If you would like to automate the installation of your AppSense DesktopNow server(s), here is how to do it with PowerShell!
Start by downloading AppSense DesktopNow from myAppSense and extract it on your fileserver to a folder named “DesktopNow”.
Alter the values in the script below, save it as a ps1 file and you should be good to go.
Continue reading »
Have you ever wondered if it really necessary to personalize an application using AppSense Personalization? Or do you blindly personalize all your applications?
You should only personalize applications that users need personalized settings for.
If you put all your applications in AppSense Personalization, you will end up with a personalization configuration that is hard to manage, crashes applications that were stable (and don’t need any kind of personalization) and a personalization database that is way too large.
My co-worker Ben Pelzer (@benpelzer22) created a very handy flowchart (see link below) that can help you decide whether to personalize an application or not.After deciding your applications needs personalization, just follow the steps shown in the flowchart. Continue reading »
Lately I’ve been implementing a new Citrix XenApp 6.5 environment for a large international customer.
Because the environment will be used by people from all over the world, the customer requested to have multiple language packs installed and all users should get their correct language settings, regional options and keyboards at logon according to their active directory security group memberships.
I remember from back in the days on windows 2003 this could be a nightmare, but on windows 2008 R2 with a few registry keys in AppSense and some GPO’s it’s quite easy to get this right. Continue reading »
Personalizing Citrix session printers for your users will not work out of the box with AppSense Personalization.
As described in http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX107415, session printers are deleted at logoff and therefore AppSense Personalization will not capture the user’s default printer.
To personalize the user’s default printer with AppSense Personalization you have to apply a small workaround. Continue reading »
Although AppSense Personalization works almost “out of the box”, there are still a couple of user settings which do not persist after a log off.
I revisited my old list of registry keys and hiving actions and tested them out with AppSense Environment Manager 8.2 on a Windows 7 client machine.
The list below is an overview of the settings that did not persist. Add the registry keys you need to your session data (or desktop settings, if you have an older version of AppSense) to make the setting persist. Continue reading »
With the release of AppSense environment manager 8.2, AppSense introduced the AppSense environment manager browser interface.
The environment manager browser interface lets you do the basic AppSense personalization administration tasks (for example application archive rollback and deletion of the application settings) through a web browser without having to install the full environment manager console. This allows you to delegate personalization administration to your helpdesk staff because the environment manager browser interface does not have all the advanced features the full environment manager console does.
Let’s start with setting up the AppSense environment manager browser interface. Continue reading »
In almost all XenApp and XenDesktop environments I build, I solve user virtualization with AppSense Personalization and local profiles.
AppSense Personalization allows you to virtualize and personalize the user desktop without the need of a roaming profile, and by using AppSense Personalization together with local profiles you get some big advantages over roaming and mandatory profiles:
The only drawback of using local profiles is that they are not automatically deleted from the server or desktop when the user logs off, but this is where spoofing the state of the local profile with PowerShell comes in. Continue reading »