Tuesday, May 15, 2007

How Windows comes closer to Linux ...

Some days ago, I got inspired by the following topic: "Things you can do in Linux but not Windows" (click to read).

For the larger part, I agree with the author. Some remarks however: One of the points the author is:

Take my settings with me where ever I go. In Linux, all your personal settings are stored in your Home folder, most in folders that begin with a period (like .gaim). So, I can copy all these settings from one computer to another. I can put these settings on a USB drive. When I switched from Gentoo to Ubuntu, I kept all my settings. On Windows, some settings are under your home folder and some are in the registry. So your settings are not portable.

True of course, but not the final word: there is a way around this... storing the registry information in a file. This can be done in several ways, but one of the most flexible one is probably using OPS file by means of the Office Resource Kit (free download).

Interested? Check out the Flex Profile Kit (Login Consultants) which does exactly that for a TS/Citrix environment but can easily used in a desktop environment as well. In principle, even a registry export/import would do...

This does not mean I don't like the UNIX way (quite the contrary!)... but at long as we can make Windows behave a little bit the same, we are already happy!

Monday, May 07, 2007

Good and bad applications


I'm doing some Solution4 packaging these days at a client's site. You'll probably ask "what the heck is Solution4"? Take a look at www.loginconsultants.com for more info. In short, it is our own script-based installation and maintenance framework that is primarily used for TS/Citrix environments.

When talking about packaging, we talk about getting applications installed on the Citrix box and making them ready for users to use. And, sadly enough, some applications can really spoil your day (or even days). Take for instance the free Autocad file viewer DWG True View. The installation medium comes with a ready-made MSI, but... you have to tweak the MSI tables to get the thing installed properly. Or, to give another example: the installation gives a strange error if "%ProfileFolder%\Application Data" does not exist.

There are also nice applications, luckily. For people living in Belgium, installing ITT Promedia is very easy: just copy the full contents of the CD and start it. Easy isn't it?!





Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Altiris SVS

I'm starting to become a real fan of Software Virtualisation Solution of Altiris (now owned by Symantec).

I already run 'Launchy' using SVS for some time. Today, I tried running the new VisionApp Remote Desktop tool using SVS. Since I did not have the correct .Net version, I had to somehow make this version available for the installation wizard. Here's the procedure I followed:
  1. Download .Net v2 (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=0856eacb-4362-4b0d-8edd-aab15c5e04f5&displaylang=en)
  2. Close Outlook if it is open.
  3. Create a new layer (VisionApp RD) and install the downloaded executable.
  4. Test the layer.

  5. Download the VisionApp RD tool (http://www.visionapp.com/141.0.html?)
  6. Select to update the layer created before (we will change the name later).
  7. Install RD
  8. Start the layer to test the installation
It works perfectly!  This is also the first time I test RD from VisionApp and I can tell you it is amazing, especially when you visit different environments all the time and don't want to remember IP addresses and account information.

Tuesday, April 03, 2007

Bloody Applications

This is an interesting one. Below, you see first a screenshot of a PowerFuse shortcut that does not work and after that a shortcut that works. Working means that the application starts up without errors.

Do you see the difference? Ok, I should have avoided the active cursor in the window as it is a real spoiler... This is due to the fact that the application itself checks if it is started from the proper location to make sure a valid license is used. This check is done on the basis of the startup command and the string comparison is made case sensitive...

Not working:

Working:




Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Test of ScribeFire

If this works, it will be faster to upload something to my blog...

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