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read this for setting up KMS

Making Applications Compatible with Windows 7 in a Virtualized Environment by Chris Jackson Microsoft Application Virtualization (App-V) 4.6, boasting full support for Windows 7, is right around the corner; many customers who are planning a Windows 7 deployment are including App-V among the components of their desktop transformation project. (An OS deployment is frequently combined with an overhaul of both applications and infrastructure in a “modern desktop” or “next-generation desktop” initiative.) When IT professionals think about pairing investments in App-V and Windows 7, the following questions almost always come up as part of the conversation: * I heard that App-V is an application-compatibility solution. Does that mean it will help make my applications compatible with Windows 7? * Will I need to re-sequence the App-V packages I have already created for my current Windows XP desktops? * What do I need to do to remediate incompatible applications when I use App-V as my deployment solution? Let’s explore each of these questions. Is Microsoft App-V an Application-Compatibility Solution? Microsoft App-V is, first and foremost, an application management and deployment solution that can convey significant benefit to the enterprise—reducing packaging costs, increasing system stability, and supporting today’s highly mobile workforce with dynamic access to software assets. But as part of the marketing messaging, the overloaded term application compatibility grew to be misinterpreted over time: that App-V could help with compatibility problems between the application and the OS. For the most part, it can’t. (The exceptions today exist mostly for historical reasons, and are not something to depend on, so I won’t go into the details here.) The resulting customer confusion has led to some clarification in the messaging; we now forego use of the term “application compatibility” and instead speak directly to the underlying benefits: that you reduce application-to-application conflicts (note the strategic omission of the word compatibility), and that, as a result, you significantly reduce regression testing. The official stance of the product team on application-to-OS compatibility is this: As noted in prior discussions, App-V is not a general purpose application-to-OS compatibility solution; however, if an application compatibility shim allows an app to work on a given Windows version natively (non-virtualized), it will in most cases, and for most shims, work with App-V when the shimmed app is virtualized. Thus, as a general rule, App-V will support app use with shims that are provided as part of Microsoft’s App Compat tools as long as the shimmed application can run natively on the targeted OS version. So, it’s pretty clear that App-V isn’t intended to be an application-to-OS compatibility solution. (We will discuss combining shims with App-V later in this article.) Let’s look at the other impacts that application virtualization has on OS compatibility. Is Microsoft App-V a Package-Compatibility Solution? When we talk about application compatibility, it’s fair to separate package compatibility from runtime compatibility. In fact, our recommended process for application-compatibility testing (shown in Figure 3 of my June 2009 article on Planning Your Application Compatibility Project) separates install testing from runtime testing. Let’s start with the official product team guidance: It is often possible to sequence on one OS and run the virtualized app on a different OS; however, this scenario is both app- and OS-dependent and is not guaranteed to work for all app/OS combinations because App-V is not a general purpose OS compatibility solution. If problems are encountered, the customer may be required to sequence on the same OS environment as the App-V client is running in order to resolve those problems. OK, so this doesn’t sound so promising—the official stance is, basically, “it depends.” But when you’re thinking about measuring risk, compare the three primary setup technologies in use today: Setup.exe: This runs arbitrary code, and thus the arbitrary code is subject to the same potential runtime problems that the arbitrary code of the application itself is, so it will have to be thoroughly tested. Windows Installer: This also runs code to execute an install, but much of this code is structured, declarative code. Only the imperative code of custom actions is arbitrary, so outside of quantifiable changes in rules that affect the processing of code running against the database and the arbitrary code in custom actions, you expect better (though still not perfect) compatibility and less testing. Microsoft App-V: This doesn’t have to run code at all. It just copies over a blob of data that is the virtual file system, and then says “OK, your virtual file system is here.” So, your primary concern isn’t whether the application will install (copying one blob of data is, after all, really easy), it’s the runtime compatibility of the application. So, you expect install testing to be shortest of all three technologies. That’s goodness! So, while nobody is officially going to say that packages will all work, it seems the primary reason for the messaging is that many people conflate install issues and runtime issues. In general, you can look to reduce your projected costs of application installation testing significantly if you have already invested in Microsoft App-V. How Do I Fix Runtime Compatibility Issues When my Application Is Packaged with Microsoft App-V? Remember the tantalizing bit from the support statement? “App-V will support app use with shims that are provided as part of Microsoft’s App Compat tools….” How do you actually implement that? Are the two fundamentally compatible? The answer is, fortunately, yes. In fact, you have a couple of different options for doing so. A Brief Primer on Shims For those of you who are unfamiliar with shims, a shim is one of the very few four-letter words in use by Microsoft that isn’t an acronym of some sort. It’s a metaphor based on the English language word shim, which is an engineering term used to describe a piece of wood or metal that is inserted between two objects to make them fit together better. In this particular case, the two objects are the application program and Windows, and the shim material is additional code that causes the two to behave better together, as shown in Figures 1 and 2. read the rest > http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/ff458340.aspx

i keep them around because i still use some of them for example the Deploy updates used during a task sequence deployment management tasks, you are free to keep them (the deployment management tasks) or to remove them and create new ones hope that helps

there are two USMT packages in this task sequence (apart from the batch file etc...) the first one is special (a workaround), as it only points to the USMT/x86 folder (containing all files and folders within there...) the second USMT package is normal and points to both the X86 and X64 folders (containing all files and folders within there) does that help your problem ? cheers niall

well what type of patching are you interested in ? just patching adobes updates or microsoft updates ?

