[Note: This is an updated version on 1\/6\/2011 of the original 2\/22\/2010 post based on recent information provided by Microsoft on Branch Cache.\u00a0 See also this post: https:\/\/www.tmurgent.com\/TmBlog\/?p=306 <\/a>\u00a0]<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0While many of us have been waiting on the release of App-V 4.6 so that we could upgrade our Terminal Servers to WS2008 R2 to take advantage of 64-bit (see my blog article on 4.6\/TS<\/a> )\u00a0it\u2019s not the only reason that this release of App-V is important to customers. While App-V may also be important for the desktop as 64-bit desktop becomes a reality in the enterprise, there is much else new to talk about \u2013 especially for Windows 7.\u00a0 In this article, I will discuss each of what I feel are the most important new things for the desktop, mostly focusing on Windows 7 desktops, but also hitting items of interest to other App-V deployments.<\/p>\n Of course, I need to mention that App-V for the desktop operating systems is only available through the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack<\/em> (MDOP)<\/a>\u00a0 which is an option for desktops licensed from Microsoft via Software Assurance.<\/p>\n With so many physical desktops and notebook computers shipping with 4GB of ram, it makes sense to run the x64 version of the operating system.\u00a0 Running the 32-bit limits you to effective use of roughly only the first 3GB.\u00a0 So while going to the x64 OS uses a little more memory, the gain is larger.\u00a0 With many of the reasons holding back x64 deployment at the desktop now gone \u2013 primarily driver issues \u2013 we are seeing more people deploying x64 operating systems at the desktop.<\/p>\n App-V 4.6 adds support for the x64 operating system clients.\u00a0 This includes the x64 versions of Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 7.\u00a0\u00a0 Virtualized applications may be either 32bit or 64bit applications.\u00a0 For a large part, existing 32-bit applications sequenced (the process of preparing a virtualized application) with App-V 4.5 will run with a small tweak to an xml file to inform the client that it is OK to run the app on this OS version.\u00a0 Sometimes this might not work on an app when you test it; in the worst case, all I have had to do is open up the package in the new 4.6 sequencer and save it again to make it work.<\/p>\n Windows 7 has changed the way the Task Bar works.\u00a0 Gone is the \u201cQuick Launch\u201d bar, but now we have \u201cJump Lists<\/a>\u201d.\u00a0 \u00a0Applications can be \u201cpinned\u201d to the jump list, which means they remain on the task bar whether running or not.\u00a0 App-V 4.6 adds support for jump list pinning for virtual applications.<\/p>\n While sequencing on Windows 7, if the application that is being virtualized is pinned to the Jump List, this will be detected and saved as part of the package.\u00a0 When the virtual application is published, this setting is applied and the user will have the same experience.\u00a0 The user can override the jump list setting, either pinning an app to the list or un-pinning.\u00a0 On a publishing refresh, the unpinning would be lost (meaning it will be pinned again if the application publishing pins it).\u00a0 On the other hand, the publishing refresh would not remove a user initiated pinning just because the app did not have that setting.<\/p>\n Pinning all published apps wouldn\u2019t make a lot of sense; that is what the Start Menu is for.\u00a0 So automatic pinning of apps sequenced with older versions of the sequencer is not done.\u00a0 It is possible to manually edit the OSD of an application sequenced on another OS (or previous sequencer) and add the shortcut to the jump list. \u00a0That shortcut setting will simply be ignored on clients running Windows XP and Vista, where it would be inappropriate.<\/p>\n One of the cool features in Windows 7 is for users at smaller branch sites of an enterprise \u2013 Branch Cache.\u00a0 Windows Branch Cache<\/a> lets remote site users share a site cache that automatically detects files previously sent from the main site, providing local copy access instead of the slower WAN link (and adding to the congestion there).\u00a0 While this works great for CIFS\/SMB traffic, it does not accelerate access to files using any arbitrary protocol without support.<\/p>\n [Edit:\u00a0 It turns out the following paragraph contained in the original post was in error.\u00a0 This was due to incorrect information provided by Microsoft.\u00a0 The new information from Microsoft is added in the bold paragraph that follows.<\/strong>\u00a0 The non-bold portion of that new paragraph is from me.\u00a0 <\/strong>I am sorry for the confusion.]<\/span><\/p>\n App-V 4.6 adds the support needed to allow the RTSP and RTSPS protocols to work with Windows Branch Cache.\u00a0 This means that if one desktop (or site local 2008 R2 remote desktop server) streams down an application from the App-V Server, the others can get the portions streamed locally from the branch cache, reducing traffic on the WAN and speeding up application deliver for the end user.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n BranchCache improves performance when copying files between central and remote or branch offices by using the SMB, HTTP, and HTTPS protocols. SMB is the protocol that is used to transfer files between shared folders on Windows networks. HTTP and HTTPS are the protocols that are used by web browsers and many other applications.\u00a0 <\/strong>Thus BranchCache does not help with remote App-V clients using RTSP or RTSPS to communicate with a head end server.\u00a0 BranchCache should provide help for remote site clients that use non RTSP\/S methods of retrieving the packages, including HTTP and HTTPS, or ASR\/ISR\/OSR overrides using the file:\/\/ syntax.\u00a0 It is unclear to me what (if any) changes were made in the 4.6 client to enable this.\u00a0 More likely, you need the 4.6 client to run on Windows 7 and it is Windows 7 that supports Branch Cache.\u00a0 DFS would be another option here for the file:\/\/ (SMB) scenario that should be considered instead of Branch Cache.