Some applications have hardcoded paths which require special efforts for redirecting them to the proper location. There are cases, in which tools can’t be redirected to the new location and “Junction” utility from Microsoft (By Mark Russinovich) helps to solve it. “Junction” creates symbolic directory link from Virtual Application to the actual file system. By using it, the package creator won’t spend his time for looking and changing the hardcoded paths to the new location.
How it can be implemented
The method could be implemented by attaching script which will execute “junction.exe” with the required parameters within the virtualized application environment. For example: junction.exe c:\app q:\app, by executing this command all applications’ requests referring to c:\app will actually be forwarded to q:\app.
*Tested on XP
** The Author cannot and will not be liable for any loss or damage arising from this article
*** "Junction.exe" http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896768.aspx
Boris Mikhailovski
IT Architect @SAP Israel
