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VMware ThinApp User`s Manual

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1. ThinApp addresses the slow performance of Symantec antivirus applications by restarting processes Search for the error message displayed in dialog boxes Some applications call the MessageBox Win32 API function to display unexpected errors at runtime You can search a trace file for MessageBox or the contents of the string displayed in the error and determine what the application was running just before the dialog box appeared Narrow the focus on calls originating from a specific DLL and thread The log format specifies the DLL and thread that makes a call You can often ignore the calls from system DLLs Log Format A trace file includes the following sections VMware Inc System configuration This section includes information about the operating system drives installed software environment variables process list services and drivers The information starts with aDump started on string and ends with a Dump ended on string 69 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 70 Header This section shows contextual information for the instance of the process that Log Monitor tracks Some of the displayed attributes show logging options address ranges when the operating system runtime is loaded and macro mapping to actual system paths ThinApp marks the beginning of the header section with sequence number 000001 In typical circumstances ThinApp marks the end of this section with a message about the Application Sync util
2. packaged executable VMware ThinApp VOS local PC virtual registry 128KB read request compressed file decompressed Block 1 64KB Block 1 epee eee leer A decompressed Block 2 64KB Block 3 64KB Block 4 64KB Block 5 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 in a LAN based environment with a minimum of 100MB networks For WAN and Internet deployments that involve frequent or unexpected disconnections VMware recommends one of the following solutions m Use a URL to deploy the applications m Use a desktop deployment solution to push the package to the background Allow the application to run only after the entire package downloads VMware Inc Chapter 3 Deploying Applications 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 branc
3. Appendix A Package ini Parameters AppSyncUpdatedMessage The AppSyncUpdatedMessage parameter sets the message that appears when an updated package first starts Examples The AppSyncUpdatedMessage value can confirm that the application is updated AppSyncUpdatedMessage Your application has been updated AppSyncClearSandboxOnUpdate The AppSyncClearSandboxOnUpdate parameter empties the sandbox after an update Examples The default behavior does not clear the sandbox AppSyncClearSandboxOnUpdate 0 You can set the AppSyncCLearSandboxOnUpdate parameter to 1 to clear the sandbox AppSyncClearSandboxOnUpdate 1 MSI Parameters MSI parameters configure MSI files that you might deploy instead of executable files For information on MSI files see Building an MSI Database on page 35 MSIArpProducticon The MSIArpProductIcon parameter specifies the icons to place in the Windows control panel for the Add or Remove Programs list Examples You can specify icons for Microsoft Office 2007 in the Add or Remove Programs list MSTArpProductIcon Program Files Common Microsoft Shared OFFICE12 Office Setup Controller OSETUP DLL 1 The general format is MSTArpProductIcon lt filename gt lt icon_index gt The lt icon_index gt entry is optional VMware Inc 117 VMware ThinApp User s Manual MSI DefaultInstallAllUsers The MSIDefaultInstallAllUsers parameter sets the installation mode of the MSI database You can insta
4. RegFileName ExpandPath Personal thin reg Set fso CreateObject Scripting filesystemObject Set RegFile fso CreateTextFile RegFileName true The Personal directory is a directory that has Merged isolation mode by default Construct the reg file RegFile WriteLine Windows Registry Editor Version 5 00 RegFile WriteBLankLines 1 RegFile WriteLine HKEY_CURRENT_USER Software Thinapp demo RegFile WriteLine chr 34 and InventoryName and chr 34 and and chr 34 and GetBuildOptionC InventoryName and chr 34 RegFile Close VMware Inc Appendix F ThinApp Scripts 4 Enter the information in the system registry RegEditPid ExecuteExternalLProcess regedit s and chr 34 and RegFileName and chr 34 WaitForProcess RegEditPid 0 Wait until the process is complete 5 Clean the environment fso DeLleteFile RegFiLeName End Function API Functions You can use API functions that instruct ThinApp to complete operations such as load DLLs as virtual DLLS convert paths from macro format to system format and run commands inside of the virtual environment AddForcedVirtualLoadPath The AddForcedVirtualLoadPath Path 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 depend on DLLs located inside the package Parameters Path in The filename or path
5. The default value of false ensures that the virtual application cannot access protected elements BuildOptions UACRequestedPrivilegesUiAccess false UpgradePath The UpgradePath parameter specifies the location to probe for application updates ThinApp searches for application updates in the same directory as the main executable file You can use the UpgradePath parameter to specify an alternative location When the Application Sync utility downloads an update from a server it stores the update with a temporary name in the UpgradePath location The next time the application starts ThinApp renames the temporary file with a 1 extension or a 2 extension depending on whether 1 already exists Other applications cannot use the VMware Inc Appendix A Package ini Parameters same sandbox ThinApp attempts to change the name with the 1 extension to the original name of the file that might reside in another directory If ThinApp cannot make this change the file keeps the 1 extension in the UpgradePath location Running the original application accesses that file For information about the Application Sync utility see Reviewing the Application Sync Utility on page 49 Examples You can instruct ThinApp to probe for application upgrades in C Program Files MyAppUpgrades BuildOptions UpgradePath C Program Files MyAppUpgrades VirtualComputerName The VirtualComputerName parameter is a string that GetComputerName and
6. 4ad01b29 gt kernel32 d11 7c80acOf 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 dll 769c03b9 GetEnvironmentVariableW IN LPCWSTR lpName 4AD34618h gt L PATH IN DWORD nSize 2000h 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 1pRootPathName 13D8C4h gt L C 001548 0a88 cmd exe 4adQ2aaa lt kernel132 d11 7c80b2d0 GetDriveTypeW gt UINT 3h O 001549 0a88 cmd exe 4ad01b5f gt USERENV d1LL 769c03fa FindFirstFilew 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 78 VMware Inc Chapter 5 Monitoring and Troubleshooting ThinApp Troubleshooting Specific Applications Troubleshooting tips are available for capturing Microsoft Outlook Explorer exe and Java Runtime Environment Troubleshoot Registry Setup for Microsoft Outlook Microsoft Outlook stores account settings in registry keys and files When you start Microsoft Outlook for the first time it checks that the keys exist If Microsoft Outlook cannot loc
7. Appendix A Package ini Parameters Examples You can generate an MSI file during the build process and replace the mymsi msi file with your own filename BuildOptions MSIFilename mymsi msi MSllinstallDirectory The MSTInstallDirectory parameter specifies the path of the MSI installation directory The parameter works only when the MSIFilename parameter requests the generation of a Windows installer database By default ThinApp places packages in the ProgramFilesDir lt InventoryName gt directory during the installation on each machine You can change the installation path with the MSIInstal1Directory parameter When you use a relative path the path is relative to ProgramFiLlesDir for installations on each machine and relative to AppData for installations for each user If you set the MSIInstal1Directory parameter to ExampleDir the default installation directory for installations on each machine is ProgramFilesDir ExampLeDir Examples You can install a msi file in the C Program Files My Application directory BuildOptions MSIFilename mymsi msi MSIInstallDirectory My Application MSIManufacturer The MSIManufacturer parameter 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 The parameter works only when the MSIFilename parameter requests the generation of a Windows installer database Examples You can set the MSIM
8. Captured applications can execute system installed applications by using file type associations You can add file type associations to the local computer registry to point to captured executable files for individual users and machines Sample Isolation Mode Configuration Depending on Deployment Context 46 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 problems in Table 3 2 Table 3 2 Sample Problems and Solutions That Use Isolation Modes Problem An application fails to run because previous or future versions exist simultaneously or fail to uninstall properly Solution Use the Full isolation mode 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 installer creates For directories and subkeys that have Full isolation the applications only detect virtual files and subkeys Any system values that exist in the same location are invisible to the application An application fails because users did not design or test it for a multiuser environment The application fails to modify files and keys without affecting other users Use the WriteCopy isolation mode ThinApp makes copies of registry keys and files that the application writes and perform
9. 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 the installation of NET or already has a different version of NET m Add on components and plug ins Package and deploy application 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 The Application Link utility provides 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 VMware Inc Chapter 4 Updating Applications View of the Application using Application Link Figure 4 1
10. 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 computer 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 When you install ThinApp keep in mind the recommendations and best practices Using a Clean Computer VMware recommends using a clean computer to install ThinApp because the environment affects the application capture process A clean computer is a physical or virtual machine with only a Windows operating system In a corporate environment where you have a base desktop image the base desktop image is your clean computer The desktop computer might already have some components and libraries installed 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 The application might fail to run on other computers where the files do not exist A clean computer allows the capture process to scan the
11. 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 technical 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 9 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 c
12. string ThinApp appends VMware ThinApp to the inventory name to distinguish applications that are virtualized during inventory scans For information about the thinreg exe utility and MSI files see Facilitating File Launching with the thinreg exe Utility on page 31 and Building an MSI Database on page 35 The application capture process sets a default value for the InventoryName parameter based on new strings created under one of the following locations m HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE SOFTWARE Microsoft Windows CurrentVersion Uninstal1 m HKEY_CURRENT_USER SOFTWARE Microsoft Windows CurrentVersion Uninstal1 If you capture multiple applications together the capture process selects an InventoryName value based on one of the newly installed applications You might need to update the value manually to reflect the true contents of the package For example if you capture the SuperApp application and the application requires the installation of Java Runtime the InventoryName value might appear as Java Runtime Environment 1 5 instead of SuperApp VMware Inc 123 VMware ThinApp User s Manual The value of the InventoryName parameter does not affect the application at runtime If you install multiple virtualized applications using the same inventory name the applications overwrite each other in the Add or Remove Programs list and prevent you from uninstalling all of the registered packages When you deploy new versions of an application
13. these entry points See Disabled on page 105 18 VMware Inc Chapter 2 Capturing Applications Specify entry points container files and internal tracking names in the wizard 1 Select the check boxes for user accessible entry points The wizard populates the list with executable files that ThinApp installed during the capture process and automatically selects the executable files that were directly accessible through the desktop or Start menu shortcuts 2 Select the primary data container the file that stores virtual files and registry information from the list based on the selected entry points m If the size of the primary 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 the main data container m If the size of the primary container is larger than 200MB ThinApp creates a separate dat file as the primary container because Windows XP and Windows 2000 cannot show shortcut icons for large exe files Generating separate small exe files along with the dat file fixes the problem m If the size of the primary container is between 200MB and 1 5GB ThinApp creates the default dat file unless you select a exe file to override the default dat file 3 Ifyou selecta exe file to override the default dat file when size of the primary container is between 200MB and 1 5GB ignore the generated warning Selectin
14. you might want to change the SandboxName parameter to ensure that the new version has isolated user settings You can leave the InventoryName parameter constant across versions of the same application Examples You can set the inventory name to Microsoft Office 2003 BuildOptions InventoryName Microsoft Office 2003 SandboxNetworkDrives The SandboxNetworkDrives parameter determines whether ThinApp uses sandboxes for network mapped drives Examples You can store changes in the sandbox and prevent the user from writing directly to network mapped drives BuildOptions SandboxNetworkDrives 1 You can write directly to network mapped drives without storing changes in a sandbox This is the default behavior default BuildOptions SandboxNetworkDrives 0 SandboxRemovableDisk The SandboxRemovab1leDisk parameter determines whether ThinApp uses sandboxes for removable disks Removable disks include USB flash devices and removable hard drives 124 VMware Inc Appendix A Package ini Parameters Examples You can store changes in the sandbox and prevent users from writing directly to removable disks BuildOptions SandboxRemovableDisk 1 You can write directly to removable disks without storing changes in a sandbox This is the default behavior BuildOptions SandboxRemovableDisk 0 RemoveSandboxOneExit The RemoveSandboxOnExit parameter deletes the sandbox when the last child process exits and resets the app
15. For databases larger than 2GB the MSI database consists of installer logic and the thinreg exe utility ThinApp stores the captured executable files in cabinet files For example the files might be lt inventory_name gt _1 CAB and lt inventory_name 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 VMware Inc 35 VMware ThinApp User s Manual Customizing MSI Files with Package ini Parameters You can customize the behavior of MSI files by modifying Package ini parameters such as the following parameters and rebuilding the application package TheMSIInstal1Directory parameter sets the installation directory for the package For example include this line in the Package ini file MSIInstallDirectory C Program Files The MSIDefaultInstallA11Users parameter sets installation of the package for individual users ThinApp installs the package in the AppData user directory For example include this line in the Package ini file MSIDefaultInstal1A11Users 0 For more information about this parameter see Specifying a Database Installation for Individual Users and Machines on page 37 The MSIFileName parameter names the package For example include this line in the Package ini file MSIFilename Firefox30 msi The MSTRequireElevatedPrivileges parameter indicates whether an installer needs elevated privileges for deplo
16. GetComputerNameEx API functions return in a captured application Applications often use the name of the machine on which they are installed Certain applications connect to a database and use the name of the computer in the connection string For captured applications the computer name is virtualized to ensure the application runs on any machine regardless of the name Examples You can rename a clean machine LOCALHOST before performing the capture process After you complete the application capture the Package ini file contains the VirtualComputerName entry VirtualComputerName LOCALHOST If you enter a GetComputerName or GetComputerNameEx command the machine returns LOCALHOST If your Windows system requires the GetComputerName and GetComputerNameEx API functions to operate in a standard way do not rename the machine LOCALHOST The VirtualComputerName parameter is commented out in the Package ini file The machine name replaces OriginalMachineName VirtualComputerName OriginalMachineName VMware Inc 101 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 102 VirtualDrives The VirtualDrives parameter specifies additional drive letters that are available to the application at runtime Virtual drives are useful when applications rely on hard coded paths to drive letters that might not be available on the client computers For example certain legacy applications might expect that the D drive is a CD ROM and that data files are available
17. Microsoft Office 2003 installed in the native physical environment you can remove the doc extension from the FileTypes list and leave the docx extension to ensure that Microsoft Word 2003 opens doc files and Microsoft Word 2007 opens docx files Examples You can use the thinreg exe utility to create file type associations for doc and dot extensions and link them to Microsoft Word Microsoft Office Word 2003 exe ReadOnlyData bin Package ro tvr Source ProgramFilesDir Microsoft Office OFFICE11 WINWORD EXE FileTypes doc dot Localeldentifier The LocaleIdentifier parameter displays a numeric ID for the locale The value locates the correct language resources from the application Examples 1033 is the locale ID for an English language application BuildOptions LocaleIdentifier 1033 VMware Inc Appendix A Package ini Parameters LocaleName The LocaleName parameter displays the name of the locale when you capture an application on Microsoft Vista Examples ThinApp can generate a Japanese locale name BuildOptions LocaleName ja JP LogPath The LogPath parameter sets the location to store trace files during logging activity Examples You can direct ThinApp to store log files in c ThinappLogs BuildOptions LogPath C ThinappLogs Unlike most paths in ThinApp the log path cannot contain macros such as AppData or Temp OutDir The OutDir parameter specifies the directory that stores the b
18. Microsoft Outlook 79 Viewing Attachments in Microsoft Outlook 79 Starting Explorer exe in the Virtual Environment 80 Troubleshooting Java Runtime Environment Version Conflict 81 A Package ini Parameters 83 VMware Inc Isolation and Virtualization Parameters 84 ChildProcessEnvironmentDefault 84 ChildProcessEnvironmentExceptions 84 DirectorylsolationMode 85 ExternalCOMObjects 85 ExternalDLLs 86 IsolatedMemoryObjects 86 IsolatedSynchronizationObjects 87 RegistrylsolationMode 88 SandboxCOMObjects 88 VirtualizeExternalOutOfProcessCOM 89 General Purpose Parameters 89 AddPageExecutePermission 89 AllowUnsupportedExternalChildProcesses 90 AnsiCodePage 91 AutoShutdownServices 91 AutoStartServices 91 BlockSize 92 CachePath 93 CapturedUsingVersion 93 CompressionType 94 DisableTracing 95 ExcludePattern 95 FileTypes 96 Localeldentifier 96 LocaleName 97 LogPath 97 OutDir 97 VMware ThinApp User s Manual NetRelaunch 98 Protocols 98 RuntimeEULA 99 Shortcuts 99 UACRequestedPrivilegesLevel 99 UACRequestedPrivilegesUiAccess 100 UpgradePath 100 VirtualComputerName 101 VirtualDrives 102 Wow64 103 Access Control Parameters 104 AccessDeniedMsg 104 PermittedGroups 104 Parameters for Individual Applications 105 Disabled 105 CommandLine 106 Icon 106 NoRelocation 107 ReadOnlyData 108 ReserveExtraAddressSpace 108 RetainAllIcons 109 Shortcut 109 Source 110 StripVersionInfo 110 WorkingDirectory 110 Version XXXX 111 Application Link
