Ivanti Workspace control and CustomAppModelID

As stated in DOC-63186, since Windows 8 (eg. Windows 8, 8.1 and 10) the Start Menu displays only 1 shortcut for each executable. In an IWC configuration there are a lot of application objects that contains an identical “Command line” but perform a different action by altering the “Parameters” configuration.

Examples of these commonly used applications are:

iexplore.exe <url>
mstsc.exe <path to .rdp file>
explorer.exe<path>

This, default behavior, is contolled by AppUserModeliD.

IWC can control / adjust the AppUserModeliD by placing a “CustomAppUserModeliDs.xml” in the root of the custom resources.
The layout of and the use of this file is explained in DOC-63186.

To ease the creation of this XML file, I created a Powershell Script. The script will take an Application Building Block (single file export of only the application node) as the input and will generate a CustomAppUserModeliDs.xml” . By adjusting a variable $strExe in the script a “CustomAppUserModeliDs.xml” can be generated for those application objects with this .exe in the command line.

In the first part of the script, an object is created ($obApps), containing the properties needed for the output ().

ForEach($sBBFile in $objBBFiles)
{
        [xml]$xmlBB = Get-Content $sBBFile.FullName
                
        $xmlApps = $xmlBB.respowerfuse.buildingblock.application
				                			
	ForEach($xmlApp in ($xmlApps | Where-Object {($_.required -ne "yes") -and ($_.settings.enabled -eq "yes")})) #Filter out dependent and disbaled applications 
        {
		Write-Host $xmlApp.configuration.title

		if ($xmlApp.configuration.commandline -match $strExe)
                {

		     $objItem = New-Object PSCustomObject
		     $objItem | Add-Member -membertype Noteproperty -Name Application -Value $xmlApp.configuration.title
		     $objItem | Add-Member -membertype Noteproperty -Name AppId -Value $xmlApp.AppId
		     $objItem | Add-Member -membertype Noteproperty -Name CommandLine -Value $xmlApp.configuration.commandline
		     $objItem | Add-Member -membertype Noteproperty -Name CommandLineParameter -Value $xmlApp.configuration.parameters
					
        	     $objApps.Add($objItem)|Out-Null
                }
	}		
}

ForEach($sBBFile in $objBBFiles)

{

[xml]$xmlBB = Get-Content $sBBFile.FullName

$xmlApps = $xmlBB.respowerfuse.buildingblock.application

ForEach($xmlApp in ($xmlApps | Where-Object {($_.required -ne "yes") -and ($_.settings.enabled -eq "yes")})) #Filter out dependent and disbaled applications

{

Write-Host $xmlApp.configuration.title

if ($xmlApp.configuration.commandline -match $strExe)

{

$objItem = New-Object PSCustomObject

$objItem | Add-Member -membertype Noteproperty -Name Application -Value $xmlApp.configuration.title

$objItem | Add-Member -membertype Noteproperty -Name AppId -Value $xmlApp.AppId

$objItem | Add-Member -membertype Noteproperty -Name CommandLine -Value $xmlApp.configuration.commandline

$objItem | Add-Member -membertype Noteproperty -Name CommandLineParameter -Value $xmlApp.configuration.parameters

$objApps.Add($objItem)|Out-Null

}

In the second part of the script the object $objApps is formated and writen as a xml file ($sPathToXML).

$xmlWriter = New-Object System.Xml.XmlTextWriter($sPathToXML, $null)

$xmlWriter.Formatting = 'Indented'
$xmlWriter.Indentation = 1
$XmlWriter.IndentChar = "`t"

$xmlWriter.WriteStartDocument()
$xmlWriter.WriteStartElement('applist')

ForEach($objApp in $objApps){
	Write-Host $objApp.Application
	$xmlWriter.WriteStartElement('App')
        $XmlWriter.WriteComment($objApp.Application)
	$XmlWriter.WriteElementString('id',$objApp.AppId)
	$XmlWriter.WriteElementString('appusermodelid','Workspacemanager.'+$objApp.AppId)
	$xmlWriter.WriteEndElement()
}

$xmlWriter.WriteEndElement()
$xmlWriter.WriteEndDocument()
$xmlWriter.Flush()
$xmlWriter.Close()

Write-Host "Finished..."

$xmlWriter = New-Object System.Xml.XmlTextWriter($sPathToXML, $null)

$xmlWriter.Formatting = 'Indented'

$xmlWriter.Indentation = 1

$XmlWriter.IndentChar = "`t"

$xmlWriter.WriteStartDocument()

$xmlWriter.WriteStartElement('applist')

ForEach($objApp in $objApps){

Write-Host $objApp.Application

$xmlWriter.WriteStartElement('App')

$XmlWriter.WriteComment($objApp.Application)

$XmlWriter.WriteElementString('id',$objApp.AppId)

$XmlWriter.WriteElementString('appusermodelid','Workspacemanager.'+$objApp.AppId)

$xmlWriter.WriteEndElement()

}

$xmlWriter.WriteEndElement()

$xmlWriter.WriteEndDocument()

$xmlWriter.Flush()

$xmlWriter.Close()

Write-Host "Finished..."

With running the script for multiple exe’s and combining the xml results, a complete “CustomAppUserModeliDs.xml” can be created for use within IWC.

The complete Powershell script can be download here:

[wpfilebase tag=file id=2 tpl=download-button /]

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