Virtualized Internet Explorer 8 - Constant Errors

[tfruth]

Hello all.  First time poster, long time reader.  I have packaged Internet Explorer 8 in accordance with the instructions found here:  http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1026674

I also read through about ten to fifteen Internet Explorer packaging articles on VMware's site.  I think I'm mildly frustrated because there is not one single cohesive page on VMware's site where all things Internet Explorer are captured.  Enough ranting, on with the issue.

I captured IE8 on a clean Vista Business 32-bit VM.  I installed one cumulative update (from KB file, not through Windows Update.)  I made a couple of settings and shortcut changes and built the application.  I'm testing on Windows 7 Pro 64-bit (but only the 32-bit browser I captured.  I know that 64-bit capture and build is not yet supported.)

I tried the first build with all the defaults - default isolation modes, default folder structure, etc.  Locally installed Flash on testing machines would not work initially.  I finally fixed the issue, but it's too many changes later for me to tell you which one specifically corrected the problem.  Sorry.  I've been at this for three weeks (which is about two and a half weeks too long, if you ask me.)  Locally installed Silverlight and Java worked right off the bat.

There is one lingering issue that appears to have to do with Flash.  I'll use one site as my poster child:  http://sports.yahoo.com .  Page only loads partially or never loads or gets stuck in an inifinite loading loop when default settings are used.  I tried Full isolation mode on %Internet Cache% and the page loads better (more consistently), but still gets stuck, never fully loading.  WriteCopy didn't change anything.  I didn't really want to cache temporary Internet files in the sandbox anyway.

Standard corporate image is Windows 7 Pro 64-bit, no SP1, Trend Micro 10.  I've tried disabling Trend Micro altogether, I've tried testing on an SP1 machine, I've tried testing on the VM I captured on (both before and after installing Flash, deleting sandbox before each test,) all to no avail when it comes to the Flash/caching issue.

One article I read seemed to indicate that AppLink to a capture of the Flash ActiveX install will not work.  Any truth to that notion?

Any suggestions?  (And please, refrain from suggesting another browser.  I really need a fully functional 32-bit IE8 on Windows 7.)

[tfruth]

***UPDATE***

For the time being I have built IE8 on XP Pro SP3 and it's working much better.  I am going to try building on an updated Vista VM in three different levels of update:

1. All updates up to but not including SP1
   
2. SP1 and all updates up to but not including SP2
   
3. SP2 and all post SP2 updates
   

The XP Pro SP3 IE8 build works fairly well, except bookmarks in the Favorites menu will not open.  Bookmarks on the Favorites Bar will open.  I'll be checking file and registry isolation mode settings, but if anyone knows the answer right off then please post.  Thanks.

[tfruth]

***UDPATE 2***

Favorites are opening from the Favorites menu.  I don't know why they didn't open on my test VM and then started opening.  Fluke or bug, not sure yet.

[tfruth]

***UPDATE 3***

Native Flash and Silverlight work okay.  Java works, but the brwoser instantly crashes if I visit a Java page followed by one of our intranet pages.

I've been using Process Monitor (procmon) to try and capture issues.  One consistent issue is I see the virtualized browser constantly trying to create ntdll.dll on the user's desktop.  The native IE8 does not exhibit this behavior.

If I failed to mention this in my previous posts, I'm trying to capture 32-bit IE8 on Vista Business 32-bit, for deployment on Windows 7 Pro 64-bit.  Part of me wonders if some of the issues we are seeing is due to issues arising from the SysWOW64 file folders and Wow6432Node registry entries on the target system not properly interpreted by the ThinApp application.  I also wonder if the fact that IE8 is installed to c:\program files on 32-bit Vista somehow gets confused on 64-bit Win 7.  I doubt this is the case, or I don't think the app would even launch.

I have built a couple of IE8 packages on Vista and XP and in both cases they seem to work on testing VM's and VM's with the standard corporate image.  As soon as they are tested in the wild, however, we see constant crashing against ntdll.dll.  I have tried a slew of file and registry isolation mode settings, as well as looking at the output of ThinApp logger and Process Monitor and have made zero headway with the ntdll.dll issue.

[Cievo]

Nice story. Thank you.

[TobyFruthParson]

I have gone through nearly thirty builds of IE8 with ThinApp 4.6.1. I have built IE8 on XP Pro SP2, XP Pro SP3, and Vista Busines 32-bit. I have even gone so far as to try radical things, like moving c:\program files\internet explorer to a folder off the root of the C:\ drive, changing file permissions and updating registry entries, in an attempt to solve the issues we are seeing. I even tried building it using Vista SP2 as a base, then capturing the IE8 updates on Win7 and applied the changed files and built each one of those. Last but not least, I replaced all those files with files from Windows 2008. To say that I can be a little obsessive is an understatement.

I went through all of those builds because two of my testers were seeing constant, instantaneous crashes when attempting to use virtual IE8. I could not make the browser crash (with very few and obscure exceptions), and had an epiphany. My laptop, my VM's and other testers, did not have systems with discreet Nvidia graphics. The machines that were seeing constant crashing are Dell Precision M 6400/6500's with Nvidia QuadroFX 2700M/2800M graphics cards.

Yesterday I worked with a clean piece of hardware that had nothing but Vista Business 32-bit, all the Windows Updates (with the exception of IE8), and the hardware drivers. I installed ThinApp on the machine and captured the installation of IE8 and its updates. I built IE8, went to a page with Flash, and saw an instant crash on ntdll.dll.

I had the hunch regarding the Nvidia driver for some time, so I needed this hardware machine at my disposal in order to conduct the tests. I was hoping by building on the offending hardware I might get a funstional build, but instead I saw the same crashes. I decided to remove the Dell Nvidia driver and reboot. Guess what? Far fewer Flash-related crashes. In fact, the only Flash I was able to make it crash on was on the new CNN Beta video page. I installed the most recent driver from Nvidia, rebooted, and the instantaneous crashes reappeared. I removed the Nvidia driver, rebooted, and 90% of the crashes went away. I was able to perform this operation over and over with the same results every time.

[TobyFruthParson · Accepted solution]

ThinApp 4.6.2 solved the problem for us.  Thanks to VMware Engineering for all their assistance.

[TobyFruthParson]

Just replying to see if my new profile photo shows up.  Vanity at its worst.