Home

VMware ThinApp User`s Manual

1. 00104b35e7ef InprocServer32 Value ThreadingModel REG_SZ Both 00 Value REG_SZ SystemSystem mscoree d11 00 164 VMware Inc Appendix G Virtual Registry Attributes ini This file controls per registry subkey settings RegistryIsolationMode WriteCopy Merged Full The following is an example RegistryIsolation writeCopy If isolation is not specified it is inherited from parent subkey The following is an example of command line usage NOTE All parameters are case insensitive VREGTOOL regfile tvr ExportDir output_directory HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE Software VREGTOOL regfile tvr ImportDir input_directory VREGTOOL regfile tvr ImportReg regedit reg Merged writeCopy Full NoReplace NoMacros VREGTOOL regfile tvr ExportReg filename reg HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE Software VREGTOOL regfile tvr PrintKeys HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE Software ShowValues ShowData ExpandMacros VREGTOOL regfile tvr PrintStats VREGTOOL regfile tvr SysCompare HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE Software Exact VREGTOOL regfile tvr DelLSubkey HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE Software NoMark Performing Registry Operations You can perform the following registry operations m Importing Registry Data from Regedit Format on page 165 m Exporting Registry Data to Regedit Format on page 166 m Listing all Registry Keys in a ThinApp tvr File on page 167 m Listing Diagnostic Information About a Thinapp tvr File on page 168 m Comparing Vi
2. The following example shows how to direct ThinApp to delete the sandbox when the application exits BuildOptions RemoveSandboxOnExit 1 The following example shows how to direct ThinApp to leave the sandbox behind when the application exits default BuildOptions RemoveSandboxOnExit 0 VMware Inc Using the Sandbox The sandbox is the directory where all changes that the captured application makes are stored The next time you launch the application those changes are incorporated from the sandbox By deleting the sandbox directory you can instantly revert the application back to its captured state This information discusses the following topics m Reviewing the Search Order for the Sandbox on page 129 m Controlling the Sandbox Location on page 131 m Reviewing the Sandbox Structure on page 133 Reviewing the Search Order for the Sandbox During startup of the captured application ThinApp searches for an existing sandbox in specific locations and in a specific order ThinApp uses the first sandbox it detects The description of the search order uses these examples m Sandbox name is Mozilla Firefox 3 0 m Application resides in C Program Files Firefox m User computer name is JOHNDOE COMPUTER m Sandbox path is Z sandboxes m AppData is C Documents and Settings JohnDoe Application Data VMware Inc 129 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 130 VMware recommends reviewing the following search
3. For example strip the relocation information from the generated executable file app exe Source ProgramFiLesDir myapp app exe NoReLocation 1 ReadOnlyData ReadOn1lyData Specifies the name of the read only virtual registry file created during the build If this parameter appears in an application specific section of the Package ini file the specified file is the primary data container Review this sample entry ReadOnlyData bin Package ro tvr ReserveExtraAddressSpace ReserveExtraAddressSpace Indicates how much extra address space to reserve for the captured executable file In typical circumstances tlink exe sets the SizeOfImage field in the generated executable based on the SizeOfImage field of the source executable The Windows loader uses the SizeOfImage field to determine how much virtual address space to reserve for the executable file When you build a package based on a source executable file that is not included in the package you can reserve virtual address space by specifying the ReserveExtraAddressSpace option The value is the number of bytes to reserve Optionally you can follow the number by K to indicate kilobytes or M to indicate megabytes The default value is 0 which specifies address space to reserve For example the following tells the Windows loader to reserve 512KB of address space Lapp exe Source ProgramFiLesDir myapp app exe ReserveExtraAddressSpace 512K VMware Inc Appendix
4. End if GetCommandLine Function GetCommandLine This function allows you to access the command line parameters passed to the current running program Returns This function returns a string that represents the command line arguments passed to the current running program including the original executable Example MsgBox The command line for this EXE was GetCommandLine GetCurrentProcessName Function GetCurrentProcessName This function allows you to access the full virtual path name of the current process VMware Inc 151 VMware ThinApp User s Manual Returns This function returns a string that represents the full executable path name inside of the virtual environment Typically this is c Program Files even though the package source might be running from a network share Example MsgBox Running EXE path is GetCurrentProcessName GetOSVersion Function GetOSVersion This function returns information about the current version of Windows Parameters This function has no parameters Returns This function returns a string in the following format MAJOR MINOR BUILD_NUMBER PLATFORM_ID OS_STRING MAJOR is one the following values Windows Vista 6 Windows Server 2008 6 Windows Server 2003 5 Windows XP 5 Windows 2000 5 Windows NT 4 0 4 152 VMware Inc Appendix E Using Scripts MINOR is one of the following values Windows Vista 0 Windows Server 2008 0 Windows Server 2003 2 Wi
5. ProgramFilesDir Microsoft Visual Studio Common Tool1s xxx FindFirstFilew C Program Files Microsoft Visual Studio VC98 bin foobar gt INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE failed system probe C Program Files Microsoft Visual Studio VC98 bin foobar gt ffffffffh no virtual or system matches xxx FindFirstFilew C Program Files Microsoft Visual Studio VC98 bin foobar gt INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE failed FS missing in view O fs entry not found ProgramFilesDir Microsoft Visual Studio VC98 bin foobar fs entry not found ProgramFilesDir Microsoft Visual Studio VC98 bin As you can see the potential errors does a good job of highlighting possible areas where the application is failing Deeper Examination 001550 FindFirstFileW C test cmd_test bin foobar gt INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE failed system probe To determine why cmd exe is probing the location c test cmd_test bin search the log for this line of text using the log entry number and find out what is occurring before this call In the bold excerpts below two possible places are seen where cmd exe obtained the path c test cmd_test VMware Inc Chapter 5 Monitoring and Troubleshooting ThinApp The first is obtained by calling GetCurrentDirectoryW and the second is from calling GetFullPathNameW with as the path specifies In both cases this returns the path for the current working directory making it clear exactly how cmd exe is obtaini
6. NT CurrentVersion Windows Messaging Subsystem Profiles Next a file named Attributes ini with the following contents Isolation DirectoryIsolationMode Full This setting must be created in each of the following subdirectories AppData Microsoft AddIns AppData Microsoft Office AppData Microsoft Outlook Local AppData Microsoft FORMS Local AppData Microsoft Out Look Create the subdirectories as needed Attachments By default Microsoft Outlook creates a directory where it stores attachments when you open an attachment for viewing This directory is typically C Documents and Settings lt user_name gt Local Settings Temp Temporary Internet Files OLKxxxx where the last xxxx is replaced by something randomly chosen VMware Inc 87 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 88 This works fine when the viewing application runs in the same virtual sandbox as Microsoft Outlook However external application might not be able to find the file it is supposed to show This is because Microsoft Outlook stores the file in the sandbox To solve this the isolation mode of the directory where the attachments are stored needs to be set to Merged You need to find out the name of the directory the last part of the name was randomly chosen To solve this add a value to HKEY_CURRENT_USER txt that sets the name of attachment directory isolation_full HKEY_CURRENT_USER Software Microsoft Office 11 0 OutLook Security Value Out LookSecure
7. PermittedGroups impact on Application Link 58 primary data container defining 22 maintaining the name with Applica tion Sync 53 size implications 22 project files 25 R regedit exe defining 26 S sandbox considerations for upgraded applications 65 defining 129 location 23 131 parameters 126 search order 129 structure 133 sbmerge exe commands 61 defining 59 merging runtime changes 60 VMware Inc scripts bat example 143 reg example 144 callback functions 141 copyfile example 144 registry modify example 143 stopping service example 144 system registry example 146 timeout example 143 using 141 Setup Capture wizard using 20 25 shell integration reduced functions with ThinApp 16 snapshot exe creating snapshots from the com mand line 137 sample commands 138 sample procedure 139 snapshot ini defining 140 support for applications 15 for operating systems 15 T ThinApp applications that are not supported 16 browsing project files 25 deployment options 31 directory files 135 folder macros 158 in a VMware View environment 32 installing 18 recommendation for clean computers 17 requirements for installing and cap turing applications 15 streaming packages from the network 42 VMware Inc Index supported operating systems and applications 15 updating applications 51 using thinreg exe 32 thinreg exe Application Sync impact 33 defining 32 invoked by MSI fil
8. ThinApp stores file system information in the virtual registry The virtual registry enables ThinApp to optimize file system access in the virtual environment For example when an application tries to open a file ThinApp does not need to consult the real file system for the real system location and again for the sandbox location Instead ThinApp can check for the file s existence by consulting only the virtual registry This ability increases the ThinApp runtime performance VMware does not support modifying or adding files directly to the sandbox If you copy files to the sandbox directory the files are not visible to the application If the file already exists in the sandbox you can overwrite and update the file VMware recommends performing all modifications from the application itself Listing Virtual Registry Contents with vregtool Because the sandbox contains the modifications to the registry you might need the vregtool utility to view modified virtual registry changes Running this command requires access to the vregtoo1 utility in C Program Files VMware VMware ThinApp A sample command to list the contents of a virtual registry file is vregtool registry rw tvr printkeys VMware Inc 133 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 134 VMware Inc ThinApp Directory Files The ThinApp installation generates the VMware ThinApp directory in C Program Files VMware You might need to locate files in this directory to perform operation
9. Thinstall lt sandbox_name gt lt computer_name gt For example C Documents and Settings JohnDoe Application Data Thinstall Mozilla Firefox 3 0 JOHNDOE COMPUTER m AppData Thinstall lt sandbox_name gt For example C Documents and Settings JohnDoe Application Data Thinstall Mozilla Firefox 3 0 If ThinApp cannot locate an existing sandbox according to the ordered locations ThinApp creates a new sandbox in these locations using this logic m Ifthe SANDBOXNAME_SANDBOX_DIR environment variable is set create a sandbox at this location m If the THINSTALL_SANDBOX_DIR environment variable is set create a sandbox at this location m If the SANDBOXPATH Package ini parameter is set create a sandbox at this location m Create a sandbox in the AppData Thinstall folder of the user NOTE Only one computer at a time can use a shared sandbox If a computer is already using a sandbox a warning appears ThinApp creates a new sandbox to allow you to continue working until the previous copy closes Controlling the Sandbox Location The setup capture process adds the SandboxName parameter to the Package ini file If you capture Firefox and Mozilla Firefox 3 0 is the value of this parameter the default location of the sandbox for the application is AppData Thinstal1l Mozilla Firefox 3 0 The typical AppData location is C Documents and Settings lt user name gt Application Data If you use Active Directory AppData
10. lt share gt Microsoft Office 2007 Word exe VMware Inc 35 VMware ThinApp User s Manual Table 3 1 Optional thinreg exe parameters Continued Parameter k keepunauthorized keep Purpose Prevents the removal of registration information even if you are no longer authorized to access an application package Without this option thinreg exe removes the registration information for that package if it detects you are no longer authorized to access the package ThinApp stores authorization information in the PermittedGroups parameter of the Package ini file Sample Usage thinreg exe k lt server gt lt share gt Microsoft Office 2007 Word exe noarp Prevents the creation of an entry in the Add Remove Programs control panel applet thinreg exe q noarp lt server gt lt share gt Microsoft Office 2007 Wword exe norelaunch Launches thinreg exe on Microsoft Vista without elevated privileges Standard users can invoke the utility without a UAC pop up winder When thinreg exe detects a need for more privileges such as the privileges required for the allusers parameter the utility relaunches itself as a privileged process and generates a UAC pop up window The norelLaunch option blocks this relaunch process and causes the registration to fail thinreg exe q norelaunch lt server gt lt share gt Microsoft Office 2007 Word exe 36 VMware
11. on page 15 Recommendations for Installing ThinApp on page 17 Install ThinApp on page 18 Reviewing ThinApp Requirements Review the requirements for operating systems and captured applications before installing ThinApp Operating Systems Applications and Systems That ThinApp Supports ThinApp supports these operating systems applications and systems 32 bit platforms Windows NT Windows 2000 Windows 2000 Server Windows XP Windows XPE Windows 2003 Server Windows Vista 64 bit platforms Windows XP 64 bit Windows 2003 64 bit Windows Vista 64 bit 16 bit applications running on 32 bit Windows operating systems 32 bit applications running on 32 bit and 64 bit Windows operating systems Terminal Server and Citrix Xenapp ThinApp supports Japanese applications captured and run on Japanese operating systems VMware Inc 15 VMware ThinApp User s Manual ThinApp does not support these operating systems and applications m 16 bit or non x86 platforms such as Windows CE m 64 bit applications running on 32 bit or 64 bit Windows operating systems m 16 bit applications running on 64 bit Windows operating systems Applications that ThinApp Cannot Virtualize ThinApp cannot convert some applications into virtual applications and might block certain application functions You must use traditional installation technologies to deploy the following types of applications m Applications requiring installation of ker
12. some elements of the user interface are protected You can assign the UACRequestedPriviLegesUIAccess parameter a true or false value The default value of false ensures the virtual application cannot access protected elements In typical circumstances applications do not require such access Review this sample entry BuildOptions UACRequestedPrivilegesUiAccess false UpgradePath UpgradePath Location to probe for application updates By default ThinApp looks for application upgrades in the same directory as the main executable file You can use this option to specify an alternative location to look for application upgrades For example this instructs ThinApp to probe for application upgrades under C Program Files MyAppUpgrades BuildOptions UpgradePath C Program Files MyAppUpgrades When Application Sync downloads an update from a server it stores the update with a temporary name in the UpgradePath directory After the download is complete the temporary file is renamed with a 1 extension or 2 if 1 already exists the next time the application starts No other applications can be using the same sandbox ThinApp VMware Inc Appendix A Package ini Parameters attempts to change the 1 name still in the UpgradePath directory to the original filename which might be in another directory If ThinApp cannot make this change the file keeps the 1 extension in the UpgradePath directory That file is still accessed when
13. xxx FindFirstFilew C test cmd_test bin foobar gt INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE failed FS missing in view O fs entry not found drive_C test cmd_test bin foobar fs entry not found edrive_C test cmd_test bin xxx FindFirstFilew C WINDOWS system32 foobar gt INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE failed system probe C WINDOWS system32 foobar gt ffffffffh no virtual or system matches VMware Inc Chapter 5 Monitoring and Troubleshooting ThinApp xxx FindFirstFilew C WINDOWS system32 foobar gt INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE failed FS missing in view O fs entry not found SystemSystem foobar x FindFirstFilew C WINDOWS foobar gt INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE failed system probe C WINDOWS foobar gt fffffFFFh no virtual or system matches FindFirstFilew C WINDOWS foobar gt INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE failed FS missing in view O fs entry not found SystemRoot foobar x FindFirstFileW C WINDOWS System32 Wbem foobar gt INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE failed system probe C WINDOWS System32 Wbem foobar gt fffffffFh no virtual or system matches FindFirstFilew C WINDOWS System32 Wbem foobar gt INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE xxx failed FS missing in view O fs entry not found SystemSystem wbem foobar xxx FindFirstFilew c Program Files subversion bin foobar gt INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE failed system probe c Program Files subversion bin
14. 1 the default clean up for the package with be No In this case you can change the clean up to Yes by calling RemoveSandboxOnExit with the value of 1 Parameters Yes No in Do you want to clean up when the last process shuts down 1 Yes 0 No Example This turns on cleanup RemoveSandboxOnExit 1 This turns off cleanup RemoveSandboxOnExit 0 SetEnvironmentVariable Sub SetEnvironmentVariable Name Value This function set the value of an environment variable Parameters Name in The name of environment variable where the value is to be stored VMware Inc Appendix E Using Scripts Value in The value to be stored Example SetEnvironmentVariable PATH C Windows system32 SetfileSystemlsolation Sub Setfile systemlsolation Directory IsolationMode This function sets the isolation mode of a directory Parameters Directory in Full path of the directory whose isolation mode is to be set IsolationMode in Isolation mode to be set 1 WriteCopy 2 Merged 3 Full Example Set the isolation mode of the temp directory to Merged Setfile systemIsolation GetEnvironmentVariabLleC TEMP 2 SetRegistrylsolation Sub SetRegistrylsolation RegistryKey lsolationMode This function sets the isolation mode of a registry key Parameters RegistryKey in The registry key whose isolation mode is to be set Start with HKLM for HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE HKCU for HKE
15. 1 0 When you upgrade an application the sandbox name plays an important role in determining if the user retains their previous personal settings or requires new settings By changing the SandboxName with new deployments you can determine whether the user creates a new sandbox with different settings or retains the same sandbox SandboxPath SandboxPath Controls the path where ThinApp creates a new sandbox by default The following example shows how to create the default sandbox in the same directory as the executable file BuildOptions SandboxPath The following example shows how to create the default sandbox in a subdirectory subordinate to the executable file location BuildOptions SandboxPath LocalSandbox Subdir1 The following example shows how to create the default sandbox in the user s AppData folder under the Thinstall subdirectory BuildOptions SandboxPath AppData ThinstalLlL The following example shows how to create the default sandbox on a network mapped drive BuildOptions SandboxPath Z Sandboxes VMware Inc Appendix A Package ini Parameters If an application is meant to run only from portable media such as USB Flash devices use SandboxPath to force the application to use a local sandbox You can also control the default location of the sandbox using environment variables or by creating a Thinstall directory Environment variables and a local Thinstall directory take precedence over the pat
16. Application Updates Triggered by the End User ThinApp provides the Application Sync and Application Link utilities to update applications The Application Sync utility updates an entire application package while the Application Link utility keeps shared components or dependent applications in separate packages Reviewing the Application Sync Utility The Application Sync utility keeps deployed virtual applications up to date When an application starts with this utility enabled the application queries a Web server to see if an updated version of the executable is available If an update is available the differences between the existing package and the new package are downloaded and used to construct an updated version of the package The updated package is used for future launches The Application Sync utility is useful for major configuration updates to the application For example you might need to update Firefox to the next major version VMware Inc 51 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 52 Using Application Sync in a Managed or Unmanaged Environment If you use the Application Sync utility in a managed computer environment that has auto update capabilities do not use the Application Sync utility because it might clash with other update capabilities If you have an unmanaged environment that does not make use of application auto update capabilities use the Application Sync utility to update applications Edit Application Sync P
17. C Program Files The MSIDefaultInstallAllUsers parameter sets a per user installation of the package ThinApp installs the package in the user s AppData directory For example include this line in the Package ini file MSIDefaultInstal1A11Users 0 For more information on this parameter see Specifying Per User and Per Machine Database Installation on page 39 The MSIFileName parameter names the package For example include this line in the Package ini file MSIFilename Firefox30 msi 37 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 38 The MSTRequireElevatedPrivileges parameter indicates whether an installer needs elevated privileges for deployment on Microsoft Vista Per user installation do not usually need elevated privileges but per machine installations require such privileges For example include this line in the Package ini file MSIRequireELevatedPrivileges 1 The MSTProductCode parameter makes it easier to install a new version of the application An MSI database contains a number of codes including a product code and an upgrade code When you update a package keep the original value of the MSTUpgradeCode parameter If the parameter value of the new version is the same as the value of the old version the installation prompts you to remove the old version If the values for the parameter are different the installation uninstalls the old version and installs the new version VMware recommends that you avoid speci
18. File System 158 Using Folder Macros 158 List of Folder Macros 159 Processing SystemRoot 160 10 VMware Inc Contents G Virtual Registry 161 Format Stages of the Virtual Registry 161 Registry Value Data 162 Example of Macro Expansion 162 Text Format for Virtual Registry 163 Attributes ini 165 Performing Registry Operations 165 Importing Registry Data from Regedit Format 165 Exporting Registry Data to Regedit Format 166 Listing all Registry Keys ina ThinApp tvr File 167 Listing Diagnostic Information About a Thinapp tvr File 168 Comparing Virtual Registry Information with Host Computer Registry Information 168 Deleting a Registry Subkey 168 Index 171 VMware Inc 11 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 12 VMware Inc About This Book The VMware ThinApp User s Manual provides information about how to install ThinApp capture applications deploy applications and upgrade applications You can refer to this guide to customize parameters and perform scripting Intended Audience This book is intended for anyone who wants to install and use ThinApp Typical users are system administrators responsible for the distribution and maintenance of corporate software packages Document Feedback VMware welcomes your suggestions for improving our documentation If you have comments send your feedback to docfeedback vmware com Technical Support and Education Resources The following sections describe the techni
19. HKEY_CURRENT_USER Software Thinapp demo RegFile WriteLine chr 34 and InventoryName and chr 34 and and chr 34 and GetBuildOption InventoryName and chr 34 RegFile Close Enter the information in the system registry wait until it is done RegEditPid ExecuteExternalProcess regedit s and chr 34 and RegFileName and chr 34 WaitForProcess RegEditPid 0 Clean up fso DeleteFile RegFileName End Function API Reference 146 This chapter contains API reference information for ThinApp AddForcedVirtualLoadPath Function AddForcedVirtualLoadPath Path This function instructs ThinApp to load all DLLs from the specified path as virtual DLLs even if they are not located in the package Use this function if the application needs to load external DLLs that have dependencies on DLLs located inside the package VMware Inc Appendix E Using Scripts Parameters Path in The filename or path for DLLs to load as virtual Example Load any DLL located in the same directory as the executable as a virtual DLL TS_ORIGIN is the path from which the executable is running Origin GetEnvironmentVariableC TS_ORIGIN To delete the filename from TS_ORIGIN so find the last backslash and remove everything after it LastSlash InStrRev Origin SourcePath Left Origin LastSlash Tell ThinApp to load all DLLs in the same directory or deeper from where the source executable is This allows us to drop add
20. Inc Chapter 3 Deploying Applications Building an MSI Database If you do not create MSI files during the Setup Capture wizard you can still create these files after building an application An MSI database is useful for delivering captured applications through traditional desktop management systems to remote locations and having shortcuts and file type associations automatically created Basic Active Directory group policies provide ways to push and launch MSI packages ThinApp creates an MSI database that contains certain files depending on the size For databases smaller than 2GB the MSI database consists of captured executable files installer logic and the thinreg exe utility For databases larger than 2GB the MSI database consists of installer logic and thethinreg exe utility ThinApp stores the captured executable files in cabinet files For example the files might be lt inventoryname gt _1 CAB and lt inventoryname gt _2 CAB The CAB files must be in the same directory as the MSI files ThinApp must distribute these files with the MSI file to have a complete installer Customizing MSI Files with Package ini Parameters You can customize the behavior of MSI files by modifying the Package ini parameters and rebuilding the application package VMware Inc The MSIInstal1lDirectory parameter sets the installation directory for the package For example include this line in the Package ini file MSIInstallDirectory
21. Inc Chapter 4 Updating Applications 5 From the command prompt navigate to the directory where the ThinApp project folder resides For example navigate to C Program Files VMware VMware ThinApp Captures Mozilla Firefox 2 0 0 3 6 Type this command C Program Files VMware VMware ThinApp sbmerge Print ThinApp prints the changes that affected the sandbox folder when using the captured application 7 Type this command C Program Files VMware VMware ThinApp sbmerge Apply ThinApp empties the Thinstall folder and merges the sandbox changes with the application sbmerge exe Commands ThinApp provides the sbmerge exe Print and sbmerge exe Apply commands Print displays sandbox changes and does not make modifications to the sandbox or original project Apply merges changes from the sandbox with the original project This command updates the project registry and file system to reflect changes and deletes the sandbox directory Usage C Program Files VMware VMware ThinApp sbmerge Print lt optional_parameters gt C Program Files VMware VMware ThinApp sbmerge Apply lt optional_parameters gt VMware Inc 61 VMware ThinApp User s Manual Optional Parameters Parameter Description ProjectDir lt project_path gt If you start the sbmerge exe command from a location other than the application project folder use the absolute or relative path to the project directory using the ProjectDir lt pr
22. Link Application Sync user specified entry points for your virtual applications and other settings You can set numerous Package ini file settings during the setup capture process For more information see Chapter 2 Capturing Applications on page 19 The BuildOptions section applies to all applications Individual applications inherit any options that you set in this section unless the application section specifically overrides these settings The Application exe parameters provide the application entry points that you create during the build process This information discusses the following topics m Isolation and Virtualization Granularity on page 92 m General Options on page 96 m Access Control on page 109 m Application Specific Parameters on page 110 m Application Link on page 115 m Application Sync on page 118 m MSI Generation on page 121 m Sandbox Control on page 126 VMware Inc 91 VMware ThinApp User s Manual Isolation and Virtualization Granularity The following sections describe the isolation and virtualization granularity parameters ChildProcessEnvironmentDefault ChildProcessEnvironmentDefault Determines if child processes are run in the virtual environment by default The ThinApp default behavior is to create all child processes in the virtual environment This option allows you to change the ThinApp behavior so that new child processes are
23. Personal C Documents and Settings lt user_name gt My Documents Profile C Documents and Settings lt user_name gt VMware Inc 159 VMware ThinApp User s Manual Table F 1 Folder Macros Continued Macro Name Typical Location Profiles C Documents and Settings Program Files Common C Program Files Common Files ProgramFilesDir C Program Files Programs C Documents and Settings lt user_name gt Start Menu Programs Recent C Documents and Settings lt user_name gt My Recent Documents SendTo C Documents and Settings lt user_name gt SendTo Startup C Documents and Settings lt user_name gt Start Menu Programs Startup SystemRoot C Windows SystemSystem C Windows System32 TEMP C Documents and Settings lt user_name gt Local Settings Temp Templates C Documents and Settings lt user_name gt Templates Processing SystemRoot A Terminal Services environment has a shared Windows directory such as C Windows and a private Windows directory such as C Documents and Settings User Windows In this environment ThinApp uses the user specific directory for Systemroot 160 VMware Inc Virtual Registry Operating systems and applications store a large number of settings in the system registry The virtual operating system intercepts requests to open files and redirects them to the virtual file system The virtual operating system intercepts
24. Shared memory objects can be named or anonymous When the objects are named they are visible to other applications running in the same user account Sometimes it is desirable to isolate shared memory objects so that virtual applications cannot see system objects and the reverse By default ThinApp only isolates shared memory objects that embedded Internet Explorer instances use A conflict occurs between explorer exe and iexplore exe when they map sandboxed files You can use this option to isolate additional named shared memory objects so that they are visible only to other virtual applications using the same sandbox IsolatedMemoryObjects accepts a list of entries that are separated by the semicolon character Each entry can have wildcard characters and to match variable patterns For example isolate two shared memory objects matching anything with outlook in the name and one matching exactly My Shared Object BuildOptions IsolatedMemoryObjects outLook My Shared Object VMware Inc Appendix A Package ini Parameters IsolatedSynchronizationObjects IsolatedSynchronizationObjects List specific synchronization objects to isolate from other applications Windows has several named Synchronization objects m Mutex accessed using OpenMutex and CreateMutex m Semaphore accessed using OpenSemaphore and CreateSemaphore m Events accessed using OpenEvent and CreateEvent By default ThinApp does not isolate syn
