Issues fixed in this update

For App-V 5.1 RTM, this servicing release fixes the following issues:

• Group-specific functionality is incorrectly made available to other groups if the Optional feature is used.
• Using Dynamic Virtualization, file handles are not closed when a shell extension is unloaded. This issue can cause Explorer.exe to keep DLL file handles after a shell extension unloads them. This can block upgrade of the shell extension.
• After the first-time sync of a Connection Group (CG) on the device, newly added packages to the CG are not enabled.
• When you install the App-V Server management database (DB) by using SQL scripts, an SQL error is reported. The workaround that was first documented in App-V 5.0 Service Pack 3 (SP3) is now incorporated into the SQL scripts to eliminate this error.
• The FullVFSWriteMode tag in a Sequencer template is ignored. (This issue is not fixed in the update. However, it is fixed in the latest Sequencer installer. To get the installer, please contact your Microsoft Customer Service and Support representative.)
• On the Server Management console, applying an action to a filtered subset of packages actually applies the action to all packages.

• A SQL deadlock issue occurs when multiple users from different domains try to access the database at the same time.
• A device that has a mounted, unencrypted, removable drive (for example, an SD card) can cause increased CPU usage and the inability of the device to enter the low-power state.

Improvements in this update

• The App-V 5.1 server update installer now links to the correct content (Privacy Policy and the "App-V 5.1" page).
• The App-V Client, RDS, and Server now have the same build number.

• The GPO description and the Invoke-MbamClientDeployment.ps1 MBAM deployment script for Bitlocker XTS-AES support are updated. The Microsoft Download Center provides the following download and installation instructions:
  • The updated GPO: Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack Group Policy Administrative Templates
  • The updated deployment script: Microsoft BitLocker Administration and Monitoring - Client Deployment Scripts

For complete details please see the following:

3198158 - December 2016 servicing release for Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3198158)

J.C. Hornbeck, Solution Asset PM
Microsoft Enterprise Cloud Group]]> https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/appv/the-september-2016-servicing-release-for-microsoft-desktop-optimization-pack-is-now-available Wed, 28 Sep 2016 15:34:34 GMT https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/appv/?p=9535 The September 2016 servicing release for Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP) is now available for download. This servicing release contains the latest fixes for Microsoft Advanced Group Policy Management (AGPM) 4.0 Service Pack 3 (SP3), Microsoft Application Virtualization (App-V) 5.1 RTM client, Remote Desktop Services (RDS) and Server, and Microsoft BitLocker Administration and Monitoring (MBAM) 2.1 SP1.

For the complete list of issues fixed as well as download and installation instructions, please see the following:

3168628 - September 2016 servicing release for Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3168628)

NOTE

When you select to download the hotfix from the KB article above, you will be directed to a page with the following options:

Please note that if you only select the Microsoft Application Virtualization 5.1 checkbox (x64), you will get the App-V server update but not the App-V client update.

To see all options, select the link Show hotfixes for all platforms and languages. That will display additional results similar to the following:

To download the client update, select Microsoft Application Virtualization 5.1 for the x86 platform. If you select Microsoft Application Virtualization 5.1 for the x64 platform, that includes the server update.

J.C. Hornbeck, Solution Asset PM
Microsoft Enterprise Cloud Group

=====

A new hotfix is now available that fixes vulnerabilities in the Detours Library that is used by Microsoft Application Virtualization (App-V). The following versions are affected:

• App-V 5.1
• App-V 5.0 Service Pack 3 (SP3)
• App-V 4.6 SP3
• App-V 4.5 SP2

This vulnerability could allow an attacker to bypass Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR) and therefore bypass a product's "hooks" by calling directly to the code stub. An attacker could install replacement code stubs that could view, create, change, or delete data.

For complete details on this update, including download and installation instructions, please see the following:

3172672 - Detours Library fix for Microsoft Application Virtualization (https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3172672)

J.C. Hornbeck, Solution Asset PM
Microsoft Enterprise Cloud Group

The App-V client is the component that runs virtualized applications on user devices. The client gets virtual application content from the management server and allows users to interact with icons and file names to start virtualized applications. Starting with the Windows 10 Anniversary Update, the App-V client is installed automatically, however you need to enable the client to allow user devices to access and run virtual applications. You can enable the client with the Group Policy editor or with Windows PowerShell.

Enabling the App-V client with Group Policy

1. Open the device’s Local Group Policy Editor.
2. Navigate to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > System > App-V.
3. Run Enables App-V Client and then select Enabled on the screen that appears.
4. Restart the device.

Enabling the App-V client with Windows PowerShell

1. Open Windows PowerShell.
2. Type Enable-Appv and press Enter.
3. Restart the device.
4. To verify that the App-V client is enabled on the device, enter AppvClientEnabled or Get-AppvStatus in Windows PowerShell.

You can also use this command to enable the App-V via a Configuration Manager Task Sequence:

For more information see Enable the App-V in-box client.

