Inspiration 9.2 IE on App-V 5.0

Inspiration 9.2 IE Appears straightforward but there are various considerations.
The setup program calls .\Net Support\Workstation support.exe which installs an application specific PDF printer object called Inspiration 9 PDF Driver which is derived from a NovaPDF 7 install.  The Inspiration software has an Export to PDF File item in the file menu which directly uses the specific printer object.  If the printer object is not present the attempts to use Export to PDF File produce a message: "The Inspiration PDF export driver is not installed. Please reinstall Inspiration before trying this operation."
Inspiration can print to other PDF printer objects in the normal way.

.\Net Support\Workstation support.exe also prompts the user to go and install QuickTime in order to "use Inspiration's multimedia capabilities" ooooo multimedia.

To deal with the QuickTime issue.  Download the  QuickTimeInstaller.exe and copy out the AppleApplicationSupport.msi and QuickTime.msi ready to run during the sequencing.

Training Videos on the help menu will not work if the RSTP protocol is blocked.

Appsense can be used to disable the (File) Export to PDF File, (Help) Register Online and Get QuickTime menu items.

Application settings are managed in files in the roaming profile.  Appsense personalisation can handle these if required. {CSIDL_APPDATA}\Inspiration Software\Inspiration IE\9.2

Sequencing

•  When you do the sequencing run let .\Net Support\Workstation support.exe run and create the printer object before you start sequencing.  
• The start the sequencing install and install the two apple MSIs
• Run the Inspiration 9 IE Installer.exe use defaults and skip the obvious bits re QuickTime and the printer
• Install the App to the strange default C:\ProgramData\Inspiration 9 IE
• Enter the Licensing Name, Organiastion and Serial Number
• Click the Do Not Register
• Close the app.

Delete the quicktime and any other unwanted applications in the shortcuts and FTA tab before saving.  The QuickTime functionality for inspiration is left intact and videos can be inserted and played back as required.

Windows 10 and Office 365

This article is composed of links to pages relevant to a project Windows 10 / Cloud project

If you are using the Microsoft Windows Media Center (MC) in Windows 7 or 8 carefully consider your timeline to Windows 10.  MC is removed during the upgrade from the earlier operating systems!  A Windows DVD player app is available if an upgrade is detected.  If not it, could be a separate purchase.



Main FAQ
https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows/windows-10-faq

Software Download
https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/software-download/windows10

Older Windows 10 versions

This interesting bat file can download older versions of the windows 10 media creation tool.

https://gist.github.com/AveYo/c74dc774a8fb81a332b5d65613187b15#file-mediacreationtool-bat-md

Software Download FAQ
https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/software-download/faq

What is a product key?
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/what-is-product-key

Useful Windows 10 forum post
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/insider/wiki/insider_wintp-insider_install/how-to-upgrade-to-windows-10-from-within-windows/21b5cd8a-d96d-4cda-a9aa-7d936a9a0b88

Troubleshooting OneDrive for Business
https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Fix-OneDrive-for-Business-sync-problems-e12c6a8b-4bbe-4391-9c23-1a52b55a1967

Office 365 pricing and options
https://products.office.com/en-us/business/compare-office-365-for-business-plans

MS uses the term SKU(s) to refer to the different O365 license types e.g. E3 vs E5 SKUs
SKU is a term derived from the retail sector and in an acronym for Stock Keeping Unit.

TurningPoint 5.1.1.3052

Type: Client App
Pacakge: Appv-5 SP2 Sequence
Settings: Appsense

On the face of it this is a simple application which is designed to run from the user profile.

The exes and controls were moved to more conventional program files folders for sequencing.
There is a boot turningpoint.exe program which hands control to .\application\turningpoint.exe
A turningpoint.exe.settings file is a text based file saved in the same folder as the .\application\Turningpoint.exe
One of the main functions of the interface is to launch MS Powerpoint with an addin loaded.  To achieve this the application writes the powerpoint addin keys, launches powerpoint, then deletes the keys.  HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\PowerPoint\Addins\_TurningPoint5.Connect

Certain conditions caused Powerpoint to launch without the addin which caused the Turningpoint.exe application to hang.
The solutions were to exclude HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\PowerPoint\Addins\_TurningPoint5.Connect from Appsense personalistaion.  It was also found that

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\PowerPoint\Addins\OneNote.PowerPointAddinTakeNotesService needed to be present in the real registry to prevent some strange Appsense Personalisation/Profile/Virtual registry effects which produced inconsistant launching of powerpoint with the addin.

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\PowerPoint\Addins\OneNote.PowerPointAddinTakeNotesService was therefore written by an Environment Manager (EM) rule prior to launch.  The Turningpoint.exe.settings file was also managed by EM to provide a default settings version. This prevented the EULA from displaying at first launch.

The "Allow all named objects to interact" and "Allow all COM objects to interact" are required to avoid an error 
<path>\TurningPointShim_x86.dll is either not designed to run on Windows or it contains an error. Try installing the program again using the original installation media or contact your system administrator or the software vendor for support.

App-V 5.0 and AutoAudit 5.6.2.1

AutoAudit stores data in databases including documents of various formats including Word.  It also interoperates with Word with addins.  It took extensive testing of sequences to find a working configuration for the virtual application.  Word was installed locally in this case.

With App-V 5.0 SP2 sequences one type of word macro document would open correctly with one set of Advanced settings (Com and Named) but another type would not. Various SP2 settings could enable the macro functionality to work but no combination would enable ALL of the various macro documents to work.

Eventually it was discovered that an SP3 sequence without the COM and named advanced settings worked on both SP2 and SP3 clients.

AutoAudit note: the default settings can be set in the App-V package, however if you have Appsense you can just finish the sequence after the install and use Appsense Environment Manager to write the required default keys into the virtual registry. Personalisation can manage any addition settings or connections which the users adds.

Other complications arose from how the app handled its macro resource files AR13579.aot BD2468.aot  These files are copied by the application into the folder set in the application regkey WORD_TEMPLATES_FOLDER.  By default this value is set to the same value as HKCU\Software\Policies\Microsoft\office\14.0\common\general\UserTemplate

If this folder location is on a network location, say a home drive, then the folder must be listed in the trusted locations and AllowNetworkLocations must be on.  Consider using a policy location to avoid clashes occuring with user set locations settings.



[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\VB and VBA Program Settings\AutoAudit\Primary]
"UserNameSQL"="hashed string"
"PasswordSQL"="hashed string"
"ServerNameSQL"="SERVERNAME"
"ClientRoleSQL"="ClientRole"
"DataBaseNameSQL"="DATABASENAME"
"DBType"="4"
"WORD_TEMPLATES_FOLDER"="C:\\SET\\TO\\VALID\\FOLDER\\FOR\\USER"
"WordExcelOpenPointLink"="0"
"WordOpenAuto"="0"
"GlobPath"="SERVERNAME\\\\\\DATABASENAME"


<The above keys may be written into the virtual registry for the user if possible.  They broadly define the default database connection.  The Word.... keys set audit setting preferences.>

<The below keys were written into the users real registry>

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Word\Security\Trusted Locations]
"AllowNetworkLocations"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\office\14.0\common\security\trusted locations\all applications\location5621]
"Path"="C:\\SET\\TO\\VALID\\FOLDER\\FOR\\USER"
"Description"="templates folder location for use with AutoAudit"