Understanding Catalyst Project Registry Locations

Before we look at deployment specifics for enterprise client systems, it is important to understand methodologies for deploying configurations on test systems during configuration development. Catalyst makes it easy to test a configuration without requiring a centralized deployment methodology. This is done via the Start Test Configuration option from the File menu of Catalyst Configuration Manager.

This option saves the project file to disk, places a pointer to the file in the registry, and starts Browsium Controller to load the new configuration. The pointer is written to the LoadFromFileName registry value in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\(Wow6432Node)\Browsium\Catalyst.

Start Test Configuration should only be used for project development and testing as it requires the Catalyst Configuration Manager which should never be made available to end users. In addition, the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\(Wow6432Node)\Browsium\Catalyst registry location should only be used for testing as it is easily overwritten by Catalyst Configuration Manager and may not persist during a Browsium Client upgrade.

The last concept that must be understood before embarking on a Catalyst deployment is the precedence hierarchy for the evaluation of configurations when multiple LoadFromFileName values are found on a system. Catalyst follows this hierarchy to load the configuration that will be used on a given end user system (and on test systems). Once a valid configuration is found, Catalyst will stop searching and that configuration will be used.

Deploying different Catalyst configurations using multiple methodologies on a single PC may cause unpredictable results as only the configuration highest in the hierarchy will be used.

The following table provides the hierarchy of Catalyst configuration precedence. The string “(Wow6432Node)” in the registry path denotes the Wow6432Node registry key that will be included in the path on 64-bit Windows systems. 32-bit Windows systems do not contain this key, hence the use of parentheses in the chart.

Catalyst 2.0 and earlier used a registry key called RulesFilePath. That key has been deprecated in Catalyst 3.0 and later. Only LoadFromFileName values will be used to determine the active Catalyst configuration. Contact Browsium Support if you need assistance upgrading from an older version of Catalyst.

Working with Test Configurations in Group Policy Environments

Understanding configuration loading hierarchy is critical to ensuring configurations load as expected during project development. Testing on systems that receive a LoadFromFileName value via Group Policy may not behave as expected.

Catalyst reads LoadFromFileName from the Test Configuration location prior to Group Policy locations to ensure that the project you are testing is used by Browsium Controller. However, as soon as you Clear Test Configuration, the configuration deployed via Group Policy will become the active project. This will make it difficult to compare your new Test Configuration with a native, unmanaged environment. To achieve a clean Catalyst test system, you must remove your system from the domain, exclude it from Catalyst project file Group Policy settings, or temporarily delete the LoadFromFileName value delivered by Group Policy. (It will return on the next Group Policy refresh.)

Browsium recommends testing Catalyst on systems that are not controlled by Catalyst project file Group Policy settings to avoid configuration conflicts.

Multi-user Testing Configurations

As mentioned previously, Catalyst Configuration Manager should be installed only for administrators and project developers — not for end users. However, this creates a challenge when working on a multi-user server system, such as a Citrix XenDesktop or Microsoft Terminal Server environment.

Start Test Configuration writes to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE registry hive. This means the Catalyst configuration will be deployed for all users on a multi-user system if any user with administrator privileges uses Start Test Configuration from Catalyst Configuration Manager. Therefore, Browsium recommends that project development and testing be performed on a single-user system only.

Start Test Configuration in Catalyst Configuration Manager always writes to the shared HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE registry hive on a multi-user system.