Workflow Manager 2020 Update 2 helps you accurately track SLAs, to help you stay on top of your timelines. Released today, 23rd Dec 2020, Workflow Manager 2020 Update 2 features: New SLA Reports The new SLA reports give insights on the total time spent, hold time, number of rollbacks at each step and phase of a workflow and roll it up for the entire workflow. The new reports enable you to adjust a workflow's Risk Date and Due Date based on the total hold time to help you accurately track SLAs. New Data Element for User Role based selection Searching for a right person from a huge list of users to make a work assignment could be time-consuming at times. This new data element helps you look up for a user based on their assigned roles, making it simple and quick to identify the right person for work assignment. New Iplugin Methods Iplugin is a powerful interface which could be leveraged to build your automation framework to perform certain automated tasks based on certain actions in Workflow Manager. New methods are added to the Iplugin interface for Rollback and Assignment. These new methods could be leveraged in your framework to perform certain tasks when a workflow is rolled back and/or an assignment is made. Few other minor enhancements and bug fixes Please refer the release notes for Workflow Manager 2020 Update 2 here. Workflow Manager 2020 Update 2 is available for download from Product and License Center. We would love to hear your ideas for Workflow Manager and AdminStudio via our new Ideas portal. To keep yourself updated with Workflow Manager and AdminStudio product releases and updates, please subscribe to this release blog! ... View more

AdminStudio 2020 R2 was a feature packed release and Service Pack 1 just took it to the next level. AdminStudio 2020 R2, released on 3 rd November 2020, featured: MSIX Editor We have been continuously adding features to support MSIX package format in every release of AdminStudio since MSIX was first announced. This release took a leap forward towards our support for MSIX by adding, to the AdminStudio suite of tools, a dedicated tool for editing MSIX packages designed specifically for IT Professionals – MSIX Editor. Product Enhancements and Version Updates Perform application compatibility testing against Windows 10 2004 Publish applications from AdminStudio catalog to ConfigMgr 2002 Assess packages readiness for MSIX conversion with the new rules added under MSIX Conversion Compatibility Wrap packages in the AdminStudio catalog with the PowerShell App Deploy Toolkit v3.8.2 Identify packages dependent on Java up until version 15.0 Several Package Automation enhancements InstallShield 2020 R2 For the complete list of features and enhancement introduced in AdminStudio 2020 R2, please refer the release notes here. AdminStudio 2020 R2 Service Pack 1 AdminStudio 2020 R2 Service Pack 1, a minor updated on AdminStudio 2020 R2, released on 17 th December 2020, adds the following product enhancements: Support the new and latest version of Windows 10 – 20H2 for application compatibility testing Support for integration with Multi-tenant FlexNet Manager Suite (FNMS) On-Premises via Flexera Service Gateway (FSG) InstallShield 2020 R3 Please refer the release notes for AdminStudio 2020 R2 SP1 here. AdminStudio 2020 R2 SP1 is now available for download in Product and License Center.   We would love to hear your ideas for AdminStudio via our new Ideas portal. To keep yourself updated with AdminStudio product releases and updates, please subscribe to this release blog! ... View more

Software Vulnerability Manager December 2020 update is live now. This release adds a most requested and very significant feature to SVM along with some valuable product enhancements. Publish patches to Microsoft Intune from SVM SVM integration with Intune was on top of our list of priorities based on many of our customer requests. You can now publish both the Flexera Software Package System (SPS) and Vendor Patch Module (VPM) patches to Intune from SVM. The SVM Patch Configuration tool (aka Patch Daemon) lets you setup a connection between SVM server and Intune. This capability is applicable to both automatic (subscribed packages) and manual (single patch) publish. Please note that when a patch is published from SVM to Intune, you may be required to make edits, in Intune, to the Requirements and Detection Rules automatically set by the SVM to meet your requirements. This is a known issue; we will be releasing a new version of Patch Daemon soon to fix this issue. New Data APIs Three new data APIs are added in this release to help you download the assessment data from SVM and persist in your local database. If you wish you build a historical report for your organization to understand the trends of vulnerabilities from a device and software standpoint, then these are the APIs for you. Agent Caching of Scan Rules New scan agents available with this release, will now cache scan rules. Agents servers will determine if the agent needs a new set of rules and will only push these rules if needed. This will result in decrease in the amount of network traffic generated by the scan agents which will be especially beneficial in very large environments. To take benefit of this enhancement, the current version of the scan agent in your environment should be upgraded to the new version of the agent - 7.6.0.15. For more details regarding our December update, please see the full release notes here. ... View more