19. Product is great Application Link Parameters The Application Link utility keeps shared components or dependent applications in separate packages In the Package ini file you can use the OptionalAppLinks and RequiredAppLinks entries to dynamically combine ThinApp packages at runtime on end user computers This process enables you to package deploy and update component pieces separately and retain the benefits of application virtualization ThinApp supports linking up to 250 packages at a time Each package can be any size Sandbox changes from linked packages are not visible to the parent executable file For example you can install Acrobat Reader as a standalone virtual package and as a linked package to the base Firefox application When you start Acrobat Reader as a standalone application by running the virtual package and you make changes to the preferences ThinApp stores the changes in the sandbox for Acrobat Reader When you start Firefox Firefox cannot detect those changes because Firefox has its own sandbox Opening a pdf file with Firefox does not reflect the preference changes that exist in the standalone Acrobat Reader application For more information about the Application Link utility see Reviewing the Application Link Utility on page 52 OptionalAppLinks on page 113 and RequiredAppLinks on page 112 VMware Inc 111 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 112 Application Link Path Name Formats The Ap
20. Programs entry thinreg exe u server share Microsoft Office exe Ifa user registers the package with the a parameter you must use the a parameter when unregistering the package thinreg exe u a exe VMware Inc 33 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 34 Table 3 1 Optional thinreg exe parameters Continued Parameter r reregister Purpose Reregisters a package Under typical circumstances the thinreg exe utility can detect whether a package is already registered and skips it The r option forces the thinreg exe utility to reregister the package Sample Usage thinreg exe r lt server gt lt share gt Microsoft Office 2007 Word exe If a user registers the package with the a parameter you must use the a when reregistering the package thinreg exe r a exe k keepunauthorized keep Prevents the removal of registration information even if you are no longer authorized to access an application package Without this option the thinreg exe utility 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 thinreg exe k lt server gt lt share gt Microsoft Office 2007 Word exe VMware Inc Chapter 3 Deploying Applications Table 3 1 Optional thinreg exe parameters Continued Pa
21. 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 Specify the Windows operating system the use of Terminal Server or 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 66 Exact copy of the capture folder and all content Do not include the compiled executable files from the bin subfolder Description of the expected and accurate behavior of the application Optional Copies of the applications that you captured Include the server components configuration for Oracle Server or Active Directory 65 VMware ThinApp User s Manual Optional Native or physical files or registry key settings that might be relevant to the problem Optional 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 66 Log Monitor captures detailed chronological activity for executable files that the captured application starts Log Monitor intercepts and logs names a
22. a package ThinApp stops the base application 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 83 For more information about parameters that affect MSI file generation see Customizing MSI Files with Package ini Parameters on page 36 For information about parameters that affect application updates see Chapter 4 Updating Applications on page 49 Edit the Package ini File Use a text editor to update the Package ini file Edit the Package ini parameters 1 VMware Inc 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 Activate the parameter 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 27 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 3 Delete or change the value of the parameter and save the file 4 Double click the build bat file in the captured application folder to rebuild the app
23. are installed on different disks include these drives in the scan If you know that your application installation creates or modifies files in fixed locations specify these directories to reduce the total time required to scan a machine BaseReg1 Species one or more base registry subkeys to include in the scan If you do not specify registry subkeys the snapshot exe utility scans the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE and HKEY_USERS keys Creating the Template Package ini file from Two Snapshot Files The snapshot exe utility generates a template Package ini file The utility scans the two snapshot files for all applications that are created and referenced from shortcut links or the Start menu The template Package ini file becomes the basis of the Package ini file in a ThinApp project Usage snapshot exe Snap1 snapshot SuggestProject Snap2 snapshot OutputTemplate ini Examples Snapshot Start snapshot SuggestProject End snapshot Template ini ThinApp requires all of the parameters Creating the ThinApp Project from the Template Package ini File The snapshot exe utility creates the ThinApp project file from the template Package ini file Usage snapshot exe Template ini GenerateProject OutDir Config ConfigFile ini VMware Inc 137 VMware ThinApp User s Manual Examples Snapshot Template ini GenerateProject c MyProject Snapshot Template ini GenerateProject c MyProject Config MyExclusions ini Config
24. at D media Virtual drives are visible only to applications running in the virtual environment Virtual drives do not affect the physical Windows environment Virtual drives inherit isolation modes from the default isolation mode of the project unless you specifically override the mode If you configure your virtual drive with the IsolationMode parameter set to Merged any write operations to that drive fail if it does not exist on the physical system A project lists virtual drive information for drives that are present at the time of application capture The VirtualDrives parameter uses semicolons to separate information assigned to different drive letters and commas to separate parameters for individual drive letters The VirtualDrives parameter includes this information m Drive isa single character between A and Z m Serial is an eight digit hex number m Type is FIXED REMOVABLE CD ROM or RAMDISK m FIXED Indicates fixed media For example a hard drive or internal Flash drive m REMOVABLE Indicates removable media For example a disk drive thumb drive or flash card reader m CD ROM Indicates a CD ROM drive m RAMDISK Indicates a RAM disk Examples The VirtualDrives parameter is a single string that can hold information for multiple drive letters and optional parameters for those drive letters VirtualDrives Drive A Serial 12345678 Type REMOVABLE Drive B Serial 9ABCDEFO Type FIXED Basic usage specifies a sing
25. computer file system and registry quickly If you install ThinApp and capture an application on a computer that has Microsoft NET 2 0 already installed NET 2 0 is not included in the ThinApp package The captured application runs only on computers that have NET 2 0 already installed Using Virtual Machines for Clean Computers The easiest way to set up a clean computer 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 use VMware Workstation or other VMware products to create virtual machines For information about VMware products see the VMware Web site VMware Inc 13 VMware ThinApp User s Manual Using the Earliest Operating System Required For Users Install ThinApp on a clean machine with the earliest version of the operating system you plan to support In most cases the earliest 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
26. entry point executable files 51 effect on thinreg exe 31 fixing incorrect updates 51 forcing updates with appsync exe commands 58 maintaining the primary data container name 52 parameters 114 updating base applications with linked packages 57 updating thinreg exe registrations 51 167 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 168 applications capturing 15 controlling access for Active Directory groups 39 difference between Application Sync and Application Link 49 not supported by ThinApp 12 sandbox considerations during upgrade processes 63 streaming requirements and recommendations 42 updating 49 Cc capturing applications assessing application dependencies 16 phases of 15 recommendations before 16 with the Setup Capture wizard 16 26 with the snapshot exe utility 139 cmd exe defining 18 compression for executable files 25 for trace files 68 computers defining a clean system 13 using virtual machines for clean systems 13 cut and paste operations ThinApp limitations 43 D data container See primary data container DCOM services access for captured applications 13 deploying applications on network share 30 applications with deployment tools 29 executable files 30 MSI files 29 deployment tools using MSI files 29 device drivers incompatible with ThinApp 12 DLLs loading into memory 72 recording by Log Monitor 66 drivers support for 44 E entry points defining 18 for trouble
27. 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 restarts the Setup Capture wizard 6 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 at this time each user must make changes 7 Optional Start the application and respond to any prompts for information before you continue with the Setup Capture wizard If you do not respond to any prompts at this time each user who uses the application must do so during the initial start 8 Close the application 9 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 Proceed to specify the executable files that start the virtual application the file that stores virtual files and registry information and the application name for internal tracking See Specify Entry Points Data Containers and Inventory Names on page 18 VMware Inc 17 VMware ThinApp User s Manual Specify Entry Points Data Containers and Inventory Names Entry points are the executable files that start the virtual application The entry points you can choose from depend on the executable files tha
28. folder when using the captured application 7 From the command line type the following 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 The sbmerge exe Print command displays sandbox changes and does not make modifications to the sandbox or original project The sbmerge exe Apply command 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 59 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 project_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 Search Order for the Sandbox on page 127 If you use a custom location for the sandbox use
29. following environment variables in this order lt sandbox_name gt _SANDBOX_DIR This environment variable changes the sandbox location for specific applications on the computer For example if the Mozilla Firefox 3 0_SANDBOX_DIR environment variable exists its value determines the parent directory sandbox location If the value is z FirefoxSandbox before you run the application ThinApp stores the sandbox in z FirefoxSandbox JOHNDOE COMPUTER if the directory already exists If the directory does not exist ThinApp creates a sandbox in z FirefoxSandbox THINSTALL_SANDBOX_DIR This environment variable changes the location of all ThinApp applications on a computer For example if the THINSTALL_SANDBOX_DIR environment variable exists its value determines the parent directory sandbox location If the value is z MySandboxes before you run the application ThinApp stores the sandbox in z MySandboxes JOHNDOE COMPUTER if the directory already exists If the directory does not exist ThinApp creates a sandbox in z MySandboxes If ThinApp does not detect the lt sandbox_name gt _SANDBOX_DIR or THINSTALL_SANDBOX_DIR environment variable ThinApp checks for the following file system directories and creates a sandbox in the first directory it detects 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 sand
30. macro path in system format 156 VMware Inc Appendix F ThinApp Scripts Examples Path ExpandPath ProgramFilesDir Myapp exe Path c Program Files myapp exe All macro paths must escape the and characters by replacing these characters with 25 and 23 Path ExpandPath ProgramFilesDir Fi LenameWithPercent 25 exe This expands to this path C Program Files FileNamewWithPercent exe ExecuteExternalProcess The ExecuteExternalProcess CommandLine function runs a command outside of the virtual environment You can use this function to make physical system changes Parameters CommandLine in Representation of the application and command line parameters to run outside of the virtual environment Returns Integer process ID You can use the process ID with the WaitForProcess function See WaitForProcess on page 164 Examples ExecuteExternalProcess cmd exe c copy c systemfile txt c newsystemfile txt You can run a command that requires quotation marks in the command line ExecuteExternalProcess regsvr32 s and chr 34 and c Program Files my ocx and chr 34 ExecuteVirtualProcess The ExecuteVirtualProcess CommandLine function runs a command inside of the virtual environment You can use this function to make changes to the virtual environment VMware Inc 157 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 158 Parameters CommandLine in Representation of the application and command line paramet
31. not have access to run the package you can customize the AccessDeniedMsg parameter to instruct the user 104 VMware Inc Appendix A Package ini Parameters Examples You can specify a list of Active Directory user group names separated by semicolons The BuildOptions section of the Package ini file sets default values for applications in a project that individual application sections such as Adobe Reader 8 exe can overwrite BuildOptions PermittedGroups Administrator O0fficeUsers AccessDeniedMsg You do not have permission to execute this application please call support 1 800 822 2992 You can overwrite global PermittedGroups users App1 exe PermittedGroups Guest AccessDeniedMsg You do not have permission to execute this application please call support 1 800 822 2992 You can inherit PermittedGroups settings from the BuildOptions parameters App2 exe You can mix group names and SID strings in the same entry for the PermittedGroups parameter PermittedGroups S 1 5 32 544 0ffice Users Parameters for Individual Applications Parameters specific to application such as the Adobe Reader 8 exe entries of the Package ini file for an Adobe Reader application affect areas such as command line arguments icon use and address space reservation Disabled The Disabled parameter indicates that a build target is a placeholder and prevents ThinApp from generating an executable file If you do not selec
32. objects If two applications have the same sandbox name but different sandbox paths the applications have separate namespaces The IsolatedSynchronizationObjects parameter accepts a list of entries that are separated by the semicolon Each entry can use the asterisk and question mark as wildcard characters to match variable patterns VMware Inc 87 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 88 Examples You can isolate two synchronization objects match an object with out Look in the name and match an object with the exact My Shared Object name BuildOptions IsolatedSynchronizationObjects outlook My Shared Object RegistrylsolationMode The RegistryIsolationMode parameter controls the default isolation mode for registry keys in the package This setting applies to the registry keys that do not have explicit settings Examples You can use the RegistryIsolationMode parameter to ensure that the application can read keys from the host computer but not write to the host computer If you do not specify the registry isolation mode in the Package ini file the default value is WriteCopy Isolation RegistryIsolationMode writeCopy You can use the RegistryIsolationMode parameter to ensure that the application can write to any key on the computer except where the package specifies otherwise Isolation RegistryIsolationMode Merged SandboxCOMObjects The SandboxCOMObjects parameter indicates whether native applications
33. package you can reserve virtual address space by specifying the ReserveExtraAddressSpace parameter The value is the number of bytes to reserve You can follow the number by K to indicate kilobytes or M to indicate megabytes The default value of 0 specifies address space to reserve Examples You can instruct the Windows loader to reserve 512KB of address space app exe Source ProgramFiLesDir myapp app exe ReserveExtraAddressSpace 512K The default behavior does not reserve extra address space Lapp exe Source ProgramFiLesDir myapp app exe ReserveExtraAddressSpace 0 108 VMware Inc Appendix A Package ini Parameters RetainAlllcons The RetainAllIcons parameter keeps all of the original icons of the source executable file in the captured executable file By default the tlink exe utility constructs a new executable file using a source executable file To reduce disk space the new executable file image contains only icons that you can view from the system shell The package contains all the other icons The icons remain accessible to the application while it runs The icons that the system can access have a larger disk size because ThinApp cannot compress the icons In certain circumstances you might want to have all of the original icons of the application visible to the system shell Examples You can instruct the tlink exe utility to retain all of the original icons of the application app exe Source Program
34. protocols such as an email link on a Web page that needs to open Microsoft Outlook 2007 the thinreg exe utility starts available virtual applications that can handle those protocols If virtual applications are not available the thinreg exe utility starts native applications that can handle those protocols The default location of the utility is C Program Files VMware VMware ThinApp Application Sync Effect on the thinreg exe Utility ThinApp provides the Application Sync utility to update an application package The Application Sync utility has the following effect on the thinreg exe utility m If you add modify or remove executable files the thinreg exe utility reregisters the file type associations shortcuts and icons m Ifyou install protocols MIME types control panel applets and templates other than executable files the thinreg exe utility reregisters these elements For information about the Application Sync utility see Reviewing the Application Sync Utility on page 49 VMware Inc 31 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 32 Run the thinreg exe Utility This example 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 file m lt server gt lt share gt lt path_to_ exe gt As a variation you can use a wildcard specification such as exe If the path or filename contain
35. same directory as your Package ini file You can use any filename ThinApp adds all vbs files to the package at build time 2 Rebuild the application bat Example The following script runs an external bat file from a network share inside of the virtual environment The bat file makes modifications to the virtual environment by copying files deleting files or applying registry changes using regedit s regfile reg Run this script only for the first parent process If you run this script for other processes each copy of the cmd exe utility runs the script and an infinite recursion develops Function OnFirstParentStart Set Shell CreateObject Wscript Shell Shell Run jcdesk2 test test bat End Function Timeout Example The following script prevents the use of an application after a specified date The VBS date uses the mm dd yyyy format regardless of locale This check occurs upon startup of the parent process and any child processes if Date gt 03 20 2007 then msgbox This application has expired please contact Administrator ExitProcess 0 end if VMware Inc 151 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 152 Modify the Virtual Registry The following script procedure modifies the virtual registry at runtime to load an external ODBC driver from the same directory where the package executable file is located Modify the registry 1 Obtain the path to the package executable files Origin GetEnvironment
