Fslogix Previous Versions

[Tinisha]

FSLogixisn't a Windows feature and must be installed separately. FSLogix can be found in the Azure Marketplace for Windows 10 and Windows 11 multi-session images. While we aim for this version of FSLogix to be 'up-to-date', customers should verify which version is installed. If necessary, upgrade to the latest version.

Depends. If you need to go to a previous version, you should uninstall FSLogix, reboot, then install the previous version. Updated versions can be installed on top of the older version and requires a reboot.

Users may start to experience strange behavior with applications or accessing files due to the lack of storage in the container. Increasing the SizeInMBs setting will automatically increase the size of the container at the next sign in when using dynamic disks. To prevent these situations, you should plan for at least 30% free space. Monitor the event logs or log files for warning events at less than 2 GB and less than 500-MB free space.

No, The ODFC container is primarily used in VDI solutions where another roaming profile product is used. Always use a single profile container unless your business or workload requirements need the separation. Check out the Types of Containers article for more information.

FSLogix handles all the complexity (filesystem redirection) behind the scenes. When a user signs in to OneDrive and must choose a location, they should select the default location (C:\Users\%username%\). FSLogix uses this location and all the data is saved to the user's container. Review the following OneDrive documentation:

FSLogix doesn't provide a direct migration path from other roaming profile solutions. Implementing OneDrive with known folder move or similar cloud or network storage solutions provides users with a location to save their data outside of their profile. For smaller use cases, our frx command-line utility can help copy local profiles into a new VHD(x).

Yes...BUT, it requires understanding of the risks. There are two (2) ways we've identified how to configure FSLogix for Microsoft Entra ID and cloud-only identities. Check out the FSLogix profile containers for Microsoft Entra ID cloud only identities blog article.

FSLogix doesn't provide recommended values for the redirections.xml file. The redirections.xml file is a powerful tool to help you manage the user's profile AND may cause problems if not used correctly. We rely on application owners to document what data can or can't be excluded from users profile container.

The XML file is copied from the location in RedirXMLSourceFolder to %AppData%\FSLogix, which is inside the user's container. Removing the setting doesn't remove the file from the container. To properly remove or stop using the redirections, delete the contents of the existing XML file. Alternatively, use a script or other process to delete the file from the user's container.

The include statement is used to keep sub directories of excluded folders in the user's profile. The include statement only works if the data or folder exists in the profile BEFORE creating the include statement. It's common for applications to create these folders at their initial launch. This can cause problems if the user gets a new profile and the data doesn't exist until the application is launched.

There isn't a technical limitation. Less is more. Adding redirections for small folders, doesn't benefit the user's experience. Having numerous exclude or include statements causes a performance issue because each file system request must be checked against the list of redirections. These file system operations add up and decrease the virtual machine's overall performance.

Implementing the redirections.xml file to exclude content for existing FSLogix profiles doesn't remove or delete the exclusion from the user's profile. You need to delete the profile container or create a script to run after sign in or part of the sign in process to delete the content from the container.

The disconnected session continues the sign out process, including compaction. If the compaction process isn't complete by the time the user tries to reconnect, the disk is in use. The user experience depends on your other configuration settings. Under default conditions, the user is signed in with a temporary profile.

During the sign out phase, all content in the disk is brought down from one of the providers to the local VHD(x) disk. Then the disk is evaluated for compaction. If or when compaction completes, the local VHD(x) is uploaded to the Cloud Cache provider(s). This process causes the sign out process to take longer in this type of configuration, which could lead to a poor user experience.

No. It can be an acceptable solution to use standard containers (VHDLocations) with a highly available storage provider. Azure Files provides high availability through zone-redundant storage (ZRS) and is a recommended storage provider.

