Microsoft Application Virtualization Advanced Guide: This book will take your App-V skills to the ultimate level. Dig deep into the technology and learn stuff you never knew existed. The step-by-step approach makes it surprisingly easy to realize the full potential of App-V.

Most likely, almost all of the existing applications in your current operating system support virtualization, but as we said, not all of them will have the same, straightforward process to get it working properly.

It is important to note that:

Understanding applications is a key element prior to starting with the sequencing process. Gaining deep knowledge about it will give us the necessary tools for proper sequencing, especially when we are dealing with complex applications.

In my previous book, Getting Started with Microsoft Application Virtualization, we took a closer look at the step-by-step process for virtualizing a seriously complex application such as Microsoft Office 2010. Even though we are not going to review it again, we'll talk about the important topics we must understand to achieve a happy ending while virtualizing a complex application.

Another important thing to remember about the applications and their sequencing process is that we should always maintain this process with the recommended best practices; this way we'll avoid common errors and misconceptions regarding this stage.

As we've seen earlier, the App-V Sequencer needs to monitor specific data and directories to capture the application installation and, in this process, it also needs to exclude several directories to avoid unnecessary data as well as computer/user data.

The App-V Sequencer installation includes the default list for Exclusion Items, which it applies every time.

Microsoft's Network Monitor 3.4 is a good example of an application that requires editing of the App-V Sequencer Exclusion Items. Normally, this application is sequenced without any issue, but as soon as we start the virtualized package, we receive the error Failed to load NPL script.

In this example, the App-V Sequencer ignored a few files that are required for the application to function properly.

Network Monitor 3.4 is also a good example of an application that could be sequenced with a few tweaks, even if the software requires a driver to work properly.

Once we sequence the application and apply the workaround reviewed before editing the App-V Sequencer Exclusion Items, we will see our application running apparently normally; but, as soon as we try to capture it from the network, we will see the None of the network adapters are bound to the netmon driver message:

If we are working with an application and we don't know the exact driver that it is using, we can use Process Monitor again, to find the particular driver used. In this case, the network driver, used as a filter in communications, is named nm3.sys.

You can also easily find the latest driver installed by accessing C:\Windows\system32\drivers and looking for the latest files added.

In order to get this application working as virtual, we must do the following:

Fortunately the flexibility that App-V provides lets us work and edit almost anything in the sequencing process, like we've seen by editing the parsed or excluded items, or by editing the virtual environment.

The virtual environment can be reviewed and edited using the SPRJ (Project File) of the application or as soon as we complete the sequencing wizard. The options we can edit in the virtual environment are as follows:

Dynamic Suite Composition represents the way in which administrators can define dependencies between App-V packages and guarantee final users transparent operability between applications.

In normal operating system use, we can find several applications that are dependent on other applications. The best example is probably that of web applications interacting (from a browser, of course) constantly with Java Runtime Environment, Silverlight, and other applications, such as PDF Reader. DSC is also very suitable in any plugin scenario for other large applications such as Microsoft Office.

Dynamic Suite Composition always identifies two type of applications:

An important procedure we should always consider in our App-V deployment is that the application upgrade or modification in its life cycle.

There are different ways an application could need an upgrade or modification—a service pack or updated version, modification required within the options of the application, or adding a new feature/application to an existing package. For all of those options, the App-V Sequencer offers us a wizard.

The options available in the App-V Sequencer are:

One of the newest features in App-V 4.6 SP1 is the package accelerator, which appeared in order to help the App-V community share knowledge and common best practices for applications sequencing.

In this chapter, we had the chance to review important topics regarding complex sequencing and how to accomplish these in some scenarios where App-V is normally not supported.

There are some applications that require more tuning than others, including those that are not commonly supported in App-V, such as an application with drivers. A good example we reviewed here is Network Monitor; it requires editing the Exclusion Items of the App-V Sequencer, in order to include necessary files, and also requires the existence of a driver to function properly.

In complex sequencing, there are important concepts that we've had the chance to understand, in this chapter; for example, using the override/merge options and the ability to let the application interact with the operating system (using the LOCAL_INTERACTION_ALLOWED parameter).

We've also covered Dynamic Suite Composition, which lets us work with dependencies between different virtual applications. By handling the proper parameters in the...