App-V vs. Terminal Services – Which one, when?

Both App-V and Terminal Services/Remote Desktop Services can reduce the amount of time an IT Professional spends installing, managing and troubleshooting applications on desktops. Both technologies allow you to install, upgrade and manage an application in one place (on a server) and allow multiple users access to those applications. And then the similarities start to end.

Terminal Services/RDS is based on session hosting. The users must establish a session with the host server to access the application. Depending on what version of Windows Server you are using, the applications can appear on the desktop seamlessly using either RemoteApp or other 3rd party technologies. While this is great for workers who are located locally in the office or are regularly connected via the Internet from another location, the applications are not accessible when the client machine is working offline.

App-V streams the packaged applications to the client machine, which are then cached locally for use while working on or offline. The applications can be managed and updated on the server side and the client machines receive updates when they reconnect. This allows for better control of the overall software lifecycle and ensures that every client is running the approved version of any given application.
When it comes to support for legacy applications, especially those that will not run on Windows 7, App-V isn’t necessarily going to be the solution. Any application streamed from App-V must be sequenced and packaged for the destination operating system, though I’ve heard of some success with XP-sequenced apps working on Windows 7, so your mileage may vary. App-V requires the applications to interact with the client operating system in order to take advantage the local system resources. This is also important for applications that must interact with each other and with the local drivers on the machine, to deliver an experience similar to having the application installed in the traditional fashion.

If you have an application that won’t run on Windows 7, you’ll have to turn to a solution other than App-V. If you already have a legacy Server 2003 Terminal Services infrastructure in place that can deliver the application, it might be easier and more cost effective to look at using that instead of deploying MED-V. (See my post on TS vs. MED-V in April.)

Legacy applications aside, what if all your applications are Windows 7 ready? Can RDS make more sense than App-V?

First, you have to consider your users. Do the work online or offline? Do you have the RDS infrastructure to support having EVERYONE access applications during the work day? Having everyone access hosted applications is resource intensive on the server. If you currently have an implementation that used for only a few remote workers or for little used applications you’ll have to look closely at how much those servers will be able to support. App-V might be a better fit if you want to take advantage the resources on the local machines instead.

You can also combine App-V with Remote Desktop Services to make better use of server farm resources. Ultimately, there are a lot of different ways to deliver software to your end users and it doesn’t have to involving managing applications on each desktop.

Icons and Indexing for PDF files on SharePoint

Part of our SharePoint project is making sure that users can find what they are looking for (including within PDF documents) and that there are icons next to the documents that accurately reflect the file type. There are a variety of blog posts and information out there regarding this from several years ago, but I’d like to summarize this up for those of you who might be doing what I’ve done – installed WSS 3.0 on Server 2008.

Out of the box, WSS 3.0 only indexes standard Windows file types, which are Office files and basic text files. It will also only show the proper icons for Office files. All other files get the default “blank paper” icon.

To allow for searching of PDF files, you’ll need the proper iFilter installed on your server. We are using version 9 of the Adobe Acrobat product line, so by installing Acrobat Reader 9 on the server all the necessary files were installed. No need to download any other iFilter components separately.

Then I followed the steps as outlined in KB 927675. This article was last reviewed in May 2007, but the steps haven’t change for Server 2008. However the data I found in Step 3 for the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Shared Tools\Web Server Extensions\12.0\Search\Setup\ContentIndexCommon\Filters\Extension\.pdf registry setting was different than in the article. It was {4C904448-74A9-11D0-AF6E-00C04FD8DC02} on my installation.

Next you’ll need the icon files. You’ll want the 17 x 17 pixel one from the Adobe website. If you have any other icons for specialty file types you’ll wanted added to your server, you might as well gather them all up and make sure they are 17 x 17 as well. Copy them all to \Program Files\Common Files\microsoft shared\Web Server extensions\12\TEMPLATE\IMAGES.

Then open the XML file that WSS uses to reference which file types display which icons. This is at \Program Files\Common Files\microsoft shared\Web Server extensions\12\TEMPLATE\XML\DOCICON.XML. (Saving a backup copy is always a good idea at this point.)

Add a mapping key for each of the file types at the bottom of the file, above the /ByExtension closing tag. XML is case sensitive so make sure you use same case and spacing as previous entries. The key will be Mapping Key=”ext” Value=”iconfile.gif” OpenControl=”’/. Replace “ext” with “pdf” or whatever file extension you are adding a icon for, and adjust the “iconfile.gif” name to reflect the correct name of the image files you added.
Then save the XML file.

