Deploy App-V version of Office 2013 with ConfigMgr 2012

One of the new features coming with the Service Pack 1 release of ConfigMgr 2012 is the support for App-V 5. So what is a better way to try this feature then deploying the just released Microsoft Office 2013 Preview AppV packages in combination with the just released App-V 5.0 Beta 2 Desktop Client. But then the big question is, how can we deploy this? Well, I thought it was pretty straight forward, but there where a few caveats that everyone should know and pay attention to.

Challenge 1: App-V Package Name

The first thing I ran into was that I couldn’t import the Microsoft Office 2013 Preview App-V package in ConfigMgr. It appeared that the default configured Package Name was to long for a Deployment Type in ConfigMgr. To look at this default name use one of the following two methods:

  1. Browse through the App-V package, with something like 7-zip, and look in the AppxManifest.xml at the DisplayName.
  2. Open the App-V package with the Microsoft Application Virtualization Sequencer and look in the Properties tab at the Package Name.

Now to adjust the Package Name use the second method and also save the Application Virtualization file with a shorter name. That was one of the biggest hurdles, as by using the same file name with a different Package Name it was possible to import the package, but the Deployment would always fail with a vague error.

Challenge 2: EnablePackageScripts

The second thing I ran into was that, with the default installation of the App-V 5.0 Beta 2 Desktop Client, the installation of the Microsoft Office 2013 Preview package would still fail. It appeared that the default client installation doesn’t enable scripting on the client, while ConfigMgr uses PowerShell scripts/ command lines to add packages to the App-V client. So to allow this use one of the following three methods:

  1. Install the App-V 5.0 Beta 2 Desktop Client with the parameter ENABLEPACKAGESCRIPTS=1
  2. Use the command Powershell.exe Set-ExecutionPolicy ByPass; Import-Module AppvClient; Set-AppVClientConfiguration -EnablePackageScripts 1
  3. Change the key EnablePackageScripts in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\AppV\Client\Scripting to 1.

In my opinion is the first option the best option. As everything lately is powershell-minded, scripts should be enabled on the App-V 5.0 Beta 2 Desktop Client by default/ first installation.

Conclusion

OffProPluDepNow taking the two challenges and the prerequisites of the App-V 5.0 Beta Desktop Client into account, the dependency for my Microsoft Office 2013 Preview Deployment Type in ConfigMgr is the App-V 5.0 Beta Desktop Client and the dependencies for my App-V 5.0 Beta Desktop Client are PowerShell 3.0 and .NET Framework 4.0 (see picture). Also note that KB2533623 is also a prerequisite for the App-V 5.0 Beta Desktop Client, but as I don’t deploy that as an Application in ConfigMgr, I can’t configure it as a dependency. To be really sure whether it’s installed, or not, it could always be configured as a  requirement. I didn’t do that either as it’s part of my base image of Windows 7. Another note would be to configure the detection rules for both PowerShell 3.0 and .NET Framework 4.0 good, as in Windows 8 they are both installed by default.

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