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Using App-V without application sequencing for RDSH Compatibility issues

Wednesday, 21 October 2009 by Michel Roth

This blog post refers to Microsoft an alternative method to run an application in the virtualized environment without sequencing (for debugging purposes).

This blog post refers to Microsoft Application Virtualization (App-V), which decouples applications from the operating system and virtualizes applications per user, per application instance. As a result, application conflicts and the need for regression testing are dramatically reduced (See here for details).

App-V mitigates the application compatibility issues under Remote Desktop Services by reducing the conflicts between multiple application instances. However, the application must be pre-processed or ‘sequenced’ before deploying it on App-V.

App-V also allows an alternative method to run an application in the virtualized environment without sequencing (for debugging purposes). The “RDS Compatibility using App-V” script leverages this functionality of App-V to enable any application to run inside an App-V bubble without sequencing it.

Who should use this script?

This script is targeted at IT administrators who intend to address application compatibility issues with applications deployed on RDSH.

The main goal of the script is to run the applications that cannot run under Remote Desktop Service Host due to compatibility issues and are not targeted for sequencing. The script is used to run these applications quickly using App-V without sequencing them and is best suited for the following scenarios:

· Fixing run-time application compatibility issues on RDSH where sequencing is not possible

· Evaluating and verifying App-V application compatibility without sequencing the applications

How is this method different from using sequenced applications?

The preferred way of running applications under App-V is to first sequence them and then run them with the App-V client. This enables the usage of the complete virtualization and other features of App-V.

The debugging method leveraged in this script does not enable file-system virtualization. Overall, this script is best suited for scenarios in which sequencing is not feasible.