To ensure a full new crawl of all the PDF files for indexing, you should restart the server or stop/restart the spsearch service and force a full index using the stsadm -o spearch -action fullcrawlstart. I just restated the server, as we are using a virtual server for SharePoint and VMs restart pretty quickly.

Finally, if you’d like to check out the older blog posts I used as references, check out Configure PDF IFilter in WWS 3.0 and Searching PDFs with WSS 3.0 SP1.

Get on the Bus for Windows 7

Have you heard about the Microsoft Bus Tour? If you are on the east coast in late May/early June, don’t miss out on a chance to get on the bus and learn more about Windows 7, Office 2010 and optimizing your enterprise desktops. Not only will you learn a thing or two, they are giving away free software!

The team on the bus will be giving away 50 copies of Windows 7 Ultimate for the first 50 event attendees through the door at EVERY STOP! Don’t miss your chance to win a copy of Microsoft’s newest software offering – register today at http://www.thebustour.com.

Legal Disclaimer from the folks at Microsoft:
*To receive your free copy of Windows 7 Ultimate, be one of the first 50 people who are US residents (includes D of C) or Canada 18+ to arrive at a Microsoft Get On the Bus Tour afternoon event. 50 copies of the software title are available. Limit one gift per person. This offer is non-transferable and cannot be combined with any other offer. This offer ends on June 4, 2010 while supplies last, and is not redeemable for cash. Taxes, if any, are the sole responsibility of the recipient. There is no shipment of your gift – all gifts will be distributed onsite.

Techbunny at Windows Intelligence

If you were down in Burlingame, CA at the Windows Intelligence conference today, hopefully you enjoyed the event put on by Quickstart Intelligence. I did two presentations, Deploying Windows 7 and a server session on Remote Desktop Services and Terminal Services. You can download them by clicking on the links or in the find them in my “downloads” section in the sidebar. (Slides are in PDF format.)
There were also several sessions by Ed Horley and Steve Evans, as well as Chris Henley, Chris Avis and Harold Wong from the Microsoft’s Technet Evangelist Team. You can find out more about where to find Chris, Chris and Harold next at http://www.technetevents.com.

Virtual Roundtable on Windows 7 Deployment

Just wanted to pass along some information about an upcoming online event from Microsoft. Check out this live broadcast on the 29th or stream it on-demand if you miss it. Details below!
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On April 29th, join Microsoft Technical Fellow, Mark Russinovich, as he will be leading a discussion around the process of planning, testing, assessing and rolling out Windows 7 in an enterprise organization.
Mark will be joined by a panel of IT professionals who are currently in the piloting and deployment process, along with Microsoft subject matter experts who can speak in depth about the technologies.
The event will be broadcast live over the web at 9:00 am PDT, and will be available for on-demand viewing following the broadcast. The discussion will be open and candid, with the panel sharing insights, dispelling myths and getting down to the real story around technical adoption of Windows technologies. Specific topics will include the role of the pilot and the critical information it provides, best practices and tips & tricks for ensuring a successful effort, tools and technologies that will help automate the pilot and deployment processes, and conducting a frank post-pilot assessment. During the event, Mark will field questions coming in via the web from viewers across the globe.
Missed a previous Springboard Series Virtual Roundtable?
Gain insight, tips, and tricks from Microsoft Technical Fellow Mark Russinovich, industry experts, and IT professionals from around the world from these recordings: http://technet.microsoft.com/windows/dd421882.aspx
Access the VRT live at: http://ms.istreamplanet.com/springboard/

Can MED-V take on Terminal Services?

Had a great conversation with an MMS 2010 attendee while I was helping man the Windows Manageability booth at the Expo Pavilion this week. We were discussing his existing applications, moving to Windows 7 and he asked “When is it appropriate to use MED-V, since I already have a legacy application on Terminal Services?”

Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization is a great way to manage the deployment of applications that will not run on Windows 7, but run on Windows XP. By providing a managed, virtual, integrated copy of Windows XP running inside Windows 7, users can still access a legacy application seamlessly from their desktop.

However, MED-V is not the ultimate solution to getting legacy applications to run on Windows 7 indefinitely. Its a way to get Windows 7 onto desktops without being held back by a specific application that is not yet ready to be upgraded, replaced or phased out of use.

