Graphics Acceleration and App-V apps

Hi Matthew,

So maybe I'm not understanding this correctly but you appear to be wanting to use GA without publishing the managed application? I'm not sure that's possible...

You can publish a managed application and set the GA enabled without "assigning" it to anyone specifically.

In that case vWorkspace is smart enough to watch for the executable and then enable GA on the fly.

I hope that makes sense?

Dave

Hi Dave,

Yes makes total sense, this is exactly what we have done to enable GA for apps that are not virtualized, just wasn't sure if the same held true for App-V apps.

Two questions i now have

a) the Application Type for the App-V apps i am enabling GA for, defaults to Content - Server.  Is this correct or should it be Content - Client?  I am a bit confused over what are the Server and Client in this scenario.

b) Is there a way of confirming that GA is working for a specific app?

Thanks for your help.

Thanks Dennis.

Will probably stick to unassigned app method as VDI so would have to modify registry of hundreds of desktops but good to know there is an alternate way of doing things.

Wish there was an easier way to see if GA is working for a specific app but hey ho perhaps a future feature .

Hi Matthew,

When using group policy for applying the registry keys you don't have to modify registry of hundreds of desktops. That's the way I use GA on the moment.

And yes there is an easier way to see if GA is working. Thats the debug option I talked about.

Dennis

p.s. send me an private e-mail and we follow up on this offline.

Hi Matthew,

There is another way to do this. See the vWorkspace 7.2 Admin Guide page 172 and 173, section EOP Graphics Acceleration Registry Settings.

Note: EOP Graphics Acceleration checks the HKCU AppList first, if the

executable is not on the list, it checks the HKLM settings. If the executable is not

on the HKLM AppList setting, EOP Graphics Acceleration uses the global setting,

HKLM\Software\Provision Networks\Image Acceleration.

Regarding your two questions:

a) the Application Type for the App-V apps i am enabling GA for, defaults to Content - Server.  Is this correct or should it be Content - Client?  I am a bit confused over what are the Server and Client in this scenario.

In your scenario it is content on Server, but with the other approach you don't need this anymore because you don't use vWorkspace for assigning App-V apps..

b) Is there a way of confirming that GA is working for a specific app?

You can see this visual or you can measure it to see that it cost you now less bandwith or you can use a debug option which you need to request from support.

Dennis

Thanks David, just watched the Brian Madden video on how to put Image Acceleration into debug mode, posted here for the benefit of the community:

http://www.brianmadden.com/blogs/videos/archive/2009/08/05/quest-s-eop-image-acceleration-is-pretty-cool.aspx

Will the registry method work for App-V apps, as all shortcuts point to the same exe (sfttray.exe) with the name and version of the application or the path to the OSD file as an argument e.g.

"C:\Program Files\Softricity\SoftGrid for Windows Desktops\sfttray.exe" "Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2003 11.0.8169.0"

The registry method requires you to create a registry key named after the executable, so what would you use for the name of the registry key - the exe contained within the SFT, which is put into the process list?

HKLM|HKCU\Software\Provision Networks\ImageAcceleration\AppList\

Thanks again for your assistance .

Hi Matt,

I have looked into this a little and the end result is even if you enable GA on App-V managed applications either by the direct integration or via publishing sfttray.exe you will need to create a duplicate published application which specifies the application executable to get GA working.  This is because the direct integration modifies the GA registry settings and places the osd file name and publishing sfttray.exe results in sfttray.exe in the registry.  Note the second screen shot below, the highlight entries are the result.  Neither will work because GA needs to look in the process list for powerpnt.exe to apply GA correctly (in the PowerPoint example).

You can create a published application very quickly if its just to enable GA the main things to configure are:

• Application Name
• Application Type = Program
• Publishing = The desktop or TS group
• Default = programname.exe (doesn't have to have the full path, shown below)
• Graphics Acceleration = On

Paul