Introduction

MSIX Log Explorer is a new tool you can use to review both MSIX and MSIX app attach Logs on Windows Virtual Desktop.

Building on from the previous version known as “MSIX log Viewer” I have made some significate improvements to the tool to improve the admins experience when working with MSIX and MSIX app attach within Windows Virtual Desktop. This includes configuration and troubleshooting.

Features

• Changing the Package Check Interval Within Windows Virtual Desktop
• Set AV Exclusions for MSIXAA file types
• Display Mounted CIMFS Images.
• Auto application starts on logon feature.
• Direct Link to the MSIX App Attach Knowledge base
• All features from the previous version known as “View MSIX Logs”

Getting started

You can download the installer for MSIX Log Explorer from the following link.

When you have installed the app, you will see the shortcut within the start menu as shown in the screenshot below.

When you first run the App, the app will appear with two icons in the System Tray. (Remember to Run as a Administrator)

The First Icon is used to control the application and execute functions which will be shown later in this article. The second icon, is used to configure the auto start on logon and to exit the application. You can access the functions by right clicking the second icon.

As shown in the screenshot below, you can see the context menu appears when right clicking on the icon.

The “Load on Windows Start” option is configured per user. However this can be configured as per machine using the deployment script which I will cover later in this article. You would close the app using the exit button as shown in the screenshot above.

To open up the form like in the previous version “MSIX Log Viewer” you would double click (left cursor) the form/network icon as shown in the image below.

This will then open the Form as shown below.

To hide this form, simply click “Close”. Please note the app will still run in the System Tray.

getting started with New features

To access the other features and quick actions, you would right click the first icon as shown in the screenshot below.

You will then be presented with the following context menu:

As you can see from the screenshot above. You can access both the MSIX logs and WVD MSIXAA Logs using the system tray. You will also note that you can now access the MSIX App attach Wiki from the app directly which has a wealth of information about MSIX app attach.

I have added the ability for you to now view any CIMFS images mounted on your WVD Session host.

I have added the ability to change the WVD MSIX Package Check interval with options of setting 1-5 minutes from the system Tray.

Once you have clicked “Set Package Check Interval” the changes will be made for you. As shown in the screenshot below.

When checking the registry, We can see the value has changed.

I have added the capability to add the required AV executions for MSIX app attach for Windows Defender including CIMFS. All you need to do, is click the “MSIX AV Exclusions” button and these will be applied for you.

You will be notified via a message box once these have been set, as shown in the screenshot below.

Deployment Script

As most organisations and testers will have more than one WVD Session Host, I have created a Script to help you deploy this quickly on all of your Session hosts.

You can find the download for this script here.

The script includes a reg key to launch the app for every user. If you dont want this to happen, just comment out the reg key.

Summary

I hope you like the new tool and this will help all those getting started with MSIX app attach. This new and improved tool is to help troubleshoot and test MSIX app attach quicker. Feedback and feature requests welcome. Please use GitHub for any features and feedback, link can be found here.