But what if you already have the application available through Terminal Services? You may be running Citrix on Server 2003 Terminal Services. Or maybe the application will run on Vista and can be deployed using Server 2008 TS RemoteApp. Both those options are easier to manage than deploying and managing a host of extra virtual Windows XP machines on your network, especially if you already have an appropriate Terminal Services environment available.

MED-V is a tool to consider if you are Software Assurance customer, because access to the MDOP tools cost only about $7-8 per desktop. This can be cheaper than the cost of Terminal Service or Citrix CALs, unless of course, you already own those CALs.

MED-V and Terminal Services aren’t competing solutions for the same problem. But they can help you accomplish the same goal – getting your users working on Windows 7.

The Observer Effect at the Helpdesk

In quantum physics there is the a phenomena known as the Observer effect, aka the Hawthorne effect. It refers to changes that act of observing will make on whatever is being observed. This effect is a regular occurrence when working in system administration, particularly on the help desk.

You don’t have to work in IT very long before someone will tell you that their computer starting working “just fine” when you showed up at their desk. This is the Observer effect in action.

When a support persons appears to troubleshoot an issue and asks an end user to recreated the problem, the problem will not occur. This is most often because the end user is now paying attention to what they are doing and aren’t making the same mistake they were making before.

This effect manifests itself in the opposite way as well. I’ve gotten the occasional call stating that an end user “was doing something all morning, but now it’s not working.” When asked to recreated the problem, it usually becomes apparent that the person has suddenly begun to pay too much attention to the steps they are taking -thinking too much about them and stopping too soon in the chain of mouse clicks or key strokes to finish the action. Instead of being observed by an outside party, the user has suddenly become the observer themselves and changed how they perceive what they are doing on the computer.

Either condition results in a help desk ticket, the observer effect either causes the problem or helps to solve it.

Microsoft Management Summit here I come!

Next week, the Microsoft Management Summit 2010 will be held at the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas. The agenda is packed with break out sessions, instructor-led and self-paced hands on labs, birds-of-a-feather talks and more.
Don’t forget to visit the Microsoft Experts pavilion in the Expo hall. You’ll find me along with other Microsoft staff and MVPs ready to answer your questions about Windows deployment, manageability and virtualization.
See you there!

Are you going to be on the East Coast? Get on the Bus!

Microsoft’s “Get on the Bus” Tour is coming back to North America in late May for a 10-day tour down the east coast from Montreal, Canada ending in New Orleans just in time for TechEd.
Take a deep dive into Windows 7 and Office 2010, plus learn about the path to getting certified on those technologies. Check out some best practices for deploying Windows 7, review the features of Office 2010 and learn how to optimize your desktops for ease of management.
Visit the bus tour crew in the following cities:
  • Montreal – May 21st
  • Boston – May 24th
  • New York – May 25th
  • Philadelphia – May 26th
  • Washington DC – May 27th and 28th
  • Richmond – June 1st
  • Raleigh – June 2nd
  • Charlotte – June 3rd
  • Atlanta – June 4th
  • New Orleans – June 6th
Learn more and register, and don’t forget to follow the tour on Twitter @thebustour.

More from MDOP: Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset

Every IT Professional loves a toolkit – you know that special DVD or flash drive with your favorite go-to applications for solving problems. Here’s a little something to add to the mix: DaRT, the Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset, which comes as part of the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack.

Designed to help reduce the time spent repairing damaged Windows system, it includes 14 different tools, a veritable Swiss Army knife for Windows. Use DaRT to help with tasks like:

  • Recover an unbootable PC, even when it won’t boot in Safe mode
  • Access deleted files
  • Reset passwords
  • Detect and remove malware when the PC is offline
  • Wipe hard drives
  • Access files from a unbootable OS
  • Uninstall hotfixes

DaRT will run on top the Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) and the DaRT tools and the WinRE tools run side by side so you can use them both together to recover systems. You can also create customized DaRT boot disks that only include a subset of tools for different uses. Overall, DaRT may help reduce the amount of time you need to spend repairing and reimaging systems for end users – getting people back to their regular duties sooner and improving the TCO on your desktops.

To learn more, check out this overview of DaRT on Microsoft Technet. DaRT is part of MDOP, which is available to Software Assurance and volume licensing customers.