This error seems to popup every now and then and I’m currently seeing this in my own lab environment - SoftGrid application shortcuts are created even though the application has been disabled, deleted or the user account has been removed from the application group.
When a user logs onto the computer, the SoftGrid client contacts the Virtual Application Server to retrieve a list of applications for that user. The list is cached on the local machine and the required files for each application (OSD files, application and file type icons) are copied locally.
The list of application shortcuts are cached in a file called SHORTCUTS_EX.DAT saved in the SoftGrid Client folder. This is an XML file that contains the information required for the creation of shortcuts:
During the user session, the SoftGrid client works on a temporary copy of SHORTCUTS_EX.DAT . This file is not written to disk until the SoftGrid client, specifically SFTDCC.EXE, exits.
In those instances where you see application shortcuts created in the users’ Start Menu, even though those applications may be disabled or deleted, SHORTCUTS_EX.DAT will continue to contain the shortcut information.
Why this happens I’m not really sure, perhaps this is a bug or the client is not able to save the file correctly in some circumstances. A work around is to delete SHORTCUTS_EX.DAT once the user logs off, thus forcing the client to recreate a ‘clean’ list of applications. Be sure to test this work around for laptop users.
I’ve seen this behaviour in the current versions of the SoftGrid client (4.1 and 4.2) as well as the 4.5 beta. Hopefully a little more investigation will provide some answers.
I’ve just purchased a new SATA-based external hard drive to use with demos and I thought I would share some details about the performance gain over my older ATA-based hard disk.
I’ve been doing a few demonstrations of Microsoft SoftGrid using VMware Workstation on my laptop with an external USB attached hard drive and I’ve also got a couple of user group presentations coming up. So I wanted to squeeze some better disk performance out of this setup because every second counts during demos.
Before I read Mark’s post about USB attached hard drive performance in his notebook, I was hoping to add a second internal hard drive to my Dell laptop, but unfortunately Dell doesn’t provide a media bay type disk enclosure for this model. I was looking into using Firewire until I considered eSATA. I found this review of the Belkin SATA ExpressCard very useful when looking at what I might expect from eSATA.
Here’s what I ended up ordering:
To power this drive I have to connect the included USB power lead. I’m not sure if I used a better quality eSATA cable that it would provide enough power, but carrying the extra cable is not too much of a hassle. I’ve performed these tests on my laptop which has the following hardware:
- Dell Vostro 1400
- Intel Core 2 Duo (2.2GHz, 4MB Cache)
- 4GB RAM
- Windows Vista x64
To test the performance of my disk setup, I’ve used HD Tune because they offer a free version and it’s easy to use. I tested the performance of my original hard disk (Seagate Momentus 5400.3 80GB ATA/100 5400RPM 16MB 2.5") connected to this laptop via USB. The result stays consistent right up until the end of the test:
When I performed the same test on a desktop machine the throughput was about 5MBps higher and was consistent to 100%. This is the performance of the new hard disk over a USB connection:
And the performance of the same hard disk over an eSATA connection using the Belkin ExpressCard:
Overall I’m pretty happy with the performance of the new disk. It more than doubles the performance of my older disk yet still in a portable package and my VMs feel much much snappier.
| |
Original (USB) |
New SATA (USB) |
New SATA (eSATA) |
| Minimum transfer rate |
21.4MBps |
27.8MBps |
33.7MBps |
| Maximum transfer rate |
25.2MBps |
29.5MBps |
65.4MBps |
| Average transfer rate |
24.8MBps |
29.2MBps |
52.3MBps |
| Access time |
16.5ms |
15.1ms |
14.6ms |
| Burst rate |
19.6MBps |
22.9MBps |
75.1MBps |
| CPU utilisation |
13.6% |
17.1% |
3.4% |
I actually don’t mind UAC at all, but this button is really annoying:
You will usually see this on the properties of files you have downloaded from the Internet but it also manifests itself in other file copies too, such as copying a ZIP file to a server. The inbuilt Windows ZIP tool won’t open ZIP files marked like this at all, even if you click Unblock.
To banish this once and for all, enable the following setting in a domain GPO or the local Group Policy:
User Configuration / Administrative Templates / Windows Components / Attachment Manager / Do not preserve zone information in file attachments
This policy setting allows you to manage whether Windows marks file attachments with information about their zone of origin (i.e. restricted, Internet, intranet, local). This requires NTFS in order to function correctly, and will fail without notice on FAT32. By not preserving the zone information Windows cannot make proper risk assessments.
A Group Policy refresh or logoff and back on will get this working for you on any new file downloads or copies. This comes with all of the usual warnings about opening stuff downloaded from the Internet - make sure you know where you got it from is trustworthy and scan it with AV first.
Description of how the Attachment Manager works in Windows XP Service Pack 2
I’ve got two user group presentations coming up next month where I’ll be presenting on Microsoft SoftGrid and why I think application virtualisation is great stuff. Hopefully I’ll be able to fit in a bit about some other appvirt products in there too. 
