The following post runs through how to install and package Bloomberg Professional for a VDI environment. The below example uses Liquidware’s FlexApp to do this, but the ideas below are applicable to AppVolumes with VMware DEM to manage the post-deployment script.

Version: This is intended for users of Bloomberg Anywhere and covers how to package and deploy Bloomberg Professional (Full Terminal).

Bloomberg Professional contains Office Tools (MS Office Add-In) and a full standalone desktop client.

Install on your capture VM

1. Download the Bloomberg Full Terminal Installation  

2. Run the installer on your provisioning VM selecting Private IP Network as the environment type.

3. Launch the software and click past the connection wizard until you reach the login screen – you don’t want your users to see/do this!

4. Bloomberg has minimum requirements of Read/Write to the following HKLM registry key and subkeys. If you have UAC enabled, you need to set permissions against these keys to allow users R/W access to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Bloomberg L.P

These permissions can’t be captured using AppVolumes or FlexApp because they’re machine-level settings, so we need to use a post-deployment script to add the permissions to the registry after the app has mounted to the desktop at logon time.

There’s a few methods for doing this and at the time we

Configure a post-deployment script using subinacl

The following script should be saved as a .bat file.

1. Download SubinACL

2. Extract the subinacl.exe to a network folder that your users can access.

3. Create the post-deployment script and deploy it, there’s a few ways to do this:

For Liquidware FlexApp – add this script as a post-deployment script – see this guide: ‘App Package Scripts’ section

For AppVolumes –  ideally you should use DEM (formerly UEM) to run the script elevated, at logon or you may need to use Group Policy to run a logon script and scope it against the Bloomberg users.

Another (untested!) option, you could try editing the snapvol.cfg file within AppVolumes – if this works for you, please let me know!

The below can be copied into a .bat file to be executed after the application has been deployed to your VDI desktop(s).

\\youdomain.com\netlogon\AFolderShare\Scripts\subinacl.exe /subkeyreg “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\wow6432node\Bloomberg L.P.” /grant=Everyone=F

Tips:

1. Ensure subinacl and the .bat script sit in the same folder, ideally your netlogon share. If storing elsewhere, ensure the logged on user has rights to read/execute from that location.

2. Typically Bloomberg allows you to perform an APOD creation – this installs a generic license key which then lets a Bloomberg Anywhere user log in. If you need to configure this follow these steps: once you’ve installed the app on your capture VM, type CONN in the Bloomberg window to see the connection wizard. Under the Connections tab, click Submit. This will create a generic key code and allow the user to login using their Anywhere login creds

Bloomberg Minimum Requirements and File Rights.

3. Your Bloomberg users might not want the Office Add-Ins – to disable these, for ideas on how to disable office add-ins and manage load behavior

3. If your placing a shortcut to Bloomberg on the desktop, create this in: C:\Users\Public\Public Desktop 

4. Bloomberg requires updating every 3 months, add this to your maintenance schedule!