25. ThinApp automatically shuts down virtual services when the last non service based child process exits This option instructs ThinApp to keep virtual services running even when all other processes exit This option does not have any effect on non virtual services Following are examples of this parameter Keep virtual services running when the application exits BuildOptions AutoShutdownServices 0 Stop virtual services when the last non service application exits default BuildOptions AutoShutdownServices 1 AutoStartServices AutoStartServices Controls whether to start virtual service when the first application starts By default ThinApp starts virtual services that are installed with the startup type of Automatic The virtual services start when the user runs the first parent process You can use this option to disable auto starting of virtual services VMware Inc Appendix A Package ini Parameters Following are examples of AutoStartServices Do not start virtual services BuildOptions AutoStartServices 0 Start virtual services when first process starts default BuildOptions AutoStartServices 1 BlockSize BlockSize Controls the size of compression blocks used when compressing files during build Using a larger block size can achieve higher compression Larger block sizes can negatively effect performance m The build process slows down with larger block sizes m Startup time and file reads for
26. ThinApp has to register with the local environment 2 From the command prompt type thinreg exe lt optional_parameters gt lt packagel1 exe gt lt package2 exe gt lt PackagesByWiLdcard gt If the server name is DEPLOYSERVER and the share is ThinApps use this sample command to register Microsoft Word for the logged in user ThinReg exe DEPLOYSERVER ThinApps Microsoft Office 2007 Word exe Use this sample command to register all Microsoft Office applications in the specified directory for the logged in user ThinReg exe DEPLOYSERVER ThinApps Microsoft Office exe Optional thinreg exe Parameters Thinapp provides optional parameters for the thinreg exe utility See Table 3 1 Standard use of thinreg exe accounts for the PermittedGroups setting in the Package ini file registering and unregistering packages as needed When thinreg exe registers a package for the current user the utility creates only the shortcuts and file type associations that the current user is authorized for in the PermittedGroups setting If this setting does not exist the current user is authorized for all executables When thinreg exe registers a package for all users with the alLusers parameter ThinApp creates all shortcuts and file type associations regardless of the PermittedGroups setting When you double click a shortcut icon that you are not authorized for you cannot run the application If the package name you want to register
27. This includes directories filenames file attributes file sizes and file modification dates m The HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE and HKEY_USERS registry trees ThinApp does not scan HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT and HKEY_CURRENT_USER registry entries because those entries are subsets of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE and HKEY_USERS entries VMware Inc 137 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 138 Sample Commands Table D 1 describes sample commands for the snapshot exe utility The parameters are not case sensitive Table D 1 snapshot exe Sample Commands Command snapshot c Capture snapshot Description Captures a complete snapshot of local drives and registry to the file c Capture snapshot snapshot c Capture snapshot c e Captures a complete snapshot of the drives c and e ThinApp does not capture registry information snapshot c Capture snapshot c HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE Software Classes Captures a complete snapshot of the drive c and all of the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT registry subtree snapshot c Original snapshot Diff c NewEnvironment snapshot c MyProject Generates a ThinApp project directory by comparing two snapshots snapshot Original snapshot DiffPrint NewEnvironment snapshot Displays differences between two captured snapshots snapshot C data snapshot snapshot C data snapshot C HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE Saves the state of the computer file system and registry snapshot C start snap
28. administrators if the user does not have permission to install for each machine NOTE By supplying command line arguments to msiexec you can force a per user machine installation For example msiexec exe mymsi msi ALLUSERS 1 BuildOptions MSIFilename mymsi msi MSIDefaultInstaLlAllUsers 2 122 VMware Inc Appendix A Package ini Parameters MSIFilename MSIFilename Enables the generation of an MSI database and specifies its filename If set this option causes the build to produce a Windows Installer with the specified filename in the output directory For example this directs ThinApp to generate an MSI during build and replace mymsi msi with your own filename BuildOptions MSIFilename mymsi msi MSllInstallDirectory MSTInstal1lDirectory Specifies the path of the default installation directory This option has an effect only when the MSIFilename option requests generation of a Windows installer database By default packages are installed in the ProgramFilesDir lt InventoryName gt directory for a per machine installation You can change the default installation path by using the MSIInsta11Dir option When you use a relative path the path is relative to ProgramFilesDir for per machine installations MSIDefaultInstal1lAl1lUsers 1 and relative to AppData for per user installations MSIDefaultInstallAl1lUsers 0 For example if you set MSIInstal1Directory ExampleDir the default installation director
29. d11 SYSTEM_LOADED 035qa0000 03698fff C WINDOWS system32 nvwimg d11 SYSTEM_LOADED 035e0000 03ba9fff C WINDOWS system32 ieframe d11 SYSTEM_LOADED 04730000 04828fff C WINDOWS system32 nvwimg d11 MEMORY_MAPPED_ANON 5000000 050a8fff C Program Files Adobe Reader 8 0 Reader ACE d11 MEMORY_MAPPED_ANON 06000000 064bOfff C Program Files Adobe Reader 8 0 Reader AGM d11 MEMORY_MAPPED_ANON 07000000 07019fff C Program Files Adobe Reader 8 0 Reader BIB d11 MEMORY_MAPPED_ANON 08000000 08239fff C Program Files Adobe Reader VMware Inc 73 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 74 8 Reader CoolType d11 SYSTEM_LOADED Offd0000 OfffF7FFF C WINDOWS system32 rsaenh d11 SYSTEM_LOADED 10000000 10165fff C WINDOWS system32 nview d11 SYSTEM_LOADED 20000000 202c4fff C WINDOWS system32 xpsp2res d11 MEMORY_MAPPED_ANON 20800000 20fdafff C Program Files Adobe Reader 8 ME 8 ME 8 ME 8 ME 8 ME 8 ME 8 ME 8 ME 8 ME 8 ME 8 ME 8 ME 8 ME 8 ME 8 ME 8 ME 8 ME 8 ME 8 ME 8 ME 8 ME 8 ME 8 Reader plug_ins AcroForm api MORY_MAPPED_ANON 22100000 224f2fff C Program Reader plug_ins Annots api MORY_MAPPED_ANON 23000000 2311afff Reader plug_ins DigSig api MORY_MAPPED_ANON 23800000 23951fff Reader plug_ins EScript api MORY_MAPPED_ANON 24000000 24023ffF Reader plug_ins EWH32 api MORY_MAPPED_ANON 25800000 25817ffF Reader plug_ins IA32 api MORY_MAPPED_ANON 26800000 2
30. for specific applications VMware Inc 101 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 102 The following example prevents an application from creating a trace file even if Log Monitor is running BuildOptions DisableTracing 1 The following example allows Log Monitor to create a trace file default BuildOptions DisableTracing 0 You might want to turn off trace file generation capabilities for several reasons m For security purposes it might be preferable to hide the execution history m During testing it might be useful to turn off tracing for specific captured applications that you know work Producing extra trace files represents a waste of disk space and CPU time ExcludePattern ExcludePattern Enables you to exclude specified files during the build process You can use this option to exclude specific files or directories from a project determined dynamically at build time The list of patterns is specified with a comma separator The wildcard matches 0 or more following characters and the question mark matches exactly one character This syntax is similar to the DOS dir command Unlike the DOS dir command syntax you can apply wildcard characters to directory names and filenames You can specify ExcludePattern in the following places m Package ini file The pattern exclusion applies to the entire directory structure m Attributes ini The pattern exclusion is added to the current list of exclusions a
31. in a subdirectory of the parent executable RequiredAppLinks plugins PLugin exe This imports all executable files located in the plug ins directory NOTE If any executable file fails to import because it is not a proper Thinapp package or because of a security problem the parent executable file fails to load RequiredAppLinks pLugins exe The following imports all EXEs located at the absolute path n plugins RequiredAppLinks n pLugins exe The following expands the environment variable PLUGINS and imports all executable files found at this location RequiredAppLinks PLUGINS exe The following loads two specified plug ins and a list of executable files found under plug ins RequiredAppLinks plugin1 exe plugin2 exe plugins exe VMware Inc 117 VMware ThinApp User s Manual Application Sync 118 Application Sync enables you to keep deployed virtual applications up to date When an application starts Application Sync can query a Web server to see if an updated version of the package is available If an update is available the differences between the existing package and the new package are downloaded and used to construct an updated version of the package The updated package is used for future launches You can configure Application Sync by editing the Package ini file The following entries are the default settings for Application Sync AppSyncURL https example com some path PackageName exe App
32. like the following isolation_mode FULL_SUBKEY_NAME Value VALUE_NAME VALUE_TYPE VALUE_DATA or Value VALUE_NAME VALUE_TYPE MACRO_VALUE_DATA isolation_mode This can be one of ThinApp s isolation modes as specified by isolation_full isolation_merged or isolation_writecopy VALUE_TYPE This specifies the value data registry type Use one of the following REG_SZ REG_EXPAND_SZ REG_BINARY REG_DWORD REG_DWORD_BIG_ENDIAN REG_LINK REG_MULTI_SZ REG_RESOURCE_LIST REG_FULL_RESOURCE_DESCRIPTOR REG_RESOURCE_REQUIREMENTS_LIST If you need to represent a non published registry type you can specify a decimal base 10 number For example 453 00 VALUE_DATA Specifies value data Data is represented differently depending on if the data type is a string or non string type String types REG_SZ REG_MULTI_SZ REG_EXPAND_SZ Values are represented as escaped string values A unicode text file must be used to represent non ANSI characters ThinApp uses unicode text files by default The new line character tab character carriage return end of file and NULL characters must be escaped if they exist in the original string Escaped characters begin with and are followed by two hex characters to represent the ANSI value for the character Non ANSI unicode characters do not need to be escaped but can only exist in unicode text files The following are examples REG_SZ Both 00 VMware Inc 163 VMware ThinApp Use
33. location at lt server gt lt share gt Firefox exe Assume two users launch Firefox exe and lock the application 64 VMware Inc Chapter 4 Updating Applications 4 Copy the updated version of Firefox exe to the central share at lt server gt lt share gt Firefox 1 If you are a new user ThinApp launches the application with the new package data in Firefox 1 If you are a user working with the original version you can see the new version after exiting the application and restarting the application 5 Ifyou need to deploy a more current update of Firefox place it in the same directory with a higher number at the end Copy Version 2 0 of Firefox exe to central share at lt server gt lt share gt Firefox 2 Once Firefox 1 becomes unlocked you can delete it but Firefox exe should remain in place since the user shortcuts continue to point there ThinApp always uses the filename that has the highest version number If you need to perform a roll back to an earlier version and the most recent version is still locked copy the old version so it has the highest version number Sandbox Considerations for Upgraded Applications When you upgrade an application you can control whether users continues to use their previous settings by keeping the sandbox name consistent in the Package ini file If you do not want users to use an older sandbox with an upgraded application you can package the upgraded application with a new na
34. media For example a disk drive thumb drive or flash card reader m CD ROM The drive is a CD ROM drive m RAMDISK The drive is a RAM disk Basic usage is to specify a single virtual drive letter By default a drive is assigned a serial number and the FIXED type BuildOptions VirtualDrives Drive M This specifies three virtual drive letters X D and Z BuildOptions VirtualDrives Drive X Serial ff897828 Type REMOVABLE Drive D Type CDROM Drive Z Drive X appears to be a removable disk with Serial number ff797828 Drive D appears to be a CD ROM drive with an assigned serial number VMware Inc Appendix A Package ini Parameters Drive Z appears to be a FIXED disk with an assigned serial number NOTE The semicolon separates information assigned to different drive letters To change the isolation mode for a virtual drive 1 Add the folder Drive_X to your ThinApp project 2 Inthenew directory place an Attributes ini file to specify the isolation mode for this drive letter Access Control The following section describes the access control parameters AccessDeniedMsg AccessDeniedMsg Contains an error message to display to a user if he or she does not have permission to run a package The default setting is You are not currently authorized to run this application Please contact your Administrator For example BuildOptions PermittedGroups Administrator O0fficeUsers AccessDenie
35. or executable file For example specify NULL to generate an executable with no icons NOTE You cannot use NULL if you use the file types directive The executable image allocates one icon for each file type myapp exe Source ProgramFiLesDir myapp app exe Icon NULL Specify the application icon by using an executable file different than the Source executable myapp exe Source ProgramFiLesDir myapp app exe Icon ProgramFilesDir myapp app2 exe You can optionally specify the set to use by appending 1 2 to the end of the Icon path name like this myapp exe Source ProgramFiLesDir myapp app exe Icon ProgramFilesDir myapp app2 exe 1 Use a ico file to specify the application icon myapp exe Source ProgramFiLesDir myapp app exe Icon ProgramFilesDir myap myicon ico VMware Inc 111 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 112 NoRelocation NoRelLocation Strips relocation information from the resulting executable Windows executable files might contain base relocation information that enables Windows to load the executable image at an alternative starting memory address If the base address is greater than 0x40000 the executable image is always loaded at its specified base address Relocation information is unnecessary and can be safely stripped from the resulting image Relocation information is typically small on disk Removing this information does not affect the size of the generated executable files
36. or unregister contains spaces you must enclose it in double quotes For information about the PermittedGroups setting see the Appendix A Package ini Parameters on page 91 34 VMware Inc Table 3 1 Optional thinreg exe parameters Parameter a allusers Purpose Registers a package for all users If an unauthorized user attempts to run the application a message informs the user that he or she cannot run the application Chapter 3 Deploying Applications Sample Usage thinreg exe a lt server gt lt share gt Microsoft Office 2007 Word exe This command requires administrator rights q quiet Blocks output thinreg exe q lt server gt lt share gt Microsoft Office 2007 Word exe u unregister uninstall Unregisters a package This command removes the software from the Add Remove Programs control panel applet Unregisters Microsoft Word for the current user thinreg exe u lt server gt lt share gt Microsoft Office 2007 Word exe Unregisters all Microsoft Office applications for the current user and removes the Add Remove Programs entry thinreg exe u server share Microsoft Office exe r reregister Re register a package Under typical circumstances thinreg exe can detect whether a package is already registered and skips it The r option forces thinreg exe to re register the package thinreg exe r lt server gt
37. simutaneously owned by another captured executable OnFirstParentExit Called when the first parent process exits If a parent process executes a child process and quits this callback is called even if the child process continues to execute OnLastProcessExit Called when the last process owning the sandbox exits If a parent process executes a child process and quits this callback is called when the last child process exits example vbs Function OnFirstSandboxOwner msgbox The sandbox owner is End Function GetCurrentProcessName Function OnFirstParentExit msgbox Quiting application End Function GetCurrentProcessName msgbox This code will execute for all parent and child processes Example Scripts 142 The following are example scripts Time out an application on a specific date Run a bat file from a network share inside the virtual environment Modifying the virtual registry Import reg file at runtime Stop a virtual service when the main application quits Copy an external system configuration file into the virtual environment on startup VMware Inc Appendix E Using Scripts To use an example 1 Save contents to a plain text file with the vbs extension in the same directory as your Package ini file produced by Setup Capture It doesn t matter what filename you use all vbs files are added to the package at build tim
38. the package specifies otherwise Isolation RegistryIsolationMode Merged VMware Inc 95 VMware ThinApp User s Manual SandboxCOMObjects SandboxCOMObjects Indicates whether COM objects registered at runtime by the application are accessible to native applications SandboxCOMObjects 1 VirtualizeExternalOutOfProcessCOM VirtualizeExternalOutOfProcessCOM Controls whether external out of process COM objects are run in the virtual environment Captured applications can create COM objects that are registered in the virtual environment as well as COM objects from the host system This option determines how to treat out of process COM objects that are not part of a ThinApp package and are not registered in the virtual registry By default ThinApp executes external out of process COM objects in the virtual environment so such COM objects cannot modify the host computer If you have a compatibility issue with an external COM object running in the virtual environment you can use this option to allow such objects to be created by and run on the host system To run only specific COM objects outside of the virtual environment you can use ExternalCOMObjects to explicitly list each COM object s CLSID For example the following example directs ThinApp to run all external out of process COM objects in the system context not in the virtual environment BuildOptions VirtualizeExternaLOutOfProcessCOM 0 The following example i
39. updating thinreg exe registrations 53 Application Link defining 51 53 file and registry collisions 58 VMware Inc 171 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 172 applications capturing 19 controlling access for Active Directo ry groups 40 difference between Application Sync and Application Link 51 not supported by ThinApp 16 sandbox considerations during up grade processes 65 streaming requirements and recommendations 44 updating 51 Cc capturing applications assessing application dependencies 20 phases of 19 recommendations prior to 20 with the Setup Capture wizard 20 25 cmd exe defining 26 compression for executable files 25 for trace files 70 computers defining a clean system 17 using virtual machines for clean systems 17 cut and paste operations ThinApp limitations 45 D data container See primary data container DCOM services access for captured applications 17 deploying applications on network share 32 applications with deployment tools 31 executable files 32 MSI files 31 deployment tools using with captured applications 31 device drivers incompatible with ThinApp 16 directories applying parameters at granular level 28 DLLs loading into memory 73 recording by Log Monitor 68 drivers support for 45 E entry points defining 21 for troubleshooting 26 impact from Application Sync 53 G global hook DLLs reduced function with ThinApp 17 l iexplore exe defi
40. write to any location ona network mapped disk assuming the user has access rights to do so m UNC network paths Users can read or write to any location on a removable disk if the user has access rights to do so Accessing the System Registry By default captured applications can read the full system registry as permitted by access permissions Specific parts of the registry are isolated from the system during the package creation process This isolation reduces conflicts between different versions of virtual applications and system installed applications By default all registry modifications from captured applications are saved in an isolated sandbox and the system remains unchanged Networking and Sockets Captured applications have normal access to networking capability Captured applications can bind to local ports and make remote connections if the user has access permissions to perform these operations 46 VMware Inc Chapter 3 Deploying Applications Shared Memory Named Pipes Captured applications can interact with other applications on the system by using shared memory named pipes mutex objects and semaphores ThinApp can isolate shared memory objects and synchronization objects This isolation makes them invisible to other applications and other application objects are not visible to a captured application COM DCOM and Out of Process COM Captured applications can create COM controls from the virtual environmen
41. you run the original application VirtualComputerName VirtualComputerName A string that GetComputerName and GetComputerNameEx APIs return in a captured application For the computer name many applications use the name of the machine on which they are installed Some applications connect to a database and use the name of the computer in the connection string For captured applications the computer name is virtualized so that it runs well on any machine regardless of the name Before you run Setup Capture rename the clean machine LOCALHOST After you run Setup Capture the Package ini file contains the following entry VirtualComputerName LOCALHOST Because you renamed the machine before you performed the setup capture process the application uses LOCALHOST as its computer name If you enter a GetComputerName or GetComputerNameEx command the machine returns LOCALHOST If your system requires that the GetComputerName and GetComputerNameEx APIs behave normally do not rename the machine LOCALHOST The VirtualComputerName parameter is commented out in the Package ini file as the following example shows The machine name replaces OriginalMachineName VirtualComputerName OriginalMachineName VirtualDrives VirtualDrives Specifies additional drive letters that should be available to the application at runtime Virtual drives can help solve issues in which applications rely on hard coded paths to specific drive letters that might n
42. 24h gt 29h 000830 0a88 cmd exe 4ad048f4 gt msctfime ime 755c039b GetModuleHandleW IN LPCWSTR lpModuleName 4AD0498Ch gt L KERNEL32 DLL 000831 0a88 GetModuleHandleW KERNEL32 DLL gt 7c800000 000832 0a88 cmd exe 4ad048f4 lt msctfime ime 755c039b GetModuleHandleW gt HMODULE 7c800000h 000833 0a88 cmd exe 4ad04907 gt AcGenral DLL 6f880364 GetProcAddress IN HMODULE hModule 7c800000h IN LPCSTR LpProcName 4AD04980h gt CopyFileExW 000834 0a88 GetProcAddress mod 7c800000 C WINDOWS system32 kernel32 d11l CopyFileExw gt 7feblfcf 000835 0a88 cmd exe 4ad04907 lt AcGenral DLL 6f880364 GetProcAddress gt FARPROC 7FEB1FCFh O 000836 0a88 cmd exe 4ad04919 gt AcGenral DLL 6f880364 GetProcAddress IN HMODULE hModule 7c800000h IN LPCSTR LpProcName 4AD0496Ch gt IsDebuggerPresent VMware Inc 81 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 82 000837 0a88 GetProcAddress mod 7c800000 C WINDOWS system32 kernel32 d11l IsDebuggerPresent gt 7fecOdfa 000838 0a88 cmd exe 4ad04919 lt AcGenral DLL 6f880364 GetProcAddress gt FARPROC 7FECODFAh 000839 0a88 cmd exe 4ad0492b gt AcGenral DLL 6f880364 GetProcAddress IN HMODULE hModule 7c800000h IN LPCSTR LpProcName 4AD04954h gt SetConsoLleInputExeNamew 000840 0a88 GetProcAddress mod 7c800000 C WINDOWS system32 kernel132 d11 SetConsoleInputExeNameW gt 7fe90c21 000841 0a88 cmd exe 4ad0492b lt AcGenral DLL 6f880364
43. 6 ms on log entry 194647 173481875 cycles 62 11 ms on log entry 19065 148587579 cycles 53 20 ms on log entry 195837 133165053 cycles 47 67 ms on log entry 189395 126806624 cycles 45 40 ms on log entry 197417 125894370 cycles 45 07 ms on log entry 200296 121213253 cycles 43 40 ms on log entry 200657 34 total calls 1099873523 total cycles 393 76 ms sprof new_thread_start 561664565 cycles 201 08 ms on log entry 151922 531551734 cycles 190 30 ms on log entry 152733 1619002 cycles 0 58 ms on log entry 72875 1554448 cycles 0 56 ms on log entry 637896 1481627 cycles 0 53 ms on log entry 72881 1091972 cycles 0 39 ms on log entry 580771 Potential Errors The potential errors list is a collection of all log entries that have in their string ThinApp marks entries that could potentially be a problem by adding to the log entry output See Locating Errors for more tips on interpreting this section Potential Errors Detected 006425 0000075c LoadLibraryExwW C Program Files Adobe Reader 8 0 Reader Microsoft Windows Common Controls DLL flags 2 gt failed 006427 0000075c LoadLibraryExW C Program Files Adobe Reader 8 0 Reader Microsoft Windows Common Controls Microsoft Windows Common Control s DLL flags 2 gt failed 006428 0000089c nview d11l 1005b94b lt kernel132 d11 7c80ae4b LoadLibraryW gt HMODULE 7c800000h GetLastError returns 2 0 The system can
44. 680f fff Reader plug_ins eBook api MORY_MAPPED_ANON 28000000 285d1fff Reader plug_ins PPKLite api MORY_MAPPED_ANON 28800000 2885dfff Reader plug_ins ref low api MORY_MAPPED_ANON 29000000 29227fff C Program Reader plug_ins MakeAccessible api MORY_MAPPED_ANON 29800000 2985afff C Program Reader plug_ins Accessibility api MORY_MAPPED_ANON 29a00000 29al1dfff C Program Reader plug_ins ReadOutLoud api MORY_MAPPED_ANON 2a000000 2a018f ff Reader plug_ins Search5 api MORY_MAPPED_ANON 2a300000 2a359f ff Reader plug_ins Search api MORY_MAPPED_ANON 2a800000 2a821fff Reader plug_ins SendMail api MORY_MAPPED_ANON 2b000000 2b045ffF Reader plug_ins Spelling api MORY_MAPPED_ANON 2b800000 2b865fff Reader plug_ins PDDom api MORY_MAPPED_ANON 2d800000 2d94ef ff Reader plug_ins Multimedia api MORY_MAPPED_ANON 2e000000 2e02f fff Reader plug_ins weblLink api MORY_MAPPED_ANON 30800000 30829f Ff Reader plug_ins Updater api MORY_MAPPED_ANON 31800000 31810f ff Reader plug_ins HLS api MORY_MAPPED_ANON 32000000 3204dfff Reader plug_ins SaveAsRTF api MORY_MAPPED_ANON 40800000 40821f ff Reader plug_ins DVA api C Program C Program C Program C Program C Program C Program C Program C Program C Program C Program C Program C Program C Program C Program C Program C Program C Program C Program Files Adobe Reader Files Adobe Reader Files Adob
45. 69c03fa FindFirstFilewW CIN LPCWSTR 1pFileName 1638COh gt L C test cmd_test bin foobar 001550 0a88 amp FindFirstFileW C test cmd_test bin foobar gt INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE failed system probe C test cmd_test bin foobar gt ffffffffh no virtual or system matches VMware Inc Chapter 5 Monitoring and Troubleshooting ThinApp Troubleshooting Specific Applications The following sections describe troubleshooting tips that you can use to create packages for certain applications Microsoft Outlook Outlook stores its account settings and other data in a number of registry keys and files When you start Microsoft Outlook for the first time it checks if these keys exist and if not prompts you to create a new account This works fine in the virtual environment when Microsoft Outlook is not installed on the physical system However when the user already has Microsoft Outlook installed physically the captured version finds the registry keys in the system registry and use those settings which is probably not what is intended Full Isolation Mode is required for the registry keys and files where Microsoft Outlook stores its settings so the captured version pretends the system settings do not exist To set this up some changes need to be made to the capture Add the following to the HKEY_CURRENT_USER txt file isolation_full HKEY_CURRENT_USER Identities isolation_full HKEY_CURRENT_USER Software Microsoft Windows
46. 7 Using the Lowest Operating System Required For Users 18 Install ThinApp 18 2 Capturing Applications 19 Reviewing the Capture Process 19 Assessing Application Dependencies Before the Capture Process 20 Recommended Tasks Prior to the Capture Process 20 Capture an Application with the Setup Capture Wizard 20 Entry Points for Troubleshooting 26 Performing Post Capture Tasks 26 Modifying Isolation Modes 26 Modifying Settings in the Package ini File 27 Edit the Package ini File 27 Modifying Settings in the Attributes ini File 28 Edit the Attributes ini File 29 3 Deploying Applications 31 Reviewing ThinApp Deployment Options 31 Facilitating File Launching with thinreg exe 32 VMware Inc VMware ThinApp User s Manual Impact of Application Sync on thinreg exe 33 Run the thinreg exe Utility 33 Optional thinreg exe Parameters 34 Building an MSI Database 37 Customizing MSI Files with Package ini Parameters 37 Modify the Package ini File to Create MSI Files 38 Specifying Per User and Per Machine Database Installation 39 Deploying MSI Files on Microsoft Vista 40 Controlling Application Access with Active Directory 40 Reviewing Package ini Entries for Active Directory Access Control 41 Using ThinApp Packages Streamed from the Network 42 How ThinApp Application Streaming Works 42 Reviewing Requirements and Recommendations for Streaming Packages 44 Reviewing Security Recommendations for Streaming Packages 44 Stream Packages from the Networ
47. A Package ini Parameters The following tells the Windows loader not to reserve extra address space the default Lapp exe Source ProgramFiLesDir myapp app exe ReserveExtraAddressSpace 0 RetainAlllcons RetainAllIcons Retains all of the Source executable file s original icons in the generated captured executable file By default tlink exe constructs a new executable using a source executable To reduce disk space the new executable image contains only icons viewable from the system shell The package contains all other icons The icons remain accessible to the application while it is running The icons that the system can access system cannot be compressed so their disk size is larger In some cases you might want to have all of the application s original icons visible to the system shell Following are examples of the RetainAllIcons parameter Instruct tink exe to retain all of the application s original icons app exe Source ProgramFiLesDir myapp app exe RetainAlLIcons 1 Instruct tLink exe to strip out unused icons from the system visible portion of the executable file default Lapp exe Source ProgramFiLesDir myapp app exe RetainAllIcons 0 Shortcut Shortcut Points to the name of the ThinApp generated executable that hosts the package data For example this creates a shortcut application that references HostApp exe The HostApp exe file must be listed in the package It also needs to b
48. Active Directory group If the user is not a member of the Active Directory group Thinapp does not start the application In this sample entry from the Package ini file App1 and App2 will both inherit PermittedGroups values BuildOptions PermittedGroups Administrators 0fficeUsers App1 exe App2 exe In this sample entry only users belonging to the App1lusers group can use App1 exe and members of the Everyone group can use App2 exe The default message for denied users changes for App1 BuildOptions PermittedGroups Everyone App1 exe PermittedGroups App1Users AccessDeniedMsg Sorry you can t run this application App2 exe VMware Inc 41 VMware ThinApp User s Manual Using ThinApp Packages Streamed from the Network 42 Any network storage device can serve as a streaming server for hundreds or thousands of client computers See Figure 3 1 Figure 3 1 Block Based Streaming over a Network Share E Jill s Sandbox Sam s Sandbox E Joe s Sandbox On the end user desktop you can create shortcuts that point to the centrally hosted executable packages When the user clicks on the shortcut the application begins streaming to the client computer During the initial streaming startup process the ThinApp status bar informs the user of the progress When the application can begin running the status bar slides down and you can use the application How ThinApp Application Stre