36. shows 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 Figure 4 1 View of the System Base Application and Linked Components Using Application Link A Local Disk C J Documents and Settings Program Files Common Files jj ComPlus Applications System Files El ALocal Disk C Base Application Program Files Base Application A Local Disk C Component Package Program Files Component1 Application Link E Local Disk C J Documents and Settings pc Program Files Base Application Base Application Component Package E 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 15 VMware Inc 53 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 54 For information about required and optional Application Link parameters in the P
37. start_env_var ExitCode 00000000 000007 0a88 start_env_var ALLUSERSPROFILE C Documents and Settings All Users WINDOWS VMware Inc 71 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 72 List of DLLs Loaded into Memory During Runtime The Modules loaded section is located near the end of the log file and describes the DLLs that are loaded into memory at runtime and the DLL addresses The information shows whether Windows or ThinApp loads the DLLs This example includes the following entries m SYSTEM_LOADED indicates that Windows loads the DLL The file must exist on the disk m MEMORY_MAPPED_ANON indicates that ThinApp loads the DLL ThinApp might load the file from the virtual file system m 46800000 46873fFfF indicates the address range in virtual memory where the DLL resides m PRELOADED_BY_SYSTEM and PRELOADED_MAP are duplicate entries and refer to the memory address range where the executable image file is mapped into memory The log includes a summary of the length of the longest calls 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 MEMORY_MAPPED_ANON 013b0000 020affff C Program Files Adobe Reader 8 0 Reader AcroRd32 d11 Timing Report list of slowest 150 objects profiled 8255572220 total cycles 2955 56
38. starts If you delete the sandbox Firefox reverts back to version 1 5 VMware Inc Chapter 4 Updating Applications To merge changes that an auto update mechanism makes with the original package to build an updated executable file use the sbmerge exe utility See Application Updates That the Administrator Triggers on page 57 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 50 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 must run the ngen exe file to generate native image assemblies for startup performance In typical circumstances the ngen exe file writes to HKLM and C WINDOWS both of which are only accessible with administrator accounts With ThinA pp the ngen exe file 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 Use one of the following options for applying updates m During the setup capture process m Inside the virtual environment Application
39. 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 AppData user directory VMware Inc 37 VMware ThinApp User s Manual Force MSI deployments for individual users From the command line type msiexec i lt database gt msi ALLUSERS Force MSI deployments for all users on a machine From the command line type msiexec i lt database gt msi ALLUSERS 1 Override the MSI Installation Directory When ThinApp performs an individual 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 for each machine the package resides in ProgramFilesDir Mozilla Firefox VMware ThinApp When ThinApp performs an MSI deployment for individual users the default installation directory is AppData lt inventory_name gt VMware ThinApp In both cases you can override the installation directory by passing an INSTALLDIR property to the msiexec command 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 individual user installations do not requir
40. uses the value to translate multibyte strings Examples The capture process generates the AnsiCodePage value BuildOptions AnsiCodePage 1252 AutoShutdownServices The AutoShutdownServices parameter controls whether to shutdown virtual services when the last non service process exits The default behavior shuts down virtual services when the last non service child process exits The AutoShutdownServices parameter instructs ThinApp to keep virtual services running even when all other processes exit The parameter does not affect services outside the virtual context Examples You can keep virtual services running when the application exits BuildOptions AutoShutdownServices 0 You can stop virtual services when the last non service application exits This is the default behavior BuildOptions AutoShutdownServices 1 AutoStartServices The AutoStartServices parameter controls whether to start virtual service when the first application starts The default behavior 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 the AutoStartServices parameter to disable the automatic starting of virtual services VMware Inc 91 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 92 Examples You can prevent the start of virtual services BuildOptions AutoStartServices 0 You can start virtual services when first process start This
41. version Examples The default product version is 1 0 BuildOptions MSIFilename mymsi msi MSIProductVersion 1 0 MSIRequireElevatedPrivileges The MSTRequireElevatedPrivileges parameter applies to Windows Vista and specifies elevated privilege requirements for the MSI database The parameter works only when the MSIFilename parameter requests the generation of a Windows installer database VMware Inc Appendix A Package ini Parameters A value of 1 marks the MSI database as requiring elevated privileges If your system is set up for UAC prompts a UAC prompt appears when you install an application A value of 0 blocks the UAC prompt and the installation across all machines Examples The default setting of 1 creates an MSI file that always prompts for elevated privileges on Windows Vista BuildOptions MSIFilename mymsi msi MSIRequireE LevatedPrivileges 1 MSIUpgradeCode The MSTUpgradeCode parameter specifies an upgrade code for the MSI database The parameter works only when the MSIFilename parameter requests the generation of a Windows installer database VMware recommends that each MSI database has an upgrade code The capture process generates a suitable upgrade code in the Package ini file Avoid changing the UpgradeCode value unless you verify that the new value is a valid GUID Examples You can create an MSI file with D89F1994 A24B 3E11 0C94 7FD1E13AB93F as the upgrade code BuildOptions MSIFilename
42. 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 133 Install ThinApp software 1 Download ThinApp to a clean physical or virtual Windows machine 2 Double click the ThinApp msi file 3 Accept the license enter the serial number and enter a license display name that appears when you start applications that ThinApp captures 4 Click Next ThinApp is installed 14 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 Snapshot Commands and Customization on page 135 This information uses Mozilla Firefox as a key example for application capture and includes the following topics Reviewing the Capture Process on page 15 Capture an Application with the Setup Capture Wizard on page 16 Modifying Isolation Modes on page 26 Modifying Settings in the Package ini File on page 26 Modifying Settings in the Attributes ini File on page 28 Reviewing the Capture Process The capture process involves the following phases VMware Inc Snapshot of the clean machine Installation of the application that ThinApp needs to capture Configuration of application settings For exa
43. 1 d11 makes In typical circumstances the return address is the address in the code where the call originates m gt indicates the process of entering the call For the call entry log element ThinApp displays the input parameters These parameters are in and in out parameters m lt indicates the process of the call returning to the original caller For call exit log entries ThinApp displays the output parameters These parameters are out and in out parameters m kernel32 d11 indicates the DLL where the API call lands m 7c81b1f0 indicates the address of the API inside kernel32 where the call lands If you disassemble kerne132 d11 at the 7c81b1f0 address you locate the code for the SetConsoleMode function m gt BOOL 1h indicates the API returns the value of 1 and the return code has the BOOL type Application Startup Information The following entries shows basic information about the application such as the module name and process ID PID and about Log Monitor such as the version and options 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
44. 127 Facilitating File Launching with the thinreg exe Utility on page 31 Reviewing the Application Sync Utility on page 49 and Building an MSI Database on page 35 Capture an Application with the Setup Capture Wizard 16 The Setup Capture process packages an application and sets initial application parameters If you use a virtual machine consider taking a snapshot before you run the wizard A snapshot of the original clean state allows you to revert to the snapshot when you want to capture another application Capture an application 1 Download the applications to capture For example download Firefox Setup 2 0 0 3 exe and copy it to the clean machine you are working with From the desktop select Start gt Programs gt VMware gt ThinApp Setup Capture VMware Inc Chapter 2 Capturing Applications 3 Optional In the dialog box that defines a clean computer click Advanced Settings 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 drive In rare cases you might want to avoid scanning a registry hive if you know that the application installer does not modify the registry 4 Click Next to begin the first snapshot of the hard drive and registry files The scanning process takes about 10 seconds for Windows XP 5 Minimize the Setup Capture wizard and install the applications to capture For
45. ALID_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 VMware Inc 75 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 76 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 xxx FindFirstFilew C Program Files Microsoft Visual Studio Common Tools foobar gt INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE failed FS missing in view O fs entry not found ProgramFiLlesDir Microsoft Visual Studio Common Tools foobar fs entry not found ProgramFilesDir Microsoft Visual Studio Common Tool1s xxx FindFirstFilew C Pr
46. ConfigFile ini is optional The configuration file specifies directories or registry subkeys for exclusion from the project If you do not specify a configuration file ThinApp uses the snapshot ini file Displaying the Contents of a Snapshot File The snapshot exe utility lists the contents of the snapshot file Usage snapshot exe SnapshotFileName snapshot Print Examples Snapshot Start snapshot Print ThinApp requires all of the parameters Sample snapshot exe Commands 138 Table D 1 describes sample commands for the snapshot exe utility The parameters are not case sensitive The commands are wrapped in the Command column because of space restraints 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 c and e drives ThinApp does not capture registry information snapshot c Capture snapshot c HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE Software ClLasses Captures a complete snapshot of the c drive 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 VMware Inc Appendix D Snapshot Commands and Customization Table D 1 snapshot exe Sample Commands Cont
47. ExpirePeriod 30d AppSyncWarningPeriod 5d AppSyncWarningFrequency 1d 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 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 AppSyncURL The AppSyncURL parameter sets the URL of the Web server that stores updates Application Sync works over the HTTP unsecure and HTTPS secure protocols Part of the HTTPS protocol involves checking the identity of the Web serve You can include a user name and a password in the AppSyncURL parameter for basic authentication ThinApp adheres to the standard Internet Explorer proxy setting Examples You can assign a value to the AppSyncURL parameter according to the following format AppSyncURL https exampLe com lt path gt lt package_name gt exe You can use the File protocol 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 114 VMware Inc Appendix A Package ini Parameters AppSyncUpdateFrequency The AppSyncUpdateFrequency parameter specifies how often ThinApp checks the Web server for application updates By default a package connect
48. FiLesDir myapp app exe RetainAllIcons 1 The default behavior strips out unused icons from the portion of the executable file that is visible to the physical environment app exe Source ProgramFiLesDir myapp app exe RetainAlLlIcons 0 Shortcut The Shortcut parameter points to the name of the generated executable file that contains the package data Examples You can create a shortcut application that references the HostApp exe file The package must list the HostApp exe file The file must reside in the same directory to ensure that the MyShortcutApp exe file can start MyShortcutApp exe Source ProgramFiLesDir Myapp MyShortcutApp exe Shortcut HostApp exe VMware Inc 109 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 110 Source The Source parameter points to the executable file that ThinApp initially loads ThinApp specifies the source for each executable file If an application suite has three user entry points such as Winword exe Powerpnt exe and Excel exe the Package ini file lists three application entries Each entry has a different source entry Examples You can create an accessible entry point for C Program Files Myapp app1 exe app1 exe Source ProgramFiLesDir Myapp app1 exe You can create an accessible entry point for C Program Files Myapp app2 exe Lapp2 exe Source ProgramFiLesDir Myapp app2 exe StripVersionInfo The StripVersionInfo parameter removes all version information from the
49. 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 0le32 d11 774e03f0 Getfile type gt DWORD 2h O VMware Inc 77 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 001533 0a88 cmd exe 4ad01b0d lt kernel132 d11 7c80acOf SetErrorMode gt UINT 0h O 001534 0a88 cmd exe 4ad01b13 gt kernel132 d11 7c80acOf SetErrorMode IN UINT uMode 1h 001535 0a88 cmd exe 4ad01b13 lt kernel32 dll 7c80ac0f SetErrorMode gt UINT 0h O 001536 0a88 cmd exe 4ad01b24 gt IMM32 DLL 7639039b GetFullPathNameW IN LPCWSTR lpFileName 1638C0h gt L IN DWORD nBufferLength 208h 001537 0a88 GetFullPathNameWw gt 20 buf C test cmd_test bin 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
50. M Software Microsoft Office 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 F AR FR AR GE E E E E VMware Inc 47 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 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 Paes Of fice F rm 0 E MM Access Connectivity Common H Registration User Settings it Visio m 10 0 Mi 11 0 ij 8 0 9 0 m Common H Delivery i Live Meeting H Outlook i PowerPoint E 48 VMware Inc Updating Applications You can update captured applications with different utilities depending on the extent of change and dependencies on other applications This information includes the following topics m Application Updates That the End User Triggers on page 49 m Application Updates That the Administrator Triggers on page 57 m Automatic Application Updates on page 60 m Upgrading Running Applications on a Network Share on page 62 m Sandbox Considerations for Upgraded Applications on page 63 Application Updates That the End User Triggers ThinApp provides the Application Sync and Application Link utilities to update applications The Application Sync utili
51. Parameters 111 Application Link Path Name Formats 112 RequiredAppLinks 112 OptionalAppLinks 113 Application Sync Parameters 114 AppSyncURL 114 AppSyncUpdateFrequency 115 AppSyncExpirePeriod 115 AppSyncWarningPeriod 115 AppSyncWarningFrequency 115 AppSyncWarningMessage 116 AppSyncExpireMessage 116 AppSyncUpdatedMessage 117 AppSyncClearSandboxOnUpdate 117 MSI Parameters 117 6 VMware Inc Contents MSIArpProductIcon 117 MSIDefaultInstallAllUsers 118 MSIFilename 118 MsSIInstallDirectory 119 MSIManufacturer 119 MSIProductCode 120 MSIProductVersion 120 MSIRequireElevatedPrivileges 120 MsIUpgradeCode 121 MSIUseCabs 121 Sandbox Parameters 122 SandboxName 122 SandboxPath 122 InventoryName 123 SandboxNetworkDrives 124 SandboxRemovableDisk 124 RemoveSandboxOnExit 125 B ThinApp Sandbox 127 Search Order for the Sandbox 127 Controlling the Sandbox Location 129 Place the Sandbox on the Network 130 Place the Sandbox on a USB Drive 130 Make a Portable Application 131 Sandbox Structure 131 Making Changes to the Sandbox 131 Listing Virtual Registry Contents with vregtool 132 C ThinApp Directory Files 133 D Snapshot Commands and Customization 135 Methods of Using the snapshot exe Utility 136 Creating Snapshots of Machine States 136 Creating the Template Package ini file from Two Snapshot Files 137 Creating the ThinApp Project from the Template Package ini File 137 Displaying the Contents of a Snapshot File 138 Sample snapshot
52. Path parameter sets the path to create a new sandbox If an application runs only from portable media such as USB flash devices you can use the SandboxPath parameter to force the application to use a local sandbox For information on how ThinApp locates a sandbox see Search Order for the Sandbox on page 127 Examples You can create the sandbox in the same directory as the executable file BuildOptions SandboxPath VMware Inc Appendix A Package ini Parameters You can create the sandbox in a subdirectory subordinate to the executable file location BuildOptions SandboxPath LocalSandbox Subdir1 You can create the sandbox in the AppData folder of the user under the Thinstall subdirectory BuildOptions SandboxPath AppData ThinstaLlL You can create the sandbox on a network mapped drive BuildOptions SandboxPath Z Sandboxes InventoryName The InventoryName parameter is a string that inventory control systems use for package identification The string can be independent of versions The thinreg exe utility a utility that facilitates file launching and ThinApp MSI files reference this parameter to determine the product name for display in the Add or Remove Programs control panel For example if the inventory name is SuperApp and you install an MSI file or register a package with the thinreg exe utility the Add or Remove programs list displays an installed application with the SuperApp VMware ThinApp
53. R Software Microsoft Windows CurrentVersion Internet Settings HKEY_CURRENT_USER Software 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 that ThinApp captures the key in the capture process VMware Inc Appendix D Snapshot Commands and Customization If you do not customize the snapshot ini file the snapshot process loads the file from one of these locations VMware Inc Application Data Thinapp snapshot ini This location 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 141 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 142 VMware Inc ThinApp Virtual File System ThinApp stores the differences between snapshots during the setup capture process in a virtual file system and virtual registry This information about the virtual file system includes the following topics m Virtual File System Formats on page 143 m Merged and Virtual Views of the File System on page 144 m Using Folder Macros on page 144 Virtual File System Formats ThinApp generates the
54. S missing in view O fs entry not found drive_C test cmd_test bin foobar fs entry not found drive_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 xxx FindFirstFilew C WINDOWS system32 foobar gt INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE failed FS missing in view O fs entry not found SystemSystem foobar xxx FindFirstFilew C WINDOWS foobar gt INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE failed system probe C WINDOWS foobar gt ffffffffh no virtual or system matches xxx FindFirstFilew C WINDOWS foobar gt INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE failed FS missing in view O fs entry not found SystemRoot foobar xxx FindFirstFilew C WINDOWS System32 Wbem foobar gt INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE failed VMware Inc Chapter 5 Monitoring and Troubleshooting ThinApp system probe C WINDOWS System32 Wbem foobar gt ffffffffh no virtual or system matches xxx FindFirstFilew C WINDOWS System32 Wbem foobar gt INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE 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 foobar gt ffffffffh no virtual or system matches xxx FindFirstFileW c Program Fi
