We deploy VDI for our remote workers. All of our published desktops are non persistent to reduce consumption of resources. The master image is static, all registry changes for a user profile are applied and exported via AppSense. AppSense allows us to give a unique user experience while saving a large expenditure on storage costs.
Pros
Provides full user registry customization.
Centralizes management of user settings
Can replace group policy.
Fast response time for a new user session.
Cons
High learning curve to deploy
Likelihood to Recommend
[AppSense is] very well suited for VDI or published applications.
AppSense is used on all company owned Windows computers in our network, across all locations. We use it for software personalization and for doing some custom actions that would otherwise typically be done via logon script or group policy. For example, we use it to map printers for users based on their location and/or AD group membership. We also use Application Manager to automatically run some legacy software with admin rights. This happens transparently without the user having admin rights and without seeing a UAC prompt and is a very useful feature for any application that requires admin rights to run. It also allows users to self-install certain pre-approved applications while not giving them rights to install any random software.
Pros
Application Manager - automatic elevation of certain software to run with admin rights, transparent to users IF you set it all up properly in advance. Once you have this configured, it can be very beneficial.
Environment Manager - custom actions based on detected conditions. For example, mapping one set of network drives once a user connects to a certain network, and a different set of network drives when they connect to a different network. And automatically remove the network drives when the user disconnects from the network. Do X, Y, and Z if a certain process starts or stops. If process A starts, automatically start process B.
Cons
It's buggy in general. I have seen a lot of weird problems caused by AppSense. Corrupt user profiles, random crashes, etc.
If/Else/ElseIf statements can be confusing to build, especially when nesting several due to the way they are displayed.
Support is not great.
Likelihood to Recommend
AppSense does solve a lot of problems and can do some cool things. However, I think competing products may do the same job without some of the bugs and issues I have seen with AppSense. The automatic/transparent "run as Administrator" feature is very slick when set up properly and makes dealing with poorly coded legacy applications very easy. The flexibility it gives you with all of the stuff it can do is great. Take actions X, Y, and Z at logon based on these conditions, etc.
VU
Verified User
Engineer in Information Technology (1001-5000 employees)
A department of Emerson uses AppSense to monitor and more granularly control the CPU and memory consumption of applications on a per session basis. They also use it to deliver a consistent profile to the users logging in.
Pros
Profile Management
Policy Management
Application Performance Management
Cons
Image Management
Likelihood to Recommend
Most general situations can be managed from within Citrix. AppSense is needed only in complex situations that require more granular control of the environment.
