Corrective Rules

Redirect-IT is a rule-driven solution; it allows the Administrator to define the precise actions that must be executed in order to correct the behavior of an inept application. Figure 7 is a screenshot of the Provision Management Console (PMC) in which three corrective rules have been created for BadApp1, BadApp2, and BadApp3. Figures 8, 9, and 10 depict the specifics of each rule.

BadApp1: access to HKLM\Software\XYZ is to be intercepted and redirected to HKCU\Software\Provision Networks\Software\XYZ.

BadApp2: access to C:\Program Files\XYZ\badapp2.cfg is to be intercepted and redirected to %HomeDrive%\XYZ\badapp2.cfg. If XYZ or badapp2.cfg doesn’t already exist in %HomeDrive%, create XYZ and copy badapp2.cfg into it.

BadApp3: access to any file in C:\Program Files\XYZ\Data is to be intercepted and redirected to %HomeDrive%\Data. If Data or the files being accessed don’t already exist in %HomeDrive%, create Data and copy the files into it.

Figure 7 – The Provision Management Console.

Figure 8 – BadApp1’s registry-based corrective rule.

Figure 9 – BadApp2’s file-based corrective rule.

Figure 10 – BadApp3’s folder-based corrective rule.

Figure 11, 12, and 13 demonstrate the results of the corrective redirection rules. For BadApp1, configuration settings originally destined for HKLM have been successfully redirected to HKCU. For BadApp2, the XYZ folder was created in the user’s home folder (Z:\) and the configuration settings were stored in badapp2.cfg under XYZ. Finally for BadApp3, the Data folder was created in the user’s home folder (Z:\) and customer data were stored in the Data folder.

Figure 11 – The result of BadApp1’s corrective rule.

Figure 12 – The result of BadApp2’s corrective rule.

Figure 13 – The result of BadApp3’s corrective rule.

BadApp1, BadApp2, and BadApp3 are simple examples of inept programs. Correcting the behavior of more complex programs may require multiple redirection rules. Redirect-IT includes a logging facility which can used alongside other popular tools such as FileMon and RegMon to assist the Administrator in determining the registry keys, files, and folders that should be redirected.

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