Thursday, January 29, 2009

App-V First Application

Well I finally had a chance to work on some Virtual Applications. I have virtualized Real Player and now QuickTime. I am hoping to remove them from computers so I can easily update them or just quickly remove them from the machines when the software needs to be patched.

Real player doesn't have a nice uninstaller. Only part of it is silent and it leaves behind folders that make app-v applications crash. This is due to App-v seeing a c:\program files\real folder.

When I did Quicktime I wanted to make sure that the IE plugin worked as well. This was easier that I though it would be. Just after Quicktime installs I open IE and launch a page that has an embedded quicktime movie. I install the activeX control and then stop the app-v install. Next at the window where you can remove application I simply add a shortcut to c:\program files\internet explorer\iexplore.exe. I make the shortcut name "Internet Explorer with Quicktime" This link is placed in the Quicktime shortcut folder.

One thing I will mention is that although IE 7 had all my shortcuts, favorite, history etc the home page opened to my default homepage that I set with the IE deployment tool. So it only carries over some of my settings. But the end result is IE that plays quicktime. Now I can elminate part of the security problems as well as installations/uninstalls from SCCM.