55. S environment variable and import all executable files at this location RequiredAppLinks PLUGINS exe You can load two specified plug in files and a list of executable files located under the plug in location RequiredAppLinks plugin1 exe plugin2 exe plugins exe OptionalAppLinks The OptionalAppLinks parameter is similar to the RequireAppLinks parameter but ignores errors and starts the main application even when an import operation fails You can specify absolute paths such as c abs path dotnet exe relative paths such as relpath dotnet exe and UNC paths such as server share dotnet exe For information about the RequireAppLinks parameter see RequiredAppLinks on page 112 VMware Inc 113 VMware ThinApp User s Manual Application Sync Parameters The Application Sync utility 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 ThinApp downloads the differences between the existing package and the new package and constructs an updated version of the package For more information about the Application Sync utility see Reviewing the Application Sync Utility on page 49 The following entries are the default settings for Application Sync parameters AppSyncURL https example com some path PackageName exe AppSyncUpdateFrequency 1d AppSync
56. VMware ThinApp User s Manual VMware ThinApp 4 0 2 E vmware VMware ThinApp User s Manual VMware ThinApp User s Manual Item EN 000117 02 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 2009 VMware Inc All rights reserved This product is protected by U S and international copyright and intellectual property laws VMware products are covered by one or more patents listed 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 9 1 Installing ThinApp 11 ThinApp Requirements 11 Operating Systems Applications and Systems That ThinApp Supports 11 Applications That ThinApp Cannot Virtualize 12 Recommendations for Installing ThinApp 13 Using a Clean Computer 13 Using the Earliest Operating System Required For Users 14 Install ThinApp 14 2 Capturing Applications 15 Reviewing the Capture Process 15 Assessing Application Dependencies Bef
57. Variable TS_ORIGIN 2 Find the last slash in the path and obtain the characters that precede the slash LastSLlash InStrRev Origin SourcePath Left Origin LastSlash 3 Form anew path to the ODBC DLL file located outside of the package DriverPath SourcePath tsodbc32 d11 4 Modify the virtual registry to point it to this location Set WSHShell CreateObject Wscript SheLL WSHShe11 RegWrite HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE SOFTWARE ODBC ODBCINST INI Transoft ODBC Driver Driver DriverPath This modification causes the application to load the DLL from an external location reg Example The following script imports 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 a Service Example The following script stops a virtual or native service when the main application quits Function OnFirstParentExit Set WshShell CreateObjectC WScript Shell WshShell Run net stop iPod Service End Function VMware Inc Appendix F ThinApp Scripts Copying a File Example The following script sections shows how to copy a configuration file located in the same directory as the captured executable file into the virtual file system each time the application starts This script is useful for an external configuration file that is easy to edit after deployment Because the copy operation occurs each t
58. ackage ini file see Application Link Parameters on page 111 Link an application to Microsoft NET 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 renaming prevents users from 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 by 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 the following line after the BuildOptions entry RequiredAppLinks dotnet dat Application Link parameters must 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 e
59. add execution permission to pages that an application allocates The application can run on machines that have DEP protection enabled without modifying the opt out list Examples You can add execution permission to pages that an application allocates BuildOptions Disable some Data Execution protections for this particular application AddPageExecutionPermission 1 AllowUnsupportedExternalChildProcesses The AllowUnsupportedExternalChildProcesses parameter specifies whether to prevent the virtualized application from creating a child 64 bit process You can create child 64 bit processes in the physical environment rather than the virtual environment If you do not specify a value the default behavior facilitates unsupported external processes Examples The default setting of the Al LowUnsupportedExternalChildProcesses parameter causes ThinApp to run 64 bit applications in the physical environment You can execute 64 bit child process tasks on applications that run on 64 bit systems Running the print spooler is an example of a 64 bit child process task BuildOptions AlLowUnsupportedExternalChildProcesses 1 You can block ThinApp from generating 64 bit child processes outside of virtual environment AlLowUnsupportedExternalChildProcesses 0 90 VMware Inc Appendix A Package ini Parameters AnsiCodePage The AnsiCodePage parameter specifies the country locale where you captured the application in a numerical value ThinApp
60. al value the ChildProcessEnvironmentExceptions parameter lists the applications that run inside the virtual environment Examples You can specify exceptions to running child processes in the virtual environment When the virtual application launches a notepad exe child process the child process runs outside the virtual environment BuildOptions ChildProcessEnvironmentExceptions AcroRd exe notepad exe ChildProcessEnvironmentDefault Virtual VMware Inc Appendix A Package ini Parameters DirectorylsolationMode The DirectoryIsolationMode parameter controls the default isolation mode for application package directories that do not have specific settings The default settings depend on the application capture process The Package ini file sets the default isolation mode for the project Individual Attributes ini files override the Package ini file and specify the isolation mode for specific directories and child directories Any unspecified directories such as C myfolder inherit the isolation mode from the Package ini file For more information about isolation modes see Specify Isolation Modes on page 21 Examples WriteCopy isolation mode allows the application to read resources on the local machine but not write to the host computer Isolation DirectoryIsolationMode writeCopy Merged isolation mode allows the application to read resources on and write to any location on the computer except where the packag
61. an accomplish the same registration using the thinreg exe utility Specify the application path MSI name and executable size in the wizard 1 Optional Change the directory where you want to save the application package The package stores the captured software application If you keep the default directory and capture Firefox 2 0 0 3 the path might appear as C Program Files VMware VMware ThinApp Captures Mozilla Firefox 2 0 0 3 2 Optional Select the Build MSI package check box and change the MSI filename VMware Inc Chapter 2 Capturing Applications 3 Optional To create a smaller executable file for locations such as a USB stick click Fast compression In typical circumstances compression reduces the on disk storage requirement by 50 percent but slows the application performance when ThinApp uncompresses initial blocks that start the application 4 Click Next to create the ThinApp project A project is the data created by the capture process You cannot run or deploy the application until you build the application package Proceed to build the executable file or MSI application package See Review Project Files and Build Application Packages on page 25 Review Project Files and Build Application Packages The application package is the executable file or MSI file that you use to run or deploy a captured application Before you build the package from the ThinApp project you can review the project files to upd
62. anufacturer parameter to the name of your organization The name does not have any effect other than appearing in the properties of the MSI database BuildOptions MSIFilename mymsi msi MSIManufacturer My Company Name VMware Inc 119 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 120 MSIProductCode The MSTProductCode parameter specifies a product code for the MSI database The parameter works only when the MSIFilename parameter requests the generation of a Windows Installer database Each MSI database needs a product code The capture process generates a default product code and places it in the Package ini file If you change the product code the new value must be a valid Globally Unique Identifier GUID Examples You can create an MST file with 590810CE 65E6 3E0B O8EF 9CCF8A E20DOE as the product code BuildOptions MSIFilename mymsi msi MSIProductCode 590810CE 65E6 3E0B O8EF 9CCF8AE20DO0E MSI ProductVersion The MSTProductVersion parameter specifies a product version number for the MSI database The parameter works only when the MSIFilename parameter requests the generation of a Windows installer database The product version 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 blocks the installation of an older version over an updated version In this situation you must manually uninstall the new
63. application starts again When the download is finished ThinApp activates the new version 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 Examples The default value sets the warning message to appear only once a day AppSyncWarningFrequency 1d A 0 value configures the warning to appear each time the application starts AppSyncWarningFrequency 0 AppSyncWarningMessage The AppSyncWarningMessage parameter sets the message that appears when the connection to the Web server fails Examples ThinApp includes default message for the Application Sync utility warning AppSyncWarningMessage This application will become unavailable for use in lt AppSyncWarningPeriod_value gt days if it cannot contact its update server Check your network connection to ensure uninterrupted service AppSyncExpireMessage The AppSyncExpireMessage parameter sets the message that appears when the connection to the Web server fails after the expiration period ends and a virtual application starts The application quits when the message appears Examples ThinApp provides a default message for the AppSyncExpireMessage parameter AppSyncExpireMessage This application has been unable to contact its update server for lt AppSyncExpirePeriod_value gt days so it is unavailable for use Check your network connection and try again VMware Inc
64. aptured the application select Start gt Programs gt VMware gt ThinApp Log Monitor To start Log Monitor on a deployment machine copy the log_monitor exe logging dll and Setup Capture exe files from C Program Files VMware VMware ThinApp to the deployment machine 67 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 68 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 or the performance problem starts c In Log Monitor deselect the Suspend check box to resume the logging process You can check the application behavior to isolate the issue d Select the Suspend check box to stop the logging process Optional Select a file in the trace file list to delete and click Delete File Optional Click Kill App to stop a running process Optional Click the Compress check box to decrease the size of a trace file This operation slows the performance of the application Optional Generate a trace file report a Selecta trace file in the file list enter a trace filename or click Browse to select a trace file on your system b Optional Enter or change the name of the output report c Click Generate text trace report to create a report 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 foll
65. art snapshot 2 Install the application and make any necessary manual system changes 3 Save to disk a snapshot of the new machine configuration snapshot exe c End snapshot VMware Inc 139 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 4 Generate a template Package ini file snapshot exe c Start snapshot SuggestProject c End snapshot c TempLate ini ThinApp uses the template file to generate the final Package ini file The template file contains a list of all detected executable file entry points and Package ini parameters If you write your own script to replace the Setup Capture wizard use the template Package ini file to select the entry points to keep or customize Package ini parameters such as InventoryName Generate a ThinApp project snapshot exe c TempLate ini GenerateProject c MyProjectDirectory Optional Delete the temporary c Start snapshot c End snapshot and c TemplLate ini files Optional To generate multiple projects with different configurations reuse the original Start snapshot file and repeat the procedure from Step 2 Customizing the snapshot ini File 140 The snapshot ini configuration file specifies what registry keys 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 Explorer Desktop Components HKEY_CURRENT_USE
66. at Reader as a standalone virtual package and as a linked package to the base Firefox application When you start Acrobat Reader as a standalone application by running the virtual package and you make changes to the preferences ThinApp stores the changes in the sandbox for Acrobat Reader When you start Firefox Firefox cannot detect those changes because Firefox has its own sandbox Opening a pdf file with Firefox does not reflect the preference changes that exist in the standalone Acrobat Reader application Reviewing File and Registry Collisions in Linked Packages If the base application contains a file or registry entry at the same location as a linked package a collision occurs When this happens the order of import operations determines which package has priority The last package imported has priority 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 that matches more than one file alphabetical order determines which package is imported first If two or more packages include VBScript scripts the run order for the scripts is alphabetical by package without regard to order of import operations Use unique file names for VBScript scripts VBScript name collisions might prevent scripts from other imported packages from running If two packages
67. ate settings If you capture an application on a 32 bit operating system and want to build it ona 64 bit operating system you must set the THINSTALL_BIN environment variable on the machine with the 64 bit operating system to C Program Files x86 VMware VMware ThinApp You do not need to build the package on the same machine on which you captured the application You can copy the project to another computer and discard the capture machine Browse the project and build the executable file or MSI file in the wizard 1 Optional 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 Files VMware VMware ThinApp Captures Mozilla Firefox 2 0 0 3 You might browse the project before you build the application executable file 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 capture process 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 VMware Inc 25 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 2 Cl
68. ate the keys it prompts you to create a new account This process works properly in the virtual environment when Microsoft Outlook is not installed on the physical system If the user already has Microsoft Outlook installed on the physical system the captured version finds the registry keys in the system registry and uses those settings You must use Full isolation mode for the registry keys and files where Microsoft Outlook stores its settings Set up Full isolation mode for Microsoft Outlook registry keys 1 Add the following entries to the HKEY_CURRENT_USER txt file isoLation_full HKEY_CURRENT_USER Identities isoLation_full HKEY_CURRENT_USER Software Microsoft Windows NT CurrentVersion Windows Messaging Subsystem Profiles 2 Create a Attributes ini file with the following entries Isolation DirectoryIsolationMode Ful1 3 Place the Attributes ini file in each of the following subdirectories AppData Microsoft Addins AppData Microsoft Office AppData Microsoft Out Look Local AppData Microsoft FORMS Local AppData Microsoft Out Look 4 Optional If the subdirectories do not exist create the directories Viewing Attachments in Microsoft Outlook Microsoft Outlook creates a default directory to store attachments when you open an attachment for viewing The typical location is C Documents and Settings lt user_name gt Local Settings Temp Temporary Internet Files OLK lt xxxx gt The last xxxx is replaced by a random
69. ation includes the following topics m Search Order for the Sandbox on page 127 m Controlling the Sandbox Location on page 129 m Sandbox Structure on page 131 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 If ThinApp cannot locate an existing sandbox ThinApp creates a sandbox according to certain environment variable and parameter settings Review the search order and sandbox creation logic before changing the placement of the sandbox The search order uses Firefox 3 0 as an example with the following variables m lt sandbox_name gt is Mozilla Firefox 3 0 The SandboxName parameter in the Package ini file determines the name See SandboxName on page 122 m lt sandbox_path gt is Z sandboxes The SandboxPath parameter in the Package ini file determines the path See SandboxPath on page 122 VMware Inc 127 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 128 lt exe_directory gt is C Program Files Firefox The application runs from this location lt computer_name gt is JOHNDOE COMPUTER AppData is C Documents and Settings JohnDoe Application Data ThinApp requests the Application Data folder location from the operating system The location depends on the operating system or configuration ThinApp starts the sandbox search by trying to locate the
70. ation involves creating an ANSI text file with the vbs file extension in the root application project directory The root project directory is the same directory that contains the Package ini file During the build process ThinApp adds the script files to the executable file and runs each of the script files at runtime ThinApp uses VBScript to run script files For information about VBScript see the Microsoft VBScript documentation You can use VBScript to access COM controls registered on the host system or within the virtual package This information includes the following topics m Callback Functions on page 150 m Example Scripts on page 150 m API Functions on page 155 VMware Inc 149 VMware ThinApp User s Manual Callback Functions Callback functions with specific names run only under certain conditions For example callback functions run script code only when an application starts or quits 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 uses the same sandbox while the first copy runs If the first application spawns a subprocess and quits the second subprocess locks the sandbox and prevents this callback from running until all subprocesses quit and the application runs again OnFirstParentStart Called before running a ThinApp executable file regard
71. box_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 VMware Inc Appendix B ThinApp Sandbox m lt exe_directory gt Thinstall lt sandbox_name gt For example C Program Files Firefox Thinstall Mozilla Firefox 3 0 m lt sandbox_path gt lt sandbox_name gt lt computer_name gt For example Z sandboxes Mozilla Firefox 3 0 JOHNDOE COMPUTER m lt sandbox_path gt lt sandbox_name gt For example Z sandboxes Mozilla Firefox 3 0 m AppData Thinstal1 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 does not detect the lt sandbox_name gt _SANDBOX_DIR and THINSTALL_SANDBOX_DIR amp environment variables and does not detect an existing sandbox in the ordered file system directories ThinApp creates a sandbox using the following logic m If the SANDBOXPATH Package ini parameter is set the value determines the sandbox location m If ThinApp completes the sandbox search without any results ThinApp creates a sandbox in the default AppData ThinstalL1 directory of the user NOTE Only one com
72. can use the App1 exe file and members of the Everyone group can use the App2 exe file 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 Using ThinApp Packages Streamed from the Network Any network storage device can serve as a streaming server for hundreds or thousands of client computers See Figure 3 1 Figure 3 1 Data Block Streaming over a Network Share shared folder 40 VMware Inc Chapter 3 Deploying Applications On the end user desktop you can create shortcuts that point to the centrally hosted executable file packages When the user clicks 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 How ThinApp Application Streaming 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 wr
