.12 CutePDF installed in golden Image and appstack connected = PDF printer, fax and xps printer disconnect?

Hi,

I did a clean install of App volumes 2.12 and recreated all my appstacks. I installed CutePDF in my base image Windows 8.1 pro and than everything works fine.

When I attach any appstack the PDF printer, XPS printer and the Fax are disconnected.

Any ideas?

Kind regards,

Maarten

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FFNVMware
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Apparently VMware made some changes in 2.12 that took away some exclusions for printer settings in the registry. They are working on a permanent resolution, but this workaround did the trick in my environment;

This will need to be performed on all existing and new appstacks;

1. Stage your appstack to be updated and set it up on your provisioning (capture) machine.

2. Once provisioning has started on the capture machine browse to C:\snapshotvolumetemp\ and press enter (hidden volume when provisioning is being performed)

3. Drill down to the mountpoint and unique ID folders and edit the file snapvol.cfg and add the following lines in the exclude_registry area (or anywhere if you're messy).

exclude_registry=\REGISTRY\MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Printers

exclude_registry=\REGISTRY\MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Print\Printers

4. Complete provisioning mode.

5. Assign users.

6. Test

If you have applications like CutePDF that install local printers as part of your AppStack capture you may have to repair/reinstall that app after performing the above steps or recreate the install from scratch after apply the above settings first. Otherwise you may get local printers, but the CutePDF printer will still not appear.

This worked in my environment and I had two local printers on the golden image and one in the AppStack. After applying the above the local printers showed and after doing a repair on the app that installed an additional local printer they all appeared. Hope this helps until VMware can address.

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rogerVMB
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We are experiencing the same problem , our original baseline AppStack includes, Java 8 U21 , Shockwave, Adobe Reader DC and Acrobat Pro 11. The Adobe PDF Printer is created on the AppStack during the provisioning process but, when attached to a Linked Clone VM, all the printers (XPS, Fax, OneNote) are removed and Adobe PDF Printer doesn't show up on the Linked Clone VM.

AppStack was updated with new version of the Agent 2.12 from Agent 2.11, the master image for the linked cloned VDI pool was updated to Agent 2.12 from Agent 2.11 and the App Volumes Manager Server was updated to 2.12 from 2.11. To reiterate,  the linked clone Pool was provisioned and when the appstack is attached to the user session ,only network printers saved to the UEM profile of the user are available. All the default printers from the Golden Image and from the assigned baseline AppStack are not available.

Strangely enough, the baseline AppStack that was updated to 2.12 mounted on a VM running the Agent 2.11 , the default printers (XPS,Fax OneNote) persist after the appstack is attached

Any feedback on other tests are welcome.

The version of AppVolumes we are testing with was downloaded on 12/9/16 - and the filename is 'Vmware_App_Volumes_v121.iso'

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Ray_handels
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What happens after all appsatcks are attached is that the print spooler is being restarted.

If you log in can you see an error in the event viewer stating the print spooler was stopped and started?

Looking at your message it seems as if the print spooler is not shut down correctly or at least not started up correctly. What happens if you manually do a spooler reset after logon?

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JHT_Seattle
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Hi Ray! Long time...

I'm seeing this issue in my env as well under 2.12.  We have a few stacks with virtual printers (Adobe Acrobat X, Bullzip PDF, CutePDF) and all (including the XPS printer on the image itself) are missing with stacks successfully attached (any stack).  Most of my stacks were built with the 2.11 agent/template, but even after updating a stack to 2.12 it persists.

Downgrading the AppVol agent to 2.11 resolves the issue.  Here's how it breaks down:

2.11 Agent + 2.11 stack w/virtual printer = all printers present (incl XPS from parent image)

2.11 Agent + 2.12 stack w/virtual printer = only 2.12 stack printer present (none from parent image)

2.12 Agent + 2.11 stack w/virtual printer = no printers present

2.12 Agent + 2.12 stack w/virtual printer = no printers present

Between this and the requirement for capture VMs to be domain joined this is another great example of 2 steps forward, 1 back from the App Volumes dev team.  At least this is manageable, but I guess those "30-50%" decreased login times are a result of not actually attaching everything in the stacks.  Good job, guys.

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Ray_handels
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Hey JHT,

Indeed, long time no see Smiley Happy.

I did some more research on it and indeed am seeing the exact same issue but with some more info.

The logon time is still very fast if you don't have a writable (about 18 seconds in our case with 8 appstacks) but they still need to be processed after logon off course.

After i'm logged in I am able to see the locally installed printers. As always, at the end of the attachment and merging of appstacks svservice restarts the spooler. The moment the spooler is restarted I lose my printers. So it doesn't seem to be related with the quick login but more with the restarting of the print spooler.

Why the printers are deleted then I have no idea. I do know why they do the spooler restart but we are in the midst of trying to find a way to work around that.

If you have a loginscript that simply installs printers and installation is done during logon it may fails due to the print spooler service being restarted.

It might be a better option to remove the print spooler restart entirely and let the user decide if and when to restart the spooler.  You can add it into an appstack if you do have a printer in your appstack (which in most of the times is a PDF printer) or choose to not install the PDF printer.

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etamir
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Hi Guys,

It seems that I have 2 customers that may be affected by this same issue.

both have now migrated to AppVol 2.12, Horizon view 7.0.1

It seems to match what you're describing here...printers get lost once appstack is attached...

I have bumped into this VMware KB but it relates to older versions of appvol 2.7 and 2.9:

Printer mapping fails in VMware App Volumes (2137401)

https://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=21374...

This KB describes what Ray has also verified...that this may be related to the printer spooler being restarted.

