Hi Eric,
We are currently in process of preparing to roll-out SAP GUI 7.40. From what I have read and experienced in testing, 7.40 no longer supports access method F in SPAD (which leveraged saplpd.exe included in GUI installations) - we are switching those printers using access method F over to access method G. After confirmation that this switch will cause no issues with print procedures, we will be moving to a more formalized testing of the new GUI.
To answer your questions:
1) We will be sticking with our current installation script as it worked very well last year. I have not tested to see if a new installation package would pick up those saplogon.exe processes.
2) Our administrator who manages SCCM did not seem to be able to pick up the patch or hotfix associated with an SAP GUI installation. The versioning file allows us to post an updated version of an installation package, scan clients running SAP GUI to determine if an update is needed and automatically deploy the software if needed.
3) Yes to each question asked here.
4) No experience with the new XML central file storage. It has been several months since I looked into this, but I believe that XML file shows up when NWBC is introduced to the setup and that is something my company does not leverage.
I hope this helps.
Thanks,
Jeff