Application Configuration

To configure Live Profiles for an application, the property sheet for the application must be opened and navigated to the ‘Live Profiles’ page.

To enable Live Profiles for an application, the only thing necessary is to place a checkmark in the checkbox that says ‘Enable Live Profiles for this Application’.
Doing so will automatically detect the corresponding programs (exe-files) to monitor and create the appropriate filters for them.
After the new filters have been pushed to the Live Profile clients the new application will be monitored and all settings will be stored in the central Profile Store.

On application start Live Profiles will intercept the launching of the program and set the program on hold. The Live Profiles client will then contact the Live Profiles server to get the latest settings for the application. The settings will be applied and after that the program will be released where after the application resumes launching.
Scense Live Profiles will show a progress window if the program is ‘on hold’ longer than 500 msec. Live Profiles will then create and start an internal ‘monitor scope’ dedicated to monitor all file- and registry changes made by the application.
Monitoring will continue until the application is closed.
After the application is closed Live Profiles will consolidate all changes and transfer the application settings to the central profile store.
All changed locations in the registry and the file system are passed to the Live Profile server and stored as ‘monitored’ filters.
As multiple users are using a certain application, all these users will participate in building the monitored filters collection.

When an application is closed Live Profiles will consolidate the monitored filters.
This is done to keep the number of filters low and at the same time make it easier for the administrator to manage the filters.

By default Live Profiles will consolidate filters when the number of child filters exceeds 10.
Consider this example:

HKCU\Software\ApplicationName\1.0\*
HKCU\Software\ApplicationName\1.0\A\*
HKCU\Software\ApplicationName\1.0\B\*
HKCU\Software\ApplicationName\1.0\C\*
…
HKCU\Software\ApplicationName\1.0\X\*
HKCU\Software\ApplicationName\1.0\Y\*
HKCU\Software\ApplicationName\1.0\Z\*

The above 27 filters will be consolidated to just one:

HKCU\Software\ApplicationName\1.0\**


The monitored filters can be viewed in the Live Profiles property page of the application in Scense Explorer.The administrator can modify the filters for the application; Add ‘include filters’ or ‘exclude filters’ to force certain locations to be included in the settings or rather to be excluded from the settings. The monitored filters can be converted to ‘include’ – or ‘exclude’ filters. For registry filters it’s possible to include or exclude certain values. For more information; see ‘Editing Filters’
When checking the ‘Enable Live Profiles for this Application’ Scense Explorer will automatically create a new Filter-set for this application. If it finds a Filter-set with a similar name it will ask the administrator if he would like to reuse this Filter-Set. When re-using a Filter-Set it must be absolutely certain that the Filter-set is either unused, or used by a compatible application.
Clicking the ‘Assign Filter Set’ button will pop-up a browse window in which a Filter Set can be selected. This will make it possible to share a Filter set (and thus application settings) between compatible applications.Compatible applications include: Different, but compatible, versions of the same applications Different delivery methods for the same applications (MSI, App-V) Sharing a Filter-set between incompatible applications might produce unpredictable behavior and data loss.
It’s also possible to change the list of executable files that Live profiles will monitor.
Clicking the ‘Edit Programs’ button will pop-up a window that shows the current executable files to be monitored. The administrator can remove current programs and add new ones. When all programs are removed the application will no longer be monitored by Live Profiles.

Use program versions

Product Name and Version are stored with the program so Live Profiles can deal with duplicate programs (like start.exe which might be used for several applications).

To direct Live Profiles into actually  using this information, the ‘Use program versions’ box must be checked. When this box is checked Live Profiles will check the programs version information at runtime in order to determine which Filter-Set is appropriate.Live Profiles will check the file version and select the corresponding Filter-Set based on forward compatibility rules.
If one application exists that contains ‘App1.exe version 1.0’ then there will be one Filter-Set for this application.
If a next version of this application is added that contains ‘App1.exe version 1.5’ then the administrator has two options:

1. Let both applications use the same settings in the same Filter-Set
   This is interesting when the settings of the older version are compatible with the newer version of the same application.
   The ‘User program versions’ box should remain unchecked and Live Profiles will not check the program version at runtime.

2. Create a new Filter-Set for this application version
   This option should be used when the settings of the older version are not compatible with the newer version.
   At runtime Live Profiles will test the App1.exe version and if the version is greater or equal to v1.5 then Live Profiles will choose the Filter-Set which has this version specified.

Live Profiles will always choose the Filter-Set that has specified a program version that is greater or equal starting with the lowest- or no version.
The sample matrix below shows which Filter-Set would be selected for a given version of the App1.exe program.

If the version information was not previously stored (some programs do not include version information) then Live Profiles will try to retrieve this information once more and if this might fail for on or more programs in the list, it will not be possible to use the program versions for this application.

App-V 4.x Applications

To provide application settings for App-V 4.x applications the Scense Runtime system will manipulate the Process Action in the ‘Application launch Session Event’. Whenever there’s only one single process action in this Session Event, the Scense Runtime system will automatically switch on the ‘Wait for process termination’ option of the process action.If more than one process actions are created in this Session Event, then the administrator should configure the waiting mechanism manually.

Waiting is important because the application settings should only be written back to the Profile Store after the application has finished.

Editing Filters

The Live Profiles property page allows Filter manipulation. The administrator can edit or remove existing filters and add new ones.
The browse button can be used to browse to a location on the current computer, but it’s also possible to edit the location (path) manually.Select ‘Registry’ or ‘File System’ to select the correct browser. By default a filter will include a location in the Filter Set. Check the ‘Exclude’ box if the location in the filter should be excluded from the Filter-Set. The Registry- and File paths support some wildcards: ** This path and its contents and the contents of all subfolders or -keys *   This path and its contents *   Multiple variable characters ?   One variable character
A ‘Monitored’ filter can be edited as well, but there are some things to consider;
Clicking the ‘Exclude’ checkbox will convert the monitored filter into a ‘normal’ one.		Changing the monitored filter path will result in a recreation of the original monitored filter.
Enforce Delete With the ‘Enforce delete’ checkbox the administrator can make sure the location will be emptied before settings are restored. This prevents obsolete and temporary files to become part of the application settings. This will keep the settings from ‘growing’. While monitoring, Live Profiles will notice whether or not an application is deleting files or registry values in a monitored location. If Live Profiles monitors such a deletion it will mark the corresponding filter so the administrator can more easily decide which filters need the ‘Enforce delete’ option.

! Please use caution when manipulating filters as this may cause problems when working with multiple operating systems.

Monitoring Modes

Scense Live Profiles can handle Application Settings in 2 ways:

• Learning Mode (Default)
• Production Mode

In the Learning Mode the application will be monitored and all changes will be processed by Live Profiles and for each changed location in the Scope of the application a Filter will be created.
The type of such a Filter is ‘Monitored’. If the application has deleted items in such a location this will be saved as an attribute of the Filter. Knowing whether or not something was deleted at a location can help the administrator to determine whether or not the ‘Enforce Delete’ option should be set for a Filter.

In the Production Mode no monitoring will be done and no new Filters will be created. In the Production Mode the Application’s Filter Set will remain static.
This is particularly helpful if the administrator has established a ‘good’ Filter Set and he doesn’t want anything to change.

Always set the monitoring mode to ‘Production’ before using the application in a production environment.