49. ActiveX controls Entry points start native executables in a virtual context Entry points do not create virtual packages of cmd exe regedit exe or iexplore exe Performing Post Capture Tasks 26 Post capture activity might include the following tasks m Modifying Isolation Modes on page 26 m Modifying Settings in the Package ini File on page 27 m Modifying Settings in the Attributes ini File on page 28 Modifying Isolation Modes ThinApp provides the Merged and WriteCopy isolation mode choices in the Setup Capture wizard For information about those modes see Step 12 of Capture an Application with the Setup Capture Wizard on page 20 You can use a third isolation mode Full outside the wizard in the project text files The Full isolation mode secures the virtual bubble by blocking visibility to system elements outside the virtual application package This mode restricts generated data to the sandbox and ensures no interaction exists with the environment outside the virtual application package ThinApp caches the isolation modes for the registry and the file system at runtime in the sandbox If you change the isolation mode for the project and rebuild the executable file you might need to delete the sandbox for the change to take effect You can modify isolation modes in the Package ini and Attributes ini files See Edit the Package ini File on page 27 and Edit the Attributes ini File on
50. CURRENT_USER Software Microsoft Windows CurrentVersion ExpLorer Value DesktopProcess REG_DWORD 01 00 00 00 Use these entries in the Package ini file explorer exe Shortcut xxxxxx exe Source SystemROOT expLorer exe Some advantages with this method include the ability to browse virtual file system with a familiar interface enabling accurate file type associations without system changes especially when using portable applications and accessing shell integrated components without system changes Java Runtime Environment JRE A conflict might occur if one version of Java is installed natively and another one is included in a captured executable This is because newer versions of Java also install a plug in DLL that gets loaded by IE This plug in DLL overwrites virtual registry keys when it is loaded and can conflict with a virtualized copy of older Java runtimes You can prevent IE from loading plug ins by adding the following line to beginning of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE txt isolation_full HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE Software Microsoft Windows CurrentVersion ExpLorer Browser Helper Objects VMware Inc 89 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 90 VMware Inc Package ini Parameters The Package ini file contains parameters that configure your captured applications during the build process By editing the contents of the Package ini file you can configure the isolation mode and several build options including MSI settings Application
51. Delivery Live Meeting Out Look PowerPoint J Visio When ThinApp runs a captured version of Microsoft Visio 2007 ThinApp sets the HKLM Software Microsoft O0ffice registry subtree to full isolation This setting prevents Microsoft Visio 2007 from failing because of registry settings that might preexist on the host computer at the same location Figure 3 4 shows the registry from the perspective of the captured Microsoft Visio 2007 Figure 3 4 Windows Registry as seen by the captured Microsoft Visio 2007 banua 0 a MMi Access Connectivity a E Common Registration H User Settings it Visio 10 0 il 11 0 8 0 9 0 9 Common HE Delivery H Live Meeting Out Look H ij PowerPoint i Visio VMware Inc 49 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 50 VMware Inc Updating Applications You can update captured applications with different utilities depending on the extent of change and dependencies on other applications This chapter includes these topics m Reviewing Application Updates Triggered by the End User on page 51 m Review Application Updates Triggered by the Administrator on page 59 m Reviewing Application Updates using Auto Update Capabilities on page 62 m Upgrading Running Applications on a Network Share on page 64 m Sandbox Considerations for Upgraded Applications on page 65 Reviewing
52. EM_LOADED 77dd0000 77e6afff C WINDOWS system32 ADVAPI32 d11 SYSTEM_LOADED 77e70000 77f00ffF C WINDOWS system32 RPCRT4 d11 SYSTEM_LOADED 77f10000 77f56fff C WINDOWS system32 GDI32 d11 SYSTEM_LOADED 77f60000 77fd5ffF C WINDOWS system32 SHLWAPI d11 SYSTEM_LOADED 77fe0000 77ffOfff C WINDOWS system32 Secur32 d11 MEMORY_MAPPED_ANON 78130000 781cafff C WINDOWS WinSxS x86_Microsoft VC80 CRT_1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b_8 0 50727 163_x ww_681e29fb msvcr80 d11 MEMORY_MAPPED_ANON 7c420000 7c4a6f ff VMware Inc 75 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 76 C WINDOWS WinSxS x86_Microsoft VC80 CRT_1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b_8 0 50727 163_x ww_681e29fb msvcp80 d11 MEMORY_MAPPED_ANON 7c4c0000 7c53cfff C WINDOWS WinSxS x86_Microsoft VC80 CRT_1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b_8 0 50727 163_x ww_ 681e29fb msvcm80 d11 SYSTEM_LOADED 7c800000 7c8f3ffF C WINDOWS system32 kerneLl32 d11L SYSTEM_LOADED 7c900000 7c9afffF C WINDOWS system32 ntd11L d11 SYSTEM_LOADED 7c9c0000 7d1d4ffF C WINDOWS system32 SHELL32 d11 SYSTEM_LOADED 7e410000 7e49fffF C WINDOWS system32 USER32 d11 SYSTEM_LOADED 7e830000 7eb9efff C WINDOWS system32 mshtmL d11 SYSTEM_LOADED Indicates the DLL was loaded by Windows the file must exist on the disk MEMORY_MAPPED_ANON Indicates the DLL was loaded by ThinApp the file might be loaded from the virtual file system 46800000 46873fff Indicates the address ranges in virtual memory where the DLL was loaded Timing Report list of slow
53. EnvironmentVariableW IN LPCWSTR 1LpName 4AD34618h gt L PATH IN DWORD nSize 2000h 001542 0a88 GetEnvironmentVariable PATH gt C WINDOWS system32 C WINDOWS C WINDOWS System32 Wbem c program files subversion bin c Program Files Microsoft SQL Server 90 Tools binn c bin C Program Files Microsoft Visual Studio Common Tools WinNT C Program Files Microsoft Visual Studio Common MSDev98 Bin C Program Files Microsoft Visual Studio Common Tools C Program Files Microsoft Visual Studio VC98 bin 001543 0a88 cmd exe 4ad01ba8 lt USERENV d11 769c03b9 GetEnvironmentVariableW gt DWORD 173h COUT LPWSTR lpBuffer 4AD2BA20h gt L C WINDOWS system32 C WINDOWS C WINDOWS System32 Wbem c Program Files su 001544 0a88 cmd exe 4ad01ba8 gt USERENV d11 769c03b9 GetEnvironmentVariableW IN LPCWSTR 1LpName 4AD34608h gt L PATHEXT IN DWORD nSize 2000h 001545 0a88 GetEnvironmentVariable PATHEXT gt COM EXE BAT CMD VBS VBE JS JSE WSF WSH 001546 0a88 cmd exe 4ad01ba8 lt USERENV d11 769c03b9 GetEnvironmentVariableW gt DWORD 30h OUT LPWSTR lpBuffer 4AD2BA20h gt L COM EXE BAT CMD VBS VBE JS JSE WSF WSH 001547 0a88 cmd exe 4adQ2aaa gt kerne1l32 d11 7c80b2d0 GetDriveTypeW CIN LPCWSTR 1LpRootPathName 13D8C4h gt L C 001548 0a88 cmd exe 4adQ2aaa lt kerne132 d11 7c80b2d0 GetDriveTypeW gt UINT 3h O 001549 0a88 cmd exe 4ad01b5f gt USERENV dll 7
54. FilesDir Microsoft Office OFFICE11 WINWORD EXE FileTypes doc dot Localeldentifier LocaleIdentifier Displays a numeric ID for the locale BuildOptions LocaleIdentifier 1033 LocaleName LocaleName Displays the name of the locale when you capture an application on Microsoft Vista BuildOptions LocaleName ja JP LogPath LogPath Controls where to store trace files when logging For example direct ThinApp to store log files in c ThinappLogs NOTE Unlike most paths in ThinApp LogPath cannot contain macros such as AppData or YTemp VMware Inc 103 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 104 BuildOptions LogPath C ThinappLogs OutDir OutDir Specifies the directory where the build bat output is stored Review this sample entry BuildOptions OutDir bin NetRelaunch NetRelaunch Controls whether to relaunch an application from the local disk when running from a net share or removable disk By default ThinApp detects if an application is running from a network drive or a removable disk and uses a local hard disk to restart the application This process resolves a problem in which Symantec AntiVirus tries to perform a complete scan of an executable file under some conditions This scan can affect on start times for large executable files located on network shares Symantec AntiVirus performs a full file scan if an executable file starts from a network share or removable disk and when a
55. GetProcAddress gt FARPROC 7FE90C21h 000842 0a88 cmd exe 4ad02c97 gt 01le32 d11 774e03f0 Getfile type CIN HANDLE hFile 3h 000843 0a88 Getfile type 3 gt 0x2 000844 0a88 cmd exe 4ad02c97 lt ole32 d11 774e03f0 Getfile type gt DWORD 2h O 000845 0a88 cmd exe 4ad02cc0 gt kernel32 dll 7c812f39 GetStdHandle IN DWORD nStdHandle FFFFFFF6h 000846 0a88 cmd exe 4ad02cc0 lt kernel32 dll 7c812f39 GetStdHandle gt HANDLE 3h 000847 0a88 cmd exe 4adQ2ccd gt kernel32 d11 7c81af14 GetConsoleMode IN HANDLE hConsoleHand1le 3h 000848 0a88 cmd exe 4adQ2ccd lt kernel32 d11 7c81af14 GetConsoleMode gt BOOL 1h COUT LPDWORD 1pMode 13DDCCh gt A7h 000849 0a88 cmd exe 4ad05b74 gt 01e32 d11 774e03f0 Getfile type CIN HANDLE hFile 7h 000850 0a88 Getfile type 7 gt 0x2 000851 0a88 cmd exe 4ad05b74 lt 0le32 d11 774e03f0 Getfile type gt DWORD 2h O 000852 0a88 cmd exe 4ad05b9d gt kernel32 dll 7c812f39 GetStdHandle IN DWORD nStdHandle FFFFFFF5h 000853 0a88 cmd exe 4ad05b9d lt kernel32 dll 7c812f39 GetStdHandle gt HANDLE 7h 000854 0a88 cmd exe 4adQ5baa gt kernel32 d11 7c81af14 GetConsoleMode IN HANDLE hConsoleHand1le 7h 000855 0a88 cmd exe 4adQ5baa lt kernel32 d11 7c81af14 GetConsoleMode gt BOOL 1h OUT LPDWORD 1pMode 13DA80h gt 3h 000856 0a88 cmd exe 4ad 5dec gt kernel32 d11 7c835484 WriteConsoleW IN HANDLE hConsoleOutput 7h IN const LpBuffer 4AD38BAO0h IN D
56. INDOWS system32 MSCTF d11 SYSTEM_LOADED 74d90000 74dfafff C WINDOWS system32 USP10 d11 SYSTEM_LOADED 755c0000 755edfff C WINDOWS system32 msctfime ime SYSTEM_LOADED 75cf0000 75d80fff C WINDOWS system32 MLANG d11 SYSTEM_LOADED 75e90000 75f3fffF C WINDOWS system32 SXS DLL SYSTEM_LOADED 76390000 763acfff C WINDOWS system32 IMM32 DLL SYSTEM_LOADED 76780000 76788fff C WINDOWS system32 shfolder d11 SYSTEM_LOADED 769c0000 76a72fff C WINDOWS system32 USERENV d11 SYSTEM_LOADED 76b40000 76b6cfff C WINDOWS system32 WINMM d11 SYSTEM_LOADED 76bf0000 76bfafff C WINDOWS system32 PSAPI DLL SYSTEM_LOADED 76f60000 76f8bffF C WINDOWS system32 WLDAP32 d11 SYSTEM_LOADED 76fd0000 7704efff C WINDOWS system32 CLBCATQ DLL SYSTEM_LOADED 77050000 77114fff C WINDOWS system32 COMRes d11 SYSTEM_LOADED 77120000 771labfff C WINDOWS system32 OLEAUT32 d11 SYSTEM_LOADED 771b0000 7727efff C WINDOWS system32 WININET d11 SYSTEM_LOADED 773d0000 774d2ffFf C WINDOWS WinSxS x86_Microsoft Windows Common Controls_6595b64144ccf1df_6 0 2600 2982_x ww_ac3f9c03 comct132 d11 SYSTEM_LOADED 774e0000 7761cfff C WINDOWS system32 ole32 d11 SYSTEM_LOADED 77690000 776b0fff C WINDOWS system32 NTMARTA DLL SYSTEM_LOADED 77920000 77a12fff C WINDOWS system32 SETUPAPI d11 SYSTEM_LOADED 77b40000 77b61fff C WINDOWS system32 appHelp d11 SYSTEM_LOADED 77c00000 77c07fff C WINDOWS system32 VERSION d11 SYSTEM_LOADED 77c10000 77c67fff C WINDOWS system32 msvcrt d11 SYST
57. MSI Database on page 37 31 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 32 In a VMware View environment If you work with VMware View the general workflow involves the following tasks m Creating executable files for the captured applications m Storing the executable files on a network share m Creating a login script that queries applications entitled to the user and runs the thinreg exe utility with the option that registers the applications on the local machine Login scripts are useful for non persistent desktops See Facilitating File Launching with thinreg exe on page 32 m Controlling user access to fileshares IT administrators might address this by organizing network shares based on function and associating permissions with network shares based on those functional boundaries On a network share Small and medium enterprises tend to use a network share You can create executable files for the captured application and store them on a network share Each time you deploy a new application or an update to an existing package you can notify client users to run the thinreg exe utility with an appropriate option IT administrators can control user access to fileshares by organizing network shares based on function and associating permissions with network shares based on those functional boundaries The differences between this network share option and the VMware View option is that this options assumes a mix of physical and
58. MSIProductCode 590810CE 65E6 3E0B O8EF 9CCF8AE20D0E MSIProductVersion MSTProductVersion Specify a product version number for the MSI database The default setting is 1 0 This option has an effect only when the MSIFilename option requests generation of a Windows Installer database The product version number appears when you show the properties of the database When you deploy a package to a machine that already has the package installed Windows Installer checks the version numbers and refuses to install an older version over a newer version You must manually uninstall the new version first The following example creates an MSI file with a specific product version BuildOptions MSIFilename mymsi msi MSIProductVersion 1 0 MSIRequireElevatedPrivileges MSTRequireElevatedPrivileges Marks the MSI database as requires elevated privileges The default setting is 1 This option has an effect only when the MSIFilename option requests generation of a Windows Installer database This option affects Microsoft Vista only VMware Inc Appendix A Package ini Parameters When this option is set to 1 the generated MSI database is marked as requiring elevated privileges If your system is set up for UAC prompts this results in a UAC prompt when you install an application When you set the option to 0 no UAC prompt is given but you cannot install machine wide The following creates an MSI file that always prompts for
59. OL VMware Inc Chapter 5 Monitoring and Troubleshooting ThinApp Application Startup Information 000001 0a88 Logging started for Module C test cmd_test bin cmd exe Using archive PID 0xec CommandLine cmd 000002 0a88 Logging options CAP_LEVEL 9 MAX_CAP_ARY 25 MAX_CAP_STR 150 MAX_NEST 100 VERSION 3 090 000003 0a88 System Current Directory C test cmd_test bin Virtual Current Directory C test cmd_test bin 000004 0a88 start_env_var 000005 0a88 start_env_var C C test cmd_test bin 000006 0a88 start_env_var ExitCode 00000000 000007 0a88 start_env_var ALLUSERSPROFILE C Documents and Settings All Users WINDOWS List of DLLs Loaded into Memory During Runtime The section labeled Modules loaded is located near the end of the log and describes all of the DLLs that were loaded into memory at runtime and the addresses they were loaded to This list also describes whether DLLs were loaded by Windows or by ThinApp Modules loaded PRELOADED_MAP 00400000 00452fff C Program Files Adobe Reader 8 0 Reader AcroRd32 exe PRELOADED_BY_SYSTEM 00400000 00452fff C Program Files Adobe Reader 8 0 Reader AcroRd32 exe SYSTEM_LOADED 00400000 00452fff C test AcroRd32 exe SYSTEM_LOADED 00df0000 O0df8fFfF C WINDOWS system32 NormaLliz d1lL MEMORY_MAPPED_ANON 013b0000 020affff C Program Files Adobe Reader 8 0 Reader AcroRd32 d11 SYSTEM_LOADED 035qa0000 035b4fff C WINDOWS system32 nvwddi
60. Package ini file sets the default isolation mode for the project Individual Attributes ini files might change the isolation mode for specific directories and their children Any directories that are not specified such as C myfolder inherit the isolation mode from the Package ini file Directories that are created under Program Files myapp inherit the isolation mode from the Attributes ini file Following are examples of this parameter WriteCopy isolation allows the application to read from the host computer but not write to it default Isolation DirectoryIsolationMode writeCopy Merged isolation allows the application to write to any location on the computer except where the package specifies otherwise Isolation DirectoryIsolationMode Merged ExternalCOMObjects ExternalCOMObjects Controls whether ThinApp or Windows creates a specific COM object CLSID By default ThinApp creates all COM objects in the virtual environment COM supports out of process exe servers as well as service based COM objects If an application can create such COM objects on the host computer and cause them to modify the host computer the integrity of the host computer cannot be assured However if ThinApp runs out of process and services based COM objects in the virtual environment all changes that the COM objects make are stored in the sandbox For example the following code instructs ThinApp to run two COM objects outside of the vi
61. Same Directory 59 Using Application Sync For the Base Application and Linked Packages 59 Review Application Updates Triggered by the Administrator 59 Force an Application Sync Update with AppSync exe 59 Reviewing the sbmerge exe Workflow 60 Merge Sandbox Changes with the Application 60 sbmerge exe Commands 61 Reviewing Application Updates using Auto Update Capabilities 62 Benefits of Dynamic Updates Without Administrator Rights 63 Upgrading Running Applications on a Network Share 64 Reviewing File Locks 64 Upgrade a Running Application 64 Sandbox Considerations for Upgraded Applications 65 5 Monitoring and Troubleshooting ThinApp 67 VMware Inc Providing Information to VMware Support 67 Using Log Monitor 68 Troubleshoot Activity with Log Monitor 68 Log Monitor Options 69 Locating Errors 70 Log Format 71 General API Log Message Format 72 Application Startup Information 73 List of DLLs Loaded into Memory During Runtime 73 Potential Errors 77 Troubleshooting Using Log Monitor 78 Deeper Examination 80 Troubleshooting Specific Applications 87 Microsoft Outlook 87 Attachments 87 Explorer exe 88 Java Runtime Environment JRE 89 VMware ThinApp User s Manual A Package ini Parameters 91 Isolation and Virtualization Granularity 92 ChildProcessEnvironmentDefault 92 ChildProcessEnvironmentExceptions 92 DirectorylsolationMode 92 ExternalCOMObjects 93 ExternalDLLs 94 IsolatedMemoryObjects 94 IsolatedSynchronizationObjects 95 Registry
62. Setup 2 0 0 3 exe and copy it to the clean machine you are working with 2 Goto Start gt Programs gt VMware gt ThinApp Setup Capture 3 Optional In the dialog box that clarifies the definition and use of a clean computer click the Advanced Settings button to select the drives and registry hives to scan You might want to scan a particular location other than the C drive if you install applications to a different location In rare cases you might want to avoid scanning a registry hive if you know the application installer does not modify the registry VMware Inc 10 VMware Inc Chapter 2 Capturing Applications Click Next to begin the first snapshot of the hard drive and registry files The scanning process takes about 10 seconds for Windows XP Minimize the Setup Capture wizard and install the applications you want to capture For example double click Firefox Setup 2 0 0 3 exe to install Firefox If the application needs to reboot after the installation reboot the system The reboot launches the Setup Capture wizard again Make any necessary configuration changes to comply with your organization s policies such as using specific security settings or a particular home page If you do not make configuration changes each user will have to make changes that might lead to inconsistent setup Optional Launch the application and address any prompts for information prior to continuing with the Setup Capture wiza
63. SyncUpdateFrequency 1d AppSyncExpirePeriod 30d AppSyncWarningPeriod 5d AppSyncWarningFrequency 1d AppSyncWarningMessage This application will become unavailable for use in AppSyncwarningPeriod days if it cannot contact its update server Check your network connection to ensure uninterrupted service AppSyncExpireMessage This application has been unable to contact its update server for AppSyncExpirePeriod days so it is unavailable for use Check your network connection and try again AppSyncUpdatedMessage AppSyncClearSandboxOnUpdate 0 The following sections describe the Application Sync parameters NOTE If you use Application Sync VMware recommends that you disable automatic application updates that are configured in your virtual application Conflicts might occur between the linked packages and the software that is updated If an automatic update feature updates an application it stores the updates in the sandbox If Application Sync then updates the application to a different version the updates stored in the sandbox take precedence over the files contained in the version that Application Sync created The order of precedence for the update files are the files in the sandbox the virtual operating system and the physical machine AppSyncURL AppSyncURL URL of the Web server where updates are stored Application Sync works over the HTTP unsecure and HTTPS secure protocol Part of HTTPS is that the identity of the Web serv
64. TempFolder REG_SZ Profile Local Settings Out LookTempxxxx 2 300 NOTE The 11 0 in the key name is for Outlook 2003 use the appropriate version number for your version of Outlook For slightly increased security replace the last four xxxx characters with something random Next create a directory Profile Local Settings OutLookTempxxxx in your project and create an Attributes ini file there containing Isolation DirectoryIsolationMode Merged The directory Profile Local Settings Out LookTempxxxx is just an example you can use whatever you want as long as you make sure that the directory is named in the OutlookSecureTempFolder registry key and is set to the correct isolation mode Explorer exe In typical circumstances Windows operating systems allow you to run one instance of expLorer exe This makes it difficult to add an entry point to Windows Explorer and launch it inside the virtual environment You can use the following methods to launch a Windows Explorer windows inside the virtual environment m Add an entry point to iExplorer and launch it with the E parameter For example use these entries in the Package ini file iexplore exe Shortcut xxxx exe Source ProgramFilesDir Internet Explorer iexplore exe CommandLine ProgramFilesDir Internet Explorer iexplore exe E VMware Inc Chapter 5 Monitoring and Troubleshooting ThinApp Add the following virtual reg key isolation_full HKEY_
65. ThinApp If you find an exception look higher in the trace file for the source of the exception Because Virtual Basic 6 applications throw many floating point exceptions during normal execution you can ignore such exceptions Look at child processes Log Monitor produces one trace file for each process If an application starts several child processes determine which process is causing the problem In some cases such as out of process COM a parent application uses COM to launch a child process executes a function remotely and continues executing functions When you run applications from a network share that generates two processes ignore the first one To work around the slow performance of Symantec antivirus applications ThinApp relaunches processes when running from a network share Search for the error message you see in dialog boxes Many applications call the Win32 API function MessageBox to display unexpected errors at runtime You can search your trace file for MessageBox or the contents of the string displayed in the error and determine what the application was executing just before the dialog box appeared Narrow the focus on calls originating from a specific DLL and thread The log format specifies which DLL and thread is making a call You can often ignore calls from system DLLs Log Format A trace file involves four sections VMware Inc System configuration This section includes information about the
66. VMware ThinApp User s Manual VMware ThinApp 4 0 1 E vmware VMware ThinApp User Manual VMware ThinApp User Manual Item EN 000117 00 You can find the most up to date technical documentation on the VMware Web site at http www vmware com support The VMware Web site also provides the latest product updates If you have comments about this documentation submit your feedback to docfeedback vmware com 2008 VMware Inc All rights reserved This product is protected by U S and international copyright and intellectual property laws This product is covered by one or more patents listed in the patent txt file found at http www vmware com go patents VMware the VMware boxes logo and design Virtual SMP and VMotion are registered trademarks or trademarks of VMware Inc in the United States and or other jurisdictions All other marks and names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective companies VMware Inc 3401 Hillview Ave Palo Alto CA 94304 www vmware com 2 VMware Inc Contents About This Book 13 1 Installing ThinApp 15 Reviewing ThinApp Requirements 15 Operating Systems Applications and Systems That ThinApp Supports 15 Applications that ThinApp Cannot Virtualize 16 Device Drivers 16 Shell Integration 16 DCOM Services that are Accessible on a Network 17 Global Hook DLLs 17 Recommendations for Installing ThinApp 17 Using aClean Computer 17 Using Virtual Machines for Clean Systems 1
67. WORD nNumberOfCharsToWrite 2h IN VMware Inc Chapter 5 Monitoring and Troubleshooting ThinApp LPVOID lpReserved Oh 000857 0a88 cmd exe 4ad 5dec lt kernel32 d11 7c835484 WriteConsoleW gt BOOL 1h OUT LPDWORD 1lpNumberOfCharsWritten 13DAACh gt 2h 000858 0a88 cmd exe 4adQ1ba8 gt USERENV d11 769c03b9 GetEnvironmentVariablew CIN LPCWSTR 1pName 4AD34624h gt L PROMPT IN DWORD nSize 2000h 000859 0a88 GetEnvironmentVariable PROMPT gt P G 000860 0a88 cmd exe 4ad01ba8 lt USERENV d11 769c03b9 GetEnvironmentVariableW gt DWORD 4h OUT LPWSTR LpBuffer 4AD2BA20h gt L P G 000861 0a88 cmd exe 4ad01580 gt USERENV d11 769c0396 GetCurrentDirectoryW CIN DWORD nBufferLength 104h 000862 0a88 GetCurrentDirectoryW gt 0x14 C test cmd_test bin 000863 0a88 cmd exe 4ad01580 lt USERENV d11 769c0396 GetCurrentDirectoryW gt DWORD 14h COUT LPWSTR lpBuffer 4AD34400h gt L C test cmd_test bin 000864 0a88 cmd exe 4ad05b74 gt 01e32 d11 774e03f0 Getfile type CIN HANDLE hFile 7h 000865 0a88 Getfile type 7 gt 0x2 000866 0a88 cmd exe 4ad05b74 lt ole32 d11 774e03f0 Getfile type gt DWORD 2h O 000867 0a88 cmd exe 4ad05b9d gt kernel32 d11 7c812f39 GetStdHandle IN DWORD nStdHandLe FFFFFFF5h 000868 0a88 cmd exe 4ad05b9d lt kernel32 d11 7c812f39 GetStdHandle gt HANDLE 7h 000869 0a88 cmd exe 4adQ5baa gt kernel32 d11 7c81af14 GetConsoleMode IN HANDLE hConsoleHa
68. Y_CURRENT_USER of HKCR for HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT VMware Inc 155 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 156 IsolationMode in Isolation mode to be set 1 WriteCopy 2 Merged 3 Full Example Set isolation of HKEY_CURRENT_USER Software Thinapp Test to Full SetRegistryIsoLlation HKCU Software Thinapp Test 3 WaitForProcess Function WaitForProcess ProcessID TimeOutInMilliSeconds This function waits until the specified ProcessID has completed execution Parameters ProcessID in The process ID to wait for completion The process ID can come from ExecuteExternalProcess or ExecuteVirtualProcess TimeOutInMilliSeconds in The maximum amount of time to wait for the process to end before continuing If 0 is specified INFINITE is used Returns This function returns an integer 0 Timeout failed 1 Process exited 2 The process does not exists or security denied Example id ExecuteExternalProcess cmd exe WaitForProcess id 0 VMware Inc Virtual File System This information about the virtual files system discusses these topics m Format Stages of the Virtual File System on page 157 m Merged and Virtual Views of the File System on page 158 m Using Folder Macros on page 158 Format Stages of the Virtual File System The virtual file system uses formats in the following stages m Build format The setup capture process generates this format that stores files directly o
69. accounts With ThinApp ngen exe can install Native Image assemblies on guest user accounts but stores changes in a user specific directory You can update the package on a central computer and push the changes to client machines or central network shares as a new captured executable file Review the following options for applying updates m Apply updates during the setup capture process m Apply updates inside the virtual environment Applications with auto update capabilities can undergo updates If the update is a patch exe file the patch program can run in the virtual environment and run from a cmd exe entry point Changes occur in the sandbox during auto updates or manual updates to allow you to revert to the original version by deleting the sandbox If you apply patches in the virtual environment on a central packaging machine you can merge sandbox changes made by the update with the application using the sbmerge exe utility See Review Application Updates Triggered by the Administrator on page 59 m Apply updates by replacing files in the captured project If you need to update a small set of files or registry keys replace the files in the captured project This approach is useful for software developers who integrate ThinApp builds with their workflow VMware Inc 63 VMware ThinApp User s Manual Upgrading Running Applications on a Network Share ThinApp enables the upgrade or roll back of an application that is
70. ack to macros when you import information might be lost m Each Registry subkey in tvr format has a specified isolation mode Because reg format does not have a concept of isolation modes or metadata for subkeys this information is lost m Registry values that cannot be represented in reg format are lost For example a key that is REG_SZ cannot have more than one NULL character in reg format In such a case the registry value data is prematurely truncated in reg format Another example where reg files cannot represent values accurately is a REG_SZ value that is not null terminated For these reasons it is preferable to export registry data to ThinApp registry directory format and then re import into the tvr file when you need to process the data The following is an example vregtool c tmp test tvr ExportReg c tmp test reg HKEY_CURRENT_USER Software Adobe Save For Web 3 0 Listing all Registry Keys in a ThinApp tvr File Use the following commands to list all registry keys ina ThinApp tvr file VREGTOOL regfile tvr PrintKeys HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE Software ShowValues ShowData ExpandMacros regfile tvr Data file in ThinApp virtual registry file format HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE Software You can optionally specify a registry subtree to print If no subtree is specified vregtool prints the entire contents of the tvr file If the specified registry subkey has a space in the name your should specify the key usi
71. age A fter the expiration limit is reached and a virtual application starts the application tries to connect to the Web server and check for a new version If the connection fails a message boxappears and the application quits The following example shows a default message AppSyncExpireMessage This application has been unable to contact its update server for AppSyncExpirePeriod days so it is unavailable for use Check your network connection and try again 120 VMware Inc Appendix A Package ini Parameters AppSyncUpdatedMessage AppSyncUpdatedMessage When an updated package first starts an information message can appear For example AppSyncUpdatedMessage Your application has been updated AppSyncClearSandboxOnUpdate AppSyncClearSandboxOnUpdate Lets you clear the sandbox after an update By default the sandbox is not cleared Set this to 1 to clear the sandbox or 0 to leave the sandbox uncleared For example AppSyncClearSandboxOnUpdate 0 MSI Generation The following parameters generate MSI files For more information about MSI generation see Building an MSI Database on page 37 MSIArpProducticon MSTArpProductIcon Specifies the icons to place in the control panel for Add Remove programs The following example assumes you are using Microsoft Office 2007 MSTArpProductIcon Program Files Common Microsoft Shared OFFICE12 Office Setup Controller OSETUP DLL 1 The general format is MSTArpProductIc
72. age you can customize the AccessDeniedMsg option to instruct the user Application Specific Parameters The following sections describe the application specific parameters Disabled Disabled Indicates that a build target is a placeholder and does not generate an executable The following example disables generation of the app exe file during build Changing Disabled to 0 or removing the line enables generation of app exe Lapp exe Source ProgramFiLesDir myapp app exe Disabled 1 CommandLine CommandLine Specifies command line arguments for a shortcut executable For shortcut executable files you can specify the command line that is passed to the virtual application Include the application name as the first parameter 110 VMware Inc Appendix A Package ini Parameters For example enter SomeOption SomeParameter as your command line arguments MyShortcutApp exe Source ProgramFiLesDir Myapp MyShortcutApp exe Shortcut HostApp exe CommandLine ProgramFilesDir Myapp MyShortcutApp exe SomeOption SomeParameter Use folder macros for your path name conventions See Using Folder Macros on page 158 for more information Icon Icon Indicates the icon file to use for the generated executable file By default each generated application uses the main group icon from its source executable file and the individual icon resource that the group icon points to To use an alternative icon specify an ico file
