Articles, Software Virtualization Solution

This year at ManageFusion Orlando, Symantec is offering updated core SVS/SVS Pro content, plus some new stuff from the product group now known as "Endpoint Virtualization"! There will be break-out sessions from Symantec experts, hands-on labs, alliance partner sessions and customer case studies -- from beginner level to advanced!

Are you a SVS packager? If yes then you also need the ability to use clean machines. Packaging on a clean machine is not necessary, but it helps you creating clean packages that need less editing before exporting.

Software virtualization is used to run applications in their own virtual environment allowing quick provisioning and de-provisioning of applications. A definition of software virtualization can be:

It continues the common theme of abstracting the service or application away from its physical environment, enabling it to exist and run in any location. Virtualization enables the co-existence of applications on the same physical environment by encapsulating them so that everything they need to run is available to them within a virtual environment.

Adobe Reader is one of those programs that make up a basic desktop. One problem with throwing Adobe Reader into a layer is that it likes to automatically update itself. That is fine until you reset the layer for any reason, then you are back to square one. There are some ways to deal with that, but the simplest way is to turn automatic updates off in Adobe Reader.

Adobe has released the "Acrobat Customization Wizard 9". This program allows you to tweak the basic settings of Adobe Reader and Adobe Acrobat. Adobe has made turning off automatic updates (and many other settings) a breeze to build into the install. This article will talk about how to create a Adobe Reader 9 layer that works well with layers.

Let's take a step back and look at what we have accomplished so far. We have figured out how to silently install and configure Firefox. Using scripts, and without lifting a finger) we can install a pre-configured version of Firefox with all of our favorite Add-ons.

The internet and access to the internet is the life-blood of business today. Without access to the world wide web we would be unable to get work done. Firefox has been gaining market share and is gaining more legitimacy in the market over the past few years. Its speed, ease of use, and small thumbprint has been a hit in the IT world. So far in this series we have discovered how to use a script to install Firefox with custom settings. We have also learned how to install Add-ons using a script. Finally, we have learned how to configure and secure Firefox in multiple environments. Using the steps that I have already discussed will make deploying a fresh copy Firefox a breeze.

Part of the system admin gig is protecting the end users information. We have to make sure that they can safely do their work without worrying about their identity being stolen. We also have to take certain measures to make sure that the less savvy users are protected as well. In the previous articles I have talked about how to setup and configure Firefox on a computer that your average employee would use. In this article I would like to discuss how to configure a computer for a public setting. On a public computer the security needs to be a little tighter, things need to be more locked down. We have to make sure that the novice user and the expert are protected from others (and from themselves).

In the last article we started with the Firefox setup basics. We downloaded the Firefox setup file and extracted its contents. We also found all of the Add-ons that we need to have as part of our basic Firefox install. We also started to customize Firefox. Finally, we found the files that we need to include in our Firefox setup to make sure that those customizations get installed as part of our custom install.

In this article we will continue finding the files that we need to include in our custom Firefox install. We will also talk about how to sliently install Firefox and our favorite Add-ons.

Recently I became very excited about creating layers. I decided to start on something easy and work my way into hard apps. I thought that Firefox would be a great place to start. I was able to very quickly create the layer. I was pretty excited, so I decided to try something more challenging. I thought that it would be nice to include some Add-ons as part of my newly created layer...

It has been a while, but it is time to finish this series off. All of us have had to install Windows at some point. Most companies have stuck with XP, so we have had lots of practice getting it installed. I have installed XP on all kinds of different computers, and frankly I decided that I was sick of it. I determined that if I had to enter our XP serial number in one more time I might just switch my users to Linux. Luckily I found a solution that literally installs Windows for me.