Baby Come Back - Exploring the New Reset Point Feature

Have you ever wished you could customize or update a virtual application and then merge these changes into the Read Only layer so they aren't removed when the application is reset? Well, thanks to a new feature in Symantec Workspace Virtualization 6.1, this is now a reality! You'll can access this new feature from the "Layer->New Reset Point" menu or by selecting this option from the context menu when right-clicking on a layer from within the SWV Admin tool.

Let's explore a scenario where this might come in handy. Suppose you are an avid user of Mozilla Firefox and you like to try out all sorts of Add-Ons. There seems to be a Firefox Add-on for just about anything. Weather, music, stocks, Facebook, themes, you name it, they have it. However, some Add-ons are better designed than others. During your experimentation some Add-ons may damage your Firefox application or make it unstable. The "reset" feature provides a nice way to try Add-ons to your hearts content with the comfort of knowing you can always revert your application back to its original, pristine state. On the other hand, you may find Add-ons that you'd like to become a permanent member of your Firefox family. The "New Reset Point" feature makes this a reality. I've already pointed out how to access this feature so let's give it a try.

I like to keep tabs on the weather so I finally settle on an Add-on that I really like so I want to establish a new reset point so the Add-on will become part of the new baseline of my Firefox application. Once I establish this new "reset point" baseline a layer reset will not remove the changes I've made to the layer.

First I deactivate the layer by Right-Clicking on the layer within SWV Admin and selecting "Deactivate".

Next I select the "New Reset Point" from the same menu. You'll be presented with the following dialog box:

Here we are presented to two options. The first "Export layer before creating new reset point" is a safeguard that allows us to export the layer in its current state in case you ever want to revert back to the original.

The next option "Copy current user's settings to default user's settings area" gives us the option to preserve changes made in the current user's profile area within the new reset point. Finally, I click on "OK" to establish my new reset point. Now, if we select to reset the layer, we'll notice that the changes I made prior to establishing a new reset point have been preserved!

There are other use case scenarios where this feature becomes very important. For example, many applications include the ability to perform an in-place update of the software to a new, updated version. An example of this is Mozilla Firefox. If you select "Check for Updates" from the "Help" menu, Firefox will make a quick check with the Mozilla web site to determine if my version of Firefox is up to date. If it isn't it offers to update Firefox to the updated version.

The "New Reset Point" feature allows you to establish this new updated version of Firefox as the new reset point. This makes creating an updated version of a virtual application layer very quick and easy. This is also an important step to creating a layer patch. What is a layer patch patch? Well, layer patching is also a new feature in SWV 6.1 that I'll be describing shortly in an up-coming article so stay tuned for that.

In summary, the "New Reset Point" feature provides a way to merge any changes or modifications made to a virtual application to the Read Only layer so that the changes will be preserved beyond an application reset. This feature comes in handy when you want to customize or update a virtual application to your liking and then "lock it in" by establishing a new reset point.