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Chris Schrameyer

05/25/2023, 11:14 AM
Hi all. in WEM i have it set to delete desktop shortcuts and then it creates new ones based on actions. Desktop folder is also redirected to file share using wem USV. What i have noticed is that if a user creates a shortcut on their desktop to a network share, it gets deleted next time they logon. After they create it, it does copy to their desktop folder on file share. But it seems it is getting removed when the login again. Is this because the network is not ready and the system see's it as an invalid path and removes it? or somethihgh else
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James Kindon

05/25/2023, 11:22 AM
Yeah don’t do that unless you want your users to strangle you - you are telling wem to delete it all
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Chris Schrameyer

05/25/2023, 11:22 AM
i thought wem only deleted desktop shortcuts it created. but perhaps i am wrong and it is deleting all desktop shortcuts?
thanks james. the reason i had that in place was the ole "desktop shortcuts have no icon" issue. so by deleting and recreating, the icons were always present. it seemed to have issues if there were already icons there, plus i thought it only applied to wem created items
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James Kindon

05/25/2023, 11:26 AM
Nope, I had this years back with a customer, I think from memory we scripted something or other but I can’t recall exactly - that setting is a cleanup action - it’s designed for control scenarios
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Chris Schrameyer

05/25/2023, 11:27 AM
thank you sir! i appreciate your prompt response that once again verifies i didnt understand something right. lol
to be fair the wem documentation really could use an overhaul
the icon blank issue i discovered was because wem puts the icon folder in that weird location under appdata
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James Kindon

05/25/2023, 11:29 AM
all good man, we learn by doing.
I still think what you have there is a bug - that double path is weird
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Ray Davis

05/25/2023, 11:33 AM
3 years ago I did the samething @Chris Schrameyer. It wipes out everything man.
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Chris Schrameyer

05/25/2023, 11:33 AM
Enabling the delete options will delete everything defined, regardless of these being defined by WEM
aha! you indicated it in the blog. nice
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Ray Davis

05/25/2023, 11:34 AM
James had to get me straight back then as well-haha
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James Kindon

05/25/2023, 11:34 AM
probably coz i kicked my own ass to be fair 🙂
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Ray Davis

05/25/2023, 11:34 AM
lol
This blog is 6 years old, and it still a number 1 resource I send to clients
❤️ 1
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James Kindon

05/25/2023, 11:36 AM
So many changes since then - got an updated one out soon hopefully with some fixup guidance where things have changed
👍 1
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Chris Schrameyer

05/25/2023, 12:45 PM
so that is fixed now i have the same issue i had before with blank icons. It is because I log into different published desktops that have different WEM policies, and my desktop is redirected. So same desktop, but different icons get applied based on what WEM policy is used last. Each WEM policy has different .ico filenames. sad face
So WEM pollicy A (desktop A) has shortcut 315-Appname.ico Wem policy B (shortcut b) has shortcut icon pointing to 533Appname.ico. You can see the issue i
m having since im also redirecting the desktop
image.png
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James Kindon

05/25/2023, 1:13 PM
I’m about to go to sleep, but I’m 95% sure I’ve dealt with this sort of scenario before. Root of the issue is that you have a central desktop store (redirected) but when you log into desktop a, shortcut icons from desktop b are there and ugly because not accessible? And then vice versa??
Or am I misunderstanding and it’s specifically an icon problem?
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Chris Schrameyer

05/25/2023, 1:23 PM
just icon. yes you understand it correctly
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James Kindon

05/25/2023, 7:36 PM
I am going to DM you
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Chris Schrameyer

05/31/2023, 12:32 PM
Looks like i was able to resolve this thanks to @James Kindon. I enabled "Enforce application processing" under advanced settings. This forces WEM to recreate the desktop shortcuts each time so it overwrites any old shortcuts that may be present from the users' redirected desktop
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James Kindon

05/31/2023, 12:49 PM
Nice one mate, good work
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Ray Davis

05/31/2023, 3:06 PM
Nice, do you see any delays in logins? Just curious?
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Chris Schrameyer

05/31/2023, 4:06 PM
I haven't done a comparison yet regarding login delays. I would assume there is some impact but I haven't really noticed yet
I still don't understand why this has to be enabled. WEM is supposed to apply the action at logon. This setting is for when the agent refreshes. So i
missing something here in my understanding
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Ray Davis

05/31/2023, 4:12 PM
I feel you. I been feeling like this lately as well.
I been in GPO land with WEM. It works, just an adjustment on me.
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Chris Schrameyer

05/31/2023, 4:14 PM
image.png
even the log shows actions processing. but without that checkbox, the shortcuts have the blank icons . sad face
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James Kindon

05/31/2023, 9:21 PM
there is a couple of concepts being mixed and matched here. Turning on Agent actions for applications will process applications. That means WEM will do the basics with the applications, or nothing. Toggle on/off. Enforce application processing will make WEM reprocess the application regardless of any changes or not, by default, once processed, if there is nothing changed that WEM is aware of, there is nothing to do - enforcing will make it reprocess every time (typically recommended) In your scenario above, it is usually a combination of enforce, and "*check application existence*" which is your friend. That setting tells WEM to check that the path is accessible before pushing the shortcut (why put a shortcut to something the user can't reach?) - It's not on by default, but it should be used everywhere
👍 1
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Chris Schrameyer

06/01/2023, 4:16 AM
Excellent analysis! Spot on