It ’s  quite  evident from Flexera’s  Digital Transformation Planning Report  that Digital Transformation is a top focus for many  s enior  IT   l eaders. Organizations are investing and  executing  initiatives towards Digital Transformation.  As part of these initiatives ,   o rganizations  are  look ing  towards Managed Service Providers  (MSP)  for their expertise and support for a faster and  more  reliable ways to help them in their Digital Transformation journey.  Managed Service Providers are faced with challenges of finding creative solutions to address their  customers’  needs.   At Flexera, w e hear in our conservations with various MSP customers, that they are  very  commonly asked by their customers on how they  can  help t hem  in the ir Digital Transformation journey , specifically,   Desktop Modernization, Application Modernization and Automation . The  goal for these  initiatives  is to  help drive a great end user experience with increased efficiency and productivity  with zero down time.  In this article we will  share  how AdminStudio can enable  MSPs  to help their customers  achieve   their Digital Transformation  as  a  new or  an   enhanced  offering .   Desktop Modernization   Unlike in the past, where Microsoft release d   a  major version of Windows Operating System once  every three to five  years and support ed  the version for about a decade,  a new version  of Windows 10 is released every six months and it is support ed  for only  18 months  for Home users and  30 months  for Enterprise users.  So, Organizations must keep moving to new version s  of   Windows 10 faster than ever to ensure their end points are all on the latest and secured version of the Operating System . Being on the latest versions allows them to  leverag e  all the new features and functionalities for their  end  users to have  a  modern experience.   The biggest  challenge  for an  o rganization to move  to  a new version  of an Operating System is  to  ensure minimal  down - time   and a major impediment to achieve this goal is Application Compatibility. To ensure no down time, it is essential that all the applications in the ir  portfolio  are  tested for compatibility against the  new version  of  Windows 10 prior to deployment .  Being  on the latest version of  Windows 10   requires   continuous application compatibility testing.   AdminStudio’s  Application Compatibility  feature tests a  package  for its compatibility against various versions of Windows Operating System.   AdminStudio  is  continuously update d  to support new version s  of Windows  Operating System s  when ever  made available by Microsoft.  For   many  of the  compatibility  issues identif ied  by AdminStudio,  there are automatic ,  out - of - the - box fixes provided.  For  complex issues,  it is  customary   practice   to leverage   various tools  in the  AdminStudio  suite such as  InstallShield, Tuner , and others .  This powerful feature of AdminStudio, enables you to be ready to migrate to  a new version  of Windows 10 with full confidence while ensuring no down - time due  to  application compatibility issues   to   achieve Desktop Modernization.     Application Modernization Achieving reliable deployment of  a  new software  version  and /or  update d versions   is a  daily challenge  for  an IT team in any  o rganization . Adding to this the need to perform  clean uninstallation of an older or end of life software, the challenge becomes twofold. Microsoft’s new package format – MSIX, offers  helpful  benefits like  simple  installation,  easy  handling of updates , modification packages to  manage customization   and clean uninstallation.    Applications must have an identity to make a call to some of the UWP APIs. MSIX packages enable application identity in Win32 apps by declaring 'Identity' in the AppxManifest.xml. Thus, MSIX packages make it easy for the traditional Win32 apps to leverage the new UWP APIs to take advantage of Windows 10 new features like biometric authentication, toast notifications, live tiles, new UI controls  etc.  to drive modern end user experience.  T he se  qualities of  modern experience and easy handling of installation and updates makes  MSIX   the  best suited package for both  the  IT team and the end user  a like. MSIX is  a  recent technology  and is still evolving, however Microsoft is invested and committed in  MSIX to make it the future package to  replace MSI, App-V, EXE ,  and other package formats. Many of our customers are very enthusiastic about MSIX and  are  looking at modernizing their current and legacy package forma ts  soon  to  drive  a  modern experience  for their end users .   MSIX combined with the new cloud - based end point management systems like Microsoft Intune, VMware Workspace ONE ,   and others  make the challenge of managing software deployments and updates  easier ,   thus  making the IT team more efficient and productive  so they are free to  focus on other complex and challenging tasks.   AdminStudio  was quick to support  MSIX when it was  initially introduced  back in 2018 and has been consistently adding new features and enhancement s  to support this new package format in every release  since .  AdminStudio can help you modernize your applications by converting your legacy packages to the new MSIX packages. Also,  AdminStudio’s  integration with  ConfigMgr ,  Intune, Workspace ONE , and others  can help you hand off packages to these systems to  achieve modern and reliable software deployments more quickly, easily, and consistently .   Automation Managed Service Providers  operate on  an overly aggressive  Service Level Agreements. They are always expected to deliver more for less by their customers.  Their customers expect them to leverage more automation for quicker deliver y   without  compris ing  on quality.  Using AdminStudio’s powerful set of PowerShell Cmdlets you can  automate the entire application packag ing  process  to save  you a lot of time and money  while  maintaining tight control over each activity . Tools like  Automated Application Converter   lets you  convert a batch of legacy packages to MSIX or other desired package format automatically again saving a lot of manual work.  Automation options have graduated to a new level with the introduction of  Package Automation  feature s  in AdminStudio  which allow  you  to  subscribe  to  applications for  automatic processing .  W hen  a new version  of  an   application  is   made  available  by the vendor and appears  in  the  Package Feed Module ,   automation  supports getting  the  new version  and perform ing  various pre-defined actions  hands-free .  With this latest advancement in automation,  Package Automation can be  achieved within  the  user interface , so  it is not necessary  to  write complex scripts.   AdminStudio is  the  de-facto industry standard tool for creating the best quality software packages for reliable deployments. While this is the core functionality of the product, there are various new and innovative features added to the product to empower Manage Service Providers to take up the  challenge of helping their customers realize their  transformation towards Desktop and App Modernization.   For more, see this short video detailing  what’s  new and coming soon as of  late 2020.    ... View more

