If you’ve just stumbled upon this article, I recommend you start from the beginning by clicking the Part 1 link below.  For easy reading, I’ve broken this blog post into four parts:

Part 1: AppSense DesktopNow Single Server Installation
Part 2: AppSense DesktopNow Single Server Configuration
Part 3: Importing the Base Configuration < YOU ARE HERE!
Part 4: Deploying the Client Communications Agent

From the Start Menu, launch the AppSense Environment Manager Console:

To provide a starting point for Proof of Concept deployments, I am providing a Base Configuration MSI that can be imported into Environment Manager. This is a collection of the bare minimum Environment Manager settings that I have collected. See below for a description of each of the configurations:

Computer Startup: Bypass Active Setup – Building on the AppSense Bigot’s (James Rankin) blog, this is a PowerShell script that will recursively search all subkeys under the Active Setup registry key and rename all StubPath values to StubPathOld, creating a new StubPath value with no data.

Computer Startup: Spoof Profile State – Building on Michel Stevelmans’ blog, this is a PowerShell script that will modify the security permissions on the ProfileList key to add users as Full Control required for the user logoff action to work as covered below.

Computer Startup: VMware KB 1317 (HGFS.dat) – This is a VBScript that I wrote many years ago and have been using as a startup script for customer deployments to address the issues with HGFS.dat and VMware tools as discussed in the VMware KB 1317. This issue does not exist on Hyper-V or XenServer virtual machines.

User Logon: Folder Redirection – This is a user logon action to set Folder Redirection using AppSense Environment Manager instead of Group Policies. This should be modified before use to change the root UNC path to match the specific environment requirements.

User Logoff: Spoof Profile State – Building on Michel Stevelmans’ blog, this is a PowerShell script that will set the user’s State value to 644 in the ProfileList key. Requires that the security permissions on the ProfileList key as described above. In my testing, 644 was the correct value to change local user profiles to temporary in order to delete upon logoff. This may require some testing on your environment to determine if a value of 128 or 644 should be used.

Process Started: Explorer – Building on the AppSense Bigot’s (James Rankin) blog, this is Flow Control condition and Execute Action to run .NET Framework and Internet Explorer Active Setup actions, since we renamed all StubPath values to StubPathOld. Keep this in mind as an approach to address any applications within your environment that do not function properly since StubPath is automatically renamed each server boot. This is an excellent method to take values contained in StubPathOld and execute those actions on user logon (or Explorer.exe process start as in the example).

Click Here to download a ZIP File containing the settings to be imported.

Unzip this file and from the Environment Manager console, select File –> Import & Export –> Import Configuration From MSI:

Browse to the location of the extracted MSI, select it and click Open:

The provided base configuration gives a good starting point for AppSense for use with Citrix XenApp for example. Click Configure Personalization Servers to change the location specific to your environment:

Select the AppSense POC entry and click Edit Server:

Enter your AppSense Server FQDN in the Server field and click Add:

Once your server has been entered, click OK:

Navigate to the User –> Logon –> Folder Redirection node and double click the Redirect Folder: Desktop setting:

Change the Destination field to a CIFS Share specific to your environment. If you need guidance on how to configure the Share and NTFS permissions, reference this Microsoft TechNet Article: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc737633(v=ws.10).aspx

Click OK to save the changes to the Destination Path:

Repeat this process for each redirected folder until all have been changed to reflect the path specific to your environment. Optionally, this is a good time to review additional configurations that I have included in the base configuration MSI for your use:

From the File menu, select Save As –> Configuration in the Management Center:

Select the AppSense server and click Connect:

Leave Current User selected and click OK:

Provide a name for the package on your management server and click Save:

Once the configuration has been saved, the Environment Manager workspace will show “Untitled”. Click User Personalization:

Click Next:

Click Connect:

Click the Add Server (+) icon:

Enter the FQDN of the Personalization Server, a friendly name, and click Add:

Select the server and click Connect:

Leave Current User selected and click OK:

Click Next:

Select Default Users and click Edit:

Click Next:

Select the Common Applications as applicable to your environment. For example, I’ll use Microsoft Internet Explorer and Microsoft Office 2010 and my base for personalization. Click Next:

Select any user defined applications (if applicable) and click Next:

Check Automatically Discover User Applications and Desktop Settings and click Next:

Select Complete Wizard and click Finish:

Click Finish:

Click Yes to confirm that changes will be made immediately:

Moving back to the AppSense Management Console, navigate to Deployment Groups –> (Default) –> Settings –> AssignedPackages.  Select Configuration and click Change Configuration:

Select the configuration that was imported previously and click Next:

Select Always Use Latest and click Finish:

Click Review and Submit in the bottom right:

Click Submit:

To continue reading, please choose from the following:

Part 1: AppSense DesktopNow Single Server Installation
Part 2: AppSense DesktopNow Single Server Configuration
Part 3: Importing the Base Configuration < YOU ARE HERE!
Part 4: Deploying the Client Communications Agent

If you have any questions, comments, or just want to leave feedback, please do so below. Thanks for reading!

–youngtech