73. al System services or required device drivers Optional Virtual machine that reproduces the defect VMware Support might request this if the support contact is unable to reproduce the problem Optional One or more WebEx sessions to facilitate debugging in your environment Using Log Monitor Log Monitor captures detailed chronological activity for one or more executable files invoked by the captured application Log Monitor intercepts and logs names addresses parameters and return values for each function call by target executable files or DLLs Log Monitor captures the following activity 68 Win32 API calls from applications running in the ThinApp virtual operating system Potential errors exceptions and security events within the application All DLLs loaded by the application and address ranges The generated log files can be large and over 100MB depending on how long the application runs with Log Monitor and how busy an application is The only reason to run Log Monitor for an application is to capture trace files Trace files are critical for troubleshooting problems by analyzing and correlating multiple entries within the trace file Troubleshoot Activity with Log Monitor Review the basic procedure to troubleshoot ThinApp activity with Log Monitor To troubleshoot activity with Log Monitor 1 2 Shut down the captured application that you need to investigate On the computer where you captured the applicatio
74. aming Works When you place compressed ThinApp executable files on a network share or USB flash drive the contents from the executable file stream to client computers in a block based fashion As an application requests specific parts of data files ThinApp reads this information in the compressed format over the network using standard Windows file sharing protocol For a view of the process see Figure 3 2 After a client computer receives data ThinApp decompresses the data directly to memory Because ThinApp does not write data to the disk the process is fast A large package does not necessarily take a long time to load over the network The size of the package does VMware Inc Chapter 3 Deploying Applications not affect the startup time of an application If you add an extra 20GB file to a package that is not used at runtime the package loads at the same speed If the application opens and reads 32KB of data from the 20GB file ThinApp only requests 32KB of data The ThinApp runtime client is a small part of the executable package When ThinApp loads the runtime client it sets up the environment and starts the target executable The target executable accesses other parts of the application stored in the virtual operating system The runtime client intercepts such requests and serves them by loading DLLs from the virtual operating system The load time of the runtime client across a network is a few milliseconds After ThinApp loads t
75. applications are slower with large block sizes m More memory is required at runtime when larger block sizes are used You can specify BlockSize in the following places 1 Package ini file in this case the block size becomes the default for all files in the project unless otherwise specified 2 Attributes ini in this case the block size overrides the block size for the present directory and all subdirectories In the manner you can use different block sizes for different directories within a single project For example the default block size is 64K Compression BlockSize 64k Other block size options follow BlockSize 128k BlockSize 256k BlockSize 512k BlockSize 1M VMware Inc 99 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 100 CachePath CachePath Sets the path to the cache directory where font files are stored This setting can contain macros like Local AppData which is expanded before use If the path is relative it is interpreted relative to the directory where the package is stored You can use the THINAPP_CACHE_DIR environment variable to override the setting at runtime If neither the CachePath setting nor the THINAPP_CACHE_DIR environment variable are present a default is used The default depends on the presence of a SandboxPath setting in the Package ini file If a SandboxPath setting is present and it is a relative path CachePath defaults to the same path If no SandboxPath setting is present or the pa
76. ar 12 LeadByte 00h O00h OOh 001530 0a88 cmd exe no prototype available 001531 0a88 cmd exe no prototype available 001532 0a88 cmd exe uMode 0h 001533 0a88 cmd exe O 001534 0a88 cmd exe uMode 1h 001535 0a88 cmd exe O 001536 0a88 cmd exe LPCWSTR 00h 00h 00h 00h 0O0h 0O0h 00h OOh OOh 4ad01680 gt kernel32 d11 7c81b258 SetThreadUILanguage 4ad01680 lt kernel32 d11 7c81b258 SetThreadUILanguage 4ad01b0d gt kernel32 d11 7c8Q0acOf SetErrorMode IN UINT 4ad01bOd lt kerne1l32 d11 7c80acOf SetErrorMode gt UINT 0h 4ad01b13 gt kernel32 d11 7c8Q0acOf SetErrorMode IN UINT 4ad01b13 lt kernel32 d11 7c80acOf SetErrorMode gt UINT 0h 4ad01b24 gt IMM32 DLL 7639039b GetFulLPathNameW CIN 1pFileName 1638COh gt L IN DWORD nBufferLength 208h 001537 0a88 GetFullPathNameW buf C test cmd_test bin VMware Inc gt 20 85 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 86 file_part bin 001538 0a88 cmd exe 4ad01b24 lt IMM32 DLL 7639039b GetFulLPathNamew gt DWORD 14h COUT LPWSTR 1pBuffer 163D60h gt L C test cmd_test bin OUT LpFilePart 13D8D4h gt 163D82h gt L bin 001539 0a88 cmd exe 4ad01b29 gt kernel32 d11 7c8Q0acOf SetErrorMode CIN UINT uMode 0h 001540 0a88 cmd exe 4ad01b29 lt kernel32 d11 7c80acOf SetErrorMode gt UINT 1h O 001541 0a88 cmd exe 4ad01ba8 gt USERENV d11 769c03b9 Get
77. arameters in the Package ini File You can configure the Application Sync utility by editing the Package ini file The AppSyncURL parameter requires a URL path ThinApp supports HTTP HTTPS and File protocols For information about all Application Sync parameters see Application Sync on page 118 To edit Application Sync parameters 1 Open the Package ini file located in the captured application folder For example a Firefox 2 0 0 3 path to the Package ini file might be C Program Files VMware VMware ThinApp Captures Mozilla Firefox 2 0 0 3 Package ini 2 Uncomment the Application Sync parameters you want to edit by removing the semicolon at the beginning of the line You must uncomment the AppSyncURL parameter to enable the utility 3 Change the value of the parameters and save the file For example you can copy an executable of the latest Firefox version to a mapped network drive and enter a path to that location as the value of the AppSyncURL parameter If Z is the mapped drive and Firefox is the name of the directory that stores the executable a sample path is File Z Firefox Firefox exe 4 Double click the build bat file in the captured application folder to rebuild the application package For example a Firefox 2 0 0 3 path to the build bat file might be C Program Files VMware VMware ThinApp Captures Mozilla Firefox 2 0 0 3 build bat If you launch the new executable in the bin directory such as Mozilla F
78. are Inc Appendix E Using Scripts By putting this code in the OnFirstParentStart function it is only called once per execution Otherwise it is executed for every child process as well Function OnFirstParentStart TS_ORIGIN is set by ThinApp to indicate the full path to a captured executable package A virtual application sets the TS_ORIGIN variable to the physical path of the main data container If you have a virtual application consisting of a main exe and a shortcut exe both of them are placed in C VirtApp When you run C VirtApp main exe the TS_ORIGIN var will be set to C VirtApp main exe When you run C VirtApp shortcut exe the TS_ORIGIN environment variable will be set to C VirtApp main exe it is always set to the main data container even if you create a shortcut This happens early during process startup When you run VBScripts that are included in the package the variable has already been set and it is available to the VBScripts Origin GetEnvironmentVariableC TS_ORIGIN Separate the filename from TS_ORIGIN by finding the last backslash and remove everything after this LastSlash InStrRev Origin SourcePath Left Origin LastSlash The source file to copy into the virtual environment is the package path plus config ini SourceFile SourcePath Config ini The location we want to copy to might be in a different location on different computers if the Program Files directory is mapped to a dif
79. are Microsoft Windows CurrentVersion Internet Settings Connections HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE SYSTEM CurrentControlSet Hardware Profiles 0001 Software Microsoft windows CurrentVersion Internet Settings If the snapshot ini file excludes the HKEY_CURRENT_USER Software Microsoft Windows CurrentVersion Internet Settings Connections key by default you can remove this key from the snapshot ini file to ensure ThinApp captures the key in the capture process If you do not customize the snapshot ini file the snapshot process loads the file from one of these locations Application Data Thinapp snapshot ini This is the AppData directory of the user C Program Files VMware VMWare Thinapp snapshot ini This is the location from which ThinApp runs the snapshot exe utility VMware Inc Using Scripts Scripting allows you to execute custom code before starting an application packaged with ThinApp or after an application exits Callback functions allow you to specify when blocks of code execute API functions allow you to execute ThinApp specific functions and interact with the ThinApp runtime To add scripts to your application you can create an ANSI text file with the vbs file extension in the root project directory for an application the same directory in which Package ini is located During the build process ThinApp adds all of the script files to your executable file and then at runtime it executes each of these script files Many a
80. cal support resources available to you To access the current version of this book and other books go to http www vmware com support pubs Online and Telephone Support To use online support to submit technical support requests view your product and contract information and register your products go to http www vmware com support VMware Inc 13 VMware ThinApp User s Manual Customers with appropriate support contracts should use telephone support for the fastest response on priority 1 issues Go to http www vmware com support phone_support html Support Offerings To find out how VMware support offerings can help meet your business needs go to http www vmware com support services VMware Professional Services VMware Education Services courses offer extensive hands on labs case study examples and course materials designed to be used as on the job reference tools Courses are available onsite in the classroom and live online For onsite pilot programs and implementation best practices VMware Consulting Services provides offerings to help you assess plan build and manage your virtual environment To access information about education classes certification programs and consulting services go to http www vmware com services 14 VMware Inc Installing ThinApp Review the ThinApp installation requirements and process This information discusses the following topics Reviewing ThinApp Requirements
81. chronization objects You can specify a list of synchronization objects to isolate from other applications not running in the same virtual namespace The location of the application s sandbox defines a namespace If two applications share the same sandbox path they have the same namespace for isolated synchronization objects If two applications have the same sandbox name but the path to the sandbox is different the applications have separate namespaces IsolatedSynchronizationObjects accepts a list of entries that are separated by the semicolon character Each entry can have wildcard characters and to match variable patterns For example isolate two synchronization objects matching anything with out Look in the name and one matching exactly My Shared Object BuildOptions IsolatedSynchronizationObjects outlook My Shared Object RegistrylsolationMode RegistryIsolationMode Controls default isolation mode for registry keys in package RegistryIsolationMode controls the default isolation mode for the package This setting applies to any registry keys that do not have an explicitly specified setting For example this enables the application to read keys from the host computer but not write to it default If no registry isolation mode is specified in the Package ini file the default value is WriteCopy Isolation RegistryIsolationMode WwriteCopy Allows the application to write to any key on the computer except where
82. created outside of the virtual environment To create certain processes outside of the virtual environment specify them in the ChildProcessEnvironmentException attribute The following example specifies that default behavior is to create child processes as virtual default BuildOptions ChildProcessEnvironmentExceptions AcroRd exe notepad exe ChildProcessEnvironmentDefault Virtual Specify that the default behavior is to create child processes outside of the virtual environment BuildOptions ChildProcessEnvironmentDefauLt External ChildProcessEnvironmentExceptions ChildProcessEnvironmentExceptions Allows for certain processes outside of the virtual environment The following example specifies that default behavior is to create child processes as virtual default BuildOptions ChildProcessEnvironmentExceptions AcroRd exe notepad exe ChildProcessEnvironmentDefault Virtual DirectorylsolationMode DirectoryIsolationMode Controls default isolation mode for directories in package 92 VMware Inc Appendix A Package ini Parameters DirectoryIsolationMode controls the default isolation mode for the package This setting applies to any directories that do not have an explicitly specified setting The default setting depends on the selection made in the setup capture process For example consider a package that looks like the following ThinAppProject Package ini ProgramFiLlesDir MyApp Attributes ini The
83. dMsg You do not have permission to execute this application please call support 1 800 822 2992 This setting controls the string that appears to the user if they are not authorized to run the application PermittedGroups PermittedGroups Restricts usage of a package to a specific set of Active Directory users For example specify a list of Active Directory user group names separated by a semicolon BuildOptions can set defaults for applications in a project that individual App exe sections can overwrite BuildOptions PermittedGroups Administrator 0fficeUsers AccessDeniedMsg You do not have permission to execute this application please call support 1 800 822 2992 VMware Inc 109 VMware ThinApp User s Manual Overwrite global PermittedGroups App1 exe PermittedGroups Guest AccessDeniedMsg You do not have permission to execute this application please call support 1 800 822 2992 Inherit PermittedGroups from BuildOptions App2 exe During the application build process ThinApp transforms the specified Group Names into SID values so the Group Names specified must be valid at the time of build ThinApp can resolve group ownership at runtime using cached credentials Laptop users can continue to be authenticated even when they are offline If you use a domain based group name you must be connected to that domain when you build the application package If the user does not have access to run the pack
84. dministrators and per user installation for other users use a value of 2 for the MSIDefaultInstallAllUsers parameter Administrators belong to the Administrators Active Directory group Force a Per User or Per Machine MSI Deployment Regardless of the parameter value specified at build time you can still override the settings at deployment time For example if you created the database with a value of 1 for the MSIDefaultInstallAllUsers parameter you can still force a per user deployment for Firefox 3 0 with the msiexec i Firefox30 msi ALLUSERS command If you use the ALLUSERS argument for the msiexec command ThinApp extracts the captured executable files to the user s AppData directory To force a per user MSI deployment From the command line type msiexec i lt database gt msi ALLUSERS To force a per machine deployment From the command line type msiexec i lt database gt msi ALLUSERS 1 Override the MSI Installation Directory When ThinApp performs a per machine MSI deployment the default installation directory is the localized equivalent of ProgramFilesDir lt inventory name gt VMware ThinApp If you install a Firefox package per machine the package resides in ProgramFilesDir Mozilla Firefox VMware ThinApp When ThinApp performs a per user MSI deployment the default installation directory is AppData lt inventory name gt VMware ThinApp In both cases you can override the installation directory b
85. dwMode 3h 000258 0a88 mydll dll 4ad0576d lt kernel32 d11 7c81b1f0 SetConsoleMode gt BOOL 1h 000257 Indicates the log entry number Each log entry has a unique number The Potential Errors Detected refers to individual log entries using their log entry numbers 0a88 Indicates the currently executing thread ID If the application has only one thread this number does not change Because log entries are recorded in order of execution if two or more threads are recording data to the log file you might need to use the thread ID to follow thread specific sequential actions myd11 d11 Indicates the DLL that is making the API call 4ad0576d Indicates the return address for the API call made by mydll dll Typically this tells you the address in the code where the call is originating gt Indicates the call is being entered For call entry log element all of the input parameters are displayed in and in out parameters lt Indicates the call is returning to the original caller For call exit log entries all of the output parameters are displayed out and in out parameters kernel32 d11 Indicates the DLL where the API call is landing 7c81b10 Indicates the address of the API inside of kernel32 where the call is landing If you disassemble kernel32 dll at address 7c81b1f0 you find the code for the function SetConsoleMode gt BOOL 1h Indicates the API returned the value 1 and the return code has type BO
86. e Application Sync entries in the Package ini files for both packages to update them If any linked package fails to download or is expired ThinApp terminates the linked packages and the main application Review Application Updates Triggered by the Administrator ThinApp provides the AppSync exe and sbmerge exe utilities for administrators The AppSync exe utility forces an Application Sync update on a client machine The sbmerge exe utility make incremental updates to applications For example an administrator might use the utility to incorporate a plug in for Firefox or change the home page of a Web site to point to a different default site Force an Application Sync Update with AppSync exe You can use AppSync exe to force an Application Sync update ona client machine You might want to update a package stored in a location where standard users do not have write access In this situation you cannot use the Application Sync parameters to check for updates upon launch of the application because the users do not have the required rights to update the package You can schedule a daily AppSync exe run under an account with sufficient privileges The Application Sync parameters such as AppSyncUpdateFrequency in the Package ini file do not affect AppSync exe VMware Inc 59 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 60 To force an application sync update from the command line Type this command AppSync lt AppLlication_Sync_URL gt lt ex
87. e CIN HANDLE hFile 3h 000884 0a88 Getfile type 3 gt 0x2 000885 0a88 cmd exe 4ad02c97 lt ole32 d11 774e03f0 Getfile type gt DWORD 2h O 000886 0a88 cmd exe 4ad02cc0 gt kernel32 dL1 7c812F39 GetStdHandle CIN DWORD nStdHandle FFFFFFF6h 000887 0a88 cmd exe 4ad02ccQ lt kerne132 d11 7c812f39 GetStdHandle gt HANDLE 3h 000888 0a88 cmd exe 4ad02ccd gt kernel32 dL1L 7c81af14 GetConsoleMode IN HANDLE hConsoleHand1le 3h 000889 0a88 cmd exe 4ad02ccd lt kerne132 d11 7c81af14 GetConsoleMode gt BOOL 1h OUT LPDWORD 1pMode 13DD50h gt A7h 000890 0a88 cmd exe 4ad0b9d4 gt kernel32 d1L1L 7c812F39 GetStdHandle CIN DWORD nStdHandle FFFFFFF5h 000891 0a88 cmd exe 4ad0b9d4 lt kerne132 d11 7c812F39 GetStdHandle gt HANDLE 7h 000892 0a88 cmd exe 4ad0ba16 gt kerne132 d11 7c81bc2b GetConsoleScreenBufferInfo IN HANDLE hConsoleOutput 7h 000893 0a88 cmd exe 4ad0ba16 lt kerne132 d11 7c81bc2b GetConsoleScreenBufferInfo gt BOOL 1h COUT PCONSOLE_SCREEN_BUFFER_INFO lpConsoleScreenBufferInfo 13DD08h gt struct COORD dwSize struct SHORT X 50h SHORT Y 12Ch COORD dwCursorPosition struct SHORT X 15h SHORT Y 5h WORD wAttributes 7h SMALL_RECT srWindow struct SHORT Left 0h SHORT Top 0h SHORT Right 4Fh SHORT Bottom 18h COORD dwMaximumWindowSize struct SHORT X 50h SHORT Y 53h 000894 0a88 cmd exe 4adQ ba71 gt kernel132 d11 7c871a6c ReadConsoleW CIN HANDLE hConsoleInput 3h IN DWORD nNumbe
88. e Reader Files Adobe Reader Files Adobe Reader Files Adobe Reader Files Adobe Reader Files Adobe Reader Files Adobe Reader Files Adobe Reader Files Adobe Reader Files Adobe Reader Files Adobe Reader Files Adobe Reader Files Adobe Reader Files Adobe Reader Files Adobe Reader Files Adobe Reader Files Adobe Reader Files Adobe Reader Files Adobe Reader Files Adobe Reader VMware Inc Chapter 5 Monitoring and Troubleshooting ThinApp MEMORY_MAPPED_ANON 45800000 458cffff C Program Files Adobe Reader 8 0 Reader plug_ins Checkers api MEMORY_MAPPED_ANON 46800000 46873fff C Program Files Adobe Reader 8 0 Reader plug_ins ImageViewer API SYSTEM_LOADED 59a60000 59b00fff C WINDOWS system32 dbghelp d11 SYSTEM_LOADED 5ad70000 Sada7fff C WINDOWS system32 uxtheme d11 SYSTEM_LOADED 5d090000 5d129fff C WINDOWS system32 COMCTL32 d11 SYSTEM_LOADED 61410000 61533fff C WINDOWS system32 urlmon d11 SYSTEM_LOADED 629c0000 629c8fffF C WINDOWS system32 LPK DLL SYSTEM_LOADED 63380000 633f7ffF C WINDOWS system32 jscript d11l SYSTEM_LOADED 6e850000 6e894fff C WINDOWS system32 iertutil d1lL SYSTEM_LOADED 71aq0000 71aa7fff C WINDOWS system32 WS2HELP d11 SYSTEM_LOADED 71ab0000 71lac6fff C WINDOWS system32 ws2_32 d11 SYSTEM_LOADED 71bf0000 71c02fff C WINDOWS system32 SAMLIB d11 SYSTEM_LOADED 746c0000 746e8fff C WINDOWS system32 ms1s31 d11 SYSTEM_LOADED 746f0000 74719fff C WINDOWS system32 msimtf d11 SYSTEM_LOADED 74720000 7476afff C W
89. e and run 2 Rebuild the application bat example This script executes an external bat file from a network share inside of the virtual environment The bat file can make modifications to the virtual environment by copying files deleting files or apply registry changes using regedit s regfile reg Make sure you only execute this for the first parent process otherwise each copy of cmd exe executes the script and an infinite recursion will develop Function OnFirstParentStart Set Shell CreateObject Wscript Shell Shell Run jcdesk2 test test bat End Function timeout example Prevent an application from being used after a specified date This check is performed on the parent process startup as well as any child process startup ExpirationDate CDate 03 20 07 if Date gt ExpirationDate then msgbox This application has expired please contact Administrator ExitProcess 0 end if Registry Modify This example modifies the virtual registry at runtime so that an external ODBC driver can be loaded from the same directory where the package executable is located Get path to package executable files Origin GetEnvironmentVariableC TS_ORIGIN VMware Inc 143 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 144 Find last slash in path and grab just the characters before this LastSlash InStrRev Origin SourcePath Left Origin LastSlash Form a new path to the ODBC DLL file located outside of the package D
90. e present in the same directory for MyShortcutApp exe to run MyShortcutApp exe Source ProgramFiLesDir Myapp MyShortcutApp exe Shortcut HostApp exe VMware Inc 113 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 114 Source Source Points to the executable file that ThinApp initially loads Source is specified for each executable file If an application suite has three accessible user entry points for example Winword exe Powerpnt exe and Excel exe your Package ini file lists three application entries Each entry has a different source entry The following are examples of the Source parameter Creates a user accessible entry point for C Program Files Myapp app1 exe app1 exe Source ProgramFiLesDir Myapp app1 exe Creates an user accessible entry point for C Program Files Myapp app2 exe Lapp2 exe Source ProgramFiLesDir Myapp app2 exe StripVersionInfo StripVersionInfo Removes all version information from the source executable when building the target application Version information for an executable file is in the Windows Properties dialog box Typically this includes copyright trademark and version number information By default ThinApp copies all version information from the source executable file specified using Source See Source on page 114 You can use this option to strip version information from the resulting application For example the following example generates a target application wit
91. ecutable_path gt The value of the URL is the same as the Application Sync URL in the Package ini file and the executable path is the path to the executable that requires the update Reviewing the sbmerge exe Workflow The sbmerge exe utility merges runtime changes recorded in the application sandbox back into a ThinApp project A typical workflow for this utility involves these tasks Capturing an application Building the application with the build bat file Running a captured application and customizing the settings and virtual environment ThinApp stores the changes in the sandbox Running the sbmerge exe utility to merge registry and file system changes from the sandbox into the ThinApp project Rebuilding the captured application with the build bat file Deploying the updated application Merge Sandbox Changes with the Application This procedure uses Firefox 2 0 0 3 as an example of the captured application To merge the sandbox changes with the Firefox application 1 2 Capture Firefox 2 0 0 3 Double click the build bat file in the captured application folder to rebuild the application package For example a Firefox 2 0 0 3 path to the build bat file might be C Program Files VMware VMware ThinApp Captures Mozilla Firefox 2 0 0 3 build bat Create a Thinstall directory in the bin directory for the sandbox location Launch Firefox and make a change to the settings For example change the home page VMware
92. edit the Attributes ini file 1 Inthe Attibutes ini uncomment update or delete the parameter 2 Double click the build bat file in the captured application folder to rebuild the application package 3 Double click the build bat file in the captured application folder to rebuild the application package VMware Inc 29 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 30 VMware Inc Deploying Applications Working with captured applications might involve working with deployment tools thinreg exe MSI files and Active Directory This information discusses the following topics m Reviewing ThinApp Deployment Options on page 31 Controlling Application Access with Active Directory on page 40 m Using ThinApp Packages Streamed from the Network on page 42 m Using Captured Applications with Other System Components on page 45 m Sample Isolation Mode Configuration Depending on the Deployment Context on page 48 Reviewing ThinApp Deployment Options You can deploy ThinApp in the following circumstances VMware Inc Using deployment tools Medium and large enterprises often use major deployment tools such as Symantec BMC and SMS tools ThinApp works with all major deployment tools You can create MSI files for the captured applications and follow the same process you use to deploy native MSI files Refer to deployment instructions from the tool vendors For information about MSI files see Building an
93. elevated privileges on Vista BuildOptions MSIFilename mymsi msi MSIRequireELevatedPrivileges 1 MSIUpgradeCode MSTUpgradeCode Specifies an upgrade code for the MSI database This option has an effect only when the MSIFilename option requests generation of a Windows Installer database VMware recommends that each MSI database has an UpgradeCode Setup Capture generates a suitable default UpgradeCode and places it in the Package ini file Do not change the UpgradeCode value If you change it make sure the new value is a valid GUID globally unique identifier The following creates an MSI file with a specified upgrade code BuildOptions MSIFilename mymsi msi MSIUpgradeCode D89F1994 A24B 3E11 0C94 7FD1E13AB93F MSIUseCabs MSTUseCabs If you set the value to 1 the package files are stored ina cab file The cab file is in the MSI file If you set the value to 0 Thinapp does not use cab files You might do this when a cab file slows down the installation process for applications You can distribute the MSI file and individual exe files executables in bin to install the application BuildOptions MSIUseCabs 1 VMware Inc 125 VMware ThinApp User s Manual Sandbox Control 126 The following sections describe the sandbox control parameters SandboxName SandboxName Sets the name of directory where the sandbox is created and stored For example BuildOptions SandboxName My Application
94. er is checked You can include a user name and a password in the AppSyncURL that is used for basic authentication ThinApp respects the standard Windows Internet Explorer proxy setting VMware Inc Appendix A Package ini Parameters For example AppSyncURL https example com lt path gt lt package_name gt exe Another option is to use the File protocol For example File C lt path gt lt package_name gt exe File lt server gt lt share gt lt path gt lt package_name gt exe AppSyncUpdateFrequency AppSyncUpdateFrequency By default a package connects to the Web server once a day to check if an updated version is available Modify this frequency to set the frequency For example AppSyncUpdateFrequency 1d You can set the Application Sync update frequency to a number followed by m month d day or y year A value of 0 makes the captured application check for updates every time you start it AppSyncExpirePeriod AppSyncExpirePeriod Sets the update frequency in minutes m hours h or days d If the Web server cannot be reached the package continues to work until the AppSyncExpirePeriod is reached The default setting is 30 days Modify the setting to change the update frequency For example AppSyncExpirePeriod 30d To prevent the package from expiring set the expiration value to never as follows AppSyncExpirePeriod never AppSyncWarningPeriod AppSyncWarningPeriod Sets the start of the warning pe
95. es 25 parameters 34 running 33 updating registrations with Applica tion Sync 53 troubleshooting Explorer exe 88 Java Runtime Environment 89 Microsoft Outlook 87 providing required information to VMware support 67 with Log Monitor 68 U upgrading applications methods and considerations 51 65 V virtual file system format stages 157 impact from isolation modes 158 representing path locations with macros 158 using 157 virtual registry comparing information with host PC registry 168 data 162 defining 161 deleting a registry subkey 168 exporting data to regedit format 166 format stages 161 175 VMware ThinApp User s Manual importing data from regedit format 165 listing diagnostic information 168 listing registry keys 167 performing operations 165 text format 163 VMware support required information for troubleshooting 67 176 VMware View using captured applications 32 vregtool listing virtual registry contents 133 WwW WriteCopy isolation mode 24 VMware Inc
96. es VMware VMware ThinApp Captures Mozilla Firefox 2 0 0 3 You might browse the project prior to building the application executable or MSI file to update a setting such as an Active Directory specification in the Package ini file that contains the parameters set during the wizard The project includes folders such as AppData that represent file system paths that might change locations when running on different operating systems or computers Most folders have Attributes ini files that specify the isolation mode at the folder level The isolation mode setting at the granular folder level overrides the overall isolation mode setting of the Package ini file m Click the Build Now button to build an executable or MSI file containing the files you installed during the Setup Capture process The build output appears in the display box You can rebuild the project at any time after clicking Finish if you need to make changes VMware Inc 25 VMware ThinApp User s Manual Entry Points for Troubleshooting If you want to troubleshoot or debug your environment you can select these entry points during the setup capture process m cmd exe Starts a command prompt in a virtual context that allows you to view the virtual filesystem m regedit exe Starts the registry editor in a virtual context that allows you to view the virtual registry m iexplore exe Starts iexplore exe in a virtual context that allows you to test virtualized
97. es selected in the file list Optional Click the Kill App button to stop a running process Optional Click the Compress check box to compress a trace file This operation slows the performance of the application Optional Select a trace file in the file list enter a a trace filename or click the Browse button to select a trace file on your system Optional Enter or change the name of the output report This file is generated by the Generate text trace report button You can view the file with a text editor that supports UNIX style line breaks Locating Errors ThinApp logging provides a large amount of information The following tips might help advanced users investigate errors Look at the Potential Errors Detected section of the txt trace file Many entries do not indicate errors ThinApp lists each Win32 API call where the Windows error code changed Look at exceptions generated by applications Exceptions might indicate errors Exceptions have different types such as C and NET The trace file records the type of exception and the DLL that generated the exception If the application created an exception from self generating code as might be the case for NET and Java applications the trace indicates unknown_modulLe Here is a sample trace entry for an exception xx Exception EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION on read of 0x10 from unknown_module 0x7c9105f8 VMware Inc Chapter 5 Monitoring and Troubleshooting