\u00a0 Ultimately, it appears that BranchCache support is targeting those few customers using HTTP and HTTPS protocols with App-V.<\/span><\/p>\n Keep in mind, that only Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 hosts support branch cache.\u00a0 So while this might have the potential of replacing the Application Virtualization Streaming Server from the remote site, you probably cannot do so until you upgrade everything at that site.<\/p>\n Microsoft also added a capability for multiple machines to share a single cache, but only if you plan carefully.\u00a0 The primary use case is intended to be VDI. \u00a0 The goal here is to save on storage by having each of the Virtual Desktop operating systems share a single copy of the necessarily large FSD file.\u00a0 For this to work, we need to ensure that the App-V clients running in the VDI images will not attempt to update the FSD.\u00a0 When used this way, updating the FSD becomes an offline operation that only needs to happen once.\u00a0 Microsoft has a White Paper, \u201cHow to Configure A Read-Only Cache\u201d<\/em>, that describes this in detail, but here is the crib sheet version.<\/p>\n In short, you set up a test client that is configured normally.\u00a0 Then using an administrative account that has access to all of the needed applications, cause them to be fully loaded into the cache.\u00a0 Copy that cache file (FSD) to the DAS\/SAN storag server share (requires shutting down services to unlock the file) and mark it read only.<\/p>\n Now you can configure your App-V client on the Master VDI image to attach to this central app-v cache in read-only mode.\u00a0 This involves two new registry key settings, one to turn on read-only mode and another for the location of the Error Transaction Logs.\u00a0 Of course you also need to modify the registry setting for the new location of the cache file. \u00a0<\/p>\n In case you are tempted to use this read-only mode in situations other than described for VDI, keep in mind that while having latency between a server streaming content into the FSD is supported, the client expects direct attached storage latencies when reading from the FSD itself.\u00a0 So placing the FSD on a windows file share might not work out so well for the user.<\/p>\n Of course, not every application runs in Windows 7.\u00a0 Enterprises have legacy software that was designed for an operating system many versions back.\u00a0 To some extent, Microsoft has spoiled us with an awful lot of application backward compatibility.\u00a0 But some older applications just don\u2019t work (or work as well) on Vista and above, and Microsoft introduced Med-V to help companies move forward without having to abandon these older applications.<\/p>\n When you deploy App-V 4.6 on Windows 7, especially the x64 version of the OS, you might find a mission critical legacy application that not support Windows 7, or is 16-bit, or needs \u00a032-bit device driver.\u00a0 By installing that app in the Med-V background VM, it can still run and the application \u201cseems\u201d integrated into the Windows 7 desktop experience.\u00a0 Most of the time, these applications can still be virtualized and run in the background VM, yet appear seamlessly integrated into the host machine.\u00a0 \u00a0For those needing the device driver, perform a native install to the background VM.\u00a0 This combination makes it possible to finally deploy 100% of your applications on a 64-bit Windows 7 machine.\u00a0 The \u201cstateless desktop\u201d might become a reality.<\/p>\n I previously wrote<\/a> about App-V integration with Windows 7 AppLocker<\/a> when the support was added to 4.5 SP1 in the fall.\u00a0 As far as I can tell, Microsoft has not made any changes affecting this in 4.6.\u00a0 See the original article for details on integrating these two features.<\/p>\n Using AppLocker, which only works with Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 with a Domain Controller also running Windows Server 2008 R2, offers complete flexibility to ensure authorized application use.\u00a0 In 4.5SP1 and 4.6, App-V supports use of AppLocker as a means to control virtual application use. If using AppLocker to ensure who is running which virtual application sounds interesting, Microsoft also has a video showing App-V and AppLocker working together here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" App-V 4.6 delivers big integration benefits with Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2 and more [Note: This is an updated version on 1\/6\/2011 of the original 2\/22\/2010 post based on recent information provided by Microsoft on Branch Cache.\u00a0 See also this post: https:\/\/www.tmurgent.com\/TmBlog\/?p=306 \u00a0] \u00a0While many of us have been waiting on the release of… Continue reading App-V 4.6: Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, and More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[36,35,48],"tags":[4,6],"class_list":["post-151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all","category-appv4","category-sequencing","tag-app-v","tag-training","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tmurgent.com\/TmBlog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tmurgent.com\/TmBlog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tmurgent.com\/TmBlog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tmurgent.com\/TmBlog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tmurgent.com\/TmBlog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=151"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.tmurgent.com\/TmBlog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1504,"href":"https:\/\/www.tmurgent.com\/TmBlog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151\/revisions\/1504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tmurgent.com\/TmBlog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tmurgent.com\/TmBlog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tmurgent.com\/TmBlog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Duh, x64!<\/h2>\n
Windows 7 UI Integration<\/h2>\n
Windows 7 and Branch Cache<\/h2>\n
App-V \u201cRead only\u201d Cache Mode<\/h2>\n
Windows 7 and Med-V together<\/h2>\n
Win-7 and AppLocker<\/h2>\n