Retaining Data For Windows 8 Metro Apps on Frozen systems

This document describes the procedure of configuring the Deep Freeze workstation for retaining Windows 8 Metro Apps (Windows Store Apps) data and their configuration using Faronics Data Igloo.

Introduction

Deep Freeze by its nature reverts all the system configuration and data on the protected system upon every reboot. However, some Windows 8 users might require retaining Metro App data and configuration while the system remains Frozen. By design, Metro Apps downloaded from Windows Store are user-specific, and hence they keep their data and configuration within the User Profile. In this case, Faronics Data Igloo can be utilized to retain User Profile folder content by redirecting it to a Thawed location, which is not monitored by Deep Freeze. This document describes the steps of configuring Data Igloo for retaining data of Metro Apps.

Procedure for redirecting Metro App data 

Assuming the system already has a Faronics Deep Freeze workstation with an existing Thawed location and Faronics Data Igloo installed perform the following steps:

1. Reboot the workstation into the Thawed state. This will ensure all further described changes will be retained.
2. Login onto another admin user, which is different from the one, which requires retaining Metro App data. This is required for Data Igloo to redirect the targeted user since Data Igloo cannot redirect the same user as it is currently running on.
   •  Note: If there are not any other admin users on the system, a new temporary admin user must be created, so Data Igloo can be launched from it.
3.  Using the Data Igloo User Profile redirection feature, redirect the targeted user to Thawed location. This will ensure Metro App user-specific data will be retained in a Frozen state.
4. Reboot the system back into a Frozen state.
5.   Now Frozen system will retain all data and configuration of Metro Apps for the targeted user.  

 The provided solution describes the redirection procedure for one user. If more users require to retain Metro App data, each of those users must be redirected using the provided procedure.

 Limitations

 1.       This document provides the solution for retaining data of already installed Metro Apps.  It does not support the case of installing or upgrading Metro Apps in a Frozen state. In order to install, upgrade or uninstall Metro App, the system must be switched into the Thawed state.

 2.      This document provides the solution for retaining the data of ALL currently installed Metro Apps. It cannot selectively retain or not retain data from certain metro Apps.

 3.      The provided solution requires thawing the whole User Profile, therefore as a side effect, any other user-specific data and configuration will also be retained across reboots on the Frozen system.