73. changes to the same directory on the USB drive where the executable file resides Store the sandbox in a USB location 1 Open the Package ini file 2 Under the SandboxName parameter set the SandboxPath parameter to this value SandboxName Mozilla Firefox 3 0 SandboxPath For example ifMozilla Firefox 3 0 isthe value of the SandboxName parameter the captured Firefox application creates the Mozilla Firefox 3 0sandbox in the same directory that Firefox runs from 130 VMware Inc Appendix B ThinApp Sandbox 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 relative to the executable file Make a captured application portable 1 Create a Thinstall directory in the same directory as your captured application 2 Move the Thinstall directory from AppData to the application directory The next time the application starts the application operates on this local sandbox 3 Copy the application and sandbox to a portable device and start the application there 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 the followi
74. compression None is the default value when you capture an application This value is useful for building your application quickly for testing purposes Avoiding compression improves application startup time on older computers or in circumstances where you start the application multiple times and depend on the Windows disk cache to provide data for each start Fast compression has a quick rate of decompression and little effect on application startup time and memory consumption at runtime Fast compression achieves similar compression ratios as the ZIP algorithm Table A 1 lists sample compression ratios and startup times for a Microsoft Office 2003 package that runs from a local hard drive Table A 1 Sample Compression Ratios and Startup Times Compression Type None Fast Size 448 616KB 257 373KB Compression ratio 100 57 Startup time first run 6 seconds 6 seconds Startup time second run 0 1 seconds 1 seconds Build time first build 3 minutes 19 minutes Build time second build 2 minutes 1 2 minutes You can specify the CompressionType parameter in the Package ini file where the compression type becomes the default for all files in the project unless otherwise specified and the Attributes ini file where the compression type overrides the compression algorithm for the present directory and all subdirectories You can use different compression algorithms for different directories within a single project Examp
75. contain a script with the same name ThinApp runs only the version of the script from the most recently imported package The OptionalAppLinks parameter might appear as OptionalAppLinks a exe b exe plugins exe VMware Inc Chapter 4 Updating Applications Using a exe and b exe as sample executable files ThinApp uses the following import 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 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 have 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 Application Updates That the Administrator Triggers ThinApp provides the AppSync exe and sbmerge exe utilities for administrators The AppSync exe utility forces an Application Sync up
76. date 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 to change the home page of a Web site to point to a different default site VMware Inc 57 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 58 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 Application Sync parameters to check for updates when an application starts because 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 Force an application sync update From the command line type the following command AppSync lt AppLication_Sync_URL gt lt executable_file_path gt The value of the URL is the same as the Application Sync URL in the Package ini file and the executable file path is the path to the executable file 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 the followi
77. ddresses parameters and return values for each function call by target executable files or DLLs Log Monitor captures the following activity 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 You can use Log Monitor to perform basic troubleshooting Troubleshoot ThinApp Logs 1 2 Shut down the captured application to investigate On the computer where you captured the application select Start gt Programs gt VMware gt ThinApp Log Monitor To start Log Monitor on a deployment machine copy the log_monitor exe logging dll and Setup Capture exe files from C Program Files VMware VMware ThinApp to the deployment machine VMware Inc Chapter 5 Monitoring and Troubleshooting ThinApp 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 correspo
78. dless of the selected 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 ThinApp 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 All runtime modifications to virtual elements in the captured application are stored in the sandbox regardless of the isolation mode setting At runtime virtual and physical registry elements are indistinguishable to an application but virtual registry elements always supersede physical registry elements when both exist in the same location If virtual and physical entries exist at the same location isolation modes do not affect access to these entries because the application always interacts with virtual elements If external group policy updates occur separately from the package through the physical registry you might need to remove virtual registry elements from a package and verify that the parent element of these virtual registry elements does not use Full isolation Because child elements inherit isolation modes from parent elements Full isolation in a parent element can block the visibility of physical child elements to an application VMware Inc 23 VMware ThinApp User s Man
79. dobe Reader 8 0 Reader Microsoft Windows Common Controls Microsoft Windows Common Control s DLL flags 2 gt 0 failed 006428 0000089c nview d1l 1005b94b lt kerne132 d11 7c80ae4b LoadLibraryW gt HMODULE 7c800000h GetLastError returns 2 0 The system cannot find the file specified 007062 0000075c LoadLibraryExwW C Program Files Adobe Reader 8 0 Reader en US Microsoft Windows Common Controls DLL flags 2 gt 0 failed wR 010649 0000075c LoadLibraryExW C Program Files Adobe Reader 8 0 Reader en US Microsoft Windows Common Controls Microsoft Windows Common C ontrols DLL flags 2 gt 0 failed 019127 0000075c MSVCR80 d11 781348cc lt msvcrt d1l 77c10396 GetEnvironmentVariableA gt DWORD Oh COUT 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 dll 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 gt DWORD 0h k GetLastError 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 VMware Inc 73 VMwa
80. e elevated privileges but individual machine installations require such privileges ThinApp provides the MSIRequireElevatedPrivileges parameter in the Package ini file that specifies the need for elevated privileges when the value is set to 1 Specifying a value of 1 for this parameter or forcing an individual 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 38 VMware Inc Chapter 3 Deploying Applications Controlling Application Access with Active Directory 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 ThinApp stores SID values in packages for future validation the following considerations apply to Active Directory use You must be connected to your Active Directory domain during the build process and the groups you specify must exist ThinApp looks up the SID value during the build If you delete a group and recreate it the SID might change In this case rebuild the package to authenticate against the new group When users are offline ThinApp can authenticate them using cached credentials If the users can log into th
81. e macro names Macros requiring shfolder d11 version 5 0 or later include ProgramFilesDir Common AppData Local AppData My Pictures and Profile Macros requiring shfolder d11 version 6 0 or later include My Videos Personal and Profiles Table E 1 lists the available folder macros Table E 1 Folder Macros Macro Name Typical Location AdminTooLs C Documents and Settings lt user_name gt Start Menu Programs Administrative Tools AppData C Documents and Settings lt user_name gt Application Data CDBurn Area C Documents and Settings lt user_name gt Local Settings Application Data Microsoft CD Burning Common AdminTools C Documents and Settings All Users Start Menu Programs Administrative Tools Common AppData C Documents and Settings All Users Application Data Common Desktop C Documents and Settings All Users Desktop Common Documents C Documents and Settings ALL Users Documents 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 Common Templates C Documents and Settings All Users Templates Cookies C Documents and Settings lt user_name gt Cookies VMware Inc 145 VMware ThinApp User s Manual Tab
82. e second location by calling GetFul LPathNameW with as the path specifies These calls return the path for the current working directory VMware Inc Chapter 5 Monitoring and Troubleshooting ThinApp The log file shows that the cmd exe utility creates the c test cmd_test bin gt prompt The utility queries the PROMPT environment variable that returns P G and uses the WriteConsoleW API function 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 lLpBuffer 4AD38BAOh gt L C Copyright 1985 2001 Microsoft Corp Dh Ah 000825 0a88 cmd exe 4ad069d1 gt ADVAPI32 d11 77dd038f FormatMessageW CIN 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 lpSource 0x0 dwMessageId 0x2334 dwLanguageId 0x0 gt 0x29 CC Copyright 1985 2001 Microsoft Corp 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 1LpName 4AD34624h gt L PROMPT IN DWORD nSize 2000h 000859 0a88 GetEnvironmentVariable PROMPT gt P
83. e source runs from a network share Examples MsgBox Running EXE path is GetCurrentProcessName GetOSVersion The GetOSVersion function returns information about the current version of Windows Parameters This function has no parameters VMware Inc 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 Windows Server 2008 Windows Server 2003 Windows XP Windows 2000 Windows NT 4 0 6 6 MINOR is one of the following values Windows Vista Windows Server 2008 Windows Server 2003 Windows XP Windows 2000 Windows NT 4 0 Windows NT 3 51 BUILD_NUMBER is the build number of the operating system 0 0 0 51 PLATFORM_ID assigns one of the following values Appendix F ThinApp Scripts 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 information about the operating system such as Service Pack 2 Examples if GetOSVersion 5 1 0 2 Service Pack 2 then MsgBox You are running on Windows XP Service Pack 2 endif VMware Inc 161 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 162 GetEnvironmentVariable The GetEnvironmentVariable Name function returns the environment variable associated with the Name variable Parameters Name i
84. e specifies otherwise You can place a Attributes ini file in a subdirectory A DirectoryIsolationMode parameter placed in a Attributes ini file overrides the setting in the Package ini file Isolation DirectoryIsolationMode Merged ExternalCOMObjects The ExternaLCOMObjects parameter controls whether ThinApp or Windows creates a specific COM object CLSID key By default ThinApp creates all COM objects in the virtual environment COM supports out of process executable servers and service based COM objects If an application can create COM objects that generate modifications on the host computer the integrity of the host computer is at risk If ThinApp runs out of process and service based COM objects in the virtual environment ThinApp stores in the sandbox all changes that the COM objects make VMware Inc 85 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 86 Examples ThinApp can run two COM objects outside of the virtual environment if the application creates the objects BuildOptions ExternaLCOMObjects 8BC3F05E D86B 11D0 A075 00CO04FB68820 7D096C5F ACO8 4F1F BEB7 5C22C517CE39 ExternalDLLs The ExternalDLLs parameter forces Windows to load certain DLL files ThinApp determines whether to load DLL files or pass the loading process on to Windows If the DLL file resides in the virtual file system ThinApp loads the file In some circumstances Windows must load the DLL file when the file resides in the virtua
85. e you launch the application those changes are incorporated from the sandbox When you delete the sandbox directory the application reverts to its captured state Specify access and sandbox information in the wizard 1 Optional Click Add to specify Active Directory information Option Action Object Types Specifies objects Locations Specifies a location in the forest Object names manually enter Searches for object names Advanced Locates user names in the Active Directory forest Common Queries under Advanced Searches for groups according to names descriptions disabled accounts passwords and days since last login 2 Select the ThinApp sandbox location You can 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 absolute path to the location where you want the sandbox created A sample path is thinapp sandbox Firefox You can select a network location even if an application is installed on a local machine Proceed to specify whether the application can modify elements outside of the virtual environment See Specify Isolation Modes on page 21 20 VMware Inc Chapter 2 Capturing Applications Specify Isolation Modes Isolation modes help determine the changes that affect the virtual environment and the physical envir
86. ebuild the application package VMware Inc Chapter 4 Updating Applications 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 start the new executable file for instance Mozilla Firefox 3 exe in the bin directory ThinApp 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 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 Fix an incorrect update Place the correct update on the server that ThinApp can access The update is applied the next time the application is started on a client machine Application Sync Effect 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 fo
87. eir machines authentication still works Use a group policy to set the period when cached credentials are valid 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 group policy and security settings stored in Active Directory You might need to log off before Active Directory credentials are recached 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 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 start a captured application the PermittedGroups parameter checks whether a user is a member of a specified Active Directory group If the user is not a member of the Active Directory group Thinapp does not start the application In the following example Package ini entry App1 and App2 inherit PermittedGroups values BuildOptions PermittedGroups Administrators 0fficeUsers VMware Inc 39 VMware ThinApp User s Manual App1 exe App2 exe In the following example entry only users belonging to the Applusers group
88. enerate an error message Importing packages involves the following tasks m Running VBScript scripts from imported packages m Starting auto start services from imported packages m Registering fonts from imported packages m Relocating SxS DLL files from Windows XP to Windows Vista You cannot import a shortcut package You can only import the primary data container VMware Inc Appendix A Package ini Parameters For more information about the Application Link utility see Reviewing the Application Link Utility on page 52 Examples If you package the NET framework in the dotnet exe package and you have a NET application you can specify that the application needs to link to the dotnet exe file before it can start RequiredAppLinks c abs path dotnet exe You can import a single package located in the same directory as the parent executable file RequiredAppLinks PLugin exe You can import a single package located in a subdirectory of the parent executable file RequiredAppLinks pLlugins PLugin exe You can import all executable files located in the directory for plug in files If ThinApp cannot import any executable file because the file is not a proper Thinapp package or because a security problem exists the parent executable file fails to load RequiredAppLinks plugins exe You can import all executable files located at the n pLugins absolute path RequiredAppLinks n pLugins exe You can expand the PLUGIN
89. entry VMware Inc 79 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 80 You can view attachments when the viewing application runs in the same virtual sandbox as Microsoft Outlook External applications might not be able to find the file to display because Microsoft Outlook stores the file in the sandbox You must use the Merged isolation mode for the directory that stores the attachments Set up Merged isolation mode to view Microsoft Outlook attachments 1 Add a value to the HKEY_CURRENT_USER txt file that sets the name of the attachment directory isoLation_full HKEY_CURRENT_USER Software Microsoft 0Office 11 0 OutLook Security VaLue Out LookSecureTempFolder REG_SZ ProfiLle Local Settings Out LookTempxxxx 2300 In this example 11 0 in the key name is for Microsoft Outlook 2003 Replace the last four xxxx characters with random alphanumeric entries to increase security Create a directory that is named in the Out lookSecureTempFolder registry key in your ThinApp project For example create the Profile Local Settings Out LookTempxxxx directory In the Profile Local Settings OutlookTempxxxx directory create a Attributes ini file with the following entries Isolation DirectoryIsolationMode Merged Starting Explorer exe in the Virtual Environment Running one instance of the explorer exe utility on a Windows operating system makes it difficult to add an entry point to Windows Explorer and launch it inside the virtual env
90. ers to run outside of the virtual environment Returns Integer process ID You can use the process ID with the WaitForProcess function See WaitForProcess on page 164 Examples ExecuteVirtualProcess cmd exe c copy c systemfile txt c virtualfile txt You can run a command that requires quotation marks in the command line ExecuteVirtualProcess regsvr32 s and chr 34 and c Program Files my ocx and chr 34 GetBuildOption The GetBuildOption OptionName function returns the value of a setting specified in the BuildOptions section of the Package ini file used for capturing applications Parameters OptionName in Name of the setting Returns This function returns a string value If the requested option name does not exist the function returns an empty string Examples Package ini contains BuildOptions CapturedUsingVersion 4 0 1 2866 The following line appears in a VBS file Value GetBuildOption CapturedUsingVersion VMware Inc Appendix F ThinApp Scripts GetFileVersionValue The GetFileVersionValue Filename Value function returns version information value from files such as a specific DLL OCX or executable file You can use this function to determine the internal version number of a DLL or retrieve DLL information about the copyright owner or a product name Parameters Filename in The name of the filename whose version information is being retrieved Value in The
91. ertification programs and consulting services go to http www vmware com services 10 VMware Inc Installing ThinApp ThinApp provides the ThinApp msi file to install the software This information includes the following topics ThinApp Requirements on page 11 Recommendations for Installing ThinApp on page 13 Install ThinApp on page 14 ThinApp Requirements Review the requirements for operating systems and captured applications before installing ThinApp Operating Systems Applications and Systems That ThinApp Supports ThinApp supports the following operating systems applications and systems VMware Inc 32 bit platforms Windows NT Windows 2000 Windows XP Windows XPE Windows 2003 Server Windows Vista Windows Server 2008 64 bit platforms Windows XP 64 bit Windows 2003 64 bit Windows Vista 64 bit Windows Server 2008 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 11 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 12 ThinApp supports Japanese applications captured and run on Japanese operating systems 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 App
