Program Capture

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!

I have seen a lot of Juice Articles about creating, editing, and modifying MSI installers. But I have not seen one that explains how to use Wise SetupCapture to capture an install of any application, or any change to a computer for that matter, into an MSI installer. If you have Deployment Server, you have Wise SetupCapture in the Wise folder of your eXpress share. I have written this short article as a quick start guide to using Wise SetupCapture.

There are many reasons you might want to convert your existing and forthcoming application installs to use NullSoft Install System (NSIS). NSIS installs are only a single .exe file, they are small, and they are fast.

Many of us have built an Office 2007 package that helps out greatly on SVS machines. Many of us, like myself, are building professional packages for customers and from every customer we get the question: "Can you build Office 2007 for us?"

Picture this. You get a new computer. It has all of your files and folders from your previous computer, including the cool new wallpaper from the vacation photo you recently were on. A nice, wide screen picture. All of the sudden, you press CTRL-ALT-DELETE to lock your computer to go to lunch, and that nice wallpaper goes into ..... Tiled mode..... Now no one can see that awesome beach you got sunburned on, because there are 24 duplicates of it nicely tiled on your screen. How did that happen?

The Holy Grail of potential SVS features for many of us is AutoCapture. The idea behind AutoCapture is that end users should be able to do what they (we) normally do -- like install every CD anyone hands them or download all kinds of crazy stuff from the Internet -- but ensure that this non-standard software stays isolated, so that it a) won't break the corporate standard apps and b) can be cleanly removed if needed.

While Repackaging an application there is a possibility that Thumbs.db file can be captured. To Solve this here is a small tip.

The core technology in SVS is known inside Symantec as "Fortress". The Fortress file system filter driver -- fslx.sys -- is the traffic cop that controls interaction between the operating system and applications in SVS virtual layers.

In the interest of simplicity, Fortress is architected to leverage and extend native Windows functionality wherever possible. This approach ensures that virtualizing an application has the minimal possible impact on the appearance, behavior and supportability of that app. For example, fslx.sys maintains the barrier between the real and the virtual by tracking Windows process trees -- keeping things in order the same way that windows itself does.

I often receive e-mails from Juice readers asking me questions about how to package a specific application or group of applications. With each inquiry, I notice that they seem to only know of two ways to package in SVS: Single Program Capture and Global Capture.

There are other (sometimes better) options. Here's some info and advice.