Internet Explorer 8 for Windows 7 Layer Definition File

The Internet Explorer 8 for Windows 7 Layer Definition File (LDF) provides a mechanism for customers of Symantec Workspace Virtualization to create the Virtual Application Layer and package without the need to capture the installation.

Prerequisites

- Symantec Workspace Virtualization v6.1 SP1 or greater
- Symantec Workspace Virtualization Layer Definition Tool. Download.

Installation

The steps for creating the IE8 for Windows 7 are very straight-forward.
 

1. Extract the download that accompanies this article to your desktop (ie8-win7-x.x.x.x.zip - where -x.x.x.x is the LDF version).
2. IE8 must be installed in the base.
3. Windows 7 SP1 must be installed.
4. Install these packages:

• For x86 System:
  • Windows6.1-KB2847204-x86.msu
  • Windows6.1-KB2829530-x86.msu
  • Windows6.1-KB2618444-x86.msu

• For x64 System:
  • Windows6.1-KB2847204-x64.msu
  • Windows6.1-KB2829530-x64.msu
  • Windows6.1-KB2618444-x64.msu

1. Download the updates for your computer or laptop from the Microsoft Update website now:
   
   http://update.microsoft.com/microsoftupdate/
2. Double-Click the .EXE file (ie8-win7-x.x.x.x.EXE). This will invoke swvldf.exe (Layer Definition Tool) with the proper parameters to create the IE8 on Windows 7 virtual application layer.
    

Known issues:

• Adobe Reader 10.x does not work.
• Virtualized IE8 takes native IE history
• When using the 'Properties' function, a 'script error' appears.
• 'Trusted Sites' fuction does not work (only in x64 systems).

Important: The creation of the IE8 Layer on Windows 7 must be run on Windows 7 with IE8 installed to the base (i.e. installed natively and not virtualized). The LDF references local files installed on the system in order to create the virtualized IE8 layer.

Supported Side-By-Side Configurations

Internet Explorer 8 Virtualized will function "Side-By-Side" with any one of the following versions of IE installed to the base (i.e. installed natively and not virtualized).

Note: Internet Explorer 8 includes an IE 7 compatibility mode that provides IE7 compatibility. See the Microsoft Knowledge Base article for more information.

Support

Information about the support status of the IE8 layer created by this tool can be found here .
Please note that the IE8 layer created by this tool is only supported if the LDF and the Virtual Application Layer are not altered in any way.

Documentation

Documentation on the SWV Layer Definition Tool can be found here .

How it works

The swvldf.exe tool is passed an Layer Definition File (LDF) that contains XML tags that define all the data required to create a Virtual Application Layer. The files required for the Virtual Application Layer are downloaded from public sites on the internet and may require considerable time to complete depending on the file requirements. It is also possible alter the LDF to point to existing files that you already have available on your system. Please see the documentation to learn how to change the <file-source> tags to point to local file repositories. By default the <file-source> tags that download files using http do not use a proxy server. In order to use a proxy server please see the documentation for the "conn-str" attribute of the <file-source> tag.