92. es 42 Stream ThinApp Packages from the Network 43 Using Captured Applications with Other System Components 43 Performing Paste Operations 43 Accessing Printers 44 Accessing Drivers 44 Accessing the Local Disk the Removable Disk and Network Shares 44 Accessing the System Registry 45 Accessing Networking and Sockets 45 Using Shared Memory and Named Pipes 45 Using COM DCOM and Out of Process COM Components 45 Starting Services 45 Using File Type Associations 46 Sample Isolation Mode Configuration Depending on Deployment Context 46 View of Isolation Mode Effect on the Windows Registry 47 4 Updating Applications 49 Application Updates That the End User Triggers 49 Reviewing the Application Sync Utility 49 Reviewing the Application Link Utility 52 Application Updates That the Administrator Triggers 57 Force an Application Sync Update with AppSync exe 58 Reviewing the sbmerge exe Workflow 58 Automatic Application Updates 60 Dynamic Updates Without Administrator Rights 61 Upgrading Running Applications on a Network Share 62 Reviewing File Locks 62 Upgrade a Running Application 62 Sandbox Considerations for Upgraded Applications 63 4 VMware Inc Contents 5 Monitoring and Troubleshooting ThinApp 65 Providing Information to VMware Support 65 Using Log Monitor 66 Troubleshoot Activity with Log Monitor 66 Perform Advanced Log Monitor Operations 67 Log Format 69 Troubleshooting Specific Applications 79 Troubleshoot Registry Setup for
93. essCO M 89 WorkingDirectory 110 Wow64 103 parameters applying settings at folder level instead of package level 28 for MSI files 36 for Package ini 83 for somerge exe 59 for thinreg exe 32 PermittedGroups effect on Application Link 56 primary data container defining 19 maintaining the name with Application Sync 52 size implications 19 project files 25 R regedit exe defining 18 S sandbox considerations for upgraded applications 63 defining 127 location 20 129 parameters 122 search order 127 structure 131 sbmerge exe commands 59 defining 57 merging runtime changes 58 VMware Inc scripts bat example 151 reg example 152 callback functions 150 copyfile example 153 registry modify example 152 stopping service example 152 system registry example 154 timeout example 151 Setup Capture wizard using 16 26 shell integration reduced functions with ThinApp 12 snapshot exe creating snapshots from the command line 135 sample commands 138 sample procedure 139 snapshot ini defining 135 140 support for applications 11 for operating systems 11 T ThinApp applications that are not supported 12 browsing project files 25 deployment options 29 directory files 133 folder macros 144 in a VMware View environment 30 installing 14 recommendation for clean computers 13 requirements for installing and capturing applications 11 streaming packages from the network 40 supported o
94. exe Commands 138 Create a Project Without the Setup Capture Wizard 139 Customizing the snapshot ini File 140 VMware Inc 7 VMware ThinApp User s Manual E ThinApp Virtual File System 143 Virtual File System Formats 143 Merged and Virtual Views of the File System 144 Using Folder Macros 144 List of Folder Macros 145 Processing SystemRoot 147 F ThinApp Scripts 149 Callback Functions 150 Example Scripts 150 bat Example 151 Timeout Example 151 Modify the Virtual Registry 152 eg Example 152 Stopping a Service Example 152 Copying a File Example 153 Add a Value to the System Registry 154 API Functions 155 AddForcedVirtualLoadPath 155 ExitProcess 156 ExpandPath 156 ExecuteExternalProcess 157 ExecuteVirtualProcess 157 GetBuildOption 158 GetFileVersionValue 159 GetCommandLine 160 GetCurrentProcessName 160 GetOSVersion 160 GetEnvironmentVariable 162 RemoveSandboxOnExit 162 SetEnvironmentVariable 163 SetfileSystemIsolation 163 SetRegistrylsolation 164 WaitForProcess 164 Index 167 8 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
95. following virtual file system formats m Build The setup capture process generates this format from files found directly on the physical file system ThinApp uses folder macros to represent Windows shell folder locations m Embedded The build bat file triggers a build process that embeds a read only file system in executable files The executable files provide block based streaming to client computers ThinApp compresses the file system VMware Inc 143 VMware ThinApp User s Manual m Sandbox Running the captured application generates the read write directory structure that holds file data that the application modifies 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 m Truncating a file m Renaming or moving a file The embedded and sandbox file systems use 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 a view of virtual files For information about isolation modes see Modifying Isolation Modes on page 26 Using Folder Macros 144 ThinApp uses macros to represent file system path locations that might change when virtualized applications run on different Windows opera
96. for DLLs to load as virtual Examples You can load any DLL located in the same directory as the executable file as a virtual DLL Origin GetEnvironmentVariableC TS_ORIGIN TS_ORIGIN is the path from which the executable file is running You can delete the filename from TS_ORIGIN by finding the last backslash and removing all of the characters that follow it LastSlash InStrRev Origin SourcePath Left Origin LastSlash VMware Inc 155 VMware ThinApp User s Manual You can instruct ThinApp to load all DLLs in the same or lower directory from where the source executable file resides AddForcedVirtuaLLoadPath SourcePath This process allows you to drop additional files in the SourcePath tree and have them resolve import operations against virtual DLLs ExitProcess The ExitProcessExitCode 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 A value of 0 indicates no error Examples You can exit the process and indicate success ExitProcess 0 When the process exits the scripting system receives its OnLastProcessExist function callback Any loaded DLLs run termination code to clean up the environment ExpandPath The ExpandPath InputPath function converts a path from macro format to system format Parameters InputPath in A path in macro format Returns The expanded
97. g a exe file allows all applications to work properly but might prevent the proper display of icons 4 Ifyou cannot select a primary data container type a primary data container name If you plan to use the Application Sync utility to update a captured application ThinApp uses the primary data container name during the process You must use the same name across multiple versions of the application You might not be able to select the same primary data container name from the list For example Microsoft Office 2003 and Microsoft Office 2007 do not have common entry point names 5 Optional Change the inventory name that ThinApp uses for internal tracking of the application in the Package ini file Using the thinreg exe utility or deploying the captured application as an MSI file causes the inventory name to appear in the Add or Remove Programs dialog box for Windows Proceed to specify Active Directory information and the sandbox location See Specify Active Directory Access and Sandbox Locations on page 20 VMware Inc 19 VMware ThinApp User s Manual Specify Active Directory Access and Sandbox Locations ThinApp can use Active Directory groups to authorize access to the application and sandbox location For example you might restrict access to an application to ensure users do not pass it to unauthorized users The sandbox is the directory where all changes that the captured application makes are stored The next tim
98. h office This setup optimizes local performance for client machines located at each 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 file contents When a package streams from a shared location ThinApp stores application changes in the user 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 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 Stream ThinApp Packages from the Network Users can access packaged applications through the network Stream 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 components installed on the desktop Performing Paste Operations Review the following paste operations and limitations with ThinApp Pasting content from system installed applications to captured applications This paste opera
99. he ExternaLCOMObjects parameter to explicitly list the CLSID of each COM object Examples You can direct ThinApp to run all external out of process COM objects in the native physical environment rather than the virtual environment BuildOptions VirtualizeExternaLOutOfProcessCOM 0 You can direct ThinApp to run all external out of process COM objects in the virtual environment This is the default behavior BuildOptions VirtualizeExternaLOutOfProcessCOM 1 General Purpose Parameters The General Purpose section of the Package ini file addresses areas that include the size of file compression blocks path to the directory that stores font files and shutdown of virtual services AddPageExecutePermission The AddPageExecutePermission parameter addresses applications that do not work in a Data Execution Prevention DEP environment VMware Inc 89 VMware ThinApp User s Manual The DEP feature of Windows XP SP2 Windows Server 2003 and later versions and operating systems protects against some security exploits that occur with buffer overflow This feature creates some compatibility issues Windows turns off the feature by default on Windows 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 The AddPageExecutePermission parameter instructs ThinApp to
100. his function returns an integer 0 Timeout fails 1 Process exits 2 Process does not exist or security is denied Examples id ExecuteExternalProcess cmd exe WaitForProcess id 0 VMware Inc Appendix F ThinApp Scripts 165 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 166 VMware Inc Index Symbols Attributes ini comparing to Package ini 28 editing 28 modifying isolation modes 26 A Active Directory authorizing access to groups 20 controlling access to applications 39 using Package ini parameters 39 API parameters AddForcedVirtualloadPath 155 ExecuteExternalProcess 157 ExecuteVirtualProcess 157 ExitProcess 156 ExpandPath 156 GetBuildOption 158 GetCommandLine 160 GetCurrentProcessName 160 GetEnvironmentVariable 162 GetFileVersionValue 159 GetOSVersion 160 RemoveSandboxOnExit 162 SetEnvironmentVariable 163 SetfileSystemlsolation 163 SetRegistrylsolation 164 WaitForProcess 164 Application Link defining 49 52 defining access with the Permit tedGroups parameter 56 VMware Inc effect on isolation modes 55 file and registry collisions 56 linking packages to base applications and using Application Sync 57 optional links 113 path name formats 112 required links 112 sample workflow 53 setting up nested links 55 storing multiple versions of linked applications 57 view of 53 Application Sync clashing with automatic update capabilities 50 defining 49 editing parameters 50 effect on
101. i file that is specific to an application such as the Adobe Reader 8 exe section Examples You can use the thinreg exe utility to create a shortcut to the virtual Microsoft Word 2003 application ThinApp creates the shortcut in the Microsoft Office folder of the Start menu Microsoft Office Word 2003 exe ReadOnlyData bin Package ro tvr Source ProgramFilesDir Microsoft Office OFFICE11 WINWORD EXE Shortcuts Programs Microsoft Office UACRequestedPrivilegesLevel The UACRequestedPrivilegesLevel parameter specifies privileges for programs requiring User Account Control UAC information This parameter affects users working on Windows Vista or later operating system versions VMware Inc 99 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 100 You can use the following values m aslnvoker 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 Examples You can specify that a program requires administrator privileges BuildOptions UACRequestedPriviLlegesLevel requireAdministrator UACRequestedPrivilegesUiAccess Windows Vista or later operating system versions protect some elements of the user interface In typical circumstances virtual applications do not require access to protected elements You can assign the UACRequestedPrivilegesUIAccess parameter a true or false value to specify user interface access Examples
102. ick Build Now to build an executable file or MSI file containing the files you installed during the Setup Capture process 3 Click Finish You can rebuild the package at any time after clicking Finish if you need to make changes Modifying Isolation Modes ThinApp provides the Merged and WriteCopy isolation mode choices in the Setup Capture wizard For information about those modes see Specify Isolation Modes on page 21 You can use a third isolation mode Full outside the wizard in the ThinApp project text files The Full isolation mode secures the virtual environment by blocking visibility to system elements outside the virtual application package This mode restricts any changes to files or registry keys to the sandbox and ensures that no interaction exists with the environment outside the virtual application package Full isolation prevents application conflict between the virtual application and applications installed on the physical system 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 page 28 For information about the effect of application updates on isolation m
103. iles in the sandbox the virtual operating system and the physical machine If you have an unmanaged environment that does not update applications automatically use the Application Sync utility to update applications Edit Application Sync Parameters 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 Parameters on page 114 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 file of the latest Firefox version to a mapped network drive and enter a path to that location as the value of the AppSyncuURL parameter If Z is the mapped drive and Firefox is the name of the directory that stores the executable file a sample path is file Z Firefox Firefox exe 4 Inthe captured application folder double click the build bat file to r
104. ime you run the application any changes to the external version are reflected in the virtual version For example if your captured executable file is running from server share myapp exe this script searches for a configuration file located at server share config ini and copies it to the virtual file system location at c Program Files my application config ini By putting this code in the OnFirstParentStart function it is only called once each time the script runs Otherwise it runs for every child process Function OnFirstParentStart ThinApp sets up TS_ORIGIN to indicate the full path to a captured executable file package A virtual application sets the TS_ORIGIN variable to the physical path of the primary data container If you have a virtual application consisting of the main exe and shortcut exe files both files reside in C VirtApp When you run the main exe file TS_ORIGIN var is set to C VirtApp main exe When you run the shortcut exe file the TS_ORIGIN environment variable is set to C VirtApp main exe The environment variable is always set to the primary data container even when you create a shortcut When you run VBScript scripts that are included in the package the variable is already set and available to the scripts Origin GetEnvironmentVariableC TS_ORIGIN You can separate the filename from TS_ORIGIN by finding the last backslash and removing all of the characters following it LastSlash InStrRev Orig
105. in 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 to copy to might be a different location on different computers if the Program Files directory is mapped to a location other than c The following call lets ThinApp expand a macro to obtain the correct location for the local computer DestFile ExpandPath ProgramFilesDir MyApp Lication Config ini VMware Inc 153 VMware ThinApp User s Manual Use the file systemObject parameter to check 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 ProgramFilesDir MyApp lication virtual directory is in the package objFSO CopyFile SourceFile DestFile TRUE End if End Function Add a Value to the System Registry This script procedure adds a value to the physical system registry Add a value to the system registry 1 154 Create a reg file and run the regedit s command as an external process that accesses the system registry instead of the virtual registry Function OnFirstParentStart Create the reg file in a location that has the IsolationMode parameter set to Merged so that the virtual environment can access it with this script and the physical environment can it with the regedit s command
106. in the physical environment can access COM objects that the virtual application registers at runtime Examples You can prevent native applications in the physical environment from accessing COM objects that the virtual application registers ThinApp places the COM objects that the virtual application registers in the sandbox SandboxCOMObjects 1 You can make COM objects that the virtual application registers visible outside the sandbox SandboxCOMObjects 0 VMware Inc Appendix A Package ini Parameters VirtualizeExternalOutOfProcessCOM The VirtualizeExternalOutOfProcessCOM parameter controls whether external out of process COM objects can run in the virtual environment Captured applications can create COM objects from the host system and COM objects that ThinApp registers in the virtual environment The VirtualizeExternalOutOfProcessCOM parameter determines how to address out of process COM objects that are not part of a ThinApp package and are not registered in the virtual registry The default behavior of ThinApp executes external out of process COM objects in the virtual environment to ensure that COM objects cannot modify the host computer If a compatibility issue exists with an external COM object running in the virtual environment you can use the VirtualizeExternalOutOfProcessCOM parameter to create and run COM objects on the host system To run only specific COM objects outside of the virtual environment you can use t
107. inued Command snapshot Original snapshot DiffPrint NewEnvironment snapshot Description 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 snapshot 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 Create a Project Without the Setup Capture Wizard You can use the snapshot exe utility from the command line instead of using the Setup Capture wizard that runs the snapshot exe utility in the background The command line utility is useful to package a large number of applications or automate ThinApp project creation The typical location of the snapshot exe utility is C Program Files VMware VMware ThinApp snapshot exe The snapshot process makes a copy of the all registry entries on the system and file system metadata File system metadata includes path filename attribute size and timestamp information but excludes actual file data Create a project with the snapshot exe command line utility 1 Save an initial snapshot of the current machine configuration to disk snapshot exe c St
108. ironment You can use the following methods to launch a Windows Explorer window inside the virtual environment Add an entry point to iExplorer and launch it with the E parameter For example add the following entries to 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 registry key isoLation_full HKEY_CURRENT_USER Software Microsoft Windows CurrentVersion Explorer Value DesktopProcess REG_DWORD 01 00 00 00 Add the following entries to the Package ini file explorer exe Shortcut xxxxxx exe Source SystemROOT expLorer exe Use this method to browse the virtual file system with a familiar interface and enable accurate file type associations without system changes especially when using portable applications You can access shell integrated components without system changes Troubleshooting Java Runtime Environment Version Conflict A conflict might occur if one version of Java is installed on the physical system and another version is included in a captured executable file Updated versions of Java install a plug in DLL that Internet Explorer loads This plug in DLL overwrites virtual registry keys and conflicts with a virtualized copy of older Java runtimes Prevent Internet Explorer from loading plug i
109. is relative ThinApp interprets the path relative to the directory where the package is stored You can use the THINSTALL_CACHE_DIR environment variable to override this parameter at runtime If neither the CachePath parameter nor the THINSTALL_CACHE_DIR environment variable is present ThinApp uses a default location The default location depends on the presence of a SandboxPath parameter in the Package ini file If the SandboxPath parameter exists and the path setting is relative CachePath defaults to the same path If the SandboxPath setting exists and the path setting is absolute CachePath defaults to Local AppData Thinstal1 Cache Stubs Examples You can set the cache directory to C VirtCache CachePath C VirtCache If the package resides in C VirtApps and the CachePath parameter has a value of Cache the cache directory is C VirtApps Cache Using a USB key might involve forcing the sandbox on to the USB key If you store packages in the VirtApps directory on the USB key you can force the cache directory to reside on the USB key CachePath Sandbox CapturedUsingVersion The CapturedUsingVersion parameter indicates the version of the Setup Capture wizard used during the application capture process Examples You do not need to adjust this parameter BuildOptions CapturedUsingVersion 4 0 0 2200 VMware Inc 93 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 94 CompressionType The CompressionType parameter sets None or Fast
