WebView2 Runtime question

[LukaszDziwisz]

Hello All,

Our master image contains WebView2 Runtime as it is required for our Webex App and couple of other applications. Recently, we have been tasked with installation of PowerBI Desktop version that will be deployed to roughly 60 users. We have decided to try to package it as an appstack, however ran into an issue where during the capturing process installing PowerBI it appears that it also installs WebView2 Runtime. Once the app is pushed to user it appears to be conflicting with the WebView2 runtime on the image and effectively breaks Webex. We have attempted to install WebView on packaging machine before capturing to see if maybe it will install PowerBi only but it appears that the installer doesn't care and still modifies WebView and Appvolumes captures it which then after being published it breaks other applications using WebView

Did any of you run into the same problem? I would really appreciate if somebody could offer some suggestions on how to make it work. 

[Tolino · Accepted solution]

Hi,

We've been struggling with exactly the same issue with Power BI, and finally found a method that works for us. There may be some other, simpler way to make it work, but so far we haven't found any.

The method we've used for the last two releases of Power BI is this:

First, we extract the MSI from the Power BI installer, using Wix Toolset 3.11 (https://github.com/wixtoolset/wix3/releases/tag/wix3112rtm)

After installing Wix, we run the following command to extract the MSI (substitute folder names for your actual folders)
c:\program files (x86)\wix toolset v3.11\bin\dark.exe <input folder>\PBIDesktopSetup_x64.exe -x <output folder>

After extracting the MSI, we use Orca to open the MSI, and create a new Transform, in which we remove Webview2 runtime from the installation sequence. Should be no issue using any other installation tools that can create transforms, but Orca works fine for this purpose.

Save the Transform, and copy both the transform and msi to an App Volumes packaging machine.

Before starting the packaging, install the same, or newer, Webview2 runtime version on the packaging machine as is included in PowerBI package, make sure to run it from an administrative command prompt, so it is installed per-machine, instead of per-user:
From admin command prompt, run microsoftedgewebview2runtimeinstallerx64.exe /install

Then start packaging of PowerBI package, and install with following command:

msiexec /i PBIDesktop_x64.msi DISABLE_UPDATE_NOTIFICATION=1 REG_SHOWLEADGENDIALOG=0 ACCEPT_EULA=1 INSTALLDESKTOPSHORTCUT=0 TRANSFORMS="<path-to-file>\nowebview.mst" /qn

After the installation finishes, it should just be a matter of finalizing the package, and deploy it for testing.

[rgb99]

I have a similar issue, but in my case, it's WebEx packed in App Volumes. The latest WebView2 Runtime is captured along with WebEx, but when you start/join a meeting, a prompt asks you to install WebView2. If you try to install it, another message says it's already installed. At first, I thought it was conflicting with another app (SnagIt) that also has the WebView2 Runtime. I updated it to the latest Runtime version to match that of WebEx but that didn't help.

We also have PowerBI captured in App Volumes and that has an older version of the WebView 2 Runtime. Now I am concerned if we enable WebEx for all VDI users, PowerBI will also break.

I don't have a solution yet, unfortunately.

[LukaszDziwisz]

Thank you for a very detailed outline on what you did to remediate that. We will give that a shot and see if that helps.

[rgb99]

For my issue, I captured the latest version of SnagIt without the WebView2 Runtime since it's already a part of the golden image. After setting the package as default and launching a new desktop, WebEx meetings worked without prompting me to install the runtime package.

I should probably capture PowerBI again since WebView2 is already in the image. I don't want to "attach" an older version.

[rgb99]

@Tolino Your instructions worked beautifully. I was able to follow them and install PowerBI without the WebView2 component. Thanks! 😄

[LukaszDziwisz]

That worked wonderful. Thank you for your help with it

[pbastiaans1]

Yessir, thank you! Worked like a charm.

[CMGordon]

Did find an easier way instead of having to install another application to get the MSI installer. Once I launched the EXE installer for Power BI Desktop and got through most of the install prompts without actually starting the install, I used the log in the %temp% folder which started with Microsoft_PowerBI_Desktop_(x64). From there I was able to locate that it had placed the cached bundle to a folder location C:\ProgramData\Package Cache, then just filtered for today's date and was left with two folders. One with the EXE and the other with the MSI. Copied the MSI from the folder location was able to load it up in Orca.

Hopefully that helps in case anyone can't or doesn't want to install another application to grab the MSI file.