An Example Config for Excludes and Data Layers

Confused by all this talk of "Excludes" and "Data Layers"? Scott Jones, SVS PM and avid user, shows us how he organizes his data in the real world using SVS and Data Layers.

Deciding what excludes and data layers to use with SVS is one of the keys to getting it to work the way you need it to. Jared Payne has provided some great information and tools around this topic. As one example of a working production configuration, I wanted to share mine. It's very simple and has served me well since I first installed pre-alpha versions of SVS almost a year ago.

First, I have a data layer called "My Documents". The capture criteria for this "My Documents" data layer is:

[PERSONAL] (including subdirectories)

Note: You might also include the shared version of this directory, [COMMONDOCUMENTS], which is by default located under C:\Documents and Settings\All Users. However, in my personal experience those shared folders are almost never used.

A. This is what the Data Capture criteria looks like in SVS Admin for the "My Documents" data layer.

Click to view.

Populate Your Data Layers With Pre-Existing Data From the Base -- When I first created the "My Documents" layer, I moved the content of that directory from my base into the layer. This can be done with a copy/paste into the Advanced Layer Properties Editor in SVS Admin (then go back and delete the files from the base in Windows Explorer) or by moving the files directly to the redirect area for the data layer (if you know how to do that -- may be a future tip!). This got me a step closer to the whole virtualization ideal by cleaning out my base and getting everything neat and tidy in a layer. If I had not done this, files would not have been moved into the layer until they were accessed, leaving a mix of stuff in "My Documents," some in the base and some in the data layer. Also, in reality what happens when a base file is accessed that needs to go into a data layer is a copy, not a move, so I would have actually ended up with older versions of the files (obscured by the newer versions when the data layer was active) hanging out in my base forever.

Some Files and Directories You May Want to Duplicate in the Base -- The only things I left under "My Documents" in the base were the default stuff put there by the Windows installation (My Music/Pictures/Video and the .ini files and shortcuts in those) and two other directories I created -- "Download" and "Upload". My Music/Pictures/Video are needed because the variables for those directories will not resolve correctly if the directories do not exist in the base.

B. This is what "My Documents" looks like on my machine when the "My Documents" data layer is inactive.

Click to view.

I always use the "Download" and "Upload" directories for applications that require me to configure default file transfer locations (like IM and PTP clients). By having those directories duplicated in the base, I don't risk those apps complaining about those directories not being available just because I deactivated the "My Documents" data layer for some reason. Sure, if I write something from an app to one of those directories while the data layer is inactive, the file will get written to the base. But that's not the normal mode of operation. I just want to be able to deactivate my data layer while troubleshooting or whatever and not have AOL Instant Messenger throw up an error message.

C. And this is what "My Documents" looks like when the data layer is active. As you can see, over 17 GB of "stuff"!

Click to view.

I do have some other separate data layers that really aren't necessary to keep separate. I have one for my Outlook (corporate) mailbox, one for my Thunderbird (personal) mailbox and one for my Firefox profile (the wiki tells you what directories to use for these). These prevent data loss from resetting any of those apps. But all of the directories for those things could easily be added to one long data capture criteria list in a single data layer.

Ok, so that's it for my data layers. For excludes, there are a handful of app-specifics ones (covered on the wiki), but I also put an exclude for "[SYSTEMDRIVE]\TEMP" on every layer I have. Jared gives you an easy way to do this in his article. This assures me that at any time, from any app, virtualized or not, if I intentionally want to save something to the base, I just need to put it in C:\Temp. Best example I can think of for the usefulness of this is when I am getting ready to capture a new application install. My master software repository is under \My Documents\Software Store, which is of course part of my "My Documents" data layer. Since I have to deactivate all layers to do a capture, that won't be visible to me. So I copy the installer over to C:\Temp, deactivate my layers, and get on with my capture.

Part of the reason this approach works for me is that I am a Virgo, so by nature very organized. All data goes into My Documents. In a production environment, where people are likely to save stuff Lord only knows where, you may need to go to file type-based data layers and excludes. But for me, this works, and I'm hoping you may find some value from this example.