From the technote department. One of the oldest articles in the RESguru Technote library has finally received a long deserved overhaul. The article in question, RG005 was first published back in January 2009. The new and improved article is optimized with an index, jumplinks, and organized into 3 main sections:
- Parameters for the RES PowerFuse console
- Installation parameters for the different PowerFuse components
- A mixed hodgepodge of parameters for different sub-components
Click here to read the article
Yesterday August 23rd 2010, RES Software released the anticipated Service Release 2 for RES PowerFuse 2010. The focus of this release is primarily User Settings. Among other things, this release contains User Settings templates for some of the most common applications on the market. More further down.
For OS migration purposes, there is one feature you cannot afford to miss: A new option has been added, called “Capture targeted items once, then track further changes”. Essentially what this option does is to flip the zero profile mode from Specified to Immediate, combined with a run-once flag.
To quote the releasenotes: “By using this mode it becomes very easy to use User Settings to migrate personal settings from one machine to another: With the Capture targeted items on application/session start/end mode it is easy to transfer all stored changes that were made on system A and track all new changes on system B with Track any setting changed by application immediately.”
The other key feature in this release are the User Settings templates. When you edit your managed applications, you now have a pleatora of standard applications for which PowerFuse now includes pre-canned user settings. In order to use them. To find the templates go to the User Settings part of a new managed application and select Targeted Items. When you hit the Add button, you will now see a Templates menu, which includes many standard apps. Below is a complete list of all the included templates and the versions of the applications they support:
- MS Access, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, Project, Publisher, Visio, Word, Office Common, Office Tools: Versions 2003, 2007 and 2010
- MS Frontpage 2003
- MS Groove 2007
- MS InfoPath: Versions 2003, 2007, Designer 2010, Filler 2010
- MS OneNote: 2007 and 2010
- MS SharePoint: Designer 2007, Designer 2010, WorkSpace 2010
- MS Internet Explorer: Versions 6..8
- MS Outlook Express (no specific versions)
- MSN Messenger: Versions 7.0 and 7.5
- Adobe Acrobat Professional: Versions 6..9
- Adobe Acrobat Reader: Versions 6..9
- AOL Instant messenger (no specific versions)
- Filezilla: Versions 2 and 3
- Mozilla Firefox: Versions 1..3
- Winzip: Versions 9, 12 and 14
- Yahoo Messenger: Versions 7.5 and 8
In addition to the above application specific user settings templates, you also have the ability to grab user settings for the control panel. This can however only be done using a global user setting, as found in the Composition | User settings node. The templates available here currently are:
- Display (XP only)
- Internet Options
- Keyboard Settings
- Mouse settings
- Regional and Language options
- All Control Panel settings
The above settings should make it much easier for you to get a proof-of-concept job going and to harness the full capabilities of RES PowerFuse Zero Profile technology. If your application is not listed here, do not despair though. You still have the ability to create custom User Settings and import them through buildingblocks. This leaves you two options. Either you can check in the Forums if somebody has or would like to share some user settings they’ve created. I’d probably go look in the BuildingBlock board. Second you can always create your own. Using the sampling mode to figure out what an unknown application is doing is a very valuable tool as the log of the sampling mode can be converted directly into user settings.
In addition to the above described key features, there are a bunch of usefull new registry tweaks and enhancements and about 53 fixes. To get all the details, see the releasenotes which you can download below.
Click here to download the SR2 releasenotes: 
Last minute update: I was informed by my good friend Mr. De Koster over at CDG UK that an problem with the license count, using the Workspace Designer seems also to have been solved in SR2. Alledgedly, under some circumstances the workspace designer would not allow you to analyze the number of .DTS files than you actually had licenses for. This has been fixed.
From the cloak & dagger dept. Another technote, RG02A has been posted in the RESguru technote library. This article is a one-of-a-kind, that will explain to you how to get started with PowerFuse in an existing production environment, where you do not care to disturb the users, but want to sneak PowerFuse in through the back door. The solution to this is StealthMode. 
By combining a few console settings and installation parameters, you can fly in under the radar completely unnoticed. The article goes through step-by-step what you need in order to set this up to work correctly. Note; a Wisdom Buildingblock is included for your convenience.
Click here to read the RG02A article
From the technote department. A new technote, RG027 has been posted in the RESguru library. This one covers the usage of Workspace Models in PowerFuse 2010. In the article we will look at how you can make exceptions to default global behavior with practical examples. The article also covers how the inheritance, prioritization, deletion of Workspace Model settings work in detail.
Click here to read the RG027 article
From the spring cleaning dept. Ever got frustrated with having a Global Authorized File list which is a mile long? Been wanting to break down your appguard and read-only blanketing security into more manageable chunks? Then this article is for you. It will show you a very slick way of organizing security authorizations using blank/empty applications as placeholders and how you can easily move security settings inbetween them. Note the moving is a PowerFuse 2010 feature.
The article contains a nice buildingblock for you to try out also.
Click here to view the RG026 article.
From the we-work-harder-so-you-don’t-have-to dept. As an administrator or integrator, you may often find yourself in the situation you need to offer certain Controlpanel applets to the users. Unfortunatly PowerFuse doesn’t (yet) offer the ability to import Control Panels as easily as it does regular applications.
To address this, I’ve created a set of buildingblocks which includes every single applet to be found in the standard Windows XP and Windows 7 control panels. On top of that there’s a set of Extras which includes some other nice control panel applets often found. Have a look at what’s inside below: (click to enlarge).
Click here to view the article and download buildingblocks.
A new article has been posted in the Technote Library. The subject is an obscure little executable, called PWRGATE.EXE, which is part of PowerFuse. In the 2010 release, you are able to do many interesting things with this program, such as launching many of the PowerFuse components directly. You are now also able to lauch the User Installed Applications (formerly known as Partially Managed Workstations) wizard directly, so users don’t have to go through the old PowerPanel. Of course they are still able to do that if enabled, that is. As a part of this article, I have created buildingblocks which you can import into your own environment to get access to these apps.
Click here to view the article.
Another technote has been published in the Technote Library. This one will teach you how to configure PowerFuse to prompt users for settings when they launch an application. This is extremely usefull for prod/test/dev scenarios, where you would like to avoid having multiple definitions of the same application to maintain. The whole thing revolves about the usage of workspace containers, so if you’ve been dodging learing what workspace containers are about, with the release of PowerFuse 2010 it ‘s a good time to grab the bull by it’s horns. If you still feel a bit in the dark about what Workspace containers are and what they can be used for, have a look at this other article, which is a work in progress as we’re constantly adding new uses for these objects.
The new article, called RG023 Managing multiple config sets for one app, also describes how to use the new Registry Tracer feature in PowerFuse 2010.
Click here to read the full article
From the Technotes-R-Us Dept. A new technote RG022 has been submitted to the library. This time the topic is a special file, which actually has been with us for several years, the PRINTER.LST file. What it does is allow you to completely independently of existing printerserver naming conventions, to build a tree of well known geographical or physical locations to which the users actually can relate, when selecting a printer with Printing Preferences (formerly known as PowerPrint). The end result can look like this example, I’ve created here on the right.
Go read the full article here.
A set of new videoclips related to PowerFuse 2010 has been released. These explain what workspace management is all about. There is also a nice video which highlights the new stuff in 2010, mainly focussing on the desktop transformation bits. Anyway, I’ve updated the old RG01D article which refers to all the videos which are currently out there.
Go have a look at the updated article
PowerFuse, RES Products, Technote | RESguru | 
2010/09/01 22:12 | 
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