I got inspired to write this short blog because I was delivered a VM with the Client installed for streaming rather than standalone whilst the project was required to run in standalone mode. I also just happened to get a similar issue reported to me by a colleague working on another APP-V project. So the common error was:
“Unable to initialize package information(0x00000000)”
As I had encountered this issue before I had a good idea what the issue was. During the installation of the client either via the command line switches or packaging or even a non-silent install the wrong options were selected for standalone. The correct options would have been:
You can see Allow streaming from file is selected which means the Client is enabled to stream from the local cached file rather than look to a server to stream from. The Autoload checkboxes are unchecked to ensure the Client does not try to reach out to the server on any of those events to update and stream down the users applications and finally Autoload is set to “Do not automatically load applications” This ensures the applications will never only partially load applications and then load the remainder in the background. The applications will always use the local cache to load the entire application.
I am a child of packaging and so when working on any new project my first suggestion is let’s figure out the setup of the Client and package that application as an MSI first. I would create a Response Transform to apply to the Microsoft supplied MSI and deploy that to the users machines or install it on the build.
The options can also be modified in the registry under the hive HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Softgrid\4.5 but I would only do this in a controlled lab environment and always backup your registry first. Please refer to the link for a detailed explanation on each option (
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd464849.aspx ) e.g. AutoLoadTriggers, AutoLoadTarget, AllowIndependentFileStreaming, AllowAuthroizationIfCached, Online, AllowDisconnectedOperation being the one’s to look at for in this case. As suggested by good friend Pat, it’s a good idea to restart your machine after making the changes to the registry. Also you can make these changes via GPO.
Tim Mangan who can be seen in my Blogroll wrote an excellent book called The Client Book. It’s a great book for understanding all there is to know about the client and would be something I would certainly suggest to techies who are setting up APP-V for the first time. The Client is the catalyst for APP-V and the most important component.
https://www.tmurgent.com/TheClientBook/default.aspx
Tim also put together a nice PDF explaining APP-V Standalone.
https://tmurgent.com/WhitePapers%5CMicrosoft_AppV_Stand-Alone.pdf
I would certainly suggest the book for anyone in APP-V. I bought this with a pretty strong knowledge but thanks to the fact APP-V is still really in it’s infancy there has not been much info regarding the Client and certainly nothing consolidated. For me it confirmed my own knowledge for me and is a great reference point.