110. is the default behavior BuildOptions AutoStartServices 1 BlockSize The BlockSize parameter controls the size of compression blocks when ThinApp compresses files for a build Using a larger block size can achieve higher compression Larger block sizes might slow the performance because of the following reasons m The build process slows down with larger block sizes m The startup time and read operations for applications slow down with large block sizes m More memory is required at runtime when you use larger block sizes You can specify the BLockSize parameter in the Package ini file where the block size becomes the default for all files in the project unless otherwise specified and in the Attributes ini file where the block size overrides the block size for the present directory and all subdirectories You can use different block sizes for different directories within a single project Examples You can set the default block size of 64KB Compression BlockSize 64k You can use other block sizes BlockSize 128k BlockSize 256k BlockSize 512k BlockSize 1M VMware Inc Appendix A Package ini Parameters CachePath The CachePath parameter sets the path to the cache directory that stores font files and stub executable files You can use this parameter to force the cache directory to reside on a different drive This parameter can contain macros such as Local AppData that expand before use If the path
111. ite data to the disk the process is fast A large package does not necessarily take a long time to load over the network and the package size does not affect the startup time of an application If you add an extra 20GB file to a package that is not in use 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 file package When ThinApp loads the runtime client it sets up the environment and starts the target executable file The target executable file 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 the 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 VMware Inc 41 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 42 Figure 3 2 Application Streaming
112. ity Body This section includes trace activity as the application starts and performs operations Each line represents function calls that target executable files or one of the DLLs make The section starts with a New Modules detected in memory entry followed by the SYSTEM_LOADED modules list The section ends with a Modules Loaded entry Summary This section includes modules that the captured application loads potential errors and a profile of the 150 slowest calls The section starts with the Modules Loaded message General API Log Message Format The following message has an example format for API calls 000257 0a88 mydll dll 4ad0576d gt kerne132 d11 7c81b1f0 SetConsoleMode IN HANDLE hConsoleHandle 7h IN DWORD dwMode 3h 000258 0a88 mydll dll 4ad0576d lt kernel32 d11 7c81b1f0 SetConsoleMode gt BOOL 1h This example includes the following entries 000257 indicates the log entry number Each log entry has a unique number 0a88 indicates the current running thread ID If the application has one thread this number does not change If two or more threads record data to the log file you might use the thread ID to follow thread specific sequential actions because ThinApp records log entries in the order in which they occur myd11 d11 indicates the DLL that makes the API call VMware Inc Chapter 5 Monitoring and Troubleshooting ThinApp m 4ad0576 d indicates the return address for the API call that myd1
113. k Parameters on page 111 m Application Sync Parameters on page 114 m MSI Parameters on page 117 m Sandbox Parameters on page 122 VMware Inc 83 VMware ThinApp User s Manual Isolation and Virtualization Parameters 84 Isolation and virtualization parameters determine the processes that can run inside and outside the virtual environment The parameters include ChildProcessEnvironmentExceptions DirectoryIsolationMode and RegistryIsolationMode ChildProcessEnvironmentDefault The ChildProcessEnvironmentDefault parameter determines whether ThinApp runs all child processes in the virtual environment You can create specific exceptions with the ChildProcessEnvironmentExceptions parameter See ChildProcessEnvironmentExceptions on page 84 Examples The default entry creates all child processes in the virtual environment BuildOptions ChildProcessEnvironmentDefauLt Virtual The External value creates child processes outside of the virtual environment BuildOptions ChildProcessEnvironmentDefauLt External ChildProcessEnvironmentExceptions The ChildProcessEnvironmentExceptions parameter notes exceptions to the ChildProcessEnvironmentDefault parameter If the ChildProcessEnvironmentDefault parameter has a Virtual value the ChildProcessEnvironmentExceptions parameter lists the applications that run outside of the virtual environment If the ChildProcessEnvironmentDefauLt parameter has an Extern
114. l file system For example you might have a DLL file that is inserted in other processes using Windows hooks The DLL file that implements the hook must be available on the host file system and Windows must load that file When you specify a DLL file in the ExternalDLLs parameter ThinApp extracts the file from the virtual file system to the sandbox and instructs Windows to load it The ExternalDLLs parameter does not support a DLL file that depends on other DLL files inside the virtual file system In this case Windows cannot load the DLL file Examples You can instruct ThinApp to pass the loading process of the inject d11 and injectme2 d11 files on to Windows BuildOptions ExternalDLLs inject d11 injectme2 d11 lsolatedMemoryObjects The IsolatedMemoryObjects parameter lists the specific shared memory objects to isolate from other applications Applications that use CreateFileMapping and OpenFileMapping Windows functions create shared memory objects Shared memory objects can have names or remain anonymous Named objects are visible to other applications running in the same user account In some circumstances you might want to isolate shared memory objects to ensure that virtual applications and system objects cannot detect each other VMware Inc Appendix A Package ini Parameters The default ThinApp behavior isolates shared memory objects that embedded Internet Explorer instances use A conflict occurs between the explorer exe a
115. lder to rebuild the application package 28 VMware Inc Deploying Applications Working with captured applications might involve working with deployment tools the thinreg exe utility MSI files and Active Directory This information includes the following topics Reviewing ThinApp Deployment Options on page 29 Facilitating File Launching with the thinreg exe Utility on page 31 Building an MSI Database on page 35 Controlling Application Access with Active Directory on page 39 Using ThinApp Packages Streamed from the Network on page 40 Using Captured Applications with Other System Components on page 43 Sample Isolation Mode Configuration Depending on Deployment Context on page 46 Reviewing ThinApp Deployment Options You can deploy captured applications with deployment tools ina VMware View environment on a network share or as basic executable files Deploying ThinApp With 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 VMware Inc 29 VMware ThinApp User s Manual When you use any of these tools you can create MSI files for the captured applications and follow the same process you use to deploy native MSI files See deployment instructions from the tool vendors For information about MSI files see Building an MSI Database on page 35 Deploying Thi
116. le E 1 Folder Macros Continued Macro Name Typical Location Desktop C Documents and Settings lt user_name gt Desktop Drive_c CEN Drive_m M Favorites C Documents and Settings lt user_name gt Favorites Fonts C Windows Fonts History C Documents and Settings lt user_name gt Local Settings History Internet Cache C Documents and Settings lt user_name gt Local Settings Temporary Internet Files 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 Personal C Documents and Settings lt user_name gt My Documents PrintHood Documents and Settings lt user_name gt PrintHood Profile Documents and Settings lt user_name gt Profiles Program Files Common Program Files Common Files G C C Documents and Settings C C ProgramFilesDir 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 Resources C Windows Resources Resources Localized C Windows Resources lt Language_ID gt SendTo C Documents and Settings lt
117. le virtual drive letter By default ThinApp assigns a serial number and the FIXED type to the drive VMware Inc Appendix A Package ini Parameters You can specify the X D and Z virtual drive letters BuildOptions VirtualDrives Drive X Serial ff897828 Type REMOVABLE Drive D Type CDROM Drive Z Drive X is a removable disk with the ff797828 serial number Drive D is a CD ROM drive with an assigned serial number Drive Z is a FIXED disk with an assigned serial number Change Virtual Drive Isolation Settings You might need to use the Attributes ini file to change the isolation mode of a virtual drive Specify the isolation mode for a virtual drive 1 Add the Drive_xX folder to your ThinApp project 2 Inthe new directory add the Attributes ini file to specify the isolation mode for the drive letter Wow64 The Wow64 parameter helps run 32 bit applications on a 64 bit Windows operating system If a 32 bit application tries to handle its own 64 bit registry redirection you can enable this parameter before building a project Examples You can simulate an environment where 32 bit applications run on a 32 bit operating system instead of a 64 bit operating system BuildOptions Wow64 0 You can simulate an environment where the application detects it always runs under WOW64 BuildOptions Wow64 1 You can leave the parameter commented out to prevent WOW64 emulation BuildOptions Wow64 0 VMwa
118. les You can prevent compression to facilitate fast build and load time This is the default behavior Compression CompressionType None You can use fast compression for a slow build time and fast load time Compression CompressionType Fast VMware Inc Appendix A Package ini Parameters DisableTracing The DisableTracing parameter prevents trace file generation when you run Log Monitor Log Monitor produces trace files for troubleshooting purposes You might want to disable trace file generation for the following reasons m You might need to hide the execution history for security purposes m Ina testing environment you might need to turn off tracing for specific applications that you know work properly Producing extra trace files wastes disk space and CPU time Examples You can stop an application from creating a trace file even if you run Log Monitor BuildOptions DisableTracing 1 The default behavior supports trace file generation in Log Monitor BuildOptions DisableTracing 0 ExcludePattern The ExcludePattern parameter excludes specified files or directories during the application build process You can specify the list of patterns with a comma separator Wildcards can match none of the characters or at least one of the characters and question marks match exactly one character This syntax is similar to the DOS dir command but you can apply wildcard characters to directory names a
119. les 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 xxx FindFirstFilewW 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 x FindFirstFileW c bin foobar gt INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE failed FS missing in view O 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 FindFirstFilew C Program Files Microsoft Visual Studio Common Tools WinNT foobar gt INV
120. less of whether the sandbox is simutaneously owned by another captured executable file OnFirstParentExit Called when the first parent process exits If a parent process runs a child process and quits this callback is called even if the child process continues to run OnLastProcessExit Called when the last process owning the sandbox exits If a parent process runs a child process and quits this callback is called when the last child process exits The following callback example shows the OnFirstSandboxOwner and OnFirstParentExit functions 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 You might use a script in the following circumstances 150 Timing out an application on a specific date Running a bat file from a network share inside the virtual environment Modifying the virtual registry VMware Inc Appendix F ThinApp Scripts m Importing the reg file at runtime m Stopping a virtual service when the main application quits m Copying an external system configuration file into the virtual environment on startup Use a script 1 Save the script contents in a plain text file with the vbs extension in the
121. lication ThinApp stores all application changes to the registry and file system locations with WriteCopy or Full isolation in the sandbox By default the sandbox directory keeps consistent settings across multiple runs of the application In certain circumstances you might want to delete the sandbox each time the application exits If the application creates child processes ThinApp does not delete the sandbox until all child processes exit Applications might leave child processes behind by design that can block the clean up operation For example Microsoft Office 2003 leaves behind the ctfmon exe process You might need to use a script to end the ctfmon exe process and child processes to force the cleanup operation to occur You can decide at runtime whether use the RemoveSandboxOnExit script API function to delete the sandbox on exit Examples You can delete the sandbox when the application exits BuildOptions RemoveSandboxOnExit 1 You can leave the sandbox behind when the application exits This is the default behavior BuildOptions RemoveSandboxOnExit 0 VMware Inc 125 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 126 VMware Inc ThinApp Sandbox The sandbox is the directory where all changes that the captured application makes are stored The next time you start the application those changes are incorporated from the sandbox When you delete the sandbox directory the application reverts to its captured state This inform
122. lication 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 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 detailed 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 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 Edit the Attributes ini File Use a text editor to update the Attributes ini file Edit the Attributes ini parameters 1 Inthe Attibutes ini file uncomment update or delete the parameter 2 Double click the build bat file in the captured application fo
123. lications 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 kernel mode device drivers ODBC drivers work because they are user mode drivers 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 when they are included in a ThinApp package When ThinApp virtualizes applications the applications might lose some shell integration functions with the system explorer shell 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
124. ll a msi file for all users on a computer and for individual users The parameter works only when the MSIFilename parameter requests the generation of a Windows installer database For information about forcing an MSI installation for each user or each machine see Force MSI Deployments for Each User or Each Machine on page 37 Examples If a user installs the msi file with a value of 1 for the MSIDefaultInstaLlLALLUsers parameter that user and all other users who log in to the computer can use shortcuts file type associations and more You must have administrator rights for a machine installation BuildOptions MSIFilename mymsi msi MSIDefaultInstallAllUsers 1 If a user installs the msi file with a value of 0 for the MSIDefaultInstallAllUsers parameter only that user can use shortcuts file type associations and more You do not need administrator rights for an individual user installation BuildOptions MSIFilename mymsi msi MSIDefaultInstallAllUsers 0 Administrators can create a database installation for all users on a machine and users without administrator rights can create installations for individual users BuildOptions MSIFilename mymsi msi MSIDefaultInstaLlAllUsers 2 MSIFilename The MSIFilename parameter enables the generation of an MSI database and specifies its filename The MSIFilename parameter produces a Windows installer with the specified filename in the output directory 118 VMware Inc
125. mmends WriteCopy mode for legacy or untrusted applications Although this 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 When you select the WriteCopy isolation mode in the Setup Capture wizard ThinApp completes the following operations m ThinApp sets the DirectoryIsolationMode parameter in the Package ini file to WriteCopy m ThinApp assigns the WriteCopy isolation mode to the following directories m AppData m Common AppData m Local AppData m Program Files Common m ProgramFilesDir VMware Inc Chapter 2 Capturing Applications m SystemRoot m SystemSystem m ThinApp assigns the Merged isolation mode to the following directories m Personal m Desktop m SystemSystem spool m ThinApp assigns the Full isolation mode to any new directories that the application creates during the installation The WriteCopy option in the Setup Capture wizard has the same effect as the WriteCopy isolation mode setting in the Package ini file but the directory exceptions apply only to the wizard option The wizard configures the directory exceptions for you and adds Attributes ini files within the directories To achieve the same result outside of the wizard you must configure these directory exceptions manually Regar
126. modifications from the application itself Listing Virtual Registry Contents with vregtool Because the sandbox contains the modifications to the registry you might need the vregtoo1 utility to view modified virtual registry changes You must have access to the vregtool 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 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 operations such as starting the Log Monitor utility to view recent activity The following key files in the VMware ThinApp directory include utilities and configuration files 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 preinstallation environment and postinstallation environment during the application capture proce
127. mple setting Firefox as a default browser setting a home page and setting default security settings Snapshot of the machine after the application installation ThinApp assesses the differences between the initial snapshot and the snapshot you are making 15 VMware ThinApp User s Manual Configuration of ThinApp parameters to customize such areas as executable file compression sandbox location and domain user access to applications Build of the ThinApp application package Assessing Application Dependencies Before the Capture Process Before capturing 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 49 Recommended Tasks Before the Capture Process You can perform the following tasks before you start the capture process to protect the file system and to become familiar with certain ThinApp functions that are affected by the capture process Shut down applications such as virus scans that might change the file system while ThinApp takes snapshots Become familiar with the ThinApp sandbox thinreg exe utility Application Sync utility and MSI file deployment in case you need to address those functions in the capture process See Appendix B ThinApp Sandbox on page
128. 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 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 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 VMware Inc Chapter 5 Monitoring and Troubleshooting ThinApp 187246661 cycles 67 04 ms on log entry 190210 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 Potential Errors The Potential Errors Detected section shows the log entries that have three asterisks in strings ThinApp marks entries that might pose problems by adding to the log entry output For information about interpreting this section see Locating Errors on page 68 Potential Errors Detected 006425 0000075c LoadLibraryExW C Program Files Adobe Reader 8 0 Reader Microsoft Windows Common Controls DLL flags 2 gt failed 006427 0000075c LoadLibraryExW C Program Files A
