Training in a pandemic, one year in and going strong.

A remote class in 2020

Most of our business is in training the IT Staffs of large organizations to enable them to better prepare and deliver applications to their (mostly) internal users, specifically around the Microsoft App-V and MSIX technologies.  We also do some consulting in the Citrix and End-User-Computing space, and sell some tools. And the bulk of our …

Convert MSIXs to VHD or CIM for App Attach

ConversionsMSIX App Attach requires a format conversion from the standard msix file in order to attach the MSIX packages efficiently.  This efficiency is important in non-persistent image scenarios like pooled VDI, as well as semi-persistent scenarios like shared multi-user operating system connections (Server Based Computing, like RDS/RDMI as well as multiuser Windows 10) as the end-user doesn’t want to wait …

How to Automate Conversion from App-V to MSIX

Customers that use Microsoft App-V are certainly interested in the potential future of MSIX. While the compatibility levels for typical applications under MSIX is not yet acceptable overall and we will be continuing to leverage App-V for years (decades?) to come, I believe that it is important for them to begin the job of working with MSIX apps when we …

PsfTooling 4.8

Version 4.8 of PsfTooling is now available in the Microsoft Store.  A free tool, it is used in conjunction with the Microsoft MSIX Packaging tool to add and configure the Package Support Framework (PSF) during the repackaging process.

For those unaware, PSF stands for Package Support Framework, an open source utility that I contribute to for helping traditional

Get PsfTooling 4.5 Now!

Version 4.5 of PsfTooling is now available in the Microsoft Store.  A free tool, it is used in conjunction with the Microsoft MSIX Packaging tool to add and configure the Package Support Framework (PSF) during the repackaging process.

For those unaware, PSF stands for Package Support Framework, an open source utility that I contribute to for helping traditional

PsfTooling 4.4

Now available in the Microsoft Store as a free app, PsfTooling 4.4 represents the best way for IT Pros that are repackaging traditional apps into MSIX to have success.

We use PsfTooling in conjunction with the Microsoft MSIX Packaging Tool (MMPT) to inject and configure the Package Support Framework into the package.

PsfTooling version 4.4 adds new capabilities and an …

Another new fixup for MSIX PSF: EnvVar

Image Attribution: VectorHuman

A summer ‘staycation’ project from me. This project is now accepted into the develop branch of the Microsoft PSF repository.

EnvVarFixup is a new type of MSIX Package Support Framework intercept that addresses the issue of MSIX not supporting new/changed environment variables inside the package.

The fixup allows for the specification of environment variables and values …

The case of the MSIX file that was deleted, or maybe not.

Attribution: Original artwork Stuart MilesFiguring out why a traditional package recaptured into MSIX does not work can be a bit of art.  Of sure, we have some standard things we look for and fixups that we can use, but what about when it isn’t one of those?

The case today is about an application for which the standard fixups solved one problem, but didn’t …