Windows 8 pool with Quickprep breaks modern UI apps

[solgaeDK]

Just to share my experience on creating Windows 8 pool using the new Horizon View 5.2:

I created a Windows 8 VM with VMware Tools and View Agent 5.2 installed, with most of the optimization steps applied that is similar to Windows 7. The optimization script for Windows 7 in the white paper works save for the few services that aren't present in Windows 8. After configuring a linked-clone dedicated pool with default settings, I let the desktops created and logged in to the pool. The AD environment on the lab was at the 2008 R2 level for domain and forest functionality.

Surprisingly, none of the modern UI apps showed up save for IE and Windows store! And trying to open them cause it to exit immediately. The Application event log indicated that the app didn't launch in an allotted time. Not a very helpful message.

I tried joining in on an OU that has no group policy applied (e.g. inheritance blocked), but modern UI apps still didn't work.

I've been browsing all the Microsoft's social forums to see why the modern UI apps fail to work when joined to the domain - there's a fair amount of threads active with people who are having issues with it. However, none of them really gave a clear answer except one: someone deployed it using Windows Deployment Services (WDS), which indicated to me that it uses sysprep for customization, and the metro UI apps worked without any problems while on the domain.

Taking that as a cue, I re-created another pool, but using Sysprep this time, using a basic customization profile. This time, it worked without a hitch! This made me wonder if modern UI apps depend on the local SID or anything that Quickprep doesn't touch.

So if anyone's interested in trying out Windows 8 under 2008 R2 AD environment (not sure about the 2012 AD), I would say use Sysprep customization for now. BTW here's someone from Microsoft forums detailing his experience with 2012 AD:

I did testing with Windows Server 2012 Standard.  The App Store is disabled by design.  You also cannot personalize (say your login photo), and that is also be design.  I had an early test where I upgraded Windows 2008 R2 to Windows Server 2012 and I had full access to the App Store, however I was unable to repeat.  MS must have closed the process that allowed the App Store to be installed in an upgrade.

Thanks,

solgaeDK

[HIsgett]

You are not the only one. I am having the same issue with Quickprepping Windows 8 and Modern UI in View 5.2. I do not recall this being an issue in View 5.1 (I know...the version that does not support Windows 8).

[solgaeDK]

Same issue with Quickprep on View 5.1.2 (Yes, I tried) with an additional problem - the graphic driver included in View Agent 5.1.2 wrecks the responsiveness of the UI in PCoIP. The graphic driver in View Agent 5.1.2 just isn't very compatible with Windows 8.

[ramkrishna1]

Hi

Welcome to the communities.

First of all we have to resolve HCL problem else it will be little tough to come to the exact conclusion.

"a journey of a thousand miles starts    with a single step."

[HIsgett]

Just curious...did you do any of the optimizations described in the VMware View Optimization Guide for Windows 7? I did not for my Windows 8 view desktops in 5.1, but I did apply some of the optimizations listed (not all as some services, etc, does not exist in Windows 😎 for the view desktops in 5.2. I know that if you turn off UAC completely, it breaks the modern UI. I am building a fresh vm without optimizations now to see if that makes a difference.

[HIsgett]

Looks like that is what is was for me. I created a fresh install of Windows 8 with Office 2013 and did not do any Windows 7 optimization steps in the guide and created a pool of desktops using quickprep. The modern UI looks like it should. I guess now we need to find out what exact optimization(s) broke it.

[solgaeDK]

You are correct - UAC is now a requirement for Modern UI apps to work correctly. I always chose to leave that part off the optimization script and leave it on even on Windows 7 since I follow Microsoft's recommendation on this. Now see how Microsoft requires you to have UAC on for Modern UI apps.

I'll try with an un-optimizied image and see where things went south.

[solgaeDK]

So it turns out some of the optimization done in the original Windows 7 script does break Modern UI Apps on the linked clones if you use QuickPrep. Trying with an un-optimized image worked with QuickPrep without any issues.

I applied the tuning manually from the Horizon View Administration document by following the Creating and Preparing Virtual Machines section. So far, it seems to work nicely. So my suspect is on IP Helper service, Windows Firewall service, and UAC now. Since you need Windows Firewall service to be set to Automatic for Blast HTML access agent, and UAC is required for Modern UI apps, this shouldn't be much of a compromise.

Hopefully VMware updates their white paper guide to include Windows 8 soon.