Accessing the Client Management console

The Client Management console provides the following functionality to the user:

• View all virtual applications published to them
• View the connection groups configured for them
• View the download status of their virtual applications and connection groups
• Update, download, repair their virtual applications and connection groups
• Toggle work offline mode (which prevents new or updated virtual applications from being published)

The Client Management console is not included, however it is available for download from the Microsoft Download Center. Note that to perform all of the actions available using the Client Management console, you must have administrative rights on the computer running the App-V client.

For more information see How to access the client management console.

J.C. Hornbeck, Solution Asset PM
Microsoft Enterprise Cloud Group]]> https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/appv/app-v-and-ue-v-to-be-included-with-windows Tue, 05 Jul 2016 21:06:59 GMT https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/appv/?p=9485 Windows Enterprise, which provides capabilities including Device Guard and Credential Guard, as well as the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP). With the upcoming Windows 10 Anniversary Update, we’re reducing the effort of deploying two of the most popular components of MDOP – Application Virtualization (App-V) and User Environment Virtualization (UE-V) -- by including them in the Windows Enterprise and Education editions instead of requiring a separate download and deployment.  They will also be included in-box in Windows Server 2016 Standard and Datacenter.  If your organization is currently running App-V or UE-V on Windows 10 Professional or earlier and plan to upgrade to the Windows 10 Anniversary release, you will need to deploy the Enterprise edition to use App-V and UE-V on those devices.  By including these components in the operating system itself, you will not have to take additional steps to deploy and maintain them outside the general Windows deployment and update process.   Future updates to App-V and UE-V will be delivered as part of general Windows updates and will not require any separate administrative steps. What does this mean for you? If you are using App-V or UE-V, you already have access to Windows Enterprise or Education.  Both Windows Enterprise and MDOP, which includes App-V and UE-V, are benefits you have through Software Assurance.  Most organizations who have Software Assurance are already using Windows Enterprise, so there are no extra steps or costs required. If you are using Windows Professional, when you upgrade to the Windows 10 Anniversary Update and your organization uses App-V and UE-V for management functionality, you will need to upgrade to the Enterprise or Education edition.  Direct upgrades to the Pro SKU will result in App-V and UE-V binaries to be removed during the OS migration process. Deployment and configuration tools are consolidated into a single location.  The UE-V Template Generator and App-V Sequencer will be available as part of Windows 10 Assessment and Deployment Kit (ADK). The functionality of App-V and UE-V shipping inside Windows 10 Anniversary Update are the same as the current “out-of-box” versions supporting earlier version of Windows, which shipped in MDOP 2015 – App-V 5.1 and UE-V 2.1 Service Pack 1.  All other components of MDOP remain available for Windows 10 Anniversary Update from the MDOP 2015 installation media, and their supportability on each version SKU does not change; however, future enhancements to App-V and UE-V will only be available for the Windows 10 Anniversary Update or later. The current App-V Management Server, available on the MDOP 2015 installation media, will support the Windows 10 Anniversary Update.  It does NOT ship within Windows 10 Anniversary Update nor Windows Server 2016. We’re excited about the Windows 10 Anniversary Update, and the inclusion of App-V and UE-V into Windows Enterprise and Education editions will help make it easier to get more value of your Software Assurance investment.]]> https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/appv/the-june-2016-servicing-release-for-microsoft-desktop-optimization-pack-is-now-available Mon, 27 Jun 2016 19:28:57 GMT https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/appv/?p=9475  

The June 2016 servicing release for Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack is now available. This servicing release fixes the following issues:

• After you publish a new version of an application in a Connection Group, the application version is now displayed correctly on the App-V Server User Interface (UI).
• Fixes an issue that prevents some Java-based applications from starting.
• Adds support for Slovakian and Slovenian versions of the Supplemental Notice. The notice is displayed during the client/RDS servicing release installation.
• Removes the dependency on Visual C++ 2005 for installation.
• Fixes a Windows Explorer crash on a remote App-V 5.1 client when you are connected by using Remote Desktop Services. This issue occurs when you right-click File or Computer on the Start menu.
• Fixes the App-V server UI to link to the updated Microsoft Privacy Policy.

For complete details please see the following:

3155806 - June 2016 servicing release for Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3155806)

J.C. Hornbeck, Solution Asset PM
Microsoft Enterprise Cloud Group

There are a number of scenarios where an organization may require that the user profiles on their workstations not be stored locally. For example, maybe mandatory profiles are configured or the profiles are deleted after the user logs off, or VDI machines are in use and are not persistent. When an organization uses Microsoft Application Virtualization (App-V) integrated with Configuration Manager, this scenario can lead to problems when deploying virtual applications to collections of users. This is because when the user profile is returned to its mandatory state, or it is deleted after logging off, the App-V files stored in the user profile are also deleted. This proves problematic when the users eventually log back on to the machines because the shortcuts and part of the virtual applications are not available until the application deployment evaluation cycle runs, which is by default every 7 days.

There are a couple of ways to work around this issue which will allow a user to access these applications automatically when logging on for a second time or any subsequent attempts:

The first option is to run the application deployment evaluation cycle programmatically via a script every time a user logs in to a machine. Note that this needs to be evaluated carefully because there are network and client performance implications of performing this action at scale.

