Document Handler issues in a VDI Environment
- Former user (Deleted)
- Jeremy Sommer (Deactivated)
- Roar Hansen (Deactivated)
Owned by Former user (Deleted)
Microsoft provides a Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) for its Windows Operating System. This includes Remote Desktop Services, formerly named Windows Terminal Services, which allows multiple users to have their own consistent and personal Windows environment, from a single instance of the Windows OS. When installing and using the ayfie Document Handler in this environment, users need to be aware of particular problems that can result from improper installations.
An inadvertent installation of the single-user Document Handler may have been done, when the multi-user version was required. If a subsequent install of the multi-user Document Handler was done without completely uninstalling all instances of the single-user Document Handler, problems will result. A symptom of such a problem will be to receive an error message, when a user attempts to open a document (clicking the "Open" link) from the ayfie search results list, similar to the following:
When looking at the Windows Control Panel -> Programs and Features, the Viayfie Works Document Handler can be seen as an installed application. Furthermore, attempts at repairing the installation, uninstalling of the Document Handler and rebooting the Remote Desktop Services (Windows Terminal Services), followed by another installation of the Document Handler may not resolve the problem.
The problem is due to having remnants of both instances, single-user and multi-user, of the Document Handler installed on the system. A verification of the presence of the single-user instance can be done by running the Windows command "regedit". Start "regedit" and check if the following key exists: Â
For multi-user installations, the value should be "C:\Program Files (x86)\ayfie\Locator DocumentHandler\Via.Application.DocumentHandler.exe" "%1" (assuming the person doing the installation has not changed the default destination). If the value starts with "C:\Users\", this indicates that a single-user version is installed. The system administrator can also perform a search under "C:\Users" for the file "Via.Application.DocumentHandler.exe". There should be none. If one or more users have installed the single-user version, then they need to uninstall it. It is important that the single-user versions are uninstalled, and not simply delete the files on disk, because there's also a registry key "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\vw" per user that can conflict with the global key.
After all single-user versions of the Document Handler have been removed (make sure that neither the "HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\vw" nor the "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\ViaWorksDocumentHandler" keys exist), perform the following:
An inadvertent installation of the single-user Document Handler may have been done, when the multi-user version was required. If a subsequent install of the multi-user Document Handler was done without completely uninstalling all instances of the single-user Document Handler, problems will result. A symptom of such a problem will be to receive an error message, when a user attempts to open a document (clicking the "Open" link) from the ayfie search results list, similar to the following:
 "Can't start the helper program for vw:presentation.view?reference=XFxheDEzNGFwcFxjb3JkZWwkXGNvcmRlbFxkb2t1bWVudFx0aWxidWRfMTM4MFx0b3N0ZW12ZWdlbiAyMTEgIDEwMzkxLCB0ZWduaW5nZXIgaHVzIDIwMTEtMDMtMzEucGRm&handler=RmlsZVNlcnZlcg%3d%3d&tokreference=af64afe80270770a764bf59f39a909cc.
The protocol defined in this address is invalid. Please make sure that the address is correct and try again."
When looking at the Windows Control Panel -> Programs and Features, the Viayfie Works Document Handler can be seen as an installed application. Furthermore, attempts at repairing the installation, uninstalling of the Document Handler and rebooting the Remote Desktop Services (Windows Terminal Services), followed by another installation of the Document Handler may not resolve the problem.
The problem is due to having remnants of both instances, single-user and multi-user, of the Document Handler installed on the system. A verification of the presence of the single-user instance can be done by running the Windows command "regedit". Start "regedit" and check if the following key exists: Â
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\vw\Shell\Open\command
For multi-user installations, the value should be "C:\Program Files (x86)\ayfie\Locator DocumentHandler\Via.Application.DocumentHandler.exe" "%1" (assuming the person doing the installation has not changed the default destination). If the value starts with "C:\Users\", this indicates that a single-user version is installed. The system administrator can also perform a search under "C:\Users" for the file "Via.Application.DocumentHandler.exe". There should be none. If one or more users have installed the single-user version, then they need to uninstall it. It is important that the single-user versions are uninstalled, and not simply delete the files on disk, because there's also a registry key "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\vw" per user that can conflict with the global key.
After all single-user versions of the Document Handler have been removed (make sure that neither the "HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\vw" nor the "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\ViaWorksDocumentHandler" keys exist), perform the following:
- Kill all instances of "Via.Application.DocumentHandler.exe" running.
- Restart the Windows service "ayfie DocumentHandler Service".
- Open up a command prompt, using "Run as administrator".
- Change directory to the location where the Document Handler has been installed (.e.g. "cd c:\Program Files (x86)\ayfie\Locator DocumentHandler")
- Run the following command to re-create the protocol and run registry keys: "Via.Application.DocumentHandler.exe /register"Â
Following those steps should resolve the problem. If the problem persists, please perform the following:
- Enable debug logging for the Document Handler. You can do this by editing the file "C:\Program Files (x86)\Virtual Works\Locator DocumentHandler\log.config", and change the line "<level value="ERROR" />" to "<level value="DEBUG" />".Â
- Kill the "Via.Application.DocumentHandler.exe" process.Â
- Attempt to open a search results link. Send to VirtualWorks Support the debug.log file from this location: "%APPDATA%\Virtual Works\DocumentHandler\debug.log"
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