VMware View Quirk w/Agent 3.1 – UserInit & WSSM Process popping up My Documents.

 A client of mine (MTHammer1) sent me a quick email detailing an interesting issue he is experiencing in his VMware View 3.1 deployment.  
I don’t have an answer for the issue but maybe someone reading this might. 🙂

Carlo,

I’ve found a “quirk” with the 3.1 View agent and the cloning process. 
Maybe you have heard of the solution…

The scenario runs like this:

     1. Create a master VM

     2. Install the VMware View Agent

     3. Shut down the VM and clone to a new VM using customizations as follows:

                a. “Use the virtual machine name”

                b. Product key entered in field

                c. No admin password

                d. MST

                e. No “first time” commands

                f. Typical network settings

                g. VM participates in WORKGROUP

                h. Generate new SID

      4. VMware follows the usual process and syspreps the machine.

      5. Afterwards, when I log in, the “My Documents” folder pops up – every time.

After some digging, I found that the HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\ NTCurrentVersionWinlogonUserinit REG_SZ value appears to be the problem.

      1. Pre View install, the value is:  C:\Windows\System32\userinit.exe,

      2. Post View install:

                 a. Userinit key value is:  C:\Windows\System32\userinit.exe, “C:\Program FilesVMwareVMware Viewbinwssm.exe”

                 b. A new string “WssmUserInit” is present (in the same key), and it’s value is:  C:\Windows\System32\userinit.exe

When I remove the:  C:\Windows\System32\userinit.exe,  portion of the Userinit string, everything goes back to normal – “My Documents” doesn’t volunteer itself anymore.  However, if I sysprep the machine again, Userinit returns to the two values, and the “My Docs” folder comes up.

This issue didn’t seem to be an issue with View 3.0.  (Not hard to fix with a script, but it’s another thing to remember.)

Any Ideas?