Application Profiling

Application Profiler is a standalone tool that helps you determine where in the file system or registry an application is storing its user settings. The output from Application Profiler is a configuration file which can be used to preserve and roam application settings for your end users. Optionally, you can record a default set of application settings, and apply and/or enforce these defaults for your users based on a variety of conditions.

Application Profiler analyzes where an application stores its file and registry configuration. The analysis results in an optimized Flex configuration file, which you can edit in the Application Profiler or use directly in the User Environment Manager environment.

With Application Profiler, you can also create application-specific predefined settings, with which you can set the initial configuration state of applications. Save the Flex configuration file with predefined settings to export the current application configuration state.

Application Profiler is licensed as a VMware User Environment Manager component.

Application Profiling Overview

From a high-level perspective, the process is as follows:

  1. Start Application Profiler.
  2. From within Application Profiler, start the application to analyze.
  3. In the background, Application Profiler monitors the registry and file system actions of the started application.
  4. Change the necessary settings in the application to make sure that all application settings are saved, and exit the application.
  5. Application Profiler stops monitoring and outputs the collected information as a Flex configuration file.

Launch User Environment Manager Management Console

Click on the UEM Management Console shortcut on the Main Console Desktop to launch the User Environment Manager Management Console.

Applications that have Profiles

In the left side expand the Applications folder and see which applications are recognized by UEM with profiles.

Make a note that there is not a Notepad++ or NPP listed under applications.

We are going to profile this application.

Minimize the UEM Management Console.

Let's look at Application Profiler

From the Main Console Desktop click on the Application Profiler shortcut to open the Application Profiler tool.

Application Profiler Overview

The application profiler produces 4 files upon completion of the profile:

  1. INI - User Environment Manager configuration file containing the import and export locations. This file defines the parameters for User Environment Manager to manage the application.
  2. ICO - Icon used by User Environment Manager Management Console and the Self-Support tool.
  3. FLAG - Flag file for FlexEngine, when DIrectFlex is enabled (default)
  4. ZIP - Contains the predefined user settings.

The ZIP file is not to be opened directly. It is critical to use the Edit Profile Archive button in the Application Profiler. Using anything else will render the file unreadable by FlexEngine!

Start Session

  1. Click Start Session from the top left toolbar on Application Profiler.
  2. Browse to and select the application in Programs-->Notepad++ then select Notepad++.
  3. After you click OK, Application Profiler opens the application to be profiled and begins monitoring the changes you make and where those changes are saved in the Windows registry and file system.

Profiling Notepad++

We are going to make some changes in Notepad++.

  1. From the menu bar, select Settings
  2. Click on Preferences

 

Make some changes to Notepad++

  1. From the Toolbar list, select Big icons.
  2. De-select the Show status bar Show status bar check box.
  3. Close the preferences box.

Finish Application Profiling the App

  1. Close the Notepad++ application by clicking on the X in the top right corner of the Notepad++ application.
  2. Application Profiler saves the changes you made, wait until it prompts you to confirm that profiling is finished.   Click OK
  3. Minimize the Application Profiler

App Data

Application Profiler also displays the location in the file system where the Notepad++ configuration changes were made. In this case, settings were written to a Notepad++ subfolder of the AppData folder.

We can verify the location of Application Configuration Changes.

  1. Open Windows Explorer
  2. From Windows Explorer window type in
  3. %AppData%\Notepad++    to navigate to that path. (use grap and drag)
  4. Click return or enter to select after entering the path

Verify Application Config Changes

  1. The contents of the Notepad++ folder display including a updated config file.
  2. Close Windows Explorer by clicking the X at the top right.

Save the Config File

  1. Restore the VMware User Environment Manager Application Profiler from the taskbar
  2. From the UEM Application Profiler, Click on Save
  3. Click Save Config File from the choices.

Note: Because we select Save Config File, rather than Save Config File with Predefined Settings, the preference settings we changed in this lab will NOT be present to end users or when we launch the Notepad++ application in the next steps.  We changed preference settings in Notepad++ only so that Application Profiler could monitor and determine the path to the application configuration file.  

If you select Saving a Flex Configuration File with Predefined Settings, a profile archive is created to use for predefined settings when a user logs in.

Save Config Files to Desktop

  1. Save the files to the desktop by selecting Desktop in the left menu.
  2. Give File name of NPP
  3. Click Save
  4. Close the Application Profiler by clicking on the X in the top right corner of the Application Profiler window.

We created a config file to enable application personalization by the end user so that when an end user changes a Notepad++ preference, the user's preference will be saved across sessions and VMs.

Copy the Config Files

Note:  The files may not be together on the desktop.  Drag and drop them so they are together and you can easily select them.

  1. On the Main Console Desktop, click on the desktop and drag up over these 3 files that were copied to the Main Console Desktop: NPP.ini, NPP.ini.flag, NPP.ico.
  2. Once all three are selected, Right click on them and say Copy.

Remember the ini file is the application config file, the ini.flag file is the tells UEM to import and export the settings when the application starts/closes, and .ico is the icon file.

Paste the files to the Application Folder on Config Share

  1. Open Windows Explorer from the taskbar
  2. Navigate to C:\UEMProd\general\Applications
  3. Paste the 3 files here by right clicking then select Paste.

Refresh the UEM Management Console

  1. Click back on the UEM Management Console. Be sure NOT to click on the Application Profiler window.
  2. Click the Refresh Tree Button on the top left bar under Personalization.

Notepad++ is listed under Applications now

Now Notepad++ or NPP as we called it is located in the Application Personalization list.

Conclusion

VMware provides application management templates for commonly-used software packages, and the VMware User Environment Manager Community Forum contains many more templates created with an included tool called Application Profiler.

Application Profiler is a standalone tool that helps you determine where in the file system or registry an application is storing its user settings. The output from Application Profiler is a configuration file which can be used to preserve and roam application settings for your end users. Optionally, you can record a default set of application settings, and apply and/or enforce these defaults for your users based on a variety of conditions.

This is the conclusion of this exercise - we have gone over how to use Application Profiler.