Format for Specifying Writable Volume Exclusions in a Policy File

exclude_uwv_file and exclude_uwv_reg are the keywords that are used to specify exclusions for Writable Volumes in the policy file, snapvol.cfg. By applying this customization, certain locations on a Writable Volume are excluded from being persisted across sessions.

To specify an exclusion, an entry must be added to the snapvol.cfg file in the following formats:

• exclude_uwv_file=path

  <path> is the path of the folder or subfolder that is specified to be excluded.

  Note: When a user profile is specified to be excluded in exclude_uwv_file and if an existing user profile is present on the base image or the profile does not exist, the exclusions do not occur and appropriate error messages are logged in svservice logs. The following messages are logged in svservice: User profile already exists. and User environment variable policies will not be enforced.
• exclude_uwv_reg=path

  <path> is the path of the registry key.

If the content of the location is not required to be persisted across sessions, then to exclude only the content and not the folder itself, <path> must end with two trailing backslashes \\.

Important: Folders such as Desktop, Downloads, Documents, Pictures, Music, Videos, and AppData, are necessary for the OS to function correctly and they must not be specified as exclusions. If the trailing backslashes are not provided in the path when any of these folders are used, then the folder gets excluded and the OS might not function as expected.

For example:

• exclude_uwv_file=\users\%username%\documents\\

  In this example, if an end user creates a file or folder within Documents, the file or folder persists only for that session. When the end user logs off, the file or folder gets deleted.

• exclude_uwv_reg=\REGISTRY\MACHINE\SOFTWARE\McAfee\\

  In this example, if a new registry key or registry value is created within the folder McAfee, the new key or value persists for that particular session. When the end user logs off, the key or value is deleted.

For more information about the exclude_uwv_file and exclude_uwv_reg keywords used in the policy file, see Policy Files (snapvol.cfg) for App Volumes 2.x.

To upload the policy file that contains the exclusions to the Writable Volume, see the Update Writable Volumes (2.x) section in the VMware App Volumes Administration Guide for App Volumes 2.x.