Specifying the Primary Application Directory

InstallShield 2015 » Microsoft App-V Assistant

Edition: The Microsoft App-V Assistant is included in the Virtualization Pack.

When App-V packages are run on a machine that has Application Virtualization Client installed, they are run from the App-V cache drive.

For optimum performance, the bulk of the application’s files should be mounted to this drive at run time. In order to achieve this, it is useful to determine an application’s primary application directory so that this directory can be mounted to the App-V literal cache drive when the App-V package is loaded.

When an App-V package is built using InstallShield or any AdminStudio tool, the following series of steps are used to determine an App-V package’s primary application directory:

Steps to Automatically Determine the Primary Application Directory
#	Step	Description
1	Explicitly set primary application directory	If a directory is specified on the Primary Application Directory dialog box. that directory is used. For more information, see File Mapping Dialog Box.
2	Value of INSTALLDIR variable	If the Windows Installer package has a value for INSTALLDIR (the Windows Installer property that specifies the root destination directory for an installation), that value is used as the primary application directory. Note: All Windows Installer packages created by InstallShield or AdminStudio have a value for the INSTALLDIR property.
3	Location of shortcut in a subdirectory of the ProgramFilesFolder	If one of the .exe targets for a shortcut is in a subdirectory of ProgramFilesFolder, the folder directly under ProgramFilesFolder is used as the primary application directory. For example: C:\Program Files\YourApplication
4	Location of shortcut in a directory other than ProgramFilesFolder	If no .exe targets are located in a subdirectory of ProgramFilesFolder, the target directory of a shortcut that contains an .exe is used.
5	ProgramFilesFolder	If none of the above can be found, the primary application directory is set to ProgramFilesFolder. Typically, this would be: C:\Program Files

Explicitly Specifying the Primary Application Directory

To specify the primary application directory for an App-V package, perform the following steps.

To specify the primary application directory:

In the Microsoft App-V Assistant, open the Files page.

In the More Options area, click Primary Application Directory. The Primary Application Directory dialog box opens, displaying the current primary application directory setting (if one has already been specified).

Click the ellipsis button (...). The Browse for Directory dialog box opens, listing all of the currently available destination directories for this App-V package.

Select one of the listed directories and click OK.

Specifying the Primary Application Directory

InstallShield 2015 Help Library

June 2015