JasonP76
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Advice on snapvol.cfg file configurations

Hi All,

I hope some of you can give me a little advice on our current AppVolumes setup.

We are running version 4.6. We do not use writeable volumes only use AppStacks to publish applications to users. We use FSLogix to do all the profile management (Already have those exclusions in the snapvol.cfg file)

We run most of the common applications like Adobe Reader and Office 365 Pro Plus directly in the the base image of the instant clones.

I would like to know, in the custom  snapvol.cfg file, should I go through the base image and add exclusions for all apps that are installed on it, Like office, Adobe, notepad++, 7zip etc ...

Also add in exclusions for the process names as well as the process path for all those applications ?

One other thing, I assume that the line:

#virtualize=\

is correct that it should be hashed out along with the other ones to virtualize the registry ?

Thanks

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sjesse
Leadership
Leadership

I wouldn't mess with that unless you have a reason, mainly just excluding specific things in most cases.

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BenTrojahn
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

"should I go through the base image and add exclusions for all apps that are installed on it, Like office, Adobe, notepad++, 7zip etc ..."

if you want those base image apps to run faster by not going through another filter driver, then yes.  to use your example, If you package an office add-in or something that needs to virtualize into the office path it may not work.  For the most part its overkill and is not normal practice, but it will help if you are seeing poor performance in your non virtualized app. 

Similarly, we disable svservice wherever appvols is not needed.

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JasonP76
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Would not mess with what specifically?

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JasonP76
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

@BenTrojahn  Ok I will go through it and have a look, but I having "#virtualize=\" does that not mean that nothing gets virtualized in the first place? By default that setting is hashed out in our config file. It is not something we have done manually.

Also I noticed in the file an entry for :

reverse_replicate_file=*\chrome.exe

Should we not have the same entries for Edge seeing that they are basically chromium packages?

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BenTrojahn
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

I see "#virtualize=\" in the 4.5 2111 default snapvol.cfg but its didnt used to be rem'd out in 2.18.x.  It doesn't make a lot of sense to not virtualize everything then explicitly exclude those paths below.  Must be a arch change win appvols between those versions, but i have not researched it.  Moving snapvol.cfg to the vm and out of the package is a heck of a lot easier to live with than the previous 'last attached wins" :winking_face:

iirc chrome needed the reverse_replicate  to resolve poor performance and/or issues when packaged.  

Besides snapvol exclusions, out of habit, even before running into these issues Appstacks are unable to print to Snagit or RightFax printers after installing windows updates. (8124...  I often exclude processes that appvols have no business loading in. Some of these are now default in the 4.x appvols :winking_face:


HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\svdriver\Parameters  
HookInjectionWhitelist

*\teams.exe||*
*\OneDrive.exe||*
*\spoolsv.exe||*
*\outlook.exe||*
*\frxsvc.exe||*  << MS support wont help with your fslogix issue, especially if another vendor's dll is loaded.

 

IMO the best appvols is one used sparingly.

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Jubish-Jose
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

I was wondering the same about "#virtualize=\", not sure whether its an architecture change. 

We have FSLogix and App Volumes with Writable. I did some testing by excluding Adobe (Program Files\Adobe, Program Files (x86)\Adobe, Program Files\Common Files\Adobe, Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Adobe and also the registry) and also \Users folder. Without  App Volumes, I try an upgrade of Photoshop from Adobe Creative Cloud and it took 6 minutes. With App Volumes Writable, it takes double the time and often upgrade fails. Does this mean that the exclusions are not working? 


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JasonP76
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Enthusiast

So seeing that the "#virtualize=\" is in place by default, and we are not using writable volumes, does this mean that any exclusions we add to the config file are not even used ? because I thought that the exclusions are put in to tell App volumes NOT to virtualize those exclusions as the rest would be virtualized. But this entry would mean that NOTHING is virtualized any more.

Correct me if I am wrong.

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