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AppReadiness Service and Black Screen
The whole Appreadiness service and black screen issue has been floating around for a couple of years now, but it's now raised its head again in WVD, at least where we're using FSLogix. We have two WVD setups, one with FSLogix and one with no profile solution. On the FSLogix one we're consistently getting black screens at login (although Ctrl+Alt+End works and you can run, say, notepad from Task Manager) but it eventually comes to life after five minutes. In the event viewer the following error is associated with each black screen: "A timeout (30000 milliseconds) was reached while waiting for a transaction response from the AppReadiness service." Standard multi-user Windows 10 enterprise from the markteplace with is 1903 (although Windows itself is offering 1909 as an upgrade which I'm guessing is WVD supported, but I've not seen anything confirming this). Anyone else seen this or got a solution?(Azure) Virtual Desktop Optimization Tool now available
Optimizing images has always been an important component of preparing images as part of a traditional Remote Desktop Services (RDS) infrastructure or virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI). Optimizing session hosts, in particular, can increase user density and eventually lower costs. With the Virtual Desktop Optimization Tool, you can optimize your Windows 10, version 2004 multi- and single-session deployments in Windows Virtual Desktop. Note: The information in this post is community-driven; nothing has yet been officially launched by the Windows Virtual Desktop product team. Credit goes to Robert M. Smith and Tim Muessig from Microsoft, previously known as the VDIGuys, for creating this tool and make it available for free for the community. Windows 10 multi-session image name change As noted in recent announcements, Office 365 ProPlus is now Microsoft 365 apps for Enterprise. With this name change, we have updated the Windows Virtual Desktop image names in Azure Marketplace. As a result, when you are looking for an image in the Azure Marketplace image gallery, you should begin by selecting Windows 10 Enterprise multi-session, version 2004 + Microsoft 365 Apps – Gen1 as your baseline image. How the Virtual Desktop Optimization Tool works The (Windows) Virtual Desktop Optimization Tool disables services in the operating system that you most likely won’t need for your Windows Virtual Desktop session host. To make sure that your line-of-business (LOB) applications continue running as they should, there are some preliminary steps that should first performed. Note: There are settings default disabled when you run the scrip out of the box such as AppX Packages for the Windows Calculator. We strongly suggest analyzing the tool via the JSON files that include the default settings. This also gives you the opportunity to enable them before running the tool so they remain untouched. I'll explain more about this later on in the article. The full list of enhancements for native Windows services will be available soon. Bookmark Run and tune your Remote Desktop Services environment for the latest updates. Expected performance gains Windows Virtual Desktop value-added services provider and Microsoft partner LoginVSI performed early tests with the Virtual Desktop Optimization Too and gained over 100 users in their internal benchmarking lab environment with a Windows 10, version 2004 single session. We, therefore, assume that this gain will also be possible with Windows 10 Enterprise multi-session. VSImax asserts a maximum number of users that are able to log on to the virtual desktop hosts pool as part of the underlying infrastructure. That number is the "sweet spot" as going over that number will decrease performance for all users. (Thanks to LoginVSI for sharing these results with us.) Note: We recommend you use simulation tools to test your deployment using both stress tests and real-life usage simulations to ensure that your system is responsive and resilient enough to meet user needs Remember to vary the load size to avoid surprises. Desktops in the Cloud on Performance Optimizations for Windows Virtual Desktop with Robert and Tim (aka VDI Guys) We recently had the creators of the Virtual Desktop Optimization tool as guests on our Desktops in the Cloud video-podcast. Robert and Tim explained everything you should know, as well as best practices and lessons learned. A must watch in extension to this article. Watch it below. How to use the Virtual Desktop Optimization Tool The Virtual Desktop Optimization Tool makes it possible to disable uncommon services for virtual desktop environments, such as Windows Virtual Desktop. Note: We recommend that you run the script after the Sysprep (System Preparation) process, most likely as startup script w with a large set of virtual machines. This is due to the AppX Packages that conflict and most likely the sysprep will fail. Download all scripts from the Virtual-Desktop-Optimization-Tool GitHub repository. Select Clone or download, followed by Download ZIP. Unzip the folder to your Windows Virtual Desktop session host(s) to a specified folder (e.g. C:\Optimize or C:\Temp). Note: You could also run the scripts as part of your image management procedure e.g. Azure image Builder (AIB) or Azure DevOps. Important information before running the tool There are settings default disabled when you run the scrip out of the box such as AppX Packages for the Windows Calculator. We strongly suggest analyzing the tool via the JSON files that include the default settings. This also gives you the opportunity to enable them before running the tool so they remain untouched. You can find the JSON file in the Windows built number folder, under ConfigurationFiles - e.g. C:\Optimize\2004\ConfigurationFiles. You've to put the settings to Enabled - that you want to keep as default. Below is the example file for AppX Packages, there are JSON files for Services and scheduled tasks as well. Another option is to remove the while entry out of the JSON file. AppxPackages.json - Example Windows Calculator App { "AppxPackage": "Microsoft.WindowsCalculator", "VDIState": "Enabled", "URL": "https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/windows-calculator/9wzdncrfhvn5", "Description": "Microsoft Calculator app" }, Services.json - example Windows Update Service { "Name": "UsoSvc", "VDIState": "Enabled", "Description": "Update Orchestrator service, manages Windows Updates. If stopped, your devices will not be able to download and install the latest updates." }, Prepare to launch Windows PowerShell and select Run as Administrator. In PowerShell, change the directory to the folder to which you downloaded the scripts, e.g. C:\Optimize or your own specific folder. Run the following command: Set-ExecutionPolicy -ExecutionPolicy Bypass Run the Virtual Desktop Optimization Tool using the following command: .\Win10_VirtualDesktop_Optimize.ps1 -WindowsVersion 2004 -Verbose Note: When you use a different version of Windows 10, you must change the WindowsVersion parameter. Version 1803 and later are supported for Windows 10 Enterprise. Windows 10 multi-session support is only available with Windows 10, version 2004 and later. Select Yes when prompted to reboot the session hosts(s). Start your Windows Virtual Desktop session. As you can see in the Task Manager comparison below, the number of threads and handles has decreased noticeably after running the Virtual Desktop Optimization Tool. Do you have any problems with orphaned Start Menu shortcuts after running the tool? Have the user open Task Manager, then end the following two processes: ShellExperienceHost.exe StartMenuExperienceHost.exe Have them check the Start Menu and they should be gone. Happy optimizing! 🙂 Let us know your feedback on the tool in the comment section below. Prefer to watch and learn? There’s also a video on Azure Academy available later this week by Dean Cefola. You can find it here.
Microsoft Print to PDF not working, nor any third-party PDF printer
Microsoft Print to PDF or any other third-party Print to PDF printers are not working for us. It looks like this is related to a bug in one of the latest security updates for Windows. Have anybody found a solution or workaround? Thanks!
Error when connecting to MVD - 0x3000047
I have recently deployed WVD thanks to the current global crisis. It is working well for most of our users, apart from one. When she tries to connect to WVD via the web client, she gets this: When connecting via the Windows client, she gets this: As far as I know, she is the only member of staff who gets this. She's using Windows 10 Home on a laptop, has tried multiple browsers and is using a DSL ISP (Sky in this instance). I've tried running "Get-RdsDiagnosticActivities" but it comes back with "There were no activities found" Any ideas? Thanks, Ian
WVD logon issues. The Group Policy Client Service failed the sign-in. Access is denied.
Hi. We have a mutli-session Win10 WVD farm up and running. We are running 1909 with the latest quality updates applied. FSLogix profile container is being used. We are seeing intermittent issues with users not being able to login. They are being presented with the error: "The Group Policy Client Service failed the sign-in. Access is denied" From investigation, cant see anything appropriate in the event logs. Anyone seen this issue before?MSIX app attach Azure portal integration public preview
MSIX app attach is an application layering solution that allows you to dynamically attach an application (that is an MSIX package) to a user session. Separating the application from the operating system makes it easier to create a golden virtual machine image, and you get more control with providing the right application for the right user. Previously, you had to use PowerShell scripts to enable MSIX app attach. MSIX app attach capability is now available in public preview in the Azure portal and is integrated with Azure Resource Manager. This eliminates the need for custom scripts and makes it possible to publish your packaged applications to application groups with a few clicks. Draft troubleshooting guide for MSIX app attach is available here. Overview and requirements Before you get started, make sure to fill out and submit this form to enable MSIX app attach in your subscription. If you don't have an approved request, MSIX app attach won't work. Approval of requests can take up to 24 hours during business days. You'll get an email when your request has been accepted and completed. The following are the requirements to setup MSIX app attach in a Windows Virtual Desktop environment: Host pool in Windows Virtual Desktop with at least one active session host Host pool in the validation environment MSIX packaged application expanded into an MSIX image MSIX image is uploaded to file share The file share is accessible for all session hosts in the host pool When using a digital certificate that is not sourced from a CA please follow instructions here on each VM in the host pool This video walks through the MSIX app attach UI. Deploy WVD (Windows Virtual Desktop) host pool The steps for deploying a WVD host pool are outlined here. It is mandatory to provision the session host pool in the validation environment. MSIX application MSIX app attach requires an application packaged as MSIX. If you do not have an MSIX application you can use the MSIX Packaging tool to repackage a Win32 application to MISX application. Instructions are available here. Prepare MSIX image MSIX app attach needs MSIX application to be stored in a VHD(x). Steps on how to perform the expansion are available here. If you do not have access to an MSIX application and MSIX images feel free to use these. They are provided without any guarantees and should not be used in production environments: Application name URL Chrome as MSIX image https://1drv.ms/u/s!Amut9BnVnw7mkOVMWy-sU8aiaStuxQ?e=AqwZ0D Chrome in an MSIX package https://1drv.ms/u/s!Amut9BnVnw7mkOVLPExhghP4iM8LRQ?e=wJHd9P Microsoft Edge Dev v89 as MSIX image https://1drv.ms/u/s!Amut9BnVnw7mkOVddlHiIoei4RdROQ?e=kwdvDq Microsoft Edge Dev v89 as MSIX package https://1drv.ms/u/s!Amut9BnVnw7mkOVczWWmEiUhv2IC3A?e=eBGL8B Microsoft Edge Dev v87 as MSIX image https://1drv.ms/u/s!Amut9BnVnw7mkOVbdz4gmTb7rqHoeg?e=6dEhj5 Microsoft Edge Dev v87 as MSIX image https://1drv.ms/u/s!Amut9BnVnw7mkOVaArIPkiAg5XzusQ?e=ZthNbz PowerBI as MSIX image https://1drv.ms/u/s!Amut9BnVnw7mkOVkUdswoKXTk9dfUw?e=fGTHy5 Note: this has dependencies that need to be delivered in the master image Links available here https://1drv.ms/u/s!Amut9BnVnw7mkOQth1hkT-SRdP2__g?e=YHbice PowerBI as MSIX package https://1drv.ms/u/s!Amut9BnVnw7mkOVi5SXqDxAr6MBAKw?e=pm1c2q WVDMigration as MSIX image (test different cert type) https://1drv.ms/u/s!Amut9BnVnw7mkOIEPLX6PYOzx96nrg?e=9qEpJc WVDMigrationBAD as MSIX image (bad packaging format) https://1drv.ms/u/s!Amut9BnVnw7mkOF6izJaA6rMxih_fQ?e=VU6Wbp Microsoft Edge Dev v87 as MSIX image (expired cert) https://1drv.ms/u/s!Amut9BnVnw7mkOJamDr-mrs3rOoeCg?e=43JT7E Notepad++ as MSIX image (missing cert test) https://1drv.ms/u/s!Amut9BnVnw7mkOF-o-E-bhp_btLgJw?e=6DO9ea If you are using your own application, you will need to install the certificate used to sign the MSIX package. Install certificates If you are using the provided MSIX applications, there are two certs: For Chome, Edge, and Power Bi: WVDContosoAppAttach. For WVDMigration*, WVDMigrationFabrikam Configure a file share All session hosts need access to the file share with MSIX app attach packages. This Tech Community blog covers the process. Configure MSIX app attach via Azure portal Open a browser, preferably in incognito mode, and load the following link: https://preview.portal.azure.com/?feature.msixapplications=true#home In the search bar type Windows Virtual Desktop and click on the service. Select a host pool where MSIX applications are to be delivered. Select MSIX packages. This will open the data grid with all MSIX packages currently added to the host pool. Click + Add. This will open the Add MSIX package blade. MSIX image path – this is UNC path pointing to the MSIX image on the file share. For example, \\storageaccount.file.core.windows.net\msixshare\appfolder\MSIXimage.vhd. MSIX package – if a valid, resolvable, and accessible path is provided this drop-down will be populated by all the MSIX packages in the MSIX image. Package applications – list of MSIX applications available in an MSIX package. Display name – Optional display name to be presented in the interface. Version – MSIX package version automatically delivered from parsing the package. Registration type On-demand – this is the recommended type of registration. It postpones the full registration of the MSIX application until and the user starts the application. Log on blocking – this type of registration is executing during session logon hence adding time to session logon completion. State – MSIX package has two states (Active and Inactive). When a package is active users can interact with it. Inactive packages are ignored by WVD and not delivered to users. Click Save. Publish MSIX application to an application group In the WVD resource provider navigate to the Application groups blade. Select an application group. Note: During MSIX app attach preview MSIX app attach remote apps may disappear from the user feed. The remote MSIX apps can disappear from the user feed because host pools in the evaluation environment may get served by an RD Broker in a production environment (this happens when the RD broker optimizes to improve the end-user experience). Because the RD Broker in the production environment doesn't understand the date of the MSIX app attach remote apps, it won't display them. Select the Applications blade. The Applications grid will display all currently added applications. Click + Add to open the Add application blade. Application source For desktop app groups the only source for applications is an MSIX package. For remote app group, there are three sources of applications. Start menu App path MSIX package MSIX package – display list of packages added to the host pool. Display name – Optional display name to be presented in the Applications interface. Description – Short description. Note the options below are only applicable to remote application groups. Icon path Icon index Show in web feed Click Save. Assign users to app group Select app group. Select Assignments To assign individual users or user groups to the app group, select +Add Azure AD users or user groups. Select the users you want to have access to the apps. You can select single or multiple users and user groups. Select Save. It will take five minutes before the user can access the application. Change MSIX package state Via the Applications grid Select MSIX packages. This will open the data grid with all MSIX packages currently added to the host pool. Select one or multiple that need to have their state change and click the Change state button. Via update package Select MSIX packages. This will open the data grid with all MSIX packages currently added to the host pool. Click on Package name in the MSIX packages grid this will open the blade to update the package. Toggle the State via the Inactive/Active button as desired and click Save. Change MSIX package registration type Select MSIX packages. This will open the data grid with all MSIX packages currently added to the host pool. Click on Package name in the MSIX packages grid this will open the blade to update the package. Toggle the Registration type via the On-demand/Log on blocking button as desired and click Save. Remove MSIX package Select MSIX packages. This will open the data grid with all MSIX packages currently added to the host pool. Select one or multiple that need to be removed click the Remove button. Removing MSIX application Navigate to the host pool and select Application groups. Select the application group from which the MSIX application is to be removed. From the application group blade select Applications. Select the desired application and click Remove.