98. est 150 objects profiled 8255572220 total cycles 2955 56 ms sprof thinapp_LoadLibrary2 765380728 cycles 274 01 ms on log entry 21753 428701805 cycles 153 48 ms on log entry 191955 410404281 cycles 146 93 ms on log entry 193969 231503734 cycles 82 88 ms on log entry 188438 227419794 cycles 81 42 ms on log entry 190209 211952538 cycles 75 88 ms on log entry 197416 202095103 cycles 72 35 ms on log entry 189394 200356604 cycles 71 73 ms on log entry 194646 192420627 cycles 68 89 ms on log entry 190812 183214731 cycles 65 59 ms on log entry 195836 438 total calls 7847975891 total cycles 2809 64 ms sprof ts_Load_internal_module 764794646 cycles 273 80 ms on log entry 21753 426837866 cycles 152 81 ms on log entry 191955 408570540 cycles 146 27 ms on log entry 193969 228790905 cycles 81 91 ms on log entry 188438 224240114 cycles 80 28 ms on log entry 190209 209789307 cycles 75 11 ms on log entry 197416 200287437 cycles 71 70 ms on log entry 189394 198429210 cycles 71 04 ms on log entry 194646 190612618 cycles 68 24 ms on log entry 190812 180322247 cycles 64 56 ms on log entry 195836 94 total calls 4451728477 total cycles 1593 76 ms sprof ts_Lookup_imports 544327945 cycles 194 87 ms on log entry 21758 385149968 cycles 137 89 ms on log entry 193970 187246661 cycles 67 04 ms on log entry 190210 VMware Inc Chapter 5 Monitoring and Troubleshooting ThinApp 173617241 cycles 62 1
99. ew C Program Files Microsoft Visual Studio Common Tools WinNT foobar gt VMware Inc 79 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 80 INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE failed FS missing in view O fs entry not found ProgramFilesDir Microsoft Visual Studio Common Tools WinNT foobar fs entry not found ProgramFilesDir Microsoft Visual Studio Common Tools WinNT xxx FindFirstFilew C Program Files Microsoft Visual Studio Common MSDev98 Bin foobar gt INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE failed system probe C Program Files Microsoft Visual Studio Common MSDev98 Bin foobar gt ffffffffh no virtual or system matches xxx FindFirstFilew C Program Files Microsoft Visual Studio Common MSDev98 Bin foobar gt INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE failed FS missing in view O fs entry not found ProgramFilesDir Microsoft Visual Studio Common MSDev98 Bin foobar fs entry not found ProgramFilesDir Microsoft Visual Studio Common MSDev98 Bin xxx FindFirstFilew C Program Files Microsoft Visual Studio Common Tools foobar gt INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE failed system probe C Program Files Microsoft Visual Studio Common Tools foobar gt fffffFFFh no virtual or system matches x FindFirstFilew C Program Files Microsoft Visual Studio Common Tools foobar gt INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE failed FS missing in view O fs entry not found ProgramFilesDir Microsoft Visual Studio Common Tools foobar fs entry not found
100. exists in the tvr file Example vregtool c tmp test tvr DeLSubkey HKEY_CURRENT_USER Software Adobe Save For Web 3 0 VMware Inc 169 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 170 VMware Inc Index Symbols impact from PermittedGroups Attributes ini parameter 58 comparing to Package ini 28 impact on isolation modes 57 defining 165 linking a Ae ey er editing 29 saa modifying isolation modes 26 optional ae A pathname format 115 required links 116 sample workflow 55 security 117 setting up nested links 57 storing multiple versions of linked applications 59 Active Directory authorizing access to groups 22 controlling access to applications 40 using Package ini parameters 41 API parameters AddForcedVirtualloadPath 146 view of 54 FxecuteExternalProcess 148 Application Sync 148 ExecuteVirtualProcess 149 defining 51 ExitProcess 147 ExpandPath 148 GetBuildOption 149 editing parameters 52 fixing incorrect updates 53 forcing updates with appsync exe GetCommandLine 151 commands 59 GetCurrentProcessName 151 impact on entry point executable GetEnvironmentVariable 153 files 53 GetFileVersionValue 150 impact on thinreg exe 33 GetOSVersion 152 in managed and unmanaged RemoveSandboxOnExit 154 environment 52 SetEnvironmentVariable 154 maintaining the primary data con SetfileSystemlsolation 155 tainer name 53 SetRegistrylsolation 155 parameters 118 WaitForProcess 156 updating base applications with linked packages 59
101. ferent location than c The following call lets ThinApp expand a macro to get the correct location for the local computer DestFile ExpandPath ProgramFilesDir MyAppLication Config ini Use the file systemObject to check to make sure the source file exists Set objFSO CreateObject Scripting filesystemObject If objFSO FileExists SourceFile Then If the source file exists copy it into the virtual file system The virtual directory ProgramFilesDir MyApp lication is in the package objFSO CopyFile SourceFile DestFile TRUE End if End Function VMware Inc 145 VMware ThinApp User s Manual System Registry Example This script adds a value to the system registry Create a reg file and execute regedit s as an external process so it accesses the system registry instead of the virtual registry Function OnFirstParentStart Create the reg file ina place that has IsolationMode set to Merged so it can be easily accessed from both the virtual environment this script and the system environment regedit s One directory that has a Merged IsolationMode by default is the Personal directory so create the reg file there RegFileName ExpandPath Personal thin reg Set fso CreateObject Scripting filesystemObject Set RegFile fso CreateTextFile RegFileName true Construct the reg file RegFile WriteLine Windows Registry Editor Version 5 00 RegFile WriteBLankLines 1 RegFile WriteLine
102. foobar gt ffffffffh no virtual or system matches xxx FindFirstFilew c Program Files subversion bin foobar gt INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE failed FS missing in view O fs entry not found ProgramFilesDir subversion bin foobar fs entry not found ProgramFilesDir subversion bin x FindFirstFilew c Program Files Microsoft SQL Server 90 Tools binn foobar gt INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE failed system probe c Program Files Microsoft SQL Server 90 Tools binn foobar gt fffffFFFh no virtual or system matches xxx FindFirstFilew c Program Files Microsoft SQL Server 90 Tools binn foobar gt INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE failed FS missing in view O fs entry not found ProgramFilesDir Microsoft SQL Server 90 Tools binn foobar fs entry not found ProgramFilesDir Microsoft SQL Server 90 Tools binn xxx FindFirstFileW c bin foobar gt INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE failed system probe c bin foobar gt ffffffffh no virtual or system matches xxx FindFirstFileW c bin foobar gt INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE failed FS missing in view OJ fs entry not found drive_c bin foobar fs entry not found drive_c bin xxx FindFirstFilew C Program Files Microsoft Visual Studio Common Tools WinNT foobar gt INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE failed system probe C Program Files Microsoft Visual Studio Common Tools WinNT foobar gt ffffffffh no virtual or system matches xxx FindFirstFil
103. fox ThinApp directs write operations to the physical file system with the exception of the following directories and their subdirectories that redirect write operations to the sandbox m AppData m Common AppData m Local AppData m Program Files Common m ProgramFilesDir m SystemRoot m SystemSystem The advantage of using Merged isolation mode is that documents saved by users end up on the physical system in the location expected by users instead of in the sandbox The disadvantage is that this mode might clutter the system image An example of residue might be first execution markers by shareware applications written to random computer locations as part of the licensing process 23 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 24 13 m To allow the application to read resources on the local machine and restrict most modifications to the sandbox select the WriteCopy isolation mode ThinApp intercepts write operations to all directories and redirects them to the sandbox with the exception of the following directories and their subdirectories that redirect write operations to the physical system m Desktop m Personal m SystemSystem Spool Regardless of the choice for Merged or WriteCopy isolation mode ThinApp treats write operations to network drives according to the SandboxNetworkDrives parameter in the Package ini file This parameter has a default value of 0 that directs write operations to the physical drive Th
104. fying an MSIProductCode value and allow ThinApp to generate a different product code for each build Regardless of the parameter value specified at build time you can still override the settings at deployment time See Force a Per User or Per Machine MSI Deployment on page 39 Modify the Package ini File to Create MSI Files You must enter a value for the MSIFilename parameter to generate MSI files For more information about MSI parameters see Customizing MSI Files with Package ini Parameters on page 37 and MSI Generation on page 121 To modify the Package ini to create MSI files 1 In the Package ini file enter the MSI filename MSIFi Lename lt filename gt msi For example the filename for Firefox could be Mozilla Firefox 2 0 0 3 msi You must enter a value for this parameter to generate MSI files Optional Update other MSI parameters Double click the build bat file in the captured application folder to rebuild the application package VMware Inc Chapter 3 Deploying Applications Specifying Per User and Per Machine Database Installation ThinApp installs the MSI database across all machines You can change the default installation m Ifyou need to create a database with a per user installation use a value of 0 for the MSIDefaultInstallAl1lUsers parameter in the Package ini file This creates per user msiexec parameters m Ifyou need to create a database with a a per machine installation for a
105. gs for a specific duration The resulting log file is smaller than the typical log file and easier to analyze Even with the suspend and resume options the root cause of an error might occur outside of your duration window Suspend and resume options are global and affect all applications For more information on whether or not to use these options contact VMware Support To perform advanced operations in Log Monitor 1 2 VMware Inc Shut down the captured application that you need to investigate On the computer where you captured the application go to Start gt Programs gt VMware gt ThinApp Log Monitor If you want to start Log Monitor on a deployment machine copy the Llog_monitor exe file from C Program Files VMware VMware ThinApp to the deployment machine Optional Capture logs for a specific duration to troubleshoot an exact issue a Select the Suspend check box b Start the captured application and let it run to the point where the error occurs 69 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 70 c In Log Monitor deselect the Suspend check box to resume the logging process d Select the Suspend check box to stop the logging process You might use the Suspend button when an application is running slowly and you want to suspend the logging until the performance problem starts resume logging and check the application behavior to isolate the issue Optional Click the Delete File button to remove any trace fil
106. h Application Link ThinApp supports nested links with the Application Link utility For example if Microsoft Office links to a service pack and the service pack links to a hot fix ThinApp supports all these dependencies This procedure refers to AppA that requires AppB and AppB that requires AppC Assume this folder layout for the procedure m c AppFolder AppA AppA exe m c AppFolder AppB AppB exe m c AppFolder AppC AppC exe For information about setting up required and optional Application Link parameters in this procedure see Application Link on page 115 To set up nested links with Application Link 1 Capture Application A 2 Inthe Package ini file specify Application B as a required or optional application link For example type this line RequiredLinks AppFolder AppB AppB exe 3 Capture Application B 4 Inthe Package ini file for Application B specify Application C as a required or optional application link For example type this line RequiredLinks AppFolder AppC AppC exe 5 Capture Application C If you start Application A it can access the files and registry keys of Application B and Application B can access the files and registry keys of Application C Impacting Isolation Modes with Application Link ThinApp loads an Application Link layer during application startup and examines and merges registry entries and file system directories If ThinApp finds a registry subkey or file system directory t
107. h no version information app exe Source ProgramFiLesDir myapp app exe StripVersionInfo 1 WorkingDirectory WorkingDirectory Sets the current working directory before the application starts This option can set the CWD Current Working Directory for individual applications The CWD setting is applied before the application starts The CWD value does not need to exist on the system VMware Inc Appendix A Package ini Parameters For example this sets the current working directory to C Program Files My Application Application exe WorkingDirectory ProgramFilesDir My Application Version XXXX Version XXXX Used to override executable version strings or add new version strings Version resources are normally copied from the original executable file To override the version resource strings and add new ones use a Version lt string_name gt string_value setting For example this sets the VersionInfo field ProductName to the value My New Product Name Application exe Version ProductName My New Product Name Version Description This Product is great Application Link In the Package ini file you can use the OptionalAppLinks and RequiredAppLinks features to dynamically combine ThinApp packages at runtime on end user computers See OptionalAppLinks on page 116 and RequiredAppLinks on page 116 This process enables you to package deploy and update component pieces separately and retain
108. h that SandboxPath specifies InventoryName InventoryName Optional string that inventory control systems use for package identification For example InventoryNanme is typically a version independent string that tracks a specific resource of interest to inventory scanning applications BuildOptions InventoryName Microsoft Office 2003 Use InventoryName as a version independent string to track a ThinApp package with inventory scanning software When you deploy new versions of an application you might want to change the SandboxName so that the new version has isolated user settings You can leave InventoryName constant across versions of the same application ThinApp does not use InventoryName during build or runtime SandboxNetworkDrives SandboxNetworkDrives Determines if sandboxing is appliede to network mapped drives By default ThinApp enables you to write directly to network mapped drives without applying sandboxing For example the following prevents the user from writing directly to network mapped drives and changes the sandbox instead BuildOptions SandboxNetworkDrives 1 This example enables you to write directly to network mapped drives without changes going to the sandbox default BuildOptions SandboxNetworkDrives 0 VMware Inc 127 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 128 SandboxRemovableDisk SandboxRemovableDisk Determines if removable drives have sandboxing applied By default T
109. hat did not previously exist in the main package or an already merged layer ThinApp uses the isolation mode specified in the layer being loaded VMware Inc 57 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 58 If the registry subkey or file system directory already exist already in the main package or an already merged layer ThinApp uses the most restrictive isolation mode specified in any of the layers or main package The order of most restrictive to least restrictive isolation modes is Full WriteCopy and Merged Reviewing the PermittedGroups Impact on Application Link If you specify a value for the PermittedGroups parameter the user account used for launching the application must be a member of at least one of the Active Directory groups for this parameter in both the Firefox Package ini file and the Adobe Reader Package ini file For information about these parameters see Access Control on page 109 Reviewing File and Registry Collisions in Linked Packages If the base application contains a file or registry entry at the same location as a dependent package a collision occurs When this happens the order of import operations determines which package wins The last package imported wins in such cases and the file or registry contents from that package are visible to the running application ThinApp imports applications according to the RequiredAppLinks or OptionalAppLinks parameter If either parameter specifies a wildcard character tha
110. he Network Users can access packaged applications through the network To stream ThinApp packages from the network 1 Place the ThinApp package in a location accessible to client computers 2 Send a link to users to run the application directly Using Captured Applications with Other System Components Captured applications can interact with other applications installed on the desktop Performing Cut and Paste Operations Review these cut and paste scenarios and limitations with ThinApp Pasting from system installed applications to captured applications This scenario has no limitations The virtual application can receive any standard clipboard formats such as text graphics and HTML The virtual application can receive OLE objects m Pasting from captured applications to system applications ThinApp converts OLE objects created in virtual applications to system native objects when they are pasted into native applications Accessing Printers A captured application has access to any printer installed on the computer it is running on Captured applications and system installed applications have the same printing ability You cannot use ThinApp to virtualize printer drivers You must manually install printer drivers on a computer Accessing Drivers A captured application has full access to any device driver installed on the computer it is running on Captured applications and system installed applications have the same
111. he runtime client to memory on the client computer the end user computer calculates which blocks of data are required from the server and reads them based on application activity When the application makes subsequent read requests for the same data the Windows disk cache provides data without requiring a network read operation If the client computer runs low on memory Windows discards some of its disk cache and provides the memory resource to other applications Figure 3 2 Application Streaming packaged executable VMware ThinApp VOS local PC 128K virtual registry 8K read request compressed file d lecompresse Block 1 64k Block 1 Ethernet 64k Block 2 decompressed Block 2 64k Block 3 64k Block 4 64k Block 5 VMware Inc 43 VMware ThinApp User s Manual Reviewing Requirements and Recommendations for Streaming Packages ThinApp does not require specific server software to provide streaming capability Any Windows file share NAS device or SMB share can provide this capability The amount of data that needs to transfer before the application can begin running varies for each application Microsoft Office requires that only a fraction of the package contents stream before an application can run VMware recommends that you use ThinApp streaming on LAN based environments with a minimum of 100MB networks For WAN and Internet deployments that involve frequent or unexpected discon
112. hinApp enables you to write directly to removable drives without applying sandboxing Removable disks include USB Flash and removable hard drives For example this prevents you from writing directly to removable disks and instead changes go to the sandbox BuildOptions SandboxRemovableDisk 1 This example enables you to write directly to removable disks without changes going to the sandbox default BuildOptions SandboxRemovableDisk 0 RemoveSandboxOneExit RemoveSandboxOnExit Resets the application by deleting the sandbox when the last child process exits All application modifications to registry and file system locations that have isolation modes set to WriteCopy or Full go to a sandbox directory By default the sandbox directory remains so that settings are consistent across multiple runs of the application In some cases you might want to delete the sandbox each time the application exits If the application creates child processes the sandbox is not deleted until all child processes exit In some cases applications might leave children behind by design which can stop the clean up operation from occurring For example Office 2003 leaves behind a process called ctfmon exe You might need to use a script to end ctfmon exe and similar children to force this cleanup operation to occur NOTE You can also decide dynamically at runtime whether use the RemoveSandboxOnExit Script API function to delete the sandbox on exit
113. ide of the virtual environment Returns Integer process ID the process ID can be used with WaitForProcess WaitForProcess on page 156 VMware Inc Appendix E Using Scripts Example ExecuteExternalProcess cmd exe c copy c systemfile txt c newsystemfile txt Execute a command that requires quotes in the command line ExecuteExternalProcess regsvr32 s Files my ocx and chr 34 and chr 34 and c Program ExecuteVirtualProcess Function ExecuteVirtualProcess CommandLine This function executes a command inside of the virtual environment It can be used if you need to make changes to the virtual environment Parameters CommandLine in CommandLine represents the application and command line parameters to execute outside of the virtual environment Returns Integer process ID the process ID can be used with WaitForProcess WaitForProcess on page 156 Example ExecuteVirtualProcess cmd exe c copy c systemfile txt c virtualfile txt Execute a command that requires quotes in the command line ExecuteVirtualProcess regsvr32 s and chr 34 and c Program Files my ocx and chr 34 GetBuildOption Function GetBuildOption OptionName This function returns the value of a setting specified in the BuildOptions section of the Package ini file used for capturing VMware Inc 149 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 150 Parameters Option Name in Name of the setting Retur
114. idered in the comparison Exact Optionally specifies that system comparison reports all differences between the virtual registry and system registry If this option is not specified vregtool does not print the system registry keys that do not exist in the virtual registry if the virtual registry subkey is set to Merged or WriteCopy isolation mode but prints the differences for subkeys with isolation mode set to Full This option is useful in finding differences between a working system registry and virtual registry file The following is an example vregtool c tmp test tvr SysCompare HKEY_CURRENT_USER Software Adobe Deleting a Registry Subkey Use the following command to delete a registry subkey VREGTOOL regfile tvr DeLSubkey HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE Software NoMark regfile tvr Data file in ThinApp virtual registry file format HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE Software Specified the registry subkey to delete If the specified registry subkey has a space in the name specify the key using quotes like this HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE Software Key with space VMware Inc Appendix G Virtual Registry NoMark Optionally specifies that the subkey should be deleted if it exists but not marked as deleted When a subkey is marked as deleted applications running under ThinApp does not see the specified subkey even if it exists on the local system NoTE When NoMark is not used vregtool marks the subkey as deleted whether or not it originally
115. igher include My Videos Personal and Profiles ThinApp uses shfolder d11 to obtain the location of shell folders Older versions of shfolder d11 do not support some macro names ThinApp lists any requirements for specific versions of shfolder d11 on the host operating system Table F 1 Folder Macros Macro Name AppData Typical Location C Documents and Settings lt user_name gt Application Data Common AppData C Documents and Settings All Users Application Data Common Desktop C Documents and Settings ALL Users Desktop Common Favorites C Documents and Settings ALL Users Favorites Common Programs C Documents and Settings All Users Start Menu Programs Common StartMenu C Documents and Settings All Users Start Menu Common Startup C Documents and Settings All Users Start Menu Programs Startup Desktop C Documents and Settings lt user_name gt Desktop Drive_c Cry Drive_m M Favorites C Documents and Settings lt user_name gt Favorites Fonts C Windows Fonts Local AppData C Documents and Settings lt user_name gt Local Settings Application Data My Pictures C Documents and Settings lt user_name gt My Documents My Pictures My Videos C Documents and Settings lt user_name gt My Documents My Videos NetHood C Documents and Settings lt user_name gt NetHood
116. ile del C end snapshot del C SuggestedProject ini Take a snapshot This sample procedure describes how to use the snapshot exe utility to manually perform the snapshot steps that automatically occur during the Setup Capture wizard To take a snapshot 1 Take a pre installation snapshot of the computer snapshot exe SnapshotFileName snapshot http Config ConfigFile iniBaseDir1BaseDir2BaseReg1 2 Take a post installation snapshot snapshot exe Snap1 snapshot Snap2 snapshot OutDir http Config ConfigFile ini VMware Inc 139 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 3 Create settings to allow for user or external GUI program modifications snapshot exe Snap1 snapshot SuggestProject Snap2 snapshot OutputTemplate ini Create Package ini settings file from the SuggestedProject ini file snapshot exe Template ini GenerateProject OutDir http Config ConfigFile ini Optional Print the snapshot file snapshot exe SnapshotFileName snapshot Print Using the snapshot ini File 140 The snapshot ini file configuration file specifies what directories and subkeys to exclude from a ThinApp project when you capture an application For example if you use Internet Explorer 7 you might need ThinApp to capture the following registry keys HKEY_CURRENT_USER Software Microsoft Internet ExpLlorer Desktop Components HKEY_CURRENT_USER Software Microsoft Windows CurrentVersion Internet Settings HKEY_CURRENT_USER Softw
117. inApp treats write operations to removable disks according to the SandboxRemovableDrives parameter in the Package ini This parameter has a default value of 0 that directs write operations to the physical drive VMware recommends this mode for legacy or untrusted applications Although the WriteCopy mode might make it difficult to locate user data files that reside in the sandbox instead of the actual system this mode is useful for locked down desktops where you want to prevent users from affecting the operating file system and registry files NOTE Any modification to any virtual element in the captured application package is stored in the sandbox regardless of the isolation mode setting If you capture Microsoft Office and use group policies isolation modes do not affect the application because group policies can apply registry changes only to the physical environment Virtual and physical registry elements appear as one to the captured application If virtual entries exist for the registry the Merged isolation mode cannot affect the application because Microsoft Office resorts to the virtual entries instead of physical entries If necessary remove such virtual entries to ensure the application affects the physical system regardless of the isolation mode Optional Change the directory where you want to save the application package The package stores the captured software applications If you keep the default directory and capture F
118. ing a copy of thinreg exe located in C Program Files VMware VMware ThinApp alongside the updated package on the server Maintaining the Primary Data Container Name with Application Sync The Application Sync utility requires that the name of the primary data container the file that stores virtual files and registry information is the same for the old and new versions of an application For example you cannot have an old version with Microsoft Office Excel 2003 exe as the primary data container name while the new version has Microsoft Office 2007 dat as the primary data container name For more information about the primary data container see Step 10 in Capture an Application with the Setup Capture Wizard on page 20 Reviewing the Application Link Utility The Application Link utility connects dependent applications at runtime You can package deploy and update component pieces separately rather than capture all components in the same package The Application Link utility is useful for these objects VMware Inc 53 VMware ThinApp User s Manual m Large shared libraries and frameworks Link runtime components such as NET JRE or ODBC drivers with dependent applications For example you can link NET to an application even if the local machine for the application does not allow for the installation of NET or already has a different version of NET m Add on components and plug ins Package and deploy applicati
119. irefox 2 0 0 3 the path might appear as C Program Files VMware VMware ThinApp Captures Mozilla Firefox 2 0 0 3 VMware Inc Chapter 2 Capturing Applications 14 Optional Select the Build MSI package check box and change the MSI filename A typical Firefox application does not require an MSI installation But other applications such as Microsoft Office that integrate with application delivery tools work well as an MSI package MSI generation requires you to install the MSI on the target device before you can use the application package Unlike executable files that involve running the thinreg exe utility on every machine to register file type associations register desktops shortcuts display control panel extensions and more to facilitate file launching an MSI package automates this process when you deploy the application on target machines 15 Optional If you want a lighter executable file for locations such as a USB stick select the Fast compression radio button In typical circumstances compression reduces the on disk storage requirement by 50 percent but slows performance to uncompress the package on target machines 16 Click Next to create the ThinApp project 17 In the final dialog box launch one of these options and click Finish m Click Browse Project to look at the ThinApp project files in Windows Explorer For example if you captured Firefox 2 0 0 3 the location of the project files might be C Program Fil
120. irefox 3 exe ThinApp automatically converts the original application to the new version If you cannot see the update and you originally copied the update to a network drive verify the connection to that drive VMware Inc Chapter 4 Updating Applications Fix an Incorrect Update with Application Sync If you have multiple Application Sync download updates such as multiple Microsoft Office updates and a certain update has an adverse affect or needs to be withdrawn you can address the problem To fix an incorrect update with Application Sync Place a desired update on the server that ThinApp can pick up the next time someone launched the application on a client machine Application Sync Impact on Entry Point Executable Files The Application Sync utility updates entry point executable files For example assume you deploy a Microsoft Office 2007 package that does not include Microsoft PowerPoint The Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007 exe entry point does not exist for the original package If you rebuild the Microsoft Office 2007 package to include Microsoft PowerPoint and you use the Application Sync utility to update client machines the end users can access an entry point executable file for Microsoft PowerPoint Updating thinreg exe Registrations with Application Sync If you register virtual applications on the system using thinreg exe and update applications with the Application Sync utility you can update registrations by plac
121. is often mapped to a shared network drive to allow for easy backups In this situation users can log in to any machine and retain their application settings Place the Sandbox on the Network ThinApp provides the SandboxPath parameter to store the sandbox on a mapped drive VMware Inc 131 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 132 To place the sandbox on the network 1 2 Open the Package ini file Set the SandboxPath parameter under the SandboxName parameter to the network location SandboxPath Z Sandbox For example if Mozilla Firefox 3 0 is the value of the SandboxName parameter the captured Firefox application creates the sandbox in Z Sandbox Mozilla Firefox 3 0 Place the Sandbox on a USB Drive ThinApp provides the SandboxPath parameter to set a USB location for the sandbox The captured application loads and saves changes to the same directory on the USB drive where the executable resides To place the sandbox on a USB drive 1 2 Open the Package ini file Set the SandboxPath parameter under the SandboxName parameter to this value SandboxPath For example if Mozilla Firefox 3 0 is the value of the SandboxName parameter the captured Firefox application creates the Mozilla Firefox 3 0sandbox in the same directory where Firefox runs from Make a Portable Application To make a captured application portable for a USB device iPod or other similar device the sandbox must reside in a subdirectory rela
