MSIX AppAttach Publishing Performance Details

Last week, I posted about MSIX AppAttach publishing performance, comparing against regular MSIX and App-V publishing at a high level.

Today I have information on tests detailing where MSIX AppAttach publishing spends the time.  The “publishing” process consists of four steps:

  1. Mounting the VHD
  2. Creating the Junction Point
  3. Using PackageManager to “Stage” the package
  4. Using Add-AppXPackage with the -Register parameter to complete registration to the user.

The results of testing against the 25 packages used in the previous test are shown in the pie chart below.

The VHD mount only accounted for less than 10% of the time spent, whereas the PackageManager Staging operation took almost 60%. And this is in spite of much of the work being performed asynchronously by a background windows service! Exactly what PackageManager is doing isn’t documented, but clearly this will be the part that needs the most attention if publishing performance is to be addressed.

Next up, will be a look at application launching performance. I think that you’ll be happy with the results. Stay tuned…

By Tim Mangan

Tim is a Microsoft MVP, and a Citrix CTP Fellow. He is an expert in App-V and MSIX.