I have just completed a migration to View 6, and have begun my foray into App Volumes. I had a question regarding what I can and cannot capture, as I have an application that I have yet to be successful with. The application places a number of files in the directory C:\Windows\Registration. App Volumes seems not to see this, even after multiple reboots and launches during the capture process. For this reason, every time the end user launches the application from the stack it runs a repair on the MSI. I am just curious if there is a way to ensure this directory is captured, or if there is another method that would fall under best practices that I should be looking at. As an alternative I have ThinApp'd the application, but it starts very slow. I am hoping to find a resolution so I can include it natively in my app stack.
If you look at the snapvol.cfg file in the root of the writable volume template you will see that this files holds information on what to capture and what not to capture.
You will need to add a # sign in front of the following line
exclude_path=%SystemRoot%\registration
This line will exclude information in the c:\Windows\Registration directory.
I would suggest to create a new appstack, mount the appstack to a machine that doesn't have an Appvolumes agent, go to the snapvol.cfg file and change this setting. Than start to provision the appstack.
Thanks for the input, I found the path and commented it out. I now see several HKCU entries that are not captured. At present I am not using writable volumes, just AppVolumes to deliver the application stack. Am I going to have to resort to adding a writable, or can AppVolumes be directed toward the user hive?
Hey,
When provisioning appstacks information in the user settings will not be saved. The thing is that if you seqeunce it it will be placed in the KHCU of the user you are provisioning with. There is no such thing as a %LOGGEDONUSER% variable where you can put personal information or settings in.
There is however a startup.bat file in the root of the appstack that can be used to execute commands that you want to use for setting up personal settings. The other option is to use GPO's to set registry settings. Or you could use a roaming profile or persona disk for it.
If you don't want to go that route your other option is to indeed use a writable volume (which IMHO is the best part about Appvolumes, it holds all user information that a roaming profile could never hold).