122. itional files in the SourcePath tree and have them resolve imports against virtual DLLs AddForcedVirtuaLLoadPath SourcePath ExitProcess Sub ExitProcessExitCode This function quits the current process and sets the specified Error Code Parameters ExitCode in The error code to set This information might be available to a parent process Typically a value of 0 is used to indicate no error Example Exit the process and indicate success ExitProcess 0 NOTE As the process exits the scripting system receives its Function OnEndProcess callback Also any DLLs that are loaded run their termination code so they can properly clean up VMware Inc 147 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 148 ExpandPath Function ExpandPath InputPath This function converts a path from macro format to system format Parameters InputPath in A path in macro format Returns The expanded macro path in system format Example Path ExpandPath ProgramFilesDir Myapp exe Path c Program Files myapp exe NOTE All macro paths must escape the and characters by replacing these characters with 25 and 23 ExecuteExternalProcess Function ExecuteExternalProcess CommandLine This function executes a command outside of the virtual environment It can be used if you need to make real system changes Parameters Command Line in CommandLine represents the application and command line parameters to execute outs
123. ittle effect on memory consumption at runtime Fast compression achieves similar compression ratios as the ZIP algorithm The following table lists sample compression ratios and startup times for a Microsoft Office 2003 package running from a local hard drive Compression Type None Fast Size 448 616k 257 373k Compression ratio 100 57 Startup time 1st execution 6 sec 6 sec Startup time 2nd execution 0 1 sec 1 sec Build Time 1st build 3 mins 19 mins Build Time 2nd build 2 mins 1 2 mins You can specify CompressionType in the following places m Package ini file The compression type becomes the default for all files in the project unless otherwise specified m Attributes ini file The compression type overrides the compression algorithm for the present directory and all subdirectories In the manner you can use different compression algorithms for different directories within a single project For example use no compression for the fastest build time and fastest load time default Compression CompressionType None Use fast compression for a slow build time good compression ratio and fast load time Compression CompressionType Fast DisableTracing DisableTracing Prevents trace file generation when Log Monitor is running You can use the ThinApp Log Monitor utility to produce a trace file for applications that ThinApp runs You can use this option to disable the ability to produce trace files
124. k 45 Using Captured Applications with Other System Components 45 Performing Cut and Paste Operations 45 Accessing Printers 45 Accessing Drivers 45 Accessing the Local Disk Removable Disk and Network Shares 46 Accessing the System Registry 46 Networking and Sockets 46 Shared Memory Named Pipes 47 COM DCOM and Out of Process COM 47 Services 47 File Type Associations 47 Sample Isolation Mode Configuration Depending on the Deployment Context 48 View of Isolation Mode Impact on the Windows Registry 48 4 Updating Applications 51 Reviewing Application Updates Triggered by the End User 51 Reviewing the Application Sync Utility 51 Using Application Sync in a Managed or Unmanaged Environment 52 Edit Application Sync Parameters in the Package ini File 52 Fix an Incorrect Update with Application Syne 53 Application Sync Impact on Entry Point Executable Files 53 Updating thinreg exe Registrations with Application Sync 53 Maintaining the Primary Data Container Name with Application Syne 53 Reviewing the Application Link Utility 53 High Level View of the Application using Application Link 54 4 VMware Inc Contents Link a Base Application to the Microsoft NET Framework 55 Set up Nested Links with Application Link 57 Impacting Isolation Modes with Application Link 57 Reviewing the PermittedGroups Impact on Application Link 58 Reviewing File and Registry Collisions in Linked Packages 58 Storing Multiple Versions of a Linked Application in the
125. lProcess 148 Function ExecuteExternalProcess CommandLine 148 Parameters 148 Returns 148 Example 149 ExecuteVirtualProcess 149 Function ExecuteVirtualProcess CommandLine 149 Parameters 149 Returns 149 Example 149 GetBuildOption 149 Function GetBuildOption OptionName 149 Parameters 150 Returns 150 Example 150 GetFileVersionValue 150 Function GetFileVersionValue Filename Value 150 Parameters 150 Returns 151 Example 151 GetCommandLine 151 Function GetCommandLine 151 Returns 151 Example 151 GetCurrentProcessName 151 Function GetCurrentProcessName 151 Returns 152 Example 152 GetOSVersion 152 VMware ThinApp User s Manual Function GetOSVersion 152 Parameters 152 Returns 152 Example 153 GetEnvironmentVariable 153 Function GetEnvironmentVariable Name 153 Parameters 153 Returns 153 Example 154 RemoveSandboxOnExit 154 Sub RemoveSandboxOnExit YesNo 154 Parameters 154 Example 154 SetEnvironmentVariable 154 Sub SetEnvironmentVariable Name Value 154 Parameters 154 Example 155 SetfileSystemIsolation 155 Sub Setfile systemIsolation Directory IsolationMode 155 Parameters 155 Example 155 SetRegistryIsolation 155 Sub SetRegistrylIsolation RegistryKey IsolationMode 155 Parameters 155 Example 156 WaitForProcess 156 Function WaitForProcess ProcessID TimeOutInMilliSeconds 156 Parameters 156 Returns 156 Example 156 F Virtual File System 157 Format Stages of the Virtual File System 157 Merged and Virtual Views of the
126. lication folder to rebuild the application package For example a Firefox 2 0 0 3 path to the build bat file might be C Program Files VMware VMware ThinApp Captures Mozilla Firefox 2 0 0 3 build bat Modifying Settings in the Attributes ini File The Attributes ini file applies settings at the directory level while the Package ini file applies settings at the overall application level For example you can set the isolation mode at the directory or application level to determine which files and registry keys are visible and written by the virtual application you create The granular setting in the Attributes ini file overrides the overall Package ini setting The Package ini setting determines the isolation mode only when ThinApp does not have Attributes ini information If you need to compress only certain folders with large files rather than an entire application you can compress files at the folder level with the CompressionType parameter in the Attributes ini file The Attributes ini file appears in most folders for the captured application For example the Attributes ini file might be located in C Program Files VMware VMware ThinApp Captures Mozilla Firefox 2 0 0 3 AppData Attributes ini Use Notepad or another text editor to update the file VMware Inc Chapter 2 Capturing Applications Edit the Attributes ini File Use Notepad or another text editor to update the Attributes ini file To
127. lsolationMode 95 SandboxCOMObjects 96 VirtualizeExternalOutOfProcessCOM 96 General Options 96 AddPageExecutePermission 96 AllowUnsupportedExternalChildProcesses 97 AnsiCodePage 98 AutoShutdownServices 98 AutoStartServices 98 BlockSize 99 CachePath 100 CapturedUsingVersion 100 CompressionType 100 DisableTracing 101 ExcludePattern 102 FileTypes 103 Localeldentifier 103 LocaleName_ 103 LogPath 103 OutDir 104 NetRelaunch 104 Protocols 105 RuntimeEULA 105 Shortcuts 105 UACRequestedPrivilegesLevel 105 UACRequestedPrivilegesUiAccess 106 UpgradePath 106 VirtualComputerName 107 VirtualDrives 107 Access Control 109 AccessDeniedMsg 109 PermittedGroups 109 6 VMware Inc VMware Inc Contents Application Specific Parameters 110 Disabled 110 CommandLine 110 Icon 111 NoRelocation 112 ReadOnlyData 112 ReserveExtraAddressSpace 112 RetainAllIcons 113 Shortcut 113 Source 114 StripVersionInfo 114 WorkingDirectory 114 Version XXXX 115 Application Link 115 Application Link Pathname Formats 115 RequiredAppLinks 116 OptionalAppLinks 116 Collisions and Order of Import 116 Security and Authorization 117 Application Sync 118 AppSyncURL 118 AppSyncUpdateFrequency 119 AppSyncExpirePeriod 119 AppSyncWarningPeriod 119 AppSyncWarningFrequency 120 AppSyncWarningMessage 120 AppSyncExpireMessage 120 AppSyncUpdatedMessage 121 AppSyncClearSandboxOnUpdate 121 MSI Generation 121 MSIArpProductIcon 121 MSIDefaultInstallAllUse
128. m accidentally running the application The name of the dat file you select does not matter because users do not run the file directly For example use dotnet dat Save the NET project to C Captures dotnet Capture the base application using the same physical system or virtual machine with the NET framework already installed Save the project to C Captures MyApp Open the Package ini file in the captured application folder for the base application Enable the RequiredAppLinks parameter for the base application by adding this line after the BuildOptions entry RequiredAppLinks dotnet dat Application Link parameters need to reference the primary data container of the application you want to link to You cannot reference shortcut exe files because these files do not contain any applications files or registry keys Rebuild the NET 2 0 and base application packages a Double click the build bat file in C Captures MyApp b Double click the build bat file in C Captures dotnet Running these batch files builds separate ThinApp packages Deploy the applications to an end user desktop in C Program Files MyApp a Copy C Captures MyApp bin MyApp exe to lt end_user_desktop gt lt Program_Files_share gt MyApp MyApp exe b Copy C Captures dotnet bin cmd exe to lt end_user_desktop gt lt Program_Files_share gt MyApp dotnet dat VMware Inc Chapter 4 Updating Applications Set up Nested Links wit
129. me for the sandbox The first launch of the upgraded application creates the sandbox with the new name VMware Inc 65 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 66 VMware Inc Monitoring and Troubleshooting ThinApp You can monitor and troubleshoot the environment This chapter includes these topics Providing Information to VMware Support on page 67 Using Log Monitor on page 68 Troubleshooting Specific Applications on page 87 Providing Information to VMware Support VMware support requires the following information from you to troubleshoot a ThinApp environment VMware Inc Step by step reproduction of the procedure you performed when you encountered the problem Information on the host configuration Include the Windows operating system you use whether you use Terminal Server and Citrix Xenapp and any prerequisite programs that you installed on the native machine Copies of the Log Monitor trace files See Using Log Monitor on page 68 Exact copy of the capture folder and all content Do not include the compiled executables from the bin subfolder Description of the expected correct behavior of the application Optional Copies of the applications that you captured Include the server components configuration for Oracle Server or Active Directory Optional Native or physical files or registry key settings that might be relevant to the problem 67 VMware ThinApp User s Manual Option
130. mponents Using Application Link MP Local Disk C Documents and Settings Program Files Common Files ComPlus Applications Local Disk C Base Application GS Program Files BaseApp lication System Files Local Disk CD Component Package Program Files Component1 Application Link Local Disk C J Documents and Settings peeves Program Files Base Application Base Application Component Package Common Files ComPlus Applications Component1 Link a Base Application to the Microsoft NET Framework Review this sample workflow to link a base application MyApp exe to a separate package that contains the Microsoft NET 2 0 Framework Make sure the base application capture process does not include the Microsoft NET 2 0 Framework For information about the process of capturing an application see Chapter 2 Capturing Applications on page 19 For information about required and optional Application Link parameters in the Package ini file see Application Link on page 115 VMware Inc 55 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 56 To link a base application to Microsoft NET Framework 1 Capture the installation of the NET 2 0 Framework During the capture process you must select at least one user accessible entry point Rename the exe file that ThinApp produces to a dat file This prevents users fro
131. n go to Start gt Programs gt VMware gt ThinApp Log Monitor If you want to start Log Monitor on a deployment machine copy the Llog_monitor exe file from C Program Files VMware VMware ThinApp to the deployment machine Start the captured application As the application starts a new entry appears in the Log Monitor list Log Monitor shows one entry for each new trace file Each file does not necessarily correspond with a single process VMware Inc Chapter 5 Monitoring and Troubleshooting ThinApp Terminate the application as soon as it encounters an error Generate logs for each trace file you want to investigate a Select the trace file in the list b Click the Generate text trace report button In typical circumstances child processes spawned by the parent process reside in the same log Multiple independent processes do not reside in the same log ThinApp generates a trace file Log Monitor converts the binary trace file into a txt file Optional Open the txt file with a text editor such as TextPad and scan the information In some circumstances the txt file is too large to open with the text editor Zip the txt files and send them to VMware support Log Monitor Options You can perform operations such as stopping an application or deleting a trace file For applications that are busy or experiencing slow performance with a specific action you can suspend and resume Log Monitor to capture lo
132. n a Web page that needs to open Microsoft Outlook 2007 thinreg exe starts available virtual applications that can handle those protocols If virtual applications are not available thinreg exe starts native applications that can handle those protocols The default location of the utility is C Program Files VMware VMware ThinApp Impact of Application Sync on thinreg exe Review the impact of the Application Sync utility on thinreg exe m If you add modify or remove executable files thinreg exe reregisters the file type associations shortcuts and icons m Ifyou install protocols MIME types control panel applets and templates other than executables thinreg exe reregisters these elements Run the thinreg exe Utility This procedure provides some sample thinreg exe commands The package name in the thinreg exe commands can appear in the following ways m C lt absolute_path_to_ exe gt m Relative path to exe m lt server gt lt share gt lt path to exe gt As a variation you can have a wildcard specification such as exe If the path or filename contains spaces you must enclose the path in double quotes A sample command is thinreg exe DEPLOYSERVER ThinApps Microsoft Office Word 2007 exe For information about thinreg exe parameters see Optional thinreg exe Parameters on page 34 VMware Inc 33 VMware ThinApp User s Manual To run the thinreg exe utility 1 Determine the executable files that
133. n executable file makes its first network connection Because a large number of desktops have Symantec AntiVirus installed ThinApp allows applications to start from a network share without incurring lengthy scan times ThinApp creates a stub executable file in the user s sandbox that is restarted Because Symantec AntiVirus can scan the stub quickly it loads the remainder of the application data from the original source location You can disable this default behavior by adding the Package ini option If your application is small or you know that Symantec AntiVirus is not installed on the desktops you are deploying to you might want to turn off NetRelaunch for better first time startup performance For example disable restart of the application locally on a hard disk BuildOptions NetReLaunch 0 If started from a network drive restart using a local stub default BuildOptions NetRelaunch 1 VMware Inc Appendix A Package ini Parameters Protocols Protocols Specifies the protocols such as HTTP that are visible to applications on the system For example if you have a Microsoft Outlook package you can enter the mailto protocol Review this sample entry BuildOptions Protocols feed feeds mailto Outlook URL mailto stssync webcal webcals RuntimeEULA RuntimeEULA Controls the ThinApp EULA display By default the EULA does not appear Depending on licensing terms forThinApp you might be required to dis
134. n involves full isolation For directories and subkeys that have full isolation the applications only see virtual files and subkeys Any system values that exist in the same location are invisible to the application An application fails because no one designed or tested it for a multiuser environment The application fails to modify files and keys without impacting other users ThinApp makes copies of registry keys and files that the application writes and performs all the modifications in a user specific sandbox This situation involves WriteCopy An application fails because it should have write permission to global locations and is not designed for locked down desktop environments found in a corporate environment or on Windows Vista Isolation For directories and subkeys that have WriteCopy isolation the application recognizes both the host computer files and virtual files All write operations convert host computer files into virtual files in the sandbox View of Isolation Mode Impact on the Windows Registry Figure 3 3 shows a section of the Windows registry for a computer that has older Microsoft Office applications installed Microsoft Office 2003 creates the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE Software Microsoft Office 11 0 registry subtree VMware Inc Chapter 3 Deploying Applications Figure 3 3 Windows Registry as seen by Windows Regedit H e ODBC E Of Fice H 10 0 0 11 0 48 0 9 0 j Common
135. n the physical file system ThinApp uses folder macros to represent Windows standard shell folder locations m Embedded format The build process with the build bat file embeds the read only files system in executable files ThinApp compresses this file system that provides block based streaming to client computers m Sandbox format Running the captured application generates the read write directory structure that holds file data modified by the application File modifications that prompt ThinApp to extract embedded virtual files to the sandbox include the following operations m Changing the timestamp or attributes of a file m Opening a file with write access VMware Inc 157 VMware ThinApp User s Manual m Truncating a file m Renaming or moving a file Both the embedded and sandbox file systems uses folder macros to enable file paths to dynamically expand at runtime Merged and Virtual Views of the File System Isolation modes specify whether ThinApp presents the application with a merged view of the virtual and physical file system or just a view of virtual files For information about isolation modes see Modifying Isolation Modes on page 26 Using Folder Macros 158 ThinApp uses macros to represent file system path locations that might change when the macros run on different operating systems or computers The use of macros allows shared application profile information to instantly migrate to different opera
136. nApp msi file 3 Accept the license enter the serial number and enter the license display name that will appear when you launch applications captured by ThinApp 4 Click Next to install ThinApp 18 VMware Inc Capturing Applications You can capture applications with the Setup Capture wizard For information about capturing applications from the command line see Appendix D ThinApp Snapshot Files on page 137 This chapter uses Mozilla Firefox as a key example for application capture and includes the following topics Reviewing the Capture Process on page 19 Capture an Application with the Setup Capture Wizard on page 20 Performing Post Capture Tasks on page 26 Reviewing the Capture Process The capture process involves these phases VMware Inc Snapshot of the clean machine Installation of the application that ThinApp needs to capture Snapshot of the machine after the application installation ThinApp assesses the differences between the initial snapshot and this snapshot Configuration of the application For example setting Firefox as a default browser setting a home page and setting default security settings You can configure the ThinApp package to set compression sandbox domain user access to applications and more Build of the ThinApp application package 19 VMware ThinApp User s Manual Assessing Application Dependencies Before the Capture Process Before capturi
137. nd applies only to this directory and subdirectories In this manner you can have a different exclusion list for different directories in your project For example FileList Exclude any path that ends with bak or msi ExcLudePattern bak msi Exclude any directories called svn or cvs and all subdirectories NOTE This pattern does not match filenames or directories that contain svn or cvs in the middle of the string ExcLudePattern svn cvs VMware Inc Appendix A Package ini Parameters FileTypes FileTypes List of file extensions that thinreg exe should associate with an executable No separators are needed or allowed between the file extensions in the list so a typical list is doc docx This setting only makes sense in an app exe section not in the BuildOptions section Normally Setup Capture places the FileTypes list in the Package ini file that it generates You can manually remove extensions that you do not want to associate with the virtual package For example if you virtualize Microsoft Office 2007 and have Office 2003 installed natively you can remove the doc extension from the FileTypes list and leave docx In this way Word 2003 opens doc files Word 2007 opens docx files For example use thinreg exe to create file type associations for doc and dot extensions linking them to Microsoft Word Microsoft Office Word 2003 exe ReadOnlyData bin Package ro tvr Source Program
138. ndle 7h 000870 0a88 cmd exe 4adQ5baa lt kernel32 d11 7c81af14 GetConsoleMode gt BOOL 1h OUT LPDWORD 1pMode 13DA84h gt 3h 000871 0a88 cmd exe 4ad 5dec gt kernel32 d11 7c835484 WriteConsoleW IN HANDLE hConsoleOutput 7h IN const LpBuffer 4AD2B1E0h IN DWORD nNumberOfCharsToWrite 15h IN LPVOID lpReserved 0h 000872 0a88 cmd exe 4ad 5dec lt kernel32 d11 7c835484 WriteConsoleW gt BOOL 1h OUT LPDWORD 1lpNumberOfCharswWritten 13DABOh gt 15h 000873 0a88 cmd exe 4adQbf00 gt 0le32 d11 774e03f0 Getfile type CIN HANDLE hFile 3h 000874 0a88 Getfile type 3 gt 0x2 000875 0a88 cmd exe 4adQbf00 lt ole32 d11 774e03f0 Getfile type gt DWORD 2h O 000876 0a88 cmd exe 4ad02c97 gt 0le32 d11 774e03f0 Getfile type IN HANDLE VMware Inc 83 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 84 hFile 3h 000877 0a88 Getfile type 3 gt 0x2 000878 0a88 cmd exe 4ad02c97 lt ole32 d11 774e03f0 Getfile type gt DWORD 2h O 000879 0a88 cmd exe 4ad02cc0 gt kernel32 dL1L 7c812F39 GetStdHandle CIN DWORD nStdHandLe FFFFFFF6h 000880 0a88 cmd exe 4ad02ccQ lt kerne132 d11 7c812f39 GetStdHandle gt HANDLE 3h 000881 0a88 cmd exe 4ad02ccd gt kernel32 dL1L 7c81af14 GetConsoleMode IN HANDLE hConsoleHand1le 3h 000882 0a88 cmd exe 4ad02ccd lt kerne132 d11 7c81laf14 GetConsoleMode gt BOOL 1h OUT LPDWORD 1pMode 13DD50h gt A7h 000883 0a88 cmd exe 4ad02c97 gt 01e32 d11 774e03f0 Getfile typ
139. ndows XP 1 Windows 2000 0 Windows NT 4 0 0 Windows NT 3 51 51 BUILD_NUMBER is the build number of the OS PLATFORM_ID is one of the following values Value 1 for Windows Me Windows 98 or Windows 95 Windows 95 based OS Value 2 for Windows Server 2003 Windows XP Windows 2000 or Windows NT Windows NT based OS OS_STRING Represents additional information about the OS such as Service Pack 2 Example if GetOSVersion 5 1 0 2 Service Pack 2 then MsgBox You are running on Windows XP Service Pack 2 endif GetEnvironmentVariable Function GetEnvironmentVariable Name This function returns the environment variable associated with variable name Name Parameters Name in The name of the environment variable for which the value is to be retrieved Returns This function returns the string value associated with the environment variable name VMware Inc 153 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 154 Example MsgBbox The package source EXE is GetEnvironmentVariabLe TS_ORIGIN RemoveSandboxOnExit Sub RemoveSandboxOnExit YesNo This function set toggles whether to delete the sandbox when the last child process exits If you set the Package ini option RemoveSandboxOnExit 1 the default clean up for the package with be Yes In this case you can change the clean up to No by calling RemoveSandboxOnExit with the value of 0 If you did not modify the Package ini option RemoveSandboxOnExit
140. nections VMware recommends one of these solutions m Deploy applications by using a URL m Usea desktop deployment solution to push the package to the background Allow the application to run only after the entire package downloads These solutions reduce failures and eliminate situations in which the application requires unstreamed portions during a network outage A company with many branch offices typically designates one application repository that mirrors a central shared folder at each branch office This setup optimizes local performance for client machines located at the branch office Reviewing Security Recommendations for Streaming Packages VMware recommends that you make a central shared directory for the package read only Users can read the package contents but not change the executable contents As multiple users stream a package from a shared location ThinApp stores changes that the application makes in the user s sandbox The default sandbox location is AppData Thinstall lt application_name gt You can configure the sandbox location at runtime or at package time A common configuration is to place the user s sandbox on another central storage device The user can use any computer and retain individual application settings at a central share When packages stream from a central share they remain locked until all users exit the application 44 VMware Inc Chapter 3 Deploying Applications Stream Packages from t
141. nel mode device drivers ODBC drivers work because they are user mode m Antivirus and personal firewalls m Scanner drivers and printer drivers m Some VPN clients Device Drivers Applications that require device drivers do not work when packaged with ThinApp You must install those device drivers in their original format on the host computer Because ThinApp does not support virtualized device drivers you cannot use ThinApp to virtualize antivirus VPN clients personal firewalls and disk and volume mounting related utilities If you capture Adobe Acrobat you can open edit and save PDF files but you cannot see or use the PDF printer driver that allows you to save documents to PDF format Shell Integration Some applications that provide shell integration might have reduced functions as a ThinApp package When ThinApp virtualizes applications the applications might lose some shell integration functions with the system explorer shell 16 VMware Inc Chapter 1 Installing ThinApp DCOM Services that are Accessible on a Network ThinApp isolates COM and DCOM services Applications that install DCOM services are accessible on the local computer only by other captured applications running in the same ThinApp sandbox ThinApp supports virtual DCOM and COM on the same computer but does not support network DCOM Global Hook DLLs Some applications use the SetWindowsHookEx API function to add a DLL to all processes on the host compute
142. ng quotes like this HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE Software Key with space ShowValues Optionally prints the names of all virtual values contained in virtual subkeys ShowData Optionally prints the data associated with each virtual value ExpandMacros Optionally expands macros contained in registry values and data before printing The following is an example vregtool c tmp test tvr PrintKeys HKEY_CURRENT_USER Software Adobe Save For Web 3 0 This operation prints all the virtual registry keys contained ina tvr file to the console VMware Inc 167 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 168 Listing Diagnostic Information About a Thinapp tvr File Use the following command to list diagnostic information about a ThinApp tvr file VREGTOOL regfile tvr PrintStats regfile tvr Data file in ThinApp virtual registry file format This option is used mainly for diagnosing issues with tvr files The following is an example vregtool c tmp test tvr PrintStats Comparing Virtual Registry Information with Host Computer Registry Information Use the following command to compare virtual registry information with the host computer registry information VREGTOOL regfile tvr SysComapre HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE Software Exact regfile tvr Data file in ThinApp virtual registry file format HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE Software Optionally specifies the registry subkey to begin comparing If this is specified only subkeys at this level and below are cons
143. ng an application assess whether the application has any dependencies on other applications libraries or frameworks and whether to capture these dependencies VMware recommends using the Application Link utility to link separate components at runtime See Chapter 4 Updating Applications on page 51 Recommended Tasks Prior to the Capture Process Review the recommended tasks prior to starting the Setup Capture wizard m Shut down applications such as virus scans that might change the file system while ThinApp takes snapshots m Review other areas of this manual if you are not already familiar with the ThinApp sandbox that stores application run time changes isolation modes that affect resource visibility and access outside the captured application package application compression options generation of MSI files instead of executable files and the folders with macros that represent file system paths in the captured application directory Capture an Application with the Setup Capture Wizard 20 Use the Setup Capture wizard to package an application and set initial application parameters If you use a virtual machine consider taking a snapshot prior to running the wizard A snapshot of the original clean state allows you to revert to the snapshot anytime you want to capture another application To capture an application with the Setup Capture wizard 1 Download the applications you want to capture For example download Firefox
144. ng this path You can see in the log file how cmd exe creates the c test cmd_test bin gt prompt This is accomplished by querying the environment variable PROMPT that returns P G and uses the API function WriteConsolew to print the prompt to the screen after internally expanding P G to c test cmd_test bin gt 000824 0a88 cmd exe 4ad0697a lt ADVAPI32 d11 77dd038f FormatMessageW gt DWORD 29h COUT LPWSTR 1LpBuffer 4AD38BAOh gt L C Copyright 1985 2001 Microsoft Corp Dh Ah 000825 0a88 cmd exe 4ad069d1 gt ADVAPI32 d11 77dd038f FormatMessageW IN DWORD dwFlags 1800h IN LPCVOID lpSource Oh IN DWORD dwMessageId 2334h IN DWORD dwLanguageId 0h IN DWORD nSize 2000h IN Arguments 13DD40h gt 000826 0a88 FormatMessageW FORMAT_MESSAGE_FROM_HMODULE FORMAT_MESSAGE_FROM_SYSTEM Line_width unlimited lLpSource 0x0 dwMessageId 0x2334 dwLanguageId 0x0 gt 0x29 CC Copyright 1985 2001 Microsoft Corp 000827 0a88 cmd exe 4ad069d1 lt ADVAPI32 d11 77dd038f FormatMessageW gt DWORD 29h COUT LPWSTR 1lpBuffer 4AD38BAOh gt L C Copyright 1985 2001 Microsoft Corp Dh Ah 000828 0a88 cmd exe 4ad08d01 gt kernel132 d11 7c835484 WriteConsoleW CIN HANDLE hConsoleOutput 7h IN const LpBuffer 4AD38BAO0h IN DWORD nNumberOfCharsToWrite 29h IN LPVOID lpReserved 0h 000829 0a88 cmd exe 4ad08d01 lt kernel32 d11 7c835484 WriteConsoleW gt BOOL 1h COUT LPDWORD lpNumberOfCharswritten 13DD
145. ng to the examples in the dialog box m To locate user names in the Active Directory forest click Advanced and use the Common Queries tab to search for groups according to names descriptions disabled accounts passwords and days since the last login For example you might restrict access to an application to ensure users do not pass it to unauthorized users VMware Inc Chapter 2 Capturing Applications Select the ThinApp sandbox location depending on whether you want to deploy it to a local user machine carry it on a mobile USB stick or store it in a network location If you deploy the sandbox to a local machine use the user s profile If you store the sandbox in a network drive enter the relative path to the location where you want the sandbox created A sample path is thinapp sandbox Firefox You can select a network locations even if an application is installed on a local machine 12 Select the isolation mode to determine which files and registry keys are visible and written by the virtual application you create VMware Inc To allow the application to read resources on and write to the local machine keep the default Merged isolation mode This means that the application can modify elements outside of the virtual application package Some applications rely on DLLs and registry information in the local system image VMware recommends this mode for applications that do not write to system directories such as Fire
