The following sections describe the changes to Application Management functionality in ZENworks 6.5:
By default, workstation-associated MSI applications are distributed in the user security space, meaning that Novell Application LauncherTM uses the logged-in user's credentials and file system access to perform the distribution. You can override this default behavior to have a workstation-associated MSI application distributed in the workstation security space rather than in the user space. This enables you to do the following:
For more information, see "Options Page" in "Application Management" in the Novell ZENworks 6.5 Desktop Management Administration Guide.
Previous ZENworks versions enabled you to pre-install AOT/AXT applications. You can now pre-install MSI applications. With a pre-install, all workstation-related distribution processes (file copying, modifying text files, .ini files, and workstation registry settings) are performed prior to launching of the application. When the user launches the application, the user-specific distribution processes (modifying user registry keys and so forth) are completed.
For more information, see "Pre-Install Schedule Page" in "Application Management" in the Novell ZENworks 6.5 Desktop Management Administration Guide.
Several changes have been made to the system requirements you can use to determine whether or not an application is distributed to a workstation:
In previous ZENworks versions, an OS platform had to be defined in the System Requirements before an application would be available for distribution and launching. This requirement has been removed.
The new behavior uses the following logic: If an application runs only on a specific operating system, define an operating system distribution rule. If an application does not require a specific operating system, there is no need to define a distribution rule. By default, applications without a defined operating system distribution rule are available on all supported platforms (Windows 98, Windows 2000, and Windows XP).
For more information, see "Distribution Rules Page" in "Application Management" in the Novell ZENworks 6.5 Desktop Management Administration Guide.
You can define processes (either Windows executables or services) that you want terminated before an application is distributed. This can eliminate possible reboots by ensuring that existing files that are replaced during the application distribution are not open and locked.
For more information, see "Pre-Distribution Process Termination Page" in "Application Management" in the Novell ZENworks 6.5 Desktop Management Administration Guide.
You can append or prepend data to registry string values (String, Expand String, Multi-Value String, and Default). Appended data is added as the registry value's last entry. Prepended data is added as the value's first entry.
For more information, see "Registry Page" in "Application Management" in the Novell ZENworks 6.5 Desktop Management Administration Guide.
As part of the process of uninstalling an application, Novell Application Launcher can launch a script engine to execute a "before uninstall" script and an "after uninstall" script. The uninstall scripts are similar to the distribution and launch scripts except that they are executed either before or after the application is uninstalled.
For more information, see "Uninstall Scripts Page" in "Application Management" in the Novell ZENworks 6.5 Desktop Management Administration Guide.
A new GUID Manager utility has been added to ConsoleOne. Using the GUID Manager, you can:
The GUID Manager utility replaces the Sync Distribution GUIDs option and Generate New GUIDs options (ConsoleOne > Tools menu > Application Launcher Tools) available in previous ZENworks versions.
For more information, see "Manage Distribution GUIDs" in "Application Management" in the Novell ZENworks 6.5 Desktop Management Administration Guide.
To minimize the number of Application objects required to distribute the same application in different languages, you can now use language variables to represent language-sensitive information in Application objects.
For example, assume that a Help file needs to be copied to a c:\program files\program\help\%LOCALE_SYS_ABBR_LANG% directory, where %LOCALE_SYS_ABBR_LANG% is the three character language and sublanguage (i.e., ENU for English-US). By using %LOCALE_SYS_ABBR_LANG%, Novell Application Launcher copies the files to the appropriate language directory as determined by the workstation's system language setting.
For more information, see "Language Variable Macros" in "Application Management" in the Novell ZENworks 6.5 Desktop Management Administration Guide.
The following changes have been made to the Application Launcher configuration settings:
Unassociated Days to Uninstall (User and Workstation tabs): The default for this setting has been changed from 0 (uninstall as soon as Novell Application Launcher is refreshed after the application has been disassociated from the user or workstation) to -1 (do not uninstall).
Auto-Start Application Launcher (User tab): This setting applies only to pre-ZENworks 6.5 versions of Application Launcher. Beginning with ZENworks 6.5, this setting is replaced by the ability to designate a startup option in the ZENworks Desktop Management Agent installation program.
Enable Reading from Removable Cache (User tab): This setting was previously labeled as "Disable Reading from the Cache" in ZENworks for Desktops 3.x. Administrators upgrading from ZENworks for Desktops 3.x to ZENworks 6.5 Desktop Management will notice the renaming, and that and when their ZENworks system is upgraded, a version 3.2 setting of "Yes" retains the "Yes" setting in version 6.5. After the upgrade, this retained setting actually inverts the setting's original behavior. That is, a Yes setting to disable reading the cache becomes a Yes setting to enable reading the cache.
In an upgrade from ZENworks 3.x to ZENworks 6.5x, we recommend that you return the value to the default (unset) to ensure consistent behavior between the old and new ZENworks code.
NOTE: The option label was first changed with ZENworks for Desktops 4.
Close Application Launcher on Exit (Browser tab): This setting applies only to pre-ZENworks 6.5 versions of Application Launcher. Beginning with ZENworks 6.5, Application Launcher does not use this setting. Instead, it keeps track of the number of times it has been called and shuts down only after the last view (Application Explorer, Application Window, or Application Browser) is exited.
Enable Writing to Cache (Workstation tab): This setting has been added to the Workstation tab. Previously, it was only available for users.
For more information, see "Novell Application Launcher: Configuring Settings" in "Application Management" in the Novell ZENworks 6.5 Desktop Management Administration Guide.