App-V 5.1 - Another Question Sorry (Start Menu Shortcuts)

[garethEds]

Evening all,

 

So I'm playing with App-V on a test part of the school network. It's been pretty good so far and I managed to get Office 2016 streaming to a machine earlier today. However - it seems AppV will not work with redirected start menus where all users access the same redirected start menu. I think this is how it read in the MS docs - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/application-management/app-v/appv-planning-folder-redirection-with-appv

 

Unsupported scenarios for App-V folder redirection

 

The following scenarios aren't supported by App-V:

Configuring %LocalAppData% as a network drive.

Redirecting the Start menu to a single folder for multiple users.

If roaming AppData (%AppData%) is redirected to a network share that is not available, App-V applications will fail to launch, unless the unavailable network share has been enabled for Offline Files.

 

So - how do people do it? It will work with roaming profiles but we don't use any profiles. Interestingly if we could get that to work, how do you get one icon to display in two different start menus?

 

Hope that makes sense..... how many people use App-V? Can .appv containers be shared? Is there a central repository somewhere of pre-created ones?

 

Cheers

 

Gareth

Edited June 11, 2019 by garethedmondson

[Arthur]

When creating my App-V packages I normally place the shortcut(s) in the "All Users" Start Menu ("C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs").

 

This works fine with local profiles as long as you don't remove the common program group through Group Policy.

 

 

Note. I am using SCCM to deploy our App-V packages rather than an App-V server.

Edited June 11, 2019 by Arthur

[garethEds]

When creating my App-V packages I normally place the shortcut(s) in the "All Users" Start Menu ("C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs").

 

This works fine with local profiles as long as you don't remove the common program group through Group Policy.

 

That application you are using costs a fortune. Time to research a free one.

 

Thanks @Arthur - not entirely sure what I am doing.

 

Gareth

[garethEds]

When creating my App-V packages I normally place the shortcut(s) in the "All Users" Start Menu ("C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs").

 

This works fine with local profiles as long as you don't remove the common program group through Group Policy.

 

Hi @Arthur - I've been thinking about this - does it mean you don't use redirected start menus?

 

Gareth

[Arthur]

I've been thinking about this - does it mean you don't use redirected start menus?

I do use a redirected Start Menu, although I don't remove the common program group.

 

This means shortcuts added to "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs" by an App-V package or MSI will show up for users without having to copy them over to the redirected Start Menu folder manually.

 

Hopefully that makes sense?

 

That application you are using costs a fortune. Time to research a free one.

It's very good, although I agree the software is a bit expensive. I'm not aware of any free App-V editors with similar functionality (apart from the App-V Sequencer itself), although TMEdit is a bit cheaper and has some useful features such as the ability to detect and/or fix issues with packages.

[garethEds]

I do use a redirected Start Menu, although I don't remove the common program group.

This means shortcuts added to "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs" by an App-V package or MSI will show up for users without having to copy them over to the redirected Start Menu folder manually.

Hopefully that makes sense?

It's very good, although I agree the software is a bit expensive. I'm not aware of any free App-V editors with similar functionality (apart from the App-V Sequencer itself), although TMEdit is a bit cheaper and has some useful features such as the ability to detect and/or fix issues with packages.

 

Hi @Arthur,

 

Thanks for this for the domain admin user and it has created the shortcuts and shortcut folder without any issues. Our Admin user doesn't have a redirected shortcut folder. It's not working with our locked down staff users -despite me setting that GPO.

 

Plenty more research to be done next week.

 

Gareth