146. ning 26 installing ThinApp 18 inventory name purpose of 22 isolation modes Full 26 impact from Application Link 57 impact on virtual file system 158 Merged 23 modifying 26 sample configuration 48 WriteCopy 24 VMware Inc L log format 71 Log Monitor extra options 69 suspending and resuming logging 69 troubleshooting procedures 68 using 68 Merged isolation mode 23 Microsoft Vista deploying MSI files 40 MSI files automating the thinreg exe utility 25 building the database 37 customizing parameters 37 deploying on Microsoft Vista 40 generating 25 modifying the Package ini 38 overriding the installation directory 39 parameters 121 N nested links using Application Link 57 network streaming packages 42 O operating systems support for 15 using the lowest version for ThinApp installation 18 P Package ini AccessDeniedMsg 109 Active Directory parameters 41 AddPageExecutePermission 96 VMware Inc Index AllowUnsuppportedExternalChild Processes 97 AnsiCodePage 98 AppSyncClearSandboxOnUpdate 121 AppSyncExpireMessage 120 AppSyncExpirePeriod 119 AppSyncUpdateFrequency 119 AppSyncUpdateMessage 121 AppSyncURL 118 AppSyncWarningFrequency 120 AppSyncWarningMessage 120 AppSyncWarningPeriod 119 AutoShutdownServices 98 AutoStartServices 98 BlockSize 99 CachePath 100 CapturedUsingVersion 100 ChildProcessEnvironmentDefault 92 ChildProcessEnvironment Exceptions 92 CommandLine 110 CompressionTy
147. not find the file specified 007062 0000075c LoadLibraryExw C Program Files Adobe Reader 8 0 Reader en US Microsoft Windows Common Controls DLL flags 2 gt 0 failed KKK 010649 0000075c LoadLibraryExwW C Program Files Adobe Reader 8 0 Reader en US Microsoft Windows Common Controls Microsoft Windows Common C ontrols DLL flags 2 gt failed 019127 0000075c MSVCR80 d11 781348cc lt msvcrt d1l 77c10396 GetEnvironmentVariableA gt DWORD O0h OUT LPSTR LpBuffer Oh lt bad ptr gt GetLastErrorQ returns 203 0 The system could not find the environment option that was entered 019133 0000075c MSVCR80 d11 78133003 lt nview d11l 1000058c GetProcAddress gt FARPROC Oh GetLastError returns 127 203 The specified procedure could not be found 019435 0000075c MSVCR8Q d11 78136e08 lt dbghelp d1l 59a60360 Getfile type VMware Inc 77 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 78 gt DWORD 0h GetLastErrorQ returns 6 0 The handle is invalid 019500 0000075c MSVCR80 d11 78134481 lt nview d11l 1000058c GetProcAddress gt FARPROC Oh GetLastError returns 127 0 The specified procedure could not be found 019530 0000075c MSVCR80 d11 78131dcd lt dbghelp d1ll 59a603a1 GetModuleHandleA gt HMODULE 0h GetLastError Q returns 126 0 The specified module could not be found Troubleshooting Using Log Monitor Log Monitor can be
148. ns This function returns a string value If the requested Option Name does not exist an empty string is returned Example Package ini contains BuildOptions DemoOption DemoVa Lue The following line would appear in a VBS file Value GetBuildOption DemoOption Value DemoValue GetFileVersionValue Function GetFileVersionValue Filename Value This function returns version information value from a specific DLL executable OCX etc This function can be used to determine the internal version number of a DLL or retrieve information about the copyright owner of a DLL or product name associated with the DLL Parameters Filename in The name of the filename whose version information is being retrieved Value in The name of the Value to retrieve from the version information section of the specified file The following values can be retrieved from most DLLs Comments InternalName ProductName CompanyName VMware Inc Appendix E Using Scripts LegalCopyright ProductVersion FileDescription LegalTrademarks PrivateBuild FileVersion OriginalFilename SpecialBuild Returns This function returns a string value If the requested Filename does not exist or the specified Value cannot be located in the file the value of is returned Example FileVersion GetFileVersionVaLue c windows system32 kernel32 d11 FileVersion if FileVersion 1 0 0 0 then MsgBox This is Version 1 0
149. nstructs ThinApp to run all external out of process COM objects in the virtual environment default BuildOptions VirtualizeExternaLOutOfProcessCOM 1 General Options The following sections describe the general options parameters AddPageExecutePermission AddPageExecutePermission Fixes applications that do not work in DEP environments 96 VMware Inc Appendix A Package ini Parameters The Data Execution Prevention DEP feature of Windows XP SP2 Windows Server 2003 and later protects against some security exploits that occur with buffer overflows This feature causes a number of compatibility issues The feature is turned off by default on XP SP2 and you can use a machine specific opt in or opt out list of the applications to apply DEP protection to Opt in and opt out policies can be difficult to manage when a large number of machines and applications are involved This option instructs ThinApp to add Execution Permission to pages that an application allocates The application can then run on machines that have DEP protection enabled without having to modify the opt out list For example BuildOptions Disable some Data Execution protections for this particular application AddPageExecutionPermission 1 BuildOptions Do not change DEP protections default AddPageExecutionPermission 0 AllowUnsupportedExternalChildProcesses AllowUnsupportedExternaLChildProcesses When set to 0 the virtualized application fail
150. oject_path gt parameter A sample command is C Program Files VMware VMware ThinApp sbmerge Print ProjectDir C lt project_folder_path gt SandboxDir lt sandbox_path gt When you start a captured application it searches for the sandbox in a particular order See Reviewing the Search Order for the Sandbox on page 129 If you use a custom location for the sandbox use the SandboxDir lt sandbox_path gt parameter to specify the location Quiet Blocks the printing of progress messages Exclude lt excluded_file gt ini Prevents the merging of specific files or registry entries from the sandbox You can specify a ini file to determine the content for exclusion This file contains separate sections to specify files such as the FileSystemIgnoreList and the RegistryIgnoreList The sbmerge exe utility uses the snapshot ini file in the ThinApp installation folder by default to exclude certain content from the merge process This option allows you to specify another ini file to ensure additional exclusion of content Reviewing Application Updates using Auto Update Capabilities 62 If an application has auto update capabilities its update mechanism still functions with ThinApp If the application downloads the update and runs an installer or patching program this activity occurs inside the virtual environment and ThinApp stores the changes from the update software in the sandbox When the applica
151. on lt filename gt lt icon_index gt The lt icon_index gt entry is optional MSIDefaultInstallAllUsers MSIDefaultInstallALLUsers Sets the default installation mode of the MSI database The default setting is 1 This option has an effect only when the MSIFilename option requests generation of a Windows Installer database see MSIFilename on page 123 VMware Inc 121 VMware ThinApp User s Manual When set to 1 the default installation mode of the generated MSI database is per machine To set the default mode to per user set this option to 0 Setting it to 2 results in a default mode of per machine for administrators and per user for non administrators For example this directs ThinApp to generate an MSI that is installed for each user by default NOTE By suppling command line arguments to msiexec you can force a per machine installation For example msiexec exe mymsi msi ALLUSERS 1 BuildOptions MSIFilename mymsi msi MSIDefaultInstallAllUsers 0 For example this directs ThinApp to generate an MSI that is installed for each machine by default NOTE By supplying command line arguments to msiexec you can force a per user machine installation For example msiexec exe mymsi msi ALLUSERS BuildOptions MSIFilename mymsi msi MSIDefaultInstaLlAllUsers 1 For example this directs ThinApp to generate an MSI that is installed for each machine for administrators and for each user for non
152. on specific components and plug ins separately from the base application For example you might separate Adobe Flash Player or Adobe Reader from a base Firefox application and link the components The Application Link utility allows you to deploy a single virtualized Microsoft Office to all users and deploy individual add on components for each user m Hot fixes and service packs Link updates to an application and roll back to a previous version if users experience significant issues with the new version You can deploy minor patches to applications as a single file and reduce the need for rollbacks A key benefit is bandwidth savings For example if you have Microsoft Office 2007 Service Pack 1 and you want to update to Service Pack 2 without Application Link you would need to transfer 1 5Gb of data per computer with the deployment of a new Office 2007 Service Pack 2 package The Application Link utility transfers just the updates and not the whole package to the computers High Level View of the Application using Application Link The Application Link utility presents the running application with a merged view of the system the base application and all linked components Files registry keys services COM objects and environment variables from dependency packages are visible to the base application See Figure 4 1 54 VMware Inc Chapter 4 Updating Applications Figure 4 1 View of the System Base Application and Linked Co
153. operating system drives installed software environment variables process list services and drivers This section starts with a Dump started on string and ends with a Dump ended on string Header This section shows contextual information for the instance of the process under Log Monitor Some of the displayed attributes show logging options address ranges where the operating system runtime is loaded and mapping of macros to actual system paths ThinApp marks the beginning of this section with sequence number 000001 In typical circumstances ThinApp marks the end of this section with a message about the Application Sync utility 71 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 72 m Body This section consists of trace activity as the application starts and executes operations Each line represents function calls made by target executable or one of its DLLs The beginning of this section is marked by New Modules detected in memory followed by the SYSTEM_LOADED modules list The end of this section is marked by Modules Loaded Summary This section list modules loaded by the captured application potential errors profile of 150 slowest calls and more The beginning of this section is noted by the Modules Loaded message General API Log Message Format The general format for API calls resembles the following message 000257 0a88 mydll dll 4ad0576d gt kerne132 d11 7c81b1f0 SetConsoleMode IN HANDLE hConsoleHandle 7h IN DWORD
154. order before changing the placement of the sandbox lt sandbox_name gt _SANDBOX_DIR lt computer_name gt For example Mozilla Firefox 3 0 _SANDBOX_DIR JOHNDOE COMPUTER lt sandbox name gt _SANDBOX_DIR For example Mozilla Firefox 3 0 _SANDBOX_DIR THINSTALL_SANDBOX_DIR lt sandbox_name gt lt computer_name gt For example THINSTALL_SANDBOX_DIR Mozilla Firefox 3 0 JOHNDOE COMPUTER THINSTALL_SANDBOX_DIR lt sandbox_name gt For example THINSTALL_SANDBOX_DIR Mozilla Firefox 3 0 lt exe_directory gt lt sandbox_name gt lt computer_name gt For example C Program Files Firefox Mozilla Firefox 3 0 JOHNDOE COMPUTER lt exe_directory gt lt sandbox_name gt For example C Program Files Firefox Mozilla Firefox 3 0 lt exe_directory gt Thinstal1 lt sandbox_name gt lt computer_name gt For example C Program Files Firefox Thinstall Mozilla Firefox 3 0 JOHNDOE COMPUTER lt exe_directory gt Thinstal1 lt sandbox_name gt For example C Program Files Firefox Thinstall Mozilla Firefox 3 0 lt sandbox_path gt lt sandbox_name gt lt computer_name gt For example Z sandboxes Mozilla Firefox 3 0 JOHNDOE COMPUTER lt sandbox_path gt lt sandbox_name gt lt computer_name gt For example Z sandboxes Mozilla Firefox 3 0 JOHNDOE COMPUTER lt sandbox_path gt lt sandbox_name gt For example Z sandboxes Mozilla Firefox 3 0 VMware Inc Appendix B Using the Sandbox m AppData
155. ot be available on the client computers to which you are distributing For example some legacy applications might be designed to expect that the D drive is a CD ROM and that various data files are available at D media VMware Inc 107 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 108 Virtual drives are visible only to applications running in the virtual environment Virtual drives do not have any effect on the real Windows environment Isolation modes for virtual drives are inherited from the project s default isolation mode unless you specifically override it as shown in the following example If you configure your virtual drive with the isolation mode set to IsolationMode Merged any writes to that drive fail if it does not exist on the real system Projects that Setup Capture creates list virtual drive information for drives that are present at the time of capture VirtualDrives is a single string that can hold information for multiple drive letters and optional parameters for those drive letters The format for VirtualDrives should look like this VirtualDrives Drive A Serial 12345678 Type REMOVABLE Drive B Serial 9ABCDEFO Type FIXED Semicolons separate drive letters and commas separate parameters for individual drive letters Drive single character between a and z Serial 8 digit hex number Type m FIXED The drive has fixed media For example a hard drive or internal Flash drive m REMOVABLE The drive has removable
156. ou can add registry settings that you want ThinApp to add to client computers as part of the installation thinreg exe Registers captured applications on a computer This registration includes setting up shortcuts and the Start menu and setting up file type associations that allow you to start applications tlink exe Links key modules during the build process of the captured application vftool exe Compiles the virtual file system during the build process of the captured application vregtool exe Compiles the virtual registry during the build process of the captured application VMware Inc ThinApp Snapshot Files This information discusses advanced usage of the snapshot exe and snapshot ini files and includes these topics m Using the snapshot exe utility on page 137 m Using the snapshot ini File on page 140 Using the snapshot exe utility You do not need to use snapshot exe directly because the Setup Capture wizard invokes it Only advanced users and system integrators who are building ThinApp functionality into other platforms might make direct use of this utility Use this utility to create a snapshot of a computer file system and registry or create a ThinApp project from two previously captured snapshots Creating a Snapshot Creating a snapshot of a computer file system and registry involves scanning and saving a copy of the following data m File information for all local drives
157. p packages to import to the current package at runtime If ThinApp cannot import a package ThinApp stops the base application m OptionalAppLinks Specifies a list of external ThinApp packages to import to the current package at runtime If ThinApp cannot import a package ThinApp allows the base application to start For general information about all Package ini parameters see Appendix A Package ini Parameters on page 91 For more information about parameters that affect MSI file generation see For information about parameters that affect application updates see Chapter 4 Updating Applications on page 51 Edit the Package ini File Use Notepad or another text editor to update the Package ini file VMware Inc 27 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 28 To edit the Package ini file 1 Open the Package ini file located in the captured application folder For example a Firefox 2 0 0 3 path might be C Program Files VMware VMware ThinApp Captures Mozilla Firefox 2 0 0 3 Package ini 2 Activate the parameter you want to edit by removing the semicolon at the beginning of the line For example activate the RemoveSandboxOnExit parameter for Firefox RemoveSandboxOnExit 1 Another example might involve commenting out the Protocols parameter if you do not want Firefox to take over the protocols 3 Delete or change the value of the parameter and save the file 4 Double click the build bat file in the captured app
158. page 29 For information about the impact of application updates on isolation modes see Impacting Isolation Modes with Application Link on page 57 VMware Inc Chapter 2 Capturing Applications Modifying Settings in the Package ini File The Package ini file contains configuration settings and resides in the captured application folder For example a Firefox 2 0 0 3 path might be C Program Files VMware VMware ThinApp Captures Mozilla Firefox 2 0 0 3 Package ini The following parameters are examples of settings that you might customize m DirectoryIsolationMode Sets the isolation mode to Merged WriteCopy or Full ThinApp caches the isolation modes for the registry and the file system at runtime in the sandbox If you change the isolation mode for the project and rebuild the executable file you might need to delete the sandbox for the change to take effect m PermittedGroups Restricts use of an application package to a specific set of Active Directory users m SandboxName Names the ThinApp sandbox You might keep the name for incremental application updates and change the name for major updates m SandboxPath Sets the sandbox location You can set the sandbox in a USB location if the application executable resides in that location m SandboxNetworkDrives Specifies whether to direct write operations on the network share to the sandbox m RequiredAppLinks Specifies a list of external ThinAp
159. pe 100 description of common parameters 27 DirectorylsolationMode 92 Disabled 110 DisableTracing 101 editing Application Sync parameters 52 ExcludePattern 102 ExternalCOMObjects 93 ExternalDLLs 94 FileTypes 103 Icon 111 InventoryName 127 IsolatedMemoryObjects 94 IsolatedSynchronizationObjects 95 Localeldentifier 103 173 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 174 LocaleName 103 LogPath 103 modifying isolation modes 26 modifying MSI parameters 38 MSI parameters 37 MSlIArpProductlcon 121 MSIDefaultinstallAllUsers 121 MSIFilename 123 MSllnstallDirectory 123 MSIManufacturer 123 MSI ProductCode 124 MS ProductVersion 124 MS RequireElevatedPrivileges 124 MSIUpgradeCode 125 MSIUseCabs 125 NetRelaunch 104 NoRelocation 112 OptionalAppLinks 116 OutDir 104 parameters 91 128 PermittedGroups 109 Protocols 105 ReadOnlyData 112 RegistrylsolationMode 95 RemoveSandboxOnExit 128 RequiredAppLinks 116 ReserveExtraAddressSpace 112 RetainAlllcons 113 RuntimeEULA 105 SandboxCOMObjects 96 SandboxName 126 SandboxNetworkDrives 127 SandboxPath 126 SandboxRemovableDisk 128 Shortcut 113 Shortcuts 105 Source 114 StripVersionInfo 114 UACRequestedPrivilegesLevel 105 UACRequestedPrivilegesUiAccess 106 UpgradePath 106 Version XXXX 115 VirtualComputerName 107 VirtualDrives 107 VirtualizeExternalOutOfProcess COM 96 WorkingDirectory 114 parameters for MSI files 37 for Package ini 91 for somerge exe 61 for thinreg exe 34
160. play an end user license agreement Following are examples of the RuntimeEULA parameter BuildOptions Default do not show an Eula RuntimeEULA 0 Turn on display of EULA RuntimeEULA 1 Shortcuts Shortcuts List of locations where thinreg exe creates a shortcut to a virtual application The list consists of entries separated by semicolons Each entry can contain a macro value Use this setting in an app exe section only not ina BuildOptions section For example use thinreg exe to create a shortcut to the virtual Word 2003 application in the Microsoft Office folder that appears in the Start menu Microsoft Office Word 2003 exe ReadOn1lyData bin Package ro tvr Source ProgramFilesDir Microsoft Office OFFICE11 WINWORD EXE Shortcuts Programs Microsoft Office UACRequestedPrivilegesLevel UACRequestedPrivilegesLevel Specifies privileges for programs requiring this information This parameter affects users working on Vista or higher operating system versions VMware Inc 105 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 106 You can use the following values m invoker This value uses the profile invoked in Vista m requireAdministrator m highestavailable This value uses the highest available privilege that can avoid the UAC prompt BuildOptions UACRequestedPriviLegesLevel requireAdministrator UACRequestedPrivilegesUiAccess UACRequestedPrivilegesUIAccess If you work with Vista or a higher operating system version
161. pplications create child processes and scripts execute for child processes as well To execute code only in the main parent process use callback functions ThinApp uses VB Script to execute script files so any valid VB Script loads under a ThinApp executable Refer to Microsoft s VB Script User Guide for more information VB script can be used to access COM controls registered on the host system or registered within the virtual package This information includes the following topics m Callback Functions on page 141 m Example Scripts on page 142 m API Reference on page 146 Callback Functions Callback functions with specific names execute only under certain conditions For example callback functions allow script code to execute only when an application starts or quits VMware Inc 141 VMware ThinApp User s Manual Callback function names include the following names OnFirstSandboxOwner Called only when an application first locks the sandbox This callback is not called if a second copy of the same application is launched using the same sandbox while the first copy is still running If a first application spawns sub process and then quits the sandbox remains locked by the second sub process so this callback does not execute again until all sub processes have quit and the application is run again OnFirstParentStart Called prior to executing a ThinApp executable file regardless of whether the sandbox is
162. r s Manual This example represents a five character string value the fifth character being a NULL 0 character REG_MULIT_SZ String1 00String2 00 00 This example represents a multi string value that contains a list of two values String1 and String2 REG_DWORD 27 c6 00 02 This example represents a 4 byte binary value For binary values data is stored as a string of escaped bytes For DWORD values data is stored in native x86 order little endian so no special processing needs to be performed for binary data MACRO_VALUE_DATA Specifies value data to be macro expanded prior to use by the application For example the value AppData is expanded at runtime to the location of the user s Application Data directory If value data is not macro expanded the application receives the literal string AppData when queries this registry value Macro expanded data is only supported for string value types REG_SZ REG_EXPAND_SZ and REG_MULTI_SZ The following are examples REG_SZ AppData This represents the value of the Application Data folder on the host computer on which ThinApp is running The length of this registry value changes depending on what machine it runs on REG_SZ 23AppData 23 This represents the value of the actual value AppData This value is always the literal string AppData regardless of the current shell folder location isolation_full HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE Software Classes CLSID 047a9a40 65 7e 11d3 8d5b
163. r The added DLL intercepts Windows messages to capture keyboard and mouse input from other applications ThinApp ignores requests from applications that use the SetWindowsHookEx function to try to install global hook DLLs ThinApp might reduce the application functions Recommendations for Installing ThinApp Review the recommendations for installing ThinApp Using a Clean Computer VMware recommends using a clean system to install ThinApp because the environment affects the application capture process Application installers skip files that already exist on the computer If the installer skips files the ThinApp package does not include them during the application capture process and the application might fail to run on other computers where the files do not exist A clean machine allows the capture process to scan the computer file system and registry quickly A clean system is a physical or virtual machine with a Windows operating system installed and nothing else In a corporate environment where you have a base desktop image the base desktop image is your clean system The desktop computer might already have some components and libraries installed If you install ThinApp and capture an application on a system that has Microsoft NET 2 0 already installed NET 2 0 is not included in the ThinApp package The application runs only on computers that have NET 2 0 already installed Using Virtual Machines for Clean Systems The easiest way
164. rOfCharsToRead 2000h IN LPVOID 1LpReserved 13DD20h 001518 0a88 cmd exe 4adQba71 lt kernel132 d11 7c871la6c ReadConsoleW gt BOOL 1h OUT VMware Inc Chapter 5 Monitoring and Troubleshooting ThinApp LPVOID lpBuffer 4AD2FAEOh OUT LPDWORD 1lpNumberOfCharsRead 13DD70h gt 8h 4ad02c97 gt 01le32 d11 774e03f0 Getfile type IN HANDLE 001519 0a88 cmd exe hFile 3h 001520 0a88 001521 0a88 cmd exe O 001522 0a88 cmd exe nStdHandle FFFFFFF6h 001523 0a88 cmd exe gt HANDLE 3h 001524 0a88 cmd exe HANDLE hConsoleHandle 3h 001525 0a88 cmd exe gt BOOL 1h OUT Getfile type 3 gt 0x2 4ad02c97 lt ole32 dll 774e03f0 Getfile type gt DWORD 2h 4ad02cc0 gt kernel32 dll 4ad02cc0 lt kernel32 4ad02ccd gt kernel32 4ad02ccd lt kernel32 LPDWORD lpMode 13DD50h gt A7h 001526 0a88 cmd exe 001527 0a88 cmd exe gt UINT 1B5h 001528 0a88 cmd exe CodePage 1B5h 001529 0a88 cmd exe COUT LPCPINFO 4ad0bb9c gt kerne132 4ad0bb9c lt kernel132 4ad0bbad gt kerne132 4ad0bbad lt kerne132 dll dll dll dll 7c81b18f GetConsoleOutputCP dll dll dll 7c812f39 GetStdHandle IN DWORD 7c812f39 GetStdHandle 7c8laf14 GetConsoleMode IN 7c8laf14 GetConsoleMode 7c81b18f GetConsoleOutputCP 7c812e76 GetCPInfo CIN UINT 7c812e76 GetCPInfo gt BOOL 1h LpCPInfo 4AD33BAOh gt struct UINT MaxCharSize 1h char 2 DefaultChar 00h ch
165. rd If you do not address any prompts ahead of time every user who uses the application will have to go through that process during the initial launch Close the application Maximize the Setup Capture wizard and click Next to proceed with another snapshot of the machine ThinApp stores the differences between the first snapshot and this snapshot in a virtual file system and virtual registry Specify the entry points primary data container and inventory name a Select the check boxes for user accessible entry points Entry points are the executable files that start the virtual application The entry points you can choose from depend on the executables that your captured application creates during installation For example if you install Microsoft Office you can select entry points for Microsoft Word Microsoft Excel and other applications that are installed during a Microsoft Office installation If you install Firefox you might select Mozilla Firefox exe and Mozilla Firefox SafeMode exe if users require safe mode access If you generate MSI files instead of executables and deploy the application on target machines these entry points create desktop shortcuts For information about the cmd exe regedit exe and iexplore exe entry point choices see Entry Points for Troubleshooting on page 26 21 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 22 Select the primary data container the file that stores virtual files and regist
166. relationship with device drivers If an application requires a device driver you must install the driver separately from the ThinApp package VMware Inc 45 VMware ThinApp User s Manual In some cases an application without an associated driver might function with some limitations For example Adobe Acrobat installs a printer driver that allows applications system wide to render PDF files using a print mechanism When you use a captured version of Adobe Acrobat you can use it to load edit and save PDF files without installation Other applications do not detect a new printer driver unless the driver is installed Accessing the Local Disk Removable Disk and Network Shares When you create a project structure ThinApp configures isolation modes for directories and registry subtrees The isolation modes control which directories the application can read and write to on the local computer The default configuration options are m Hard disk An example is C Isolation modes selected during the capture process impact this option Users can write to their Desktop and My Documents folders Other modifications that the application makes go into the user application sandbox The sandbox is located by default in the Application Data directory m Removable disk By default users can read or write to any location ona removable disk assuming the user has access rights to do so m Network mapped drives By default users can read or
167. requests to look up and store values in the registry and redirects them to the virtual registry This information discusses these topics m Format Stages of the Virtual Registry on page 161 m Attributes ini on page 165 m Performing Registry Operations on page 165 Format Stages of the Virtual Registry By storing settings in the virtual registry ThinApp ensures that settings required by the application are accessible without actually changing the system registry The virtual registry uses formats in the following stages m Build format The setup capture process generates this format that involves Unicode text files such as HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE txt m Embedded format The build process converts the build format into the embedded format ThinApp compresses and stores the read only binary format inside the application executable file VMware Inc 161 VMware ThinApp User s Manual m Sandbox format This read write format stores the differences from the embedded format as the application writes to the registry After you build a package all registry values and files exist in a read only image inside the executable you are distributing At runtime the read only image presents a view of the registry for new users of a package As the application modifies the registry ThinApp saves these changes in the sandbox persistent file with the tvr extension You can use the vregtool exe utility to list and modif
168. riod before a package expires For example AppSyncWarningPeriod 5d VMware Inc 119 VMware ThinApp User s Manual AppSyncWarningFrequency AppSyncWarningFrequency Sets the frequency of warnings before the package expires With the default of one day the warning message appears only once a day To configure the warning to appear each time the application starts use 0 After the warning period starts the Web server is checked every time an application starts overriding the setting If a package is not expired this parameter checks for new versions and downloads occur in the background The user can continue to use the old version If the user quits an application before the download is complete the download resumes when a virtual application starts again After the download completes the new version is activated the next time the application starts When the package expires the version check and download occur in the foreground A progress bar appears during the download phase For example AppSyncWarningFrequency 1d AppSyncWarningMessage AppSyncWarningMessage If the connection to the Web server fails a message box appears The following example shows the default message AppSyncWarningMessage This application will become unavailable for use in AppSyncwWarningPeriod days if it cannot contact its update server Check your network connection to ensure uninterrupted service AppSyncExpireMessage AppSyncExpireMess
169. riverPath SourcePath tsodbc32 d11 Modify the virtual registry so that it points to this location This causes the application to load the DLL from an external location Set WSHShell CreateObject Wscript Shel1 WSHShe11 RegWrite HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE SOFTWARE ODBC ODBCINST INI Transoft ODBC Driver Driver DriverPath reg example Import the registry values from an external reg file into the virtual registry at runtime Function OnFirstParentStart ExecuteVirtualProcess regedit s c tmp somereg reg End Function Stopping Service Stop a virtual or real service when the main application quits Function OnFirstParentExit Set WshShell CreateObjectC WScript Shel1 WshShell Run net stop iPod Service End Function Copyfile Example The following scripts demonstrate how you can copy a configuration file located in the same directory as your captured executable into the virtual file system each time the application starts One use for this is to enable you to have an external configuration file that is easy to edit after deployment Because the copy occurs each time you run the application any edits to the external version are reflected in the virtual version For example if your captured executable is running from server share myapp exe this script looks for a configuration file located at server share config ini and copies it to the virtual file system location c Program Files my application config ini VMw