Cloud Cache performs lazy asynchronous updates to the remote storage providers during a users session. These operations aren't real-time and are subject to the latency and throughput of the network and storage providers. At sign out, Cloud Cache attempts to merge all the data from the local cache to ALL storage providers listed. Storage providers which are under performing or have high latency will take longer to merge. FSLogix holds the users sign out until the operation is complete.

Microsoft FSLogix is a set of solutions that enhance, enable, and simplify persistent and non-persistent Windows computing environments. FSLogix solutions are appropriate for virtual environments in both public and private clouds. Additionally, FSLogix can enable greater portability of computing sessions.

FSLogix solutions support both 32-bit and 64-bit where applicable. These solutions are only supported in environments that Microsoft, original software vendors, and equipment vendors support for their application.

Profile Container is used to redirect the entire user profile in non-persistent, virtual environments, such as Virtual Desktops. When using Profile Container, the entire user profile (except for data that is excluded using the redirections.xml) is included in the profile container.

For users familiar with managing profiles in non-persistent environments, the function of Profile Containers may be compared to Microsoft User Profile Disk, Liquidware ProfileUnity, Profile Disk and Nutanix Frame Enterprise Profiles, or Citrix UPM. Although the function is similar, the underlying method and technology is different, resulting in certain benefits as described.

Application Masking can be used to manage user access of installed components and applications. Application Masking may be used in both physical and virtual environments. It is most often applied to manage non-persistent, virtual environments such as virtual desktops.

Example: Consider if two assignments were made for the same Rule Set. The first assignment applies the Rule Set to Everyone; the second assignment specifies that the Rule Set does NOT apply to User1. In this case, the Rule Set would apply to everyone except User1.

If an administrator were to reverse the order of the assignments above, the Rule Set would apply to Everyone without exclusion. Read more about assignment order and management in Microsoft's official documentation.

FSLogix relies on a set of registry keys to be enabled and correctly configured on the VMs. There are several ways to apply these registry keys, depending on the scenario and scale of your environment:

Local Policies and Central Store for Policies rely on a Windows feature called Group policy administrative templates, also known as ADMX templates. The two files that you will need to copy to create your ADMX template are fslogix.adml and fslogix.admx, which we will discuss in more detail below.

In older versions of the FSLogix installation package, two additional and separate files have been provided to configure the ADMX template for Office Container: FSLogixODFC.admx and FSLogixODFC.adml. These files are no longer provided since all the contained settings are now inside a single set of files, that is fslogix.adml and fslogix.admx.

Group policy administrative templates, also known as ADMX templates, include settings you can configure for Windows machines through Group Policy Objects (GPO). Administrative Templates files are divided into .admx files and language-specific .adml files. The changes that are implemented in these files let administrators configure the same set of policies by using two languages. Administrators can configure policies by using the language-specific .adml files and the language-neutral .admx files.

In order to facilitate GPO creation, administrators can import these templates and have the editor user interface automatically configured with all the included settings. Once development of GPO is finished with all the desired changes, the resulting GPO object can be associated (linked) to an Organization Unit (OU) in Active Directory.

It is possible to create and edit locally a GPO object using the same template files, in a production environment it is recommended to use a Central Store. For completeness, here are the steps necessary to use the template files locally:

To take advantage of the benefits of .admx files, and to distribute settings automatically to the entire VM production pools, you must create a Central Store in the Sysvol folder on a Windows domain controller. The Central Store is a file location that is checked by the Group Policy tools by default.

The Group Policy tools use all .admx files that are in the Central Store. The files that are in the Central Store are replicated to all domain controllers in the domain. To create a Central Store for .admx and .adml files, create a new folder that is named PolicyDefinitions in the following location (for example) on the domain controller:

The PolicyDefinitions folder on the Windows domain controller stores all .admx files and .adml files for all languages that are enabled on the client computers. The .adml files are stored in a language-specific folder. For example, English (United States) files are stored in a folder that is named en-US. If not present already, you will need to create a language-specific folder en-US, then add fslogix.adml inside.

3a8082e126