129. mymsi msi MSIUpgradeCode D89F1994 A24B 3E11 0C94 7FD1E13AB93F MSIUseCabs The MSTUseCabs parameter determines the use of cab files If you set the value to 1 ThinApp stores the package files in a 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 avoid a cab file when it slows down the installation process for applications You can distribute the MSI file and individual executable files in bin to install the application VMware Inc 121 VMware ThinApp User s Manual Examples You can store package files in a cab file BuildOptions MSIUseCabs 1 Sandbox Parameters 122 The sandbox is the directory where all changes that the captured application makes are stored Sandbox parameters include SandboxName SandboxPath and RemoveSandboxOnExit For more information on the sandbox see Appendix B ThinApp Sandbox on page 127 SandboxName The SandboxName parameter sets the name of the directory that stores the sandbox When you upgrade an application the sandbox name helps determine whether users retain previous personal settings or require new settings Changing the sandbox name with new deployments affects the need to create a new sandbox with different settings or retains the same sandbox Examples You can make My Application 1 0 the sandbox directory name BuildOptions SandboxName My Application 1 0 SandboxPath The Sandbox
130. n The name of the environment variable for which the value is retrieved Returns This function returns the string value associated with the Name environment variable Examples MsgBbox The package source EXE is GetEnvironmentVariable TS_ORIGIN RemoveSandboxOneExit The RemoveSandboxOnExit YesNo function set toggles that determine whether to delete the sandbox when the last child process exits If you set the RemoveSandboxOnExit parameter to 1 in the Package ini file the default cleanup behavior for the package with is Yes You can change the cleanup behavior to No by calling RemoveSandboxOnExit with the value of 0 If you do not modify the RemoveSandboxOnExit 1 entry in the Package ini file the default cleanup behavior for the package is No You can change the cleanup behavior 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 Examples The following example turns on cleanup RemoveSandboxOnExit 1 The following example turns off cleanup RemoveSandboxOnExit 0 VMware Inc Appendix F ThinApp Scripts SetEnvironmentVariable The SetEnvironmentVariable Name Value function set the value of an environment variable Parameters Name in The name of the environment variable to store the value Value in The value to store Examples SetEnvironmentVariable PATH C Windows system32 SetfileSy
131. n DLLs Add the following entry to the beginning of the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE txt file isoLation_full HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE Software Microsoft Windows CurrentVersion ExpLorer Browser Helper Objects VMware Inc 81 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 82 VMware Inc Package ini Parameters The Package ini file contains parameters that configure a captured application during the build process Parameters can affect the configuration of isolation modes and build options that include MSI Application Link Application Sync and application entry point settings You can set certain Package ini parameters during the setup capture process See Chapter 2 Capturing Applications on page 15 The BuildOptions section of the Package ini file applies to all applications Individual applications inherit these parameters unless the application specific sections overrides these settings For example the Adobe Reader 8 exe section of the Package ini file for an Adobe Reader application might have settings that override the larger BuildOptions parameters The application specific parameters show the application entry points that you create during the build process This information includes the following topics m Isolation and Virtualization Parameters on page 84 m General Purpose Parameters on page 89 m Access Control Parameters on page 104 m Parameters for Individual Applications on page 105 m Application Lin
132. n 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 You can specify a ico file or executable file to use an alternative icon 106 VMware Inc Appendix A Package ini Parameters Examples You can specify a NULL value to generate an executable file without icons Do not use a NULL value when you use the file types directive The executable file image allocates one icon for each file type myapp exe Source ProgramFiLesDir myapp app exe Icon NULL You can specify the application icon by using an executable file that is different from the Source executable file myapp exe Source ProgramFiLesDir myapp app exe Icon ProgramFilesDir myapp app2 exe You can specify the set to use by appending 1 2 to the end of the icon path myapp exe Source ProgramFiLesDir myapp app exe Icon ProgramFilesDir myapp app2 exe 1 You can use a ico file to specify the application icon myapp exe Source ProgramFiLesDir myapp app exe Icon ProgramFilesDir myap myicon ico NoRelocation The NoRe Location parameter strips relocation information from the generated executable file Windows executable files might contain base relocation information that enables Windows to load the executable file image at an alternative starting memory address If the base address is greater than 0
133. n page 117 Edit the MSI parameters 1 In the Package ini file enter the MSI filename MSIFilename lt fiLename gt msi For example the filename for Firefox might be Mozilla Firefox 2 0 0 3 msi 2 Optional Update other MSI parameters 3 Double click the build bat file in the captured application folder to rebuild the application package Specifying a Database Installation for Individual Users and Machines ThinApp installs the MSI database across all machines You can change the default installation with the following parameter values m To create a database installation for individual users use a value of 0 for the MSIDefaultInstallAl1lUsers parameter in the Package ini file This value creates msiexec parameters for each user m To create a database installation for individual machines for administrators and individual user installations for other users use a value of 2 for the MSIDefaultInstallAllUsers parameter Administrators belong to the Administrators Active Directory group For more information about the MSIDefaultInstallAlL1lUsers parameter see MSIDefaultInstallAllUsers on page 118 Force MSI Deployments for Each User or Each Machine Regardless of the parameter values specified at build time you can override the settings at deployment time For example if you created the database with a value of 1 for the MSIDefaultInstallAl1lUsers parameter you can still force individual user deployments for Firefox 3 0 with
134. nApp in the VMware View Environment If you work with VMware View the 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 nonpersistent desktops See Facilitating File Launching with the thinreg exe Utility on page 31 m Controlling user access to fileshares IT administrators might control access by organizing network shares based on function and associating permissions with network shares based on those functional boundaries Deploying ThinApp on Network Shares 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 the network share option and the VMware View option are that the network share option assumes a mix of physical and virtual persistent desktops and involves u
135. name of the value to retrieve from the version information section of the specified file You can retrieve the following values from most DLLs Comments m InternalName m ProductName CompanyName m LegalCopyright m ProductVersion m FileDescription m LegalTrademarks m PrivateBuild m FileVersion m OriginalFilename m SpecialBuild Returns This function returns a string value If the requested filename does not exist or the function cannot locate the specified value in the file the function returns an empty m string VMware Inc 159 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 160 Examples FileVersion GetFileVersionVaLue c windows system32 kernel32 d11 FileVersion if FileVersion 1 0 0 0 then MsgBox This is Version 1 0 End if GetCommandLine The GetCommandLine function accesses the command line parameters passed to the running program Returns This function returns a string that represents the command line arguments passed to the current running program including the original executable file Examples MsgBox The command line for this EXE was GetCommandLine GetCurrentProcessName The GetCurrentProcessName function accesses the full virtual path name of the current process Returns This function returns a string that represents the full executable path name inside of the virtual environment In most circumstances this path is c Program Files even if the packag
136. nd iexplore exe utilities when the utilities map sandbox files You can use the IsolatedMemoryObjects parameter to isolate additional named shared memory objects to ensure that the objects are visible only to other virtual applications using the same sandbox The IsolatedMemoryObjects parameter accepts a list of entries that are separated by the semicolon Each entry can use the asterisk and question mark as wildcard characters to match variable patterns Examples You can isolate two shared memory objects match an object with out Look in the name and match an object with the exact My Shared Object name BuildOptions IsolatedMemoryObjects outLook My Shared Object lsolatedSynchronizationObjects The IsolatedSynchronizationObjects parameter lists specific synchronization objects to isolate from other applications Windows has the following named synchronization objects m Mutex Use OpenMutex and CreateMutex to access this object m Semaphore Use OpenSemaphore and CreateSemaphore to access this object m Events C se OpenEvent and CreateEvent to access this object The default ThinApp behavior does notisolate synchronization objects You can specify synchronization objects to isolate from other applications that do not run in the same virtual namespace The sandbox location defines a namespace If two applications share the same sandbox path the applications have the same namespace for isolated synchronization
137. nd with a single process 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 Generate text trace report Child processes that the parent process generates 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 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 the files to VMware support Perform Advanced Log Monitor Operations Advanced operations in Log Monitor include stopping applications or deleting trace files If an application is busy or experiencing slow performance with a specific action you can perform suspend and resume operations to capture logs for a specific duration The resulting log file is smaller than the typical log file and easier to analyze Even when you use the suspend and resume operations the root cause of an error might occur outside of your duration window Suspend and resume operations are global and affect all applications For more information about using these options contact VMware Support Use advanced Log Monitor options 1 2 VMware Inc Shut down the captured application to investigate On the computer where you c
138. nd filenames You can specify the ExcludePattern parameter in the Package ini file where the pattern exclusion applies to the entire directory structure and the Attributes ini file where ThinApp adds the pattern exclusion to the current list of exclusions and applies settings only to the specific directory and subdirectories You can create a different exclusion list for different directories in your project Examples You can exclude any path that ends with bak or msi FileList ExcLudePattern bak msi VMware Inc 95 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 96 You can exclude any directories called svn or cvs and all the subdirectories ExcLudePattern svn cvs The pattern does not match filenames or directories that contain svn or cvs in the middle of the string FileTypes The FileTypes parameter lists file extensions that thinreg exe associates with an executable file You do not need separators between the file extensions in the list A typical list is doc docx This setting only makes sense in a section of the Package ini file that is specific to an application such as the Adobe Reader 8 exe section rather than the overall BuildOptions section In typical circumstances the application capture process places the FileTypes list in the Package ini file 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
139. nd 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 with 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 the following 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 Parameters on page 111 Set up nested links 1 Capture Application A 2 Inthe Package ini file specify Application B as a required or optional application link For example type the following 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 the following line RequiredLinks AppFolder AppC AppC exe 5 Capture Application C If you start Application A it can access
140. ng tasks m Capturing an application m Building the application with the build bat file m Running a captured application and customizing the settings and virtual environment ThinApp stores the changes in the sandbox m Running the sbmerge exe utility to merge registry and file system changes from the sandbox into the ThinApp project m Rebuilding the captured application with the build bat file m 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 Merge sandbox changes with Firefox 1 Capture Firefox 2 0 0 3 2 Double click the build bat file in the captured application folder to rebuild the application package VMware Inc Chapter 4 Updating Applications 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 3 Create a Thinstall directory in the bin directory for the sandbox location 4 Start Firefox and make a change to the settings For example change the home page 5 From the command line 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 From the command line type the following command C Program Files VMware VMware ThinApp sbmerge Print ThinApp prints the changes that affected the sandbox
141. ng registry files m Registry rw tvr Contains all registry modifications that the application makes m Registry rw 1lck 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 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 Inc 131 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 132 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 that you perform all
142. odes see Affecting Isolation Modes with Application Link on page 55 Modifying Settings in the Package ini File 26 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 modify 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 VMware Inc Chapter 2 Capturing Applications SandboxName Names the ThinApp sandbox You might keep the name for incremental application updates and change the name for major updates SandboxPath Sets the sandbox location You can set the sandbox in a USB location if the application executable file resides in that location SandboxNetworkDrives Specifies whether to direct write operations on the network share to the sandbox RequiredAppLinks Specifies a list of external ThinApp packages to import to the current package at runtime If ThinApp cannot import
143. off the NetRe launch parameter for stronger initial startup performance Examples You can prevent the restart of the application on a local hard disk BuildOptions NetReLaunch 0 If the application starts from a network drive you can restart the application using a local stub file This is the default behavior BuildOptions NetRelLaunch 1 Protocols The Protocols parameter specifies the protocols such as HTTP that are visible to applications in the physical environment Examples You can enter the mailto protocol for a Microsoft Outlook package BuildOptions Protocols feed feeds mailto Outlook URL mailto stssync webcal webcals VMware Inc Appendix A Package ini Parameters RuntimeEULA The RuntimeEULA parameter controls the ThinApp End User License Agreement EULA display The default behavior does not display the EULA Depending on ThinApp licensing terms you might need to show an end user license agreement Examples The default value for the RuntimeEULA parameter does not show the EULA BuildOptions Default do not show an Eula RuntimeEULA 0 You can display a EULA BuildOptions Turn on display of EULA RuntimeEULA 1 Shortcuts The Shortcuts parameter lists the locations where the thinreg exe utility creates a shortcut to a virtual application You can separate the entries with semicolons Each entry can contain a macro value Use the Shortcuts parameter only in a section of the Package in
144. ogram 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 ProgramFiLlesDir Microsoft Visual Studio VC98 bin foobar fs entry not found ProgramFilesDir Microsoft Visual Studio VC98 bin More Thorough Examination A more thorough examination of an entry from the Potential Errors section of a trace file might involve searching the full body of the Log Monitor trace file for that specific entry and reviewing the system calls and conditions leading to the potential error For example the following entry might require a more thorough examination 001550 FindFirstFileW C test cmd_test bin foobar gt INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE failed system probe To determine why the cmd exe utility probes c test cmd_test bin scan the log for this entry using the log entry number and determine what occurs before this call You might want to determine the locations where the cmd exe utility obtained the c test cmd_test path The bold excerpts of the log file show possible locations where the cmd exe utility obtained the c test cmd_test path The cmd exe utility obtains the first location by calling GetCurrentDirectoryW and th
145. on of an application continues to have that version available as long as the application processes and subprocesses are running If you store an application in a central location for many users this file lock prevents administrators from replacing a packaged executable file with a new version until all users exit the application and release their locks Upgrade a Running Application You can copy a 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 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 file location at lt server gt lt share gt Firefox exe Assume two users start Firefox exe and lock the application 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 you exit the application and restart the application 62 VMware Inc Cha
146. onment You can set Merged and WriteCopy isolation modes in the Setup Capture wizard The wizard does not provide the Full isolation mode option For information about the Full isolation mode that is available outside of the wizard see Modifying Isolation Modes on page 26 The key effect of the selection of Merged and WriteCopy isolation modes within the Setup Capture wizard is on the value of the DirectoryIsolationMode parameter in the Package ini file This parameter controls the default isolation mode for the project except when a different isolation mode exists in the Attributes ini file for an individual directory For information about the DirectoryIsolationMode parameter see DirectorylsolationMode on page 85 Merged isolation mode allows the application to modify elements on the physical file system outside of the virtual application package Some applications rely on DLLs and registry information in the local system image The advantage of using Merged 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 the residue might be first execution markers by shareware applications written to random computer locations as part of the licensing process When you select the Merged isolation mode in the Setup Capture wizard ThinApp completes the following operations m ThinApp
147. ore the Capture Process 16 Recommended Tasks Before the Capture Process 16 Capture an Application with the Setup Capture Wizard 16 Specify Entry Points Data Containers and Inventory Names 18 Specify Active Directory Access and Sandbox Locations 20 Specify Isolation Modes 21 Specify Location MSI and Compression Options 24 Review Project Files and Build Application Packages 25 Modifying Isolation Modes 26 Modifying Settings in the Package ini File 26 Edit the Package ini File 27 Modifying Settings in the Attributes ini File 28 Edit the Attributes ini File 28 3 Deploying Applications 29 Reviewing ThinApp Deployment Options 29 Deploying ThinApp With Deployment