Update RES PowerFuse 2008 to a newer Service Release

Recently a few customers and partners asked RES Support about updating their RES PowerFuse 2008 environment to a newer Service Release and if it was possible to have two Service Releases running next to each other in the same environment.

RES Software has PowerPacks to upgrade a RES PowerFuse installation. With a PowerPack you can upgrade from any RES PowerFuse version to the latest version of RES PowerFuse.

The PowerPacks are available in two versions:

• PowerPack for an interactive upgrade, needs to be applied once in every environment. You can follow the upgrade process and any error will be displayed.
• Auto_Powerpack for an unattended installation of the upgrade.

Before you upgrade you exisitng environment it’s important to:

• Read the release notes of every version to notice all the changes. Importance of changes can be different per customer/environment.
• Always install a manual PowerPack first in your environment to see the upgrade complete successfully and then you can use the Auto_PowerPack
• It is possible to run multiple Service Release versions next to each other in the same environment. However, we advise you to make this period as short as possible.
• After an upgrade, you also need to upgrade to the latest LanguagePack if you use multi language RES PowerFuse environments.

RES Software makes enhancements in every RES PowerFuse Service Release. The enhancement mentioned below are important to know because they change the behaviour of the environment.

• With the Release of RES PowerFuse 2008 SR3, User Preferences are saved in a new format. User Preferences created with RES PowerFuse SR3 or later cannot be used in RES PowerFuse SR2 (important for downgrades and multiple versions in one environment). If User Preferences are saved with RES PowerFuse SR3, this will result in multiple errors when a user starts a RES PowerFuse session on SR2 or earlier. http://support.ressoftware.com/Modules/Support/KnowledgeBaseArticle.aspx?id=1512
• With the Release of RES PowerFuse 2008 SR3 and later, the Citrix Seamless Hook will be disabled by default.
  http://support.ressoftware.com/Modules/Support/KnowledgeBaseArticle.aspx?id=1641
• With the Release of RES PowerFuse 2008 SR4 and later, the database connection password is encrypted differently (important for downgrade).
• With the Release of RES PowerFuse 2008 SR5 and later, the way RES PowerFuse handles documents on the Desktop folder has changed (important in multiple versions in one environment).
  http://support.ressoftware.com/Modules/Support/KnowledgeBaseArticle.aspx?id=1693
  http://support.ressoftware.com/Modules/Support/KnowledgeBaseArticle.aspx?id=2158
• With the Release of RES PowerFuse 2008 SR6, the way RES PowerFuse handles File Type associations has changed (important in multiple versions in one environment).
  http://blog.ressoftware.com/?p=27
• With the Release of RES PowerFuse 2008 SR7 and later, it supports both x86 and x64 versions of Microsoft Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2.
  Regarding Instant File Associations, the automatic import of file types when adding application(s) is added.
• With the Release of RES PowerFuse 2008 SR8 and later, verification of UNC path of authorized files and executables located on a fileshare is added. Regarding the RES Subscriber/Workspace Extender, a wait time can be set before the connection is established.
• With the Release of RES PowerFuse 2008 SR9, support for Microsoft Windows 2000 is limited (only with PowerPack, not the SR9 .msi). Other important enhancements are: support for Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 is added, reduced memory usage of the Workspace Manager and configurable ALLUSERPROFILE variable behaviour through the registry.

This post will be updated every time RES Software will Release a new Service Release of RES PowerFuse.