While Flexera has been delivering MSIX support incrementally since it was first announced, we are happy to share that  AdminStudio 2020 R2 adds to its suite of powerful tools another new capability in support of MSIX, a dedicated MSIX Editor designed specifically for IT professionals. MSIX Editor makes editing of MSIX packages super easy, enabling you to: Open MSIX and Modification packages and get insights into the package Make desired changes to MSIX packages Save changes made to a MSIX package as a Modification package Digitally sign MSIX and Modification packages Trace MSIX packages to identify run time issues Apply Package Support Framework fixups to fix run time issues A quick refresher on MSIX, before we learn how to edit MSIX packages in MSIX Editor: MSIX is a Windows app package format that brings the best features of MSI, .appx, App-V, and ClickOnce together into a single format to provide a modern and reliable packaging experience. The MSIX package format enables the new deployment features to Win32, WPF and Windows Forms apps while still retaining their functionality. Apps that are packaged using MSIX run inside a container. All the MSIX processes run inside the container and are isolated from the OS using virtual file system and registry. An MSIX app writes to its own virtual registry and application data folder, and this data will be deleted completely upon uninstallation thus making uninstallation of an app absolutely clean with no footprints of the app left on the machine. This isolation and clean uninstallation help you to get away with the traditional packaging problems like ‘Winrot’ and ‘DLL Hell’. Editing MSIX Packages The Appxmanifest.xml is the most important file in MSIX package. This is an XML file which defines all the important aspects of the package and its features. Appxmanifest.xml dictates the installation and runtime behavior of the package. The MSIX Editor is organized into various views in the left pane which is based on the Appxmanifest.xml structure. This arrangement of the views helps you to easily identify and understand all the properties of an MSIX package and to make any desired changes. In this demo, we will see how to use MSIX Editor to edit the content of a simple MSIX package and save the changes as a new version of the package: Creating MSIX Modification Packages A Modification package lets you customize an existing MSIX package. A modification package is similar to a Transform (.mst) for an MSI package in that it changes the installation, however the changes can be applied at any time with a modification package (as opposed to an MSI transform which must be applied during the installation process).  A primary benefit of a modification package is that it is not tied to a specific version of its main MSIX package, which gives you an advantage to create a modification package once and use it for all the current and future version of its main MSIX packages, unless you want to add any additional customizations. Modification packages have the same extension as MSIX packages but contain only files and registry keys. Modification packages cannot be installed on a machine independently. The main MSIX package must be already installed on a machine to install its modification package on the same machine to apply customization successfully. When a modification package is installed, Windows will see its content as part of the same container as that of the main MSIX package thus treating every file and registry key in a modification package as part of the its main MSIX package. In this demo, we will see how to make changes to a simple MSIX package and save those changes as a modification package using MSIX Editor: Known Limitations MSIX Editor lets you perform all the basic editing and updating of your MSIX packages, however some advanced editing (such as the editing of visual assents or declarations) are not available in this introductory version of the MSIX Editor. Here is the list of known limitations in the MSIX Editor at this point: Views under Application Properties node - Applications, Visual Assets, App Declarations and Content URIs, and App Manifest view are read only. These views display the content from the MSIX package, but there is no edit capability. The only fixup that is supported at this time, is that of the most commonly required File Redirection Fixup (FRF). All the supported files needed for the FRF fixup should be placed in the same folder alongside the JSON file. The tool will pick up all supported files from the folder based on the path provided for the JSON file. Only a limited set of package and app declarations (also referred to as extensions) are supported. Considering IT Pros use cases, we chose to support those declarations which are applicable to packaging Win32 apps. Digital signing requires a PFX certificate file. Tracing an app monitors all the actions of the app due to which you may notice some latency while launching the app and while tracing. Anticipated Enhancements Some enhancements planned for the future releases of MSIX Editor: Enable editing for all the views under Application Properties. Capability to edit the appxmanifest.xml file. Support more signing options. Example: Certificate store etc. Support all the out of box fixups in Package Support Framework. Make recommendations for fixups to fix the identified run-times issues on tracing. Flexibility to define the level of monitoring and logging to reduce latency while tracing. Optimize to reduce the package load time in the editor. We would love to hear feedback from you and help us drive the tool in the direction which meets your needs. Please use the comment section below to provide your feedback or please send a direct message to schedule a one on one session where we can have a conversation about your feedback. ... View more