You can specify certain locations of Writable Volumes to exclude them from persisting across sessions or getting overwritten.

Keep the following considerations in mind before you apply Writable Volumes exclusions:
  • If the user modifies the locations that are excluded, the changes are lost when the user logs off the machine.
  • You must know what application behavior and data will get stored in the folders you want to exclude.
  • Do not use generic locations such as \REGISTRY\MACHINE\SOFTWARE or \Program Files(x86)\. Using generic locations can cause all application updates to be erased.
  • You can include paths within the users profile directories so that specific applications or files can be excluded from being captured.
  • If the Writable Volume is UIA-only, all user profile paths are excluded and you do not have to explicitly specify any user profile paths for exclusion.
  • User profile exclusions are not supported with computer-based Writable Volumes which are attached during computer startup.
Note: This feature is enabled by default and is applicable only when the Writable Volume is assigned.

Prerequisites

  • You must have administrator privileges on the machine where the App Volumes agent is installed.
  • You must have uploaded the policy file (snapvol.cfg) and scripts to the Writable Volumes.

    To upload the files to a Writable Volume, see Update Writable Volumes.

    For an understanding of (default and custom) policy files and scripts, see Policy Files and Scripts.

Procedure

  1. Log in as administrator to the machine where the App Volumes agent is installed.
  2. Locate and open the writable volumes configuration file, snapvol.cfg.
  3. Add the following entry in the snapvol.cfg file, where path is the location of the application or registry that you want to exclude: exclude_uwv_file=path.
    You can specify multiple exclusions.

Example: Exclude an Application Location

The following examples exclude the folder and registry location of Notepad++ from being overwritten during an update:

  • exclude_uwv_file=\Program Files (x86)\Notepad++
  • exclude_uwv_reg=\REGISTRY\MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Notepad++
  • exclude_uwv_file=\Users\username\folder
  • exclude_uwv_file=\Users\userprofile\folder

What to do next

You must test the application after applying any Writable Volumes exclusions to ensure that the application works as desired.