How to disable Local Settings\Application Data\ApplicationHistory\ ini file generation

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Leon Finker - 20 Oct 2005 02:14 GMT

Hi,

We have a requirement to disable Local Settings\Application
Data\ApplicationHistory\ ini file generation for our app only or globally on
some customer machines. I found out that i can disable it globally by
setting the following registry value:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Fusion\MaxApplicationHistory DWORD: 0

This still creates *.ini.inuse file that can be left behind when executable
doesn't exit cleanly.

1. Is there an environment variable for MaxApplicationHistory as opposed to
registry value?
2. In Rotor I see IsHosted() check before .ini.inuse file is created. When
is this condition true? I'm hosting .NET through unmanaged COM API. Is this
not IsHosted() condition?
3. What else can be done to control *.ini.* behavior?

Thanks a lot for any help!

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"Jeffrey Tan[MSFT]" - 20 Oct 2005 07:40 GMT

Hi Leon,

Thanks for your post.

I am not sure why you want to disable these files from generating. Based on
my knowlege, these files are all internal used, which have no public
documents to describe them. So I want to listen to your concern on the
issue. Thanks

Best regards,
Jeffrey Tan
Microsoft Online Partner Support

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Leon Finker - 20 Oct 2005 12:41 GMT

I'm asked to look into a way to disable them because customers are
complaining that our application "registers" itself on their system even
though they are not targeted for the app's functionality. The mere startup
of .net executable generates those files and they of course see many entries
for our application in "Fix your application" .NET 1.1 wizard. This is all
moot, but some customers are paranoid on security. I heard in Whidbey
application history is gone?

Thanks for getting back!

> Hi Leon,
>
[quoted text clipped - 11 lines]
> Get Secure! - www.microsoft.com/security
> This posting is provided "as is" with no warranties and confers no rights.

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"Jeffrey Tan[MSFT]" - 21 Oct 2005 03:26 GMT

Hi Leon,

Thanks for your feedback.

Sorry, but on my system, after doing some search, I can not find any
directory named ApplicationHistory, so can you show me some information
about how this directory and *.ini files are generated on your application?
Thanks

Best regards,
Jeffrey Tan
Microsoft Online Partner Support

Signature

Get Secure! - www.microsoft.com/security
This posting is provided "as is" with no warranties and confers no rights.

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Leon Finker - 21 Oct 2005 03:44 GMT

Hi Jeffrey,

It should be under:

%userprofile%\Local Settings\Application Data\ApplicationHistory

There should be bunch of .ini files there. I had about 7,000+ of them on
development machine. Separate .ini is created even for AppDomains, and each
time I build and run a .NET project from visual studio (I guess if it has
different assembly version).

http://groups.google.com/group/microsoft.public.dotnet.framework.performance/bro
wse_thread/thread/1f91582903978976/a8ff14fc63230e6b
http://groups.google.com/group/microsoft.public.dotnet.framework/browse_thread/t
hread/b9c2a374d4cb0e4/2365d22680e17d71

It seems like useless operation in 99% of typical application scenario.
Setting MaxApplicationHistory to 0 in registry prevents the .ini generation,
except for .ini.inuse 0 byte files. It would be nice if there was an
environment variable also for this instead of global setting. Maybe you're
using .NET 2.0? Some of the posts seem to indicate that it doesn't use
ApplicationHistory anymore.

Thanks!

> Hi Leon,
>
[quoted text clipped - 11 lines]
> Get Secure! - www.microsoft.com/security
> This posting is provided "as is" with no warranties and confers no rights.

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"Jeffrey Tan[MSFT]" - 21 Oct 2005 08:59 GMT

Hi Leon,

Thanks for your feedback.

Oh, I am not sure why my file search missed ApplicationHistory directory.
Yes, these ini files are used to restore the application state, and there
is no public documented way to disable these files from generating. So I
can not provide some useful information to you.

However, in Whidbey2.0 Release Candidate version, I found that .Net
applications will not generate these .ini files or .ini.inuse files. So it
seems that .Net 2.0 have changed the design for this. Thanks

Best regards,
Jeffrey Tan
Microsoft Online Partner Support

Signature

Get Secure! - www.microsoft.com/security
This posting is provided "as is" with no warranties and confers no rights.

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How to disable Local Settings\Application Data\ApplicationHistory\ ini file generation

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