well i'll give you some ideas hopefully or maybe make you more confused hehe if you are familiar with the way you normally advertise applications in SCCM then think of SUP kind of the same way, * a deployment management task is the equivalent of an Advertisement * a deployment package is the equivalent of a package * a software update within a deployment package is similar to a program within a package so... what does that tell us, well it kind of reminds us that advertisements are generally one time wonders you can re-use the deployment package many times in your SUP and that's what I do, every month I add new updates and remove superseded or expired updates from the package, in addition the same thing is done to any deployment management task currently pointing at that package, lastly you create a new deployment management task (advertisement) for the new udpdates.... I will be doing a new post soon covering the use of Update Lists, watch this space...

when you make a change however small to a Task Sequence then there can be a time delay between the client picking it up, sometimes its fast as in immediate but sometimes it can take a while to recognise the change... what I sometimes do when testing 'steps' in a task sequence is to change a letter or letters in the task sequence advertisement so that it shows up in RAP as for example 'xp to 7 with hardlinking TEST#2' then I press F5 in the RAP console on the client, when i see that the change has taken place by visually seeing the new ts in the rap, i then let it go through, if you don't understand my explanation i will try and do a small video showing same

great stuff and if we wanted to have two reports for counting IE6 and IE8 ?

uninstall it, reboot, delete the d:\remoteinstall folder, add wds, reboot does it work then ?

try uninstalling wds service, reboot, reinstall it

i have it, now all i need is time, but i'll try and get something out soon.

well is SQL going to be on the same box ? are you planning on doing OSD, any other features planned ? more info needed...

do you have an MSDN or Technet subscription, if so download the ISO version of Windows 7 Enterprise and burn that directly to a DVD, or there's even a 90 day trial download here http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/cc442495.aspx cheers niall.

please get the terms right, it's MDT not WDT ok... to deploy or capture an os you will need Windows Deployment Services, this is a basic add on for Server 2003 sp2 and upwards and it replaced the aging Remote Installation Services ability of Windows Server 2000 and 2003. With WDS you could deploy captured images with little or no user interaction, the images would be customised before being captured, MDT 2010 is a whole different beast and it allows you (in conjunction with WDS) to deploy operating systems with applications, drivers, software updates and more with minimal or lots of user interaction depending on your needs. it is free. SCCM which does all of this and more can do ZTI (zero touch), if you want to start simple, start with WDS, if you want to progress then use WDS with MDT 2010, if you want to really get with the program then look at SCCM 2007 sp2 in conjunction with MDT 2010 integration. cheers niall

does this help ? and I quote Jason here directly also, you didn't say what you are deploying, is it Enterprise or another version cheers niall

there are multiple ways of doing it, I cover WDS in server 2008 right here you can use MDT 2010 in conjunction with WDS in server 2008 but you'll need to get familiar with Windows SIM to customise your unattend.xml files, windows sim is covered here and setting up MDT is as easy as intsalling it and following the guides, cheers niall

dont install the Eval obtain the full SP2 version from MSDN or Technet or your Microsoft TAM, the guides on this site apply to both sp1 and sp2, what are you trying to do exactly ?

are you running the installation as a local administrator

sounds interesting go for it !

welcome to the site !

thanks for the kind words as regards the wds service, did it ever start ? was it ever working ? what errors do you see in event viewer in relation to it not starting ? have you tried rebooting the server ?

can you deploy a test package to the clients (like the firefox application example) ? if that works at least we know you have communication... is the firewall enabled on the clients ? what do the logs on your CLIENT tell you ? has the deadline for the software update been set? cheers niall

The kind folks at Microsoft have provided the following four new Guides for System Center Configuration Manager 2007, links below System Center Configuration Manager 2007 Deployment Guide This guidance provides information on how to design and deploy a Configuration Manager infrastructure within a healthcare organization. It allows the healthcare organization to be confident that the Configuration Manager infrastructure being designed and deployed is using current best practice. http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=8b635615-b368-4e98-a4b3-d779611eced4 System Center Configuration Manager 2007 Operating System Deployment Guide This guidance helps healthcare organizations when implementing and using the operating system deployment feature of Configuration Manager. This guidance provides the information required to quickly become familiar with the operating system deployment feature and understand the appropriate decisions that need to be made in order to deploy and use the solution. It also provides step-by-step guidance showing how to install and configure the required components, and also how to use the most common features. http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=defbf5ab-7d60-402b-a58e-5cccc4932a12 System Center Configuration Manager 2007 Software Distribution Guide This guidance provides the information required to quickly become familiar with the software distribution feature and understand the appropriate decisions that need to be made in order to deploy and use the solution. It also provides step-by-step guidance showing how to create the objects required within Configuration Manager to perform the software distribution. http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=0a4a62eb-4335-4847-b22f-baeb915f3e24 System Center Configuration Manager Software Update Management Guide This guidance provides the information required to quickly become familiar with the software update feature, and understand the appropriate decisions that need to be made in order to deploy and use the solution. It also provides step-by-step guidance showing how to install and configure the required components, and how to use the most common features. http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=27c44801-0d99-48a1-b371-56e27099c5d2 and if the above isn't enough for you, there's always the SCCM Guides right here on windows-noob.com cheers niall

try my guide please and then see what result you get ok ?

yes, you could use Collection variables or Computer Variables to define any variable set in the task sequence, and collection variables have the advantage of hiding the password value entered, I'll raise that in another post if I have time.