strange behaviour: Win 7 HVM :: Excel working in Debug, but not in Seamless Mode

[PR]

Hello,

after I've setup my Win7 work HVM with all application and switching to
seamless mode after everything is working, I came across a strange behavior:

If I launch Excel within Debug mode and seamles mode disabled, I am able
to access the filesystem to open and save files.

If I launch Excel after disabling Debuf and enabling Seamless mode,
Excel can't access the file system.

This is a problem as this means that I can't even open an Excel-Sheet
from Outlook as Excel can't access the path to saved file.

I thought that seamless mode is just changing something on the
presentation layer, why does this lead to problems with my office apps?

As mentioned I don't have any problems when starting in Debud Node +
seamless mode disabled?

Any ideas what could be the problem?

I'm running Qubes 3.2 and Win 7 Pro with Office 2016 Pro.

- P

[PR]

Hello

Can someone running Qubes 3.2 with Win 7 HVM who is using Outlook & Excel in this HVM try the following steps:

first test:
1) Change HVM Configuration: Seamless Mode = disabled / Debug = enabled
2) Launch Win 7 HVM
3) Create a new Excel sheet test.xls, open it, enter something like 123 and save it
4) Send this file to your email adress which is configured in your outlook
5) After the mail has been received, try to open the attached Excel file

Question: Can the Excel attachments be opened in Excel from Outook (when beeing in Debug Mode=
In my case: SUCCESS

second test:
1) Change HVM Configuration: Seamless Mode = enabled / Debug = disabled
2) Launch Win 7 HVM
3) Open Outlook and try to open the excel attachment

Question: does this work
In my case: FAILED:
I can open Outlook and open the email, but when i try to open the excel attachment, Excel is starting and then quits with an error message:
"Microsoft Exce can't access the file 'C:\Windows\system32\config\systemprofile\AppData\lLocal\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files\Content.Outlook\jdkuwehdhdwk\test.xcls

third test:
1) Stay in the same seamless windows session like in test two
2) open Excel
3) Try to navigate to the file you have created in test 1

Question: Can you open the file or path?
In my case: FAILED:
When I go to File, Open I don't see any recent opened files and I am also unable to browse to my folders.
Nothing happens when I click on the button to open a window to navigate my files


It seems to me that there is a problem, that Excel can't access my folder structure when beeing launched in seamless mode.
This renders Microsoft Office totally useless when working in seamless mode.

As i need to rely on Outlook/Excel for office use, this makes it's hard to justify Qubes for business use.
I'd like to know if I am the only one experiencing problems like this?

Who is working with Win7 in Seamless Mode under Qubes OS 3.2 and what is the result of the test (most important test 3)?

Kind regards

- P

[P R]

Hello,

Sorry for bringing this topic back - but the problem that Windows behaves different in Debug/fullscreen vs seamless mode is a major deal breaker for daily office work.

Can someone run the suggested steps to check behaviour in seamless mode?

I've also seen that my Outlook profile gets destroyed sometimes I seamless mode.

I think that there is something wrong with the user folder redirection to a private disk when working in seamless mode.

C:\Users\MyUsername has a link to D:\ this has been done when installing Qubes Tools.

I'll try to remove this redirection and keep all files within the windows image (C:) to look if this produces another result.

Any feedback on this topic would be very helpful.

- P

[PR]

Am Dienstag, 16. Mai 2017 08:27:45 UTC+2 schrieb PR:
> [...]

>
> I've also seen that my Outlook profile gets destroyed sometimes I seamless mode.
> I think that there is something wrong with the user folder redirection to a private disk when working in seamless mode.
>
> C:\Users\MyUsername has a link to D:\ this has been done when installing Qubes Tools.
> I'll try to remove this redirection and keep all files within the windows image (C:) to look if this produces another result.
>
> Any feedback on this topic would be very helpful.

I think I damaged my windows HVM trying to uninstall and reinstall Qubes Tools.
As I don't want to rebuild, I would to know how to proceed looking at the error messages from the Log files.

In order to troubleshoot the problem with accessing files in my user folder when working in seamless mode, I have startet my windows HVM with a fedore iso and moves D:\Users back to C:\Users, so that all files are now located in the windows image, not the Qubes Private image file.

I uninstalled Qubes Tools, rebooted and tried to reinstall but now the installr is stopping with the following error message:

"The installer has encoutered an unexpected error installing this package
This may indicate a problem with this package. The error code is 2753"

In the log file I have a line:
Error 0x80070643: Failed to install MSI package

I have tried this various times, rebooted several times - still the same problem.
I'm trying to install the same Qubes Tools Version I had installed before (Qubes Tools for Windows 3.2.2.3).

Any hint what might be the problem

- P