Mozilla Firefox Virtual package and Local office 0365 failure

After publishing Mozilla Firefox App-V package in windows 7, logging into portal.office.com and opening a word or excel document and trying to edit it with locally installed Office 0365 fails. When checked with procmon, we can see that Mozilla Firefox virtual package is able to see the local o365 package and tries to open it but the winword.exe process closes soon with exit code 1.



Solution 1:

Create the AllowJitvInAppvVirtualizedProcess registry key as shown below to fix this known issue.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\ClickToRun\OverRide]
"AllowJitvInAppvVirtualizedProcess"=dword:00000001

If it doesn't work try in wow6432Node registry.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\ClickToRun\OverRide]
"AllowJitvInAppvVirtualizedProcess"=dword:00000001

Solution 2:

If Solution 1 doesn't work , try with the latest App-V 5.1 Hot Fix. Always make sure to use the latest App-V 5.1 Hot Fix. (A minimum of Hot Fix 4 is required for this issue to be resolved.)

You can download the latest Hot Fix here: KB4018510

Tested the same scenario in Windows 10 1607, only the AllowJitvInAppvVirtualizedProcess registry key is required.

NOTE: Fixes that are delivered to the “out-of-box” versions of App-V and UE-V are first delivered for the “in-box” versions of App-V and UE-V in the monthly Windows 10 cumulative updates.Since updates are provided to windows 10 in-box App-V client first, it will not require the installation of the latest Hot-Fix.

From Windows 10 1703, this AllowJitvInAppvVirtualizedProcess registry key will be automatically added when any of the Office product starts.

Adobe Acrobat error 16 & UAC - App-V 5.1

After converting Adobe Acrobat standard 10.0 application from App-V 4.6 to App-V 5.1 using powershell commands, it throws an error 16 when launching the shortcut.

Reason: This is due to UAC and the application requires to be run as administrator.

Solution: To test manually Click Start > All Programs. Right click on the Adobe Acrobat X Standard product and click Run As Administrator.The shortcut will launch without any error.

So how to resolve this in the App-V 5.1 package? We need to suppress the UAC prompt when run as administrator.

Check my another blog for more information to solve this issue here

Sequence SPARX Enterprise Architect 13.5 - AppV 5.1

Select create a new virtual package.

Select create package.

Select standard package.

Select custom installation.

Type the name of the virtual package as Sparx Enterprise Architect 13.5.

Click Next and Install the application.





















Remove the desktop shortcut. Select I am finished Installing.








If you need to do any post install configuration like adding new registration key,Launch the shortcut “Enterprise Architect” and do it here.Once done click Next.




Click Next and save the Package.




Publish and test the sequenced package in  the latest windows 10 environment.

App-V Sequencer 5.x cannot sequence apps with filenames "CO_x" (Error 0x8007139F). But it is possible !!

Recently I came across the App-V technical document stating that

"The App-V 5.x Sequencer cannot sequence applications with filenames matching "CO_<x>" where x is any numeral. Error 0x8007139F will be generated."

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-desktop-optimization-pack/appv-v5/creating-and-managing-app-v-51-virtualized-applications



https://github.com/Microsoft/windows-itpro-docs/blob/master/windows/application-management/app-v/appv-release-notes-for-appv-for-windows.md

So I ran a quick test to confirm on the same.I used App-V 5.1 sequencer and App-V 5.1.86 client for testing.

During monitoring phase, I created a New folder in desktop for convenience.I then created 3 new files with different extensions (CO_123, CO_456.txt, CO_897.dll) and then proceeded stopping the monitoring phase. I was expecting that sequencer will throw an error or fail as mentioned in the Microsoft technical document. To my surprise sequencer completed without any issues. I was able to see the files in Package Files tab in the sequencer package editor.

To confirm, I also published the test package in a standalone machine and saw those files getting reflected.

UPDATE 6/22/2017: One of my friend Roy Essers had a query asking whether this happens when sequenced to PVAD. Since I didn't test this scenario in PVAD, I quickly ran a test by enabling the sequencer with -EnablePVADControl and gave c:\program files\CO as PVAD folder.

In that folder I then created the below files.

After creating I stopped the monitoring and sequencer didn't show any error even this time. It successfully created the package. Even in client testing it got succeeded.

So to finalize, App-V 5.1 Sequencer can sequence apps with filenames having "CO_<x>" without any issues. This is just a experimental test scenario and if anyone have faced the issue having CO_<x> in their package while sequencing, kindly comment below about the application. I will be happy to validate it further and update this blog post.

Windows 10 v1703 - Auto App-V unpublished package clean up

Earlier when we unpublish App-V packages it used to stay in the App-V cache location  and used to occupy unwanted storage space on the client machines. If we want to remove them to free up space we need to  do manual removal or using powershell command Remove-AppVClientpackage

I had blogged earlier a simple powershell script to remove all unpublished packages that are either published globally or to a user.  

With the release of the new windows 10 creators update v1703 App-V client provides options to automatically cleanup the unpublished packages.It requires restart.

This option can be enabled either by PowerShell or group policy or Registry.

PowerShell:


Open PowerShell as administrator and run the below code.

Set-AppvClientConfiguration -AutoCleanupEnabled 1

 

Run the below code to get the status.

Get-AppvClientConfiguration

Group Policy:

Go to Administrative Templates-System-App-V-PackageManagement-Enable automatic cleanup of unused appv packages and select enabled.

Registry:

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\AppV\Client\PackageManagement

AutoCleanupEnabled 

REG_DWORD 1

Finally Microsoft have provided the much awaited feature to its users.

  

Remove all unpublished apps to clear package cache

Often I see queries related to clearing leftover package files after unpublishing them. And so here is a sample powershell code to remove all unpublished packages from the system to clear the space they were occupying in the package store.

$allpackages= Get-AppvClientPackage -all|Where-Object {$_.IsPublishedToUser -like "False" -and $_.IsPublishedGlobally -like "False"} | select Name

 $unpublished=$allpackages.name

 ForEach($package in $unpublished)

 {

Write-Host "$package"

Remove-AppvClientPackage "$package"

Write-Host "$package" removed.

 }

NOTE: Test the code in a lab environment, as it doesn't support any error handling.