UE-V: Important changes in UE-V functionality after the Windows 10 Anniversary Update

  • Artigo

Beginning with the Windows 10 Anniversary Update, User Experience Virtualization (UE-V) is distributed with Windows.  This article describes key differences between UE-V in this version of Windows compared to installations on down-level operating systems.  

The functionality of App-V and UE-V shipping inside Windows 10 Anniversary Update are the same as the current “out-of-box” versions supporting an earlier version of Windows, which shipped in MDOP 2015 – App-V 5.1 and UE-V 2.1 Service Pack 1.  All other components of MDOP remain available for Windows 10 Anniversary Update from the MDOP 2015 installation media, and their supportability on each version SKU does not change; however, future enhancements to App-V and UE-V will only be available for the Windows 10 Anniversary Update or later.

For complete information on UE-V, please refer to User Experience Virtualization (UE-V) for Windows 10 overview.

Template Registration

Unlike previous versions of UE-V, no templates are registered by default.  Before using the UE-V service, you will need to register the UE-V templates for first use.  The recommended way to do this is through Group Policy.  
Note: Only templates located in the Template Catalog are automatically registered by the Template Auto Update task that runs daily. If registering templates automatically via Group Policy, make sure that the Template Catalog Path is defined (via PowerShell or Group Policy) and that all templates you want to automatically register, including in-box ones, have been copied over to the Template Catalog.
You can also do this programmatically by running the Register-UevTemplate cmdlet.  This allows admins more flexibility in how they configure UE-V (this is especially true for customers who do not wish to automatically register the inbox templates).

To register a number of templates at once, run commands like the following:

# Example 1: Register all XML files in a folder
dir \servername\UEVTemplates  |  ForEach-Object { Register-UevTemplate -LiteralPath $_.FullName}

# Example 2: register all templates in the default templates folder
dir $env:Programdata\Microsoft\UEV\InboxTemplates | ForEach-Object {Register-UevTemplate $_.FullName}

Note:  Using this method will enable the templates for all users.  If you need to be more granular, you can either disable templates via GPO or scripting.

Group Policy

The Group Policy ADMX for UE-V is included in Windows 10 Anniversary update.  You can find the file in C:\Windows\PolicyDefinitions\UserExperienceVirtualization.admx.  See Configuring UE-V with Group Policy Objects for more details.

The Anniversary Update introduces support for Microsoft Office 2016 templates, as well as a new value named EnableUEV.  

To use this GPO, copy %SystemRoot%\PolicyDefinitions\en-US\UserExperienceVirtualization.adml and %SystemRoot%\PolicyDefinitions\UserExperienceVirtualization.admx from a Windows 10 Anniversary Update operating system (both workstation and server OSes will contain the updated ADMX) to a Domain Controller and import the policy using the instructions in Managing Group Policy ADMX Files Step-by-Step Guide.

Licensing

UE-V licensing is now included with the Windows Enterprise and Education editions instead of requiring a separate download and deployment.  Refer to your licensing specialist for any questions.

Installation

UE-V is now distributed with the operating system and is enabled by running the Enable-Uev cmdlet.  No separate installer is needed.  See https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/itpro/windows/manage/uev-upgrade-uev-from-previous-releases for steps on how to upgrade.  A reboot is required.

File Location

Binary locations change from %PROGRAMFILES% to %SYSTEMROOT%\System32.

Settings Storage Path  (SettingsStoragePath) is C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\UEV\SettingsStoragePath by default.

The Settings Template Catalog Path (SettingsTemplateCatalogPath) is C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\UEV\SettingsTemplateCatalogPath by default.  

You can check the value of these settings by running the Get-UevConfiguration cmdlet.  These values may be modified via PowerShell or by Group Policy.

Inbox templates can be found at in %ProgramData%\Microsoft\UEV\InboxTemplates.  Templates are stored in %ProgramData%\Microsoft\UEV\Templates.

Updates

Updates will be distributed as part of the operating system going forward.

OS Availability

UE-V will be available on both client and server operating systems.

UE-V Generator

In the Windows 10 Anniversary Update, the UE-V Generator is now installed as part of the Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit (Windows ADK).  To install this, first uninstall any existing versions of the UE-V Generator and previous versions of the Windows ADK.  Install Windows ADK version 1607 from the link above.  Microsoft User Experience Virtualization (UE-V) Template will be selected by default.

Troubleshooting Initial Replication

Verify your settings using  https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/itpro/windows/manage/uev-upgrade-uev-from-previous-releases.  In particular, run the following commands in an elevated PowerShell window:

  • Get-UEVStatus
    • New for Windows 10 Anniversary update.  Shows if service is enabled and if the system must be rebooted.
  • Get-UEVConfiguration
    • Shows general settings.
  • Register templates.
    • If templates have not been registered, you can do this in one step by running Get-UevTemplate | Register-UevTemplate
  • Verify that the file settings and template locations exist and that permissions (share-level and NTFS permissions) are exactly as indicated in the setup documentation.   
    • A common misstep is to use Everyone:Full Control in an ACL; this will not work.
  • Verify the RepositoryOwnwerCheckEnabled is set if required.
    • Add a REG_DWORD registry key named "RepositoryOwnerCheckEnabled" to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\UEV\Agent\Configuration.
      Set the registry key value to 1.
  • Consult any errors or warnings in the UE-V Event Logs under Event Viewer\Applications and Service Logs\Microsoft\User Experience Virtualization.
  • As a final step, collect debug logs using the steps outlined in KB  2782997: How To Enable Debug Logging in Microsoft User Experience Virtualization (UE-V)