Microsoft Application Virtualization 4.6 SP1 Package accelerators are Microsoft's solution to create simple and predictable Virtualised applications for novice users.

You can think of a Package Accelerator as a pre-defined application sequence that does not contain the files and registry settings etc of the application.

Coming soon!

We are currently developing an Advanced App-V sequencing training course which will be presented in the following formats: Public, On-Site and Weekend Training.

For more information on our Advanced Sequencing Courses and when we will be holding training click here.

Microsoft Server App-V is designed to de-couple the Operating System and the Server Application to reduce the number of Virtual Machine Images required within an organisation. Bringing together the Server App-V sequence, the hardware profile and the VM image simplifies the management and deployment of a scalable and resilient service.

Server App-V is used to virtualise Server based applications (including Services, COM+ and DCOM) and is a core component of Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012.

Wow. There's no holding Microsoft, Kevin Kaminski and Aaron Parker back ! Check out the Technet website for 9 new package accelerators for the following applications:

Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010 - Windows 7

What is an App-V Package Accelerator?

Essentially, an App-V Package Accelerator is like a pre-configured sequence but without the actual application files or settings. Using a new function built into the App-V 4.6 SP1 Sequencer we can marry a Package Accelerator together with the application files without sequencing the application using the normal method via the Sequencing Wizard.

This morning I read this great article from J.C Hornbeck which illustrates a method that can be used to sequence .Net 4.0 using AppV 4.6 SP1:

http://blogs.technet.com/b/appv/archive/2011/03/10/new-kb-guide-to-sequencing-net-4-0-with-app-v-4-6-sp1.aspx

What occurred to me while reading is that there are likely to be many people thinking that sequencing .Net is a good idea. So I invite comments on whether or not you have sequenced a .Net version and the reasons behind it.

I came across this problem when sequencing Microsoft Orca on Windows 7 64bit for a client, but this issue applies for other OS's with UAC enabled. Orca is a very simple application to sequence, however, when you run it at a client with UAC enabled you are likely to recieve an App-V error:

The Application Virtualization Client could not launch Orca 3.1.4000.1830

The requested operation requires elevation.

Error code: xxxxxxx-xxxxxx2C-000002E4

We've had a quite a few enquiries for weekend training so we are trying to put together a weekend sequencing training course for all interested parties in the next month. If you are interested or you know others that may be interested please let me know asap so that I can make arrangements for you. We are hoping to run the course on the 9th and 10th of April.

The course is held in our training centre in Portsmouth, Hampshire. We supply refreshments and lunch over the 2 days.

I've lost count of how often I've copied an OSD file to launch an application slightly differently. There are so many possibilities, but an example could be where you had an Access Runtime sequence that you wanted to use to call several different Access databases. Let's theorise that your Access Runtime sequence has 1 OSD file which called an LOBAPP1.MDB file from your network in the PARAMETERS= section of the OSD file. Now you want to create another OSD file to call the LOBAPP2.MDB file instead.

It's a fairly straighforward process, so here goes.

Most App-V customers use more than one App-V Management Server to deal with scalability and outages. When building your App-V Management Servers, it's often best to automate the build to achieve consistency between them. This article from the App-V Team Blog shows how you do this by illustrating each of the command line properties that can be passed to the MSI to customise it for your environment.

In addition to Microsoft's all encompassing Command line example, here's a more common version which installs all App-V features: