Recommended configuration settings for Application Virtualization 4.5 Terminal Server clients

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Symptom

This article contains recommendations for the configuration of Terminal Servers running the Application Virtualization 4.5 Client.

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More Information

Anti-virus/malware related configuration recommendations

Make sure you setup Anti-virus/Malware exclusions for the following SoftGrid/App-v files and folders:

%userprofile%\AppData\Local\SoftGrid Client
%userprofile%\AppData\Roaming\SoftGrid Client
C:\Users\Public\Documents\SoftGrid Client, or wherever user profiles or appdata may be redirected to.

The App-V Terminal Server client may require custom settings depending on whether you have redirected user profiles (%userprofile%) and Application Data (%appdata%) folders. Because the App-V user cache can became very large in a Citrix/Terminal Server environment, TS Admins sometimes redirect the %appdata% to another location this is controlled either by the following registry key or the General Tab of the App-V client on localhost Properties page:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\SoftGrid\4.5\Client\Configuration\UserDataDirectory
Exclude the Q: drive even though this will be unavailable to the Antivirus scanner (attempted access will generate an Access Denied error).
If you are running McAfee Antivirus, please see if you have the registry key below. If so then Buffer Overflow Protection is enabled. If Buffer Overflow Protection (BOP) is enabled this could potentially cause issue. Both McAfee & Symantec have this feature.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\McAfee\VSCore\On Access Scanner\BehaviourBlocking\BOPEnabled

Please refer to the following blog post for specific information regarding this issue:

http://blogs.technet.com/softgrid/archive/2008/04/09/some-softgrid-enabled-office-applications-may-not-run-if-mcafee-virusscan-8-5i-is-installed.aspx (http://blogs.technet.com/softgrid/archive/2008/04/09/some-softgrid-enabled-office-applications-may-not-run-if-mcafee-virusscan-8-5i-is-installed.aspx)

For more information, refer to the App-V Security Best Practices guide (http://download.microsoft.com/download/f/7/8/f784a197-73be-48ff-83da-4102c05a6d44/AppV_Security_Best_Practices.docx (http://download.microsoft.com/download/f/7/8/f784a197-73be-48ff-83da-4102c05a6d44/AppV_Security_Best_Practices.docx) )

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General Terminal Server Recommendations when running the App-V client

Pre-cache all applications 100%.
Implement a reboot cycle of the Terminal Servers. The right reboot interval will be different for different environments. For example, a two week reboot cycle may work for one situation whereas another site needs to reboot once a week. The concern is around Paged Pool memory and the potential to exhaust system resources over time.

See the Advanced Windows Debugging and Troubleshooting blog at the following Web MSDN Web site for a detailed walkthrough on identifying pool memory usage:

http://blogs.msdn.com/ntdebugging/archive/2006/12/18/Understanding-Pool-Consumption-and-Event-ID_3A00_--2020-or-2019.aspx (http://blogs.msdn.com/ntdebugging/archive/2006/12/18/Understanding-Pool-Consumption-and-Event-ID_3A00_--2020-or-2019.aspx)
Implement UPHClean on the Terminal servers.
Implement the following registry changes and reboot the servers (Page Pool Memory settings)

System Key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control
Value Name: RegistrySizeLimit
Data Type: REG_DWORD
Value Data: FFFFFFFF

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory
Management
Value name: PagedPoolSize
Data type: REG_DWORD
Radix: Hex
Value data: FFFFFFFF

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory
Management
Value name: PoolUsageMaximum
Data type: REG_DWORD
Radix: Decimal
Value data: 60

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory
Management
Sessionviewsize Reg_Dword = 60 Decimal
SessionPoolSize Reg_Dword = 30 Decimal

Please refer to the following for additional information:

http://blogs.technet.com/softgrid/archive/2008/05/12/high-pool-memory-usage-on-ts-based-softgrid-clients-under-heavy-load.aspx (http://blogs.technet.com/softgrid/archive/2008/05/12/high-pool-memory-usage-on-ts-based-softgrid-clients-under-heavy-load.aspx)
Verify that none of the App-V Application packages have following Virtual services if so remove them or set them to disabled.
- .Net Runtime Optimization Service v2.0
- Machine Debug Manager

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