170. rs 121 MSIFilename 123 MsSIInstallDirectory 123 MSIManufacturer 123 MSIProductCode 124 MSIProductVersion 124 MSIRequireElevatedPrivileges 124 MsSIUpgradeCode 125 MsSIUseCabs 125 Sandbox Control 126 VMware ThinApp User s Manual SandboxName 126 SandboxPath 126 InventoryName 127 SandboxNetworkDrives 127 SandboxRemovableDisk 128 RemoveSandboxOnExit 128 B Using the Sandbox 129 Reviewing the Search Order for the Sandbox 129 Controlling the Sandbox Location 131 Place the Sandbox on the Network 131 Place the Sandbox on a USB Drive 132 Make a Portable Application 132 Reviewing the Sandbox Structure 133 Making Changes to the Sandbox 133 Listing Virtual Registry Contents with vregtool 133 C ThinApp Directory Files 135 D ThinApp Snapshot Files 137 Using the snapshot exe utility 137 Creating a Snapshot 137 Sample Commands 138 Take a snapshot 139 Using the snapshot ini File 140 E Using Scripts 141 Callback Functions 141 Example Scripts 142 bat example 143 timeout example 143 Registry Modify 143 reg example 144 Stopping Service 144 Copyfile Example 144 System Registry Example 146 API Reference 146 AddForcedVirtualLoadPath 146 Function AddForcedVirtualLoadPath Path 146 Parameters 147 8 VMware Inc VMware Inc Contents Example 147 ExitProcess 147 Sub ExitProcessExitCode 147 Parameters 147 Example 147 ExpandPath 148 Function ExpandPath InputPath 148 Parameters 148 Returns 148 Example 148 ExecuteExterna
171. rtual Registry Information with Host Computer Registry Information on page 168 m Deleting a Registry Subkey on page 168 Importing Registry Data from Regedit Format Use the following commands to import registry data from Regedit format VREGTOOL regfile tvr ImportReg regedit reg Merged WriteCopy Ful1 NoReplLace NoMacros VMware Inc 165 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 166 regfile tvr Data file in ThinApp virtual registry file format regedit reg The reg file to import entries imported are added to the specified tvr file This file can be in REGEDIT 4 0 ansi text or 5 0 unicode text format Isolation Mode options If no isolation mode is specified WriteCopy is used Merged Specifies that registry keys that do not already exist have isolation mode set to Merged WriteCopy Specifies that registry keys that do not already exist have the isolation mode set toWriteCopy Full Specifies that registry keys that do not already exist have the isolation mode set to Full NoReplace Do not replace or modify existing registry values If this option is not selected when a tvr already contains a value specified in the reg file this value is overwritten with the value specified in the reg file NoMacros Do not perform macro substitution for registry values that contain paths to short path name or shell folders When this flag is not set the values contained in tvr are replaced with macro ver
172. rtual environment if the application creates them BuildOptions ExternaLCOMObjects 8BC3F05E D86B 11D0 A075 00CO04FB68820 7D096C5F ACO8 4F1F BEB7 5C22C517CE39 VMware Inc 93 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 94 ExternalDLLs ExternalDLLs Force windows to load some DLLs By default ThinApp determines whether it loads DLLs itself or passes the loading on to Windows If the DLL is located in the virtual file system ThinApp loads the DLL In some circumstances Windows must load the DLL even if it is in the virtual file system An example of this situation is a DLL that is inserted in other processes using a mechanism known as Windows hooks For hooks to work the DLL implementing the hook must be available on the host file system and be loaded by Windows When you specify a DLL in ExternalDLLs the DLL is extracted from the virtual file system to the sandbox and Windows is instructed to load it from there The ExternalLDLLs option has limited usefulness If the DLL depends on other DLLs that are located in the virtual file system Windows cannot load it For example this instructs ThinApp to pass loading of inject d11 and injectme2 d11 on to Windows BuildOptions ExternalDLLs inject d11 injectme2 d11 lsolatedMemoryObjects IsolatedMemoryObjects List specific shared memory objects to isolate from other applications Applications using CreateFileMapping and OpenFileMapping create Shared memory objects
173. running on a network share for multiple users The upgrade process occurs when the user quits the application and launches it a second time In Terminal Server environments you can have multiple users executing different versions at the same time during the transition period Reviewing File Locks Launching an application locks the executable package You cannot replace delete or move the application This file lock ensures that any computer or user who accesses a specific version of an application continues to have that version available as long as the application processes and sub processes are running If you store an application in a central location for many users this file lock prevents administrators from replacing a packaged executable with a new version until all users have exited the application and released their locks Upgrade a Running Application You can copy a the new version of an application into an existing deployment directory with a higher filename extension such as 1 or 2 This procedure uses Firefox as a sample application You do not need to update shortcuts To upgrade a running application 1 Deploy the original version of the application such as Firefox exe 2 Copy the application to a central share at lt server gt lt share gt Firefox exe A sample location is C Program Files Firefox Firefox exe 3 Create a desktop or Start menu shortcut to the user s desktop that points to a shared executable
174. ry information from the list based on the selected entry pointed If the size of the container is smaller than 200MB ThinApp creates a exe file as the primary container For a small application such as Firefox any exe file can serve as main data container If the size of the container is larger than 200MB ThinApp creates a separate dat file as the primary container because of problems associated with large exe files such as the inability of Microsoft Windows to show shortcut icons stored in large exe files ThinApp generates small exe files along with the dat file to store the icons for Windows to display If the size of the primary container is between 200MB and 1 5GB ThinApp creates the default dat file but you can override the default and select a exe file This choice generates a warning that you can dismiss This selection allows all applications to work properly but might prevent the proper display of icons Optional Change the inventory name that ThinApp uses for internal tracking of the application in the Package ini file ThinApp uses the inventory name during the update process with the Application Sync utility 11 Optional Select the Active Directory groups that you want to authorize for access to the application and the sandbox location a Click Add m To specify objects click Object Types m To specify a location in the forest click Locations m To search of object names enter the names accordi
175. s such as starting the Log Monitor utility to view recent activity Review some of the key files and utilities in the VMware ThinApp directory VMware Inc AppSync exe Keeps captured applications up to date with the latest available version Logging dll Generates trace files dil_dump exe Lists all captured applications that are currently running on a system log_monitor exe Displays the execution history and errors of an application sbmerge exe Merges runtime changes recorded in the application sandbox with the ThinApp project and updates the captured application Setup Capture exe Captures and configures applications through a wizard snapshot exe Compares the pre installation environment and post installation environment during the application capture process ThinApp starts this utility during the Setup Capture wizard snapshot ini Stores entries for the virtual registry and virtual file system that ThinApp ignores during the process of capturing an application The snapshot exe file references the snapshot ini file Advanced users might modify the snapshot ini file to ensure ThinApp does not capture certain entries when creating an application package 135 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 136 template msi Builds the MSI files You can customize this template to ensure the msi files generated by ThinApp adhere to company deployment procedures and standards For example y
176. s to create a child 64 bit process When set to non zero default such a process is created natively outside of the virtual environment If this value is not specified the default is to allow unsupported external processes For example The default setting allows 64 bit applications to run outside the virtual environment BuildOptions AlLowUnsupportedExternalChildProcesses 1 This setting enables you to execute 64 bit child process tasks on applications when they are running on 64 bit systems Running the print spooler is an example of a 64 bit child process task Use the following setting to block 64 bit child processes from being spawned outside of virtual environment AlLowUnsupportedExternalChildProcesses 0 VMware Inc 97 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 98 AnsiCodePage AnsiCodePage Specifies the country locale where you captured the application in a numerical value For example BuildOptions AnsiCodePage 1252 This setting enables you to execute 64 bit child process tasks on applications when they are running on 64 bit systems Running the print spooler is an example of a 64 bit child process task Use the following setting to block 64 bit child processes from being spawned outside of virtual environment AlLowUnsupportedExternalChildProcesses 0 AutoShutdownServices AutoShutdownServices Controls whether to automatically shutdown virtual services when the last non service process exits By default
177. services from imported packages m Register fonts from imported packages m Relocate SxS DLLs from Windows XP to Windows Vista if required You cannot import a shortcut package You can only import the Primary Data Container OptionalAppLinks OptionalAppLinks Operates like RequireAppLinks except that the error is ignored and the main application starts running if an import fails to load See RequiredA ppLinks on page 116 Collisions and Order of Import ThinApp uses a last import wins policy to determine what happens when two packages with the same files or registry keys are imported See Reviewing File and Registry Collisions in Linked Packages on page 58 116 VMware Inc Appendix A Package ini Parameters Security and Authorization You must be a member of all PermittedGroups sections for all imported packages Otherwise you is receive an Access Denied message and the application fails to load The following are limitations of this feature m ThinApp supports importing up to 250 packages at a time Each package can be any arbitrary size m Packages that AppSync updates do not have updates visible to the parent executable file m Sandbox changes from packages being imported are not be visible to the parent executable file The following are examples This imports a single package located in the same directory as the parent executable RequiredAppLinks PLugin exe This imports a single package located
178. shot diffprint C end snapshot Compares two recorded states snapshot C start snapshot print Prints the contents of a saved state snapshot C start snapshot SuggestProject C end snapshot C project ini snapshot C project ini GenerateProject Generates a ThinApp project by comparing two saved states VMware Inc Appendix D ThinApp Snapshot Files Table D 1 snapshot exe Sample Commands Continued Command Description snapshot CaptureFile snapshot DiffPrint is similar to Di ff but does not BaseDirectory1 BaseDirectory2 have an output directory DiffPrint prints BaseRegistry1 BaseRegistry2 all detected changes to the console Config ConfigFile ini snapshot Original snapshot Diff NewEnvironment snapshot OutputDirectory Config ConfigFile ini Quiet snapshot Original snapshot DiffPrint NewEnvironment snapshot Config ConfigFile ini snapshot c start snapshot Sample bat file that generates a ThinApp echo Please install application and project using a starting and ending snapshot press ENTER when installation is complete pause snapshot C end snapshot snapshot C start snapshot SuggestProject c end snapshot c SuggestedProject ini snapshot C SuggestedProject ini A GUI application can look at the suggested GenerateProject c ProjectLocation project and ask the user which executables to del C start snapshot make accessible from the Package ini f
179. sions of paths For example if the reg file contains a string registry value of C windows system32 kernel32 d11 the tvr file contains the value systemsystem kernel32 d11 When the application requests the value of this registry key it receives the value C windows system kerne132 d11 when running on Windows 98 ME and XP If the application runs on Windows NT or Windows 2000 it receives the value C winnt system32 kerne132 d11 Usually macro substitution is preferable However in some cases you might want to disable this and store a hard coded path in the registry Exporting Registry Data to Regedit Format Use the following commands to export registry data to Regedit format VREGTOOL regfile tvr ExportReg filename reg HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE Software regfile tvr Data file in ThinApp virtual registry file format regedit reg The reg file to export to The file produced is in REGEDIT 5 0 format unicode text HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE Software You can optionally specify a registry subtree to export If no subtree is specified vregtool exports the entire contents of the tvr file If the specified registry subkey has a space in the name you should specify the key using quotes like this HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE Software Key with space VMware Inc Appendix G Virtual Registry When exporting to reg format some information is lost including the following m Filename macros are expanded on export If they are not converted b
180. t and the system If a COM control is installed as an out of process COM the control runs as a virtual process when a captured application uses it You can control modifications that the captured applications make Services Captured applications can start and run system installed services and virtual services System services run in the virtual environment that controls the modifications that the services can make File Type Associations Captured applications can execute system installed applications using file type association You can add file type association to the local computer registry to point to captured executable files on a per user or per machine basis VMware Inc 47 VMware ThinApp User s Manual Sample Isolation Mode Configuration Depending on the Deployment Context Isolation modes control the read and write access for specific system directories and system registry subkeys See Modifying Isolation Modes on page 26 You can adjust isolation modes to resolve the following problems in Table 3 2 Table 3 2 Sample Problems and Solutions using Isolation Modes Problem An application fails to run because of previous or future versions existing simultaneously or not uninstalling correctly Solution ThinApp hides host computer files and registry keys from the application when the host computer files are located in the same directories and subkeys that the application s installer creates This situatio
181. t matches more than one file alphabetical order determines which package is imported first If two or more packages include VB scripts the run order for the scripts is alphabetical by package without regard to order of import operations Use unique file names for VB scripts VB script name collisions might prevent scripts from other imported packages from running If two packages contain a VB script with the same name ThinApp runs only the version of the VB script from the last imported package The OptionalAppLinks parameter might appear as OptionalAppLinks a exe b exe plugins exe In this example using the a exe and b exe executables ThinApp imports these elements in this order m Base application m a exe m b exe m plug ins loaded in alphabetical order m nested plug ins for a exe m nested plug ins for b exe VMware Inc Chapter 4 Updating Applications m nested plug ins for first set of plug ins above Storing Multiple Versions of a Linked Application in the Same Directory If the directory holds a linked package and you add an updated version of the linked package in the same directory the Application Link utility detects and uses the updated version Using Application Sync For the Base Application and Linked Packages If you use Application Link to link packages to a base package you can use Application Sync to update all packages For example if you have Microsoft Office 2007 and link Adobe Reader you can hav
182. th setting is absolute CachePath defaults to Local AppData ThinApp Cache For example set the cache directory to C VirtCache CachePath C VirtCache With the package located in C VirtApps the cache is set to C VirtApps Cache CachePath Cache Ina typical USB key scenario you force the sandbox to the USB key If the packages are stored in the VirtApps subdirectory on the USB key enter the following to force the cache directory to the USB key too CachePath Sandbox CapturedUsingVersion CapturedUsingVersion Indicates the version number of the Setup Capture wizard used during the capture process Users do not need to adjust this setting BuildOptions CapturedUsingVersion 4 0 0 2200 CompressionType CompressionType Controls the type of compression that is used ThinApp supports two compression models None and Fast None None is the default when capturing a package This option is useful for building your application quickly for testing purposes No compression improves application startup time on older computers or when the application is started multiple times On subsequent starts of the same application the Windows disk cache can provide data faster without compression enabled VMware Inc Appendix A Package ini Parameters Fast This option is recommend for most packages Fast compression has a fast rate of decompression so it has little effect on application startup time Fast compression also has l
183. the benefits of application virtualization Application Link Pathname Formats Application Link supports the following pathname formats m Pathnames can be relative to the base exe file For example RequiredAppLinks SomeDirectory results in c MyDir SomeDirectory if the base EXE is deployed to c MyDir SubDir Dependency exe m Pathnames can be an absolute pathname For example RequiredAppLinks c SomeDirectory m Pathnames can be located on a network share or use a UNC path For example RequiredAppLinks share somedir Dependency exe VMware Inc 115 VMware ThinApp User s Manual m Pathnames can contain environment variable and dynamically expand to any of the preceding pathnames For example RequiredAppLinks MYAPP_ADDONS Dependency exe m To specify multiple links or dependencies use the semicolon to separate individual filenames For example RequiredAppLinks Dependency1 exe Dependency2 exe RequiredAppLinks RequiredAppLinks Specifies a list of external ThinApp packages to import to the current package at runtime If any specified package fails to import an error message appears and the parent executable file exits To continue even if load errors occur use OptionalAppLinks instead If you use a wild card pattern to specify a package and no files match the wildcard pattern no error message appears Importing packages do the following m Run VB scripts from imported packages m Start auto start
184. ting systems For example you might capture an application on a system that has C WINNT as the Windows directory and deploy the application on a system that has C Windows as the Windows directory ThinApp handles the change in Windows directories transparently because ThinApp converts C WINNT to SystemRoot during the capture process for that system and expands SystemRoot to C Windows during runtime for that system If an application registers DLLs to C winnt system32 while running on Windows 2000 the user can quit the application and log in to a Windows XP machine On the Windows XP machine the files appear to exist at C windows system32 and all related registry keys point to C windows system32 On Windows Vista ThinApp moves Windows SxS DLLs and policy information to match Vista instead of using XP file path styles This feature allows most applications to migrate to updated or older operating systems ThinApp provides SxS support for applications running on Windows 2000 even though the underlying operating system does not This support enables most applications captured on Windows XP to run on Windows 2000 without changes VMware Inc List of Folder Macros Appendix F Virtual File System Table F 1 lists the available macros Macros requiring shfolder d11 version 5 0 or higher include ProgramFilesDir Common AppData Local AppData My Pictures and Profile Macros requiring shfolder d11 version 6 0 or h
185. tion restarts it uses the version of the executable in the sandbox and not from the original package For example if you capture Firefox 1 5 your auto update mechanism might prompt you to upgrade to Firefox 2 0 If you proceed with the upgrade the application downloads the updates writes the updates to the sandbox and prompts you to restart the application When you run the captured application again Firefox 2 0 starts If you delete the sandbox Firefox reverts back to version 1 5 VMware Inc Chapter 4 Updating Applications If an administrator need to merge changes made by an auto update mechanism with the original package to build an updated executable use the sbmerge exe utility See Review Application Updates Triggered by the Administrator on page 59 NOTE If you use the Application Sync utility to perform application updates disable the auto update capabilities of the application See Using Application Sync in a Managed or Unmanaged Environment on page 52 Benefits of Dynamic Updates Without Administrator Rights You can update applications dynamically without requiring administrator rights For example NET based applications that download new DLL files from the Internet as part of their update process need to execute ngen exe to generate native image assemblies for startup performance In typical circumstances ngen exe writes to HKLM and C WINDOWS both of which are only accessible with administrator
186. tive to the executable To make a portable application 1 2 Create a Thinstall directory in the same directory as your captured application Move the Thinstall directory from AppData to the application directory The next time the application starts the application operates on this local sandbox Copy the application and sandbox to a portable device and start the application there VMware Inc Appendix B Using the Sandbox Reviewing the Sandbox Structure ThinApp stores the sandbox using a file structure almost identical to the build project structure ThinApp uses macro names for shell folder locations such as AppData instead of hard coded paths This structure enables the sandbox to migrate to different computers dynamically when the application runs from new locations The sandbox contains these registry files m Registry rw tvr Contains all registry modifications that the application makes m Registry rw 1ck Prevents other computers from simultaneously using a registry located on a network share m Registry tvr backup Contains a backup of the tvr file from the last successful run if ThinApp detects corruption On startup ThinApp restores the tvr file Besides these registry files the sandbox contains directories that include AppData ProgramFilesDir and SystemRoot Each of these folders contains modifications to respective folders in the captured application Making Changes to the Sandbox
187. to set up a clean system is to create a virtual machine You can install Windows on the virtual machine and take a snapshot of the entire virtual machine in its clean state After you capture an application you can restore the snapshot and revert it to a clean virtual machine state that is ready for the next application capture You can VMware Workstation or other VMware products to create virtual machines For information about VMware products see the VMware Web site VMware Inc 17 VMware ThinApp User s Manual Using the Lowest Operating System Required For Users Install ThinApp ona clean machine with the lowest version of the operating system you plan to support In most cases the lowest platform is Windows 2000 or Windows XP Most packages captured on Windows XP work on Windows 2000 In some cases Windows XP includes some DLLs that Windows 2000 does not have ThinApp excludes these DLLS from the captured application package if the application typically installs these DLLs After you create a ThinApp application package you can overwrite files in the package with updated versions and rebuild the application without the capture process Install ThinApp Use the ThinApp msi file to install ThinApp For information about the directory that the installation creates see Appendix C ThinApp Directory Files on page 135 To install ThinApp 1 Download ThinApp to a clean physical or virtual Windows machine 2 Double click the Thi
188. uring the build process and the groups you specified must exist ThinApp looks up the SID value during build m If you delete a group and recreate it the SID might change In this case rebuild the package to authenticate against the new group m When users are offline ThinApp can authenticate them using cached credentials If the user can log into his or her machine authentication still works Use a group policy to set the period of time when cached credentials are valid m Cached credentials might not refresh on clients until the next Active Directory refresh cycle You can force a group policy on a client by using the gpupdate command This command refreshes local group policy settings and group policy and security settings stored in Active Directory You might need to log off before Active Directory credentials are recached m Certain groups such as the Administrators group and Everyone group have the same SID on every Active Directory domain and workgroup Other groups you create have a domain specific SID Users cannot create their own local group with the same name to bypass authentication VMware Inc Chapter 3 Deploying Applications Reviewing Package ini Entries for Active Directory Access Control ThinApp provides the PermittedGroups parameter in the Package ini file to control Active Directory access When you launch a captured application the PermittedGroups parameter checks whether a user is a member of a specified
189. used to delve into application problems This section uses an example in which cmd exe is packaged with ThinApp and run with logging recorded To simulate an application behaving incorrectly a simple invalid command is issued In this case we have requested cmd exe to execute the command foobar and cmd exe prints the message foobar is not recognized as an internal or external command By viewing the resulting trace file you can dig into what cmd exe is doing in much greater detail and learn how it operates All applications manifest problems in different ways so there is more than one method to track issues The first place to check in a log file is the section near the end labeled Potential Errors Detected In this section you can find all the API functions in which the GetLastError code was modified The paths highlighted in bold indicate locations that cmd exe was looking for foobar and paths in red indicate locations in the virtual file system that were probed for these file system probes Potential Errors Detected xxx Unable to determine if any services need to be auto started error 2 001550 FindFirstFilewW C test cmd_test bin foobar gt INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE failed system probe C test cmd_test bin foobar gt ffffffFFh no virtual or system matches x k FindFirstFilew gt HANDLE ffffffffh GetLastError returns 2 203 The system cannot find the file specified
190. virtual persistent desktops and users run the thinreg utility directly instead of relying on login scripts Using executable files This is the basic option that applies to an environment conscious of disk usage You can create executable files for the captured applications copy them from a central repository run the thinreg exe utility manually to register file type associations desktop shortcuts and the application package on the system Facilitating File Launching with thinreg exe ThinApp requires you to use the thinreg exe file to facilitate the launching of files such asa doc document or an htm1 page For example if you click a URL on an email message ThinApp needs to know to launch Firefox You do not have to run the thinreg exe file for MSI files because MSI files invoke the utility automatically during installation VMware Inc Chapter 3 Deploying Applications Thinreg exe creates the Start menu and desktop shortcuts sets up file type associations adds uninstall information to the system control panel and unregisters previously registered packages The utility allows you to see the control panel extensions for applications such as Quicktime or the mail control panel applet for Microsoft Outlook 2007 When you right click a file such as a doc file Thinreg exe allows you to see the same menu options for a doc file in a native environment If an application invokes SMTP or HTTP protocols such as an email link o
191. y for per machine installations is ProgramFilesDir ExampleDir The following example shows how to create an msi file that is installed in the C Program Files My Application directory BuildOptions MSIFilename mymsi msi MSIInstallDirectory My Application MSIManufacturer MSIManufacturer Specifies the manufacturer to put in the MSI database The default setting is the name of the company to which your copy of Windows is registered This option has an effect only when the MSIFilename option requests generation of a Windows Installer database Set this option to the name of your organization The name appears when you show the properties of the database but has no effect otherwise VMware Inc 123 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 124 For example this creates an MSI file with the manufacturer set to My Company Name BuildOptions MSIFilename mymsi msi MSIManufacturer My Company Name MSIProductCode MSTProductCode Specifies a product code for the MSI database This option has an effect only when the MSIFilename option requests generation of a Windows Installer database Each MSI database needs a product code Setup Capture generates a default product code and places it in the Package ini file If you change the product code make sure the new value is a valid Globally Unique IDentifier GUID The following example creates an MSI file with a specific product code BuildOptions MSIFilename mymsi msi
192. y data contained ina tvr file Registry Value Data Registry files are saved as plain text or unicode text Unicode text files start with the two byte sequence hex ff hex fe Notepad and Wordpad can recognize unicode and ANSI text files TYPE VALUE TYPE can be one of the following REG_NONE REG_SZ REG_EXPAND_SZ REG_BINARY REG_DWORD REG_DWORD_LITTLE_ENDIAN REG_DWORD_BIG_ENDIAN REG_MULTI_SZ REG_RESOURCE_LIST REG_FULL_RESOURCE_DESCRIPTOR REG_RESOURCE_REQUIREMENTS_LIST If TYPE is string data REG_SZ REG_EXPAND_SZ or REG_MULTI_SZ then VALUE is listed as a sequence of characters terminated by a new line or carriage return character Escape any unprintable characters into two hex characters REG_SZ This is a Line Oawith a carriage return as part of the data 00 REG_MULTI_SZ This is a line1 00This is Line2 00 00 Because the represents an escape character all characters must also be escaped The character is used for ThinApp macro expansion it must also be escaped when the value must remain unexpanded Example of Macro Expansion REG_SZ ProgramFilLesDir ApplicationX control ocx At runtime when the program accesses this registry value it is expanded by ThinApp 162 VMware Inc Appendix G Virtual Registry Text Format for Virtual Registry The text format for the virtual registry is similar to regedit reg format but supports macro expansion for string registry values names and value data The format looks
193. y passing an INSTALLDIR property to the msiexec command VMware Inc 39 VMware ThinApp User s Manual To override the MSI installation directory From the command line type msiexec i lt database gt msi INSTALLDIR C lt my_directory gt lt my_package gt Deploying MSI Files on Microsoft Vista When you deploy MSI files on Vista you must indicate whether an installer needs elevated privileges Typical per user installations do not require elevated privileges but per machine installations require such privileges ThinApp provides the MSTRequireElevatedPrivileges parameter in the Package ini file that specifies the need for elevated privileges when set to 1 Specifying a value of 1 for this parameter or forcing a per user installation from the command line can generate UAC prompts Specifying a value of 0 for this parameter prevents UAC prompts but the deployment fails for machine wide installations Controlling Application Access with Active Directory 40 You can control access to applications using Active Directory groups When you build a package ThinApp converts Active Directory group names into Security Identifier SID values A SID is a small binary value that uniquely identifies an object SID values are not unique for a few groups such as the administrator group Because SID values are stored in packages for future validation the following considerations apply You must be connected to your Active Directory domain d

VMware ThinApp User`s Manual

Contents

Download Pdf Manuals

Related Search

Related Contents