Microsoft App-V: Tips & Tricks

Microsoft App-V was once promised as the packaging tool of the future, but sadly enough Microsoft never pushed it through that much. Then, recently Microsoft started working on the next generation: MSIX the new and improved packaging standard of the future. This page is not going to talk about MSIX but focuses on the, let’s call it legacy, version of App-V. If you do wish to learn about MSIX, I suggest that you download and read this page, until I have enough experience with it to write my own stuff about it.

Testing – Enter the virtual bubble

Did you know that there is a powershell command to enter the virtual bubble of you package and then run commands and read the filesystem / registry as if you are reading it from a local installed version? For testing purposes this is what I call ‘heaven’. It really makes you understand the bubble.

Start-AppvVirtualProcess: I mostly use it to run a CMD or Powershell and from there test and troubleshoot. For example:

$AppvObj = Get-AppvClientPackage NameOfYourPackage
Start-AppvVirtualProcess -FilePath cmd.exe -AppvClientObject $AppvObj

The Microsoft documentation about it is here.