FlexApp’s Unspoken Features: What are They?

FlexApp technology is a popular tool used for application layering, virtualization and delivery. While some of its features are well-known, there are some that are overlooked and not talked about enough. In this blog post, we will explore some of the under-the-hood features of FlexApp and explain how they work.

AppData and HKCU Handling

One of the key features of FlexApp is its ability to handle AppData and HCKU. When an application writes into these areas, FlexApp has special handling for layering. This is because these paths are often used as part of the application’s normal install routine, or they may be written to by the packaging administrator during testing or setting default preferences. If these areas of the profile are captured into the layer and do not exist in the user’s profile, FlexApp will physically copy or write them into the user’s profile. This ensures that the user has the necessary read and write access to these areas of the profile going forward.

Corrective Profile Path Tattooing

Another important feature of FlexApp is corrective profile path tattooing. This refers to the practice of capturing the profile path of the packaging administrator and storing it in the layer. This can create issues when an application stores a path to a non-existent location in the HKCU’s registry. FlexApp will flag this kind of event during the packaging process so that on activation of the layer, the registry value that points to the non-existent path can be corrected and pointed to the user’s correct profile path.

Micro Isolation

Micro isolation is a feature of FlexApp that helps to handle conflicts between layers. While FlexApp is not a full-blown isolation technology like Microsoft App-V, it does have some light isolation between layers. This means that when a conflict occurs, each layer will be redirected back to its own version of files or registry. For example, if each layer has a different version of a DLL in a common location that would normally be a last virtual write wins scenario and could crash the application, FlexApp’s micro isolation feature will ensure that each layer has access to its own version of the DLL. Here is a quick demo of Micro Isolation visually that should help your understanding of the technology.

Session Isolation

Session isolation is a feature of FlexApp that allows for handling different applications for different users when working on multiuser systems like Citrix Virtual Apps or Microsoft AVD. This makes layering on multiuser systems extremely flexible. This feature has also been extended to on-boot applications, which I recently wrote about here.

In conclusion, FlexApp’s unspoken features are an important part of its overall functionality. These features ensure that the user has access to the necessary parts of the profile, prevent conflicts between layers, and make layering on multiuser systems more flexible. Understanding these features can help users get the most out of their FlexApp technology and improve the overall user experience.

Amazon WorkSpaces and FlexApp Working Together

Amazon Workspaces Overview “Amazon WorkSpaces is a fully managed, secure desktop computing service which runs on the AWS cloud. Amazon WorkSpaces allows you to easily provision cloud-based virtual desktops and provide your users access to the documents, applications, and resources … Continue reading

Microsoft Application Strategy Discussion 2019

I have spent most of my career discussing applications and how to manipulate them. It is safe to say that 2019 has seen some techtonic shifting in the application space.

Microsoft, has surfaced (no pun intended) to mix it up in the application space again. MSIX is a new application installation format with a goal to become the new defacto standard for application packaging baselines.

Continue reading

FlexApp version 6.7 release – Features overview

The release of FlexApp version 6.7 this week marks a tremendous set of milestone achievements for Liquidware. In a competitive industry, it is important for software platforms to constantly evolve or run the risk of being replaced. This release builds upon the leadership position that FlexApp has held for a while now.

Continue reading

Application Layering VS Operating System layering

Managing desktops is always one of the main struggles facing enterprises. Add in complex application management and the issues increase drastically. Software solutions are often geared towards relieving this pain. Over the last few years, the concept of converting the … Continue reading

FlexApp Layering = Enterprise Optimization Revolution

I was presenting to our sales teams at the Liquidware Sales kick off recently and was fascinated by the following response I received.

“Why wouldn’t you leverage FlexApp in your environment? At this point enterprises have virtualized infrastructure, desktops, networks, and storage but still continue to install applications natively.”

Continue reading

Enterprise Strategy for Healthcare EMR platforms

Many EMR (Electronic Medical Records) platforms used by the healthcare industry are often described as a Hub and Spoke model. Where patients and medical staff interact with countless smaller software packages and then feed data back into the centralized management platform. Patient management, Scheduling, Clinical oversight, are just some of the areas of focus within the main EMR platforms. From an IT perspective, this can become a daunting proposition, considering you must install and maintain each of the individual software packages including the centralized management platform.

Continue reading

FlexApp Notes from the Field – VMworld 2016 edition

As we approach VMworld 2016, there has been a tremendous amount of excitement building around the solutions from Liquidware Labs. We just released version 6.5.5 of ProfileUnity with FlexApp back in June, here are a few of the highlights:

Continue reading

VMware UEM and App Volumes Overview Comparison with Liquidware Labs ProfileUnity and FlexApp

Liquidware Labs is announcing the release of a new WP “VMware UEM and App Volumes Overview Comparison with Liquidware Labs ProfileUnity and FlexApp” White Paper. At its core the focus of this new whitepaper attempts to compare and contrast the two platforms. Additionally, the whitepaper provides real world customer based implementation guidance around when to use a Liquidware solution as opposed to the VMware solution stack. Continue reading

FlexApp Layering White paper updates

FlexApp Layering from Liquidware Labs is evolving at a rapid pace. With that in mind we have updated the content with the primary white paper. Here is link to the “FlexApp: Application Layering Technology White Paper”. Continue reading