An example of the command line you would need to run would be:

WMIC.exe /namespace:\\root\ccm path sms_client CALL TriggerSchedule “{00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000121}” /NOINTERACTIVE

The second option is to run this PowerShell script via a traditional package and program using the following method:

1. Create a new package and configure the PowerShell script as the source.

2. Create a standard program with the following command line:

%WinDir%\Sysnative\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File .\Republish_App-V_5_package_script.ps1

3. Configure the program to run “hidden”.

4. Configure it to run with administrative rights and to “only run when a user is logged on”:

5. When the package has been configured and deployed to the distribution point, deploy the package program as required with a date-time and a “Log on” assignment schedule, and ensure the rerun behavior is configured to “Always rerun program”:

All other deployment settings can be left at the default values.

That’s it! Once this is deployed, App-V shortcuts and the associated files should be available every time the user logs on.

Note that this applies to Microsoft System Center 2012 R2 Configuration Manager (ConfigMgr 2012 R2) but should also apply newer versions as well (current branch).

Luke Ramsdale, Support Escalation Engineer
Microsoft Enterprise Cloud Group]]> https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/appv/now-available-april-2016-hotfix-rollup-for-the-microsoft-desktop-optimization-pack Mon, 02 May 2016 21:03:34 GMT https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/appv/?p=9405 The April 2016 hotfix rollup for MDOP is now available. The article linked below describes the hotfixes in the rollup as well as download and installation instructions.

For Microsoft User Experience Virtualization (UE-V) 2.1 SP1, this hotfix package fixes an issue where changing the desktop wallpaper generates a COM error causing wallpaper synchronization to fail.

For Microsoft Application Virtualization (App-V) 5.1 RTM, this hotfix package fixes the following issues:

• Issue 1: App-V crashes on Remote Desktop Services (RDS) when dynamic configuration causes a policy update.
• Issue 2: Custom configurations for existing entitlements are overwritten.
• Issue 3: Added ETW log to detect when file has incorrect "FILE_EXECUTE" permissions.
• Issue 4: App-V template for UE-V is missing registry keys. See Microsoft Authored UE-V Settings Location Template for App-V 5.0 Client for the template fix.

For additional details please see the following:

3144445 - April 2016 hotfix rollup for Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3144445)

J.C. Hornbeck, Solution Asset PM
Microsoft Enterprise Cloud Group

For Microsoft Application Virtualization 5.1 RTM, this hotfix package fixes the following issues:

• Issue 1: The lock on the VFS folder was not getting released when the user logs off from the client service
• Issue 2: Microsoft Office Click-to-Run apps can't be opened from SharePoint in Internet Explorer. Embedded Office Click-to-Run apps may crash
• Issue 3: Press and hold (or right-click) app on taskbar, the app icon becomes blank.
• Issue 4: Provide mitigation for apps which don't handle long paths correctly.
• Issue 5: Enable users to create multiple instances of Office 2016 Click-to-Run apps.
• Issue 6: Re-enable APP-V 5.1 Management server address "https://localhost:<port>/packages" and "https://localhost:<port>/packagesummary"
• Issue 7: The Confirmparameter is ignored when the Groupsparameter is null for Grant-AppvServerPackage command. Use the newly added Forceparameter to avoid the "Confirm Action" dialog.

For Microsoft Application Virtualization 5.0 SP3, this hotfix package fixes the following issue:

• Issue 1: Microsoft Office Click-to-Run apps can't be opened from SharePoint in Internet Explorer. Embedded Office Click-to-Run apps may crash.

For complete details as well as a download link, please see the following:

3139245 - Hotfix Package 2 for Microsoft Application Virtualization 5.1 and Hotfix Package 3 for Microsoft Application Virtualization 5.0 SP3 (https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3139245)

J.C. Hornbeck, Senior Solution Asset PM
Microsoft Enterprise Cloud Group

Hotfix Package 1 for Microsoft User Experience Virtualization 2.1 Service Pack 1 has been released and is now available for download. The Knowledge Base article below describes Hotfix Package 1 and the fixes that are included.

For complete details as well as installation instructions and a download link, please see the following:

KB3115833 - Hotfix Package 1 for Microsoft User Experience Virtualization 2.1 Service Pack 1 (https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3115833)

J.C. Hornbeck | Solution Asset PM | Microsoft GBS Management and Security Division

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Microsoft Intune: https://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoftintune/
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App-V Team blog: https://blogs.technet.com/appv/
MED-V Team blog: https://blogs.technet.com/medv/
Server App-V Team blog: https://blogs.technet.com/b/serverappv

Forefront Endpoint Protection blog: https://blogs.technet.com/b/clientsecurity/
Forefront Identity Manager blog: https://blogs.msdn.com/b/ms-identity-support/
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Forefront UAG blog: https://blogs.technet.com/b/edgeaccessblog/
Application Proxy blog: https://blogs.technet.com/b/applicationproxyblog/