The solution offered is to set the registry value for VolDelayLoad registry key to 0

The problem is that the default value for 2.12 is already 0 for that parameter. I will give it a try tomorrow anyways.

would be glad to hear anymore feedback if anyone has resolved this.

Cheers,

Eyal

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pchapman
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I have this problem as well, ticket is in and VMware was already aware of it..hope for a fix soon.

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ITVTom
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We are also experiencing this issue after upgrading to App Volumes 2.12 running Windows 10 & View 7.0.2. The FAX, XPS & PDF printer are all greyed out. If we remove every AppStack the local printers to machine will come back.

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Raymond_W
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Some heads up,

We are looking into this problem...to be continued

Raymond

Kind regards, Raymond Twitter: @raymond_himself
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globitsGmbH
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Hi,

as far as I can see the registry keys are gone after appstack attachment.

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alsmk2
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We're also seeing this issue on 2.12.

A temporary workaround I have put in place is to manually create a local printer to use using the following command (set as a UEM logon task):

rundll32 printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /if /b "CutePDF Writer" /r "CPW2:" /m "Lexmark Universal v2 PS3"

Problem with this is that we have certain appstacks that this still does not work with, but it at least gets a local printer ready for most users.

I'm going to test running the above as a batch file configured in the Startup folder, as I'm fairly certain the desktops it fails to work on is a timing issue against appstacks attaching. Hopefully Startup will give enough of a delay to get it working.

Obviously the above is for CutePDF, but the command should be tweak-able for other PDF writers too - just replace the port and driver with another relevant one (any PostScript driver if other software packages work the same way as CutePDF).

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alsmk2
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Just to confirm that using the PrintUI command I mentioned above called via batch file in the startup menu works for us - the delay in the script running seems to be enough to bypass any issues caused by appstacks / spooler.

Not ideal in any way, but enough to keep things going until a proper fix works its way down.

I've also not seen any mention of this above, but it was pointed out to me that when an appstack is attached on 2.12, the following reg key is no longer accessible:

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control|Print\Printers

A generic error is displayed: "System cannot find the file specified"

Log on to a desktop with no appstacks attached and this is no longer the case.

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FPSRoland
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Hi,

I received this mail this morning :

App Volumes 2.12 ISO download
We are contacting regarding the App Volumes 2.12 ISO file you downloaded between the dates of 12/8/16 and 12/15/16. Since your download a new App Volumes 2.12 ISO file has been posted which includes an important fix for a product upgrade issue. We advise you to download the updated 2.12 ISO file before proceeding further with App Volumes 2.12 deployments.

Do you think that the fix solves the problem ?

I have download the new ISO "VMware_App_Volumes_v212_121516.iso" and I will try this afternoon on my test pool.

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pchapman
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It does not solve the problem, that ISO revision was for a different issue. I am running that version and have the printer issue.

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FPSRoland
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ok, thank you for your answer !
do you know what was fixed ?

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Ray_handels
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They fixed the error 500 that you receive when logging into a machine with the Appvolumes agent that's not a domain member. This error was only cosmetic and could be fixed using a specific procedure (posted somewhere on this forum). You could also safely ignore the message.

But just out of curiosity, who send you the e-mail?? We received it as well, just wanted to know if it was automatically generated Smiley Happy.

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FPSRoland
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I received the mail from Jason Marshall <..>


edit by wila: removed email address

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FFNVMware
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We are also experiencing this issue on 2.12. Have not dropped back to 2.11 just yet. Have opened a case with VMware on the issue. Our scenario is this and essentially the same as originally poster;

Have two printers installed locally on the golden image. Also deploying an appstack that installs a third local printer for Foxit Reader (print to PDF). We also use Group Policy to deploy a network printer.

When a VDI session begins and no appstacks are applied all printers (local and network) appear successfully.

When a VDI session begins and an appstack IS applied only the network printers appear and no local printers (that includes those on the golden image and one from the appstack itself). Restarting the spooler service manually does not bring back the local printers.

This is currently holding up our VDI deployment.

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dbastie
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Hi,

Here i have put the spooler service in "manual" and not "Automatic" (by default) and our PDF Creator printer (installed in golden image) became available after a reboot and appstack mounted.

But this seems quite random, specially if the user signout/signin...

(Windows 10, Horizon 7.0.3, App Volumes 2.12, no writable volumes, no UEM)

Regards,

Damien

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FFNVMware
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Apparently VMware made some changes in 2.12 that took away some exclusions for printer settings in the registry. They are working on a permanent resolution, but this workaround did the trick in my environment;

This will need to be performed on all existing and new appstacks;

1. Stage your appstack to be updated and set it up on your provisioning (capture) machine.

2. Once provisioning has started on the capture machine browse to C:\snapshotvolumetemp\ and press enter (hidden volume when provisioning is being performed)

3. Drill down to the mountpoint and unique ID folders and edit the file snapvol.cfg and add the following lines in the exclude_registry area (or anywhere if you're messy).

exclude_registry=\REGISTRY\MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Printers

exclude_registry=\REGISTRY\MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Print\Printers

4. Complete provisioning mode.

5. Assign users.

6. Test

If you have applications like CutePDF that install local printers as part of your AppStack capture you may have to repair/reinstall that app after performing the above steps or recreate the install from scratch after apply the above settings first. Otherwise you may get local printers, but the CutePDF printer will still not appear.

This worked in my environment and I had two local printers on the golden image and one in the AppStack. After applying the above the local printers showed and after doing a repair on the app that installed an additional local printer they all appeared. Hope this helps until VMware can address.