Monthly Archives: December 2013

Configmgr 2012 R2 Toolkit

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We all know that sometimes the good old SCCM toolkit can help up troubleshoot problems. Well Microsoft has released the updated version for SCCM 2012 R2.

It can be found here: ConfigMgr 2012R2 Toolkit

For the site this information is found:

The Microsoft System Center 2012 R2 Configuration Manager Toolkit contains fifteen downloadable tools to help you manage and troubleshoot Microsoft System Center 2012 R2 Configuration Manager. The following list provides specific information about each tool in the toolkit.

Note: Items with an * are new in the R2 Toolkit and require Microsoft System Center 2012 R2 Configuration Manager for full functionality.

Server Based Tools

  • * DP Job Manager – A tool that helps troubleshoot and manage ongoing content distribution jobs to Configuration Manager distribution points.
  • * Collection Evaluation Viewer – A tool that assists in troubleshooting collection evaluation related issues by viewing collection evaluation details.
  • * Content Library Explorer – A tool that assists in troubleshooting issues with and viewing the contents of the content library.
  • Security Configuration Wizard Template for Microsoft System Center 2012 R2 Configuration Manager – The Security Configuration Wizard (SCW) is an attack-surface reduction tool for the Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 operating system. Security Configuration Wizard determines the minimum functionality required for a server’s role or roles, and disables functionality that is not required.
  • Content Library Transfer – A tool that transfers content from one disk drive to another.
  • Content Ownership Tool – A tool that changes ownership of orphaned packages (packages without an owner site server).
  • Role-based Administration Modeling and Auditing Tool – This tool helps administrators to model and audit RBA configurations.
  • Run Metering Summarization Tool – The purpose of this tool is to run the metering summarization task to analyze raw metering data

Client Based Tools

  • Client Spy – A tool that helps you troubleshoot issues related to software distribution, inventory, and software metering on System Center 2012 Configuration Manager clients.
  • Configuration Manager Trace Log Viewer – A tool used to view log files created by Configuration Manager components and agents.
  • Deployment Monitoring Tool – The Deployment Monitoring Tool is a graphical user interface designed help troubleshoot Applications, Updates, and Baseline deployments on System Center 2012 Configuration Manager clients.
  • Policy Spy – A policy viewer that helps you review and troubleshoot the policy system on System Center 2012 Configuration Manager clients.
  • Power Viewer Tool – A tool to view the status of power management feature on System Center 2012 Configuration Manager clients.
  • Send Schedule Tool – A tool used to trigger a schedule on a client or trigger the evaluation of a specified DCM Baseline. You can trigger a schedule either locally or remotely.
  • Wakeup Spy – A tool that provides a view of the power state of Configuration Manager client computers and which operate as managers or manages.

App-V 4.6 SP3 and App-V 5.0 SP2 Released

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As of 2nd December 2013 Microsoft has released SP3 for App-V 4.6 and SP2 for App-V 5.0

All the info can be found here: http://blogs.windows.com/windows/b/springboard/archive/2013/12/02/announcing-mdop-2013-r2.aspx

In these releases the major difference are:

  • support for Windows 8.1
  • Office 2013 virtualization support

Also lots of enhancements were made in the App-V 5.0 SP2 release:

  • Support for Windows 8 and 8.1
  • Office 2013 virtualization support
  • Shell extension support, enriching the user experience
  • Sequencing enhancements, simplifying the virtual application creation process.

For all of you who have worked with App-V 5.0 (SP1) the major pain was with application publishing.

Application publishing:

Before SP2, shortcuts in the programs menu and desktop were refreshed after each application that was added by the publishing refresh. This means that if a user would have access to 30 applications and logging on to a freshly provisioned environment (E.g. stateless VDI) shortcuts would be refreshed 30 times, which can in turn cause a lot of flickering and when such a refresh would occur while you are ‘browsing’ your programs menu it would collapse. With SP2 a refresh of newly added shortcuts occurs after each fifth application that was successfully published.

Office 2013 support:

Supported
Office Version		 Supported
App-V Version		 Package Creation Supported Licensing Supported Deployments
Office 2007 4.6, 5.0 Sequencing Volume Licensing Desktop
Personal VDI
Pooled VDI
RDS
Office 2010 4.6, 5.0 Sequencing
Package Accelerator
Office Deployment Kit		 Volume Licensing Desktop
Personal VDI
RDS
Office 2013 ProPlus App-V Package 5.0 SP2 Office Deployment Tool Subscription Desktop
Personal VDI
Office 2013 Professional Plus App-V Package 5.0 SP2 Office Deployment Tool Volume Licensing  

 

Shell extension support:

By building on App-V 5.0 investments which delivered you the ability to virtualize highly integrated applications, App-V 5.0 SP2 is providing support for a frequently requested extension point into the operating system, shell extensions. For example if you virtualize a compression program or a backup program that integrated with the Windows shell, you will now see the contextual options that these apps have like send to zip or backup to archive. Essentially this enables the virtual application to behave more like if it was installed locally on your device.

Sequencing enhancements:

Powerful and flexible management is a key component of Microsoft’s application virtualization solution, allowing IT to deploy, track and service virtual applications. Continuing the approach, we have made improvements to the sequencer enabling it to automatically detect with the option to include, run time dependencies like MSXML and Visual C++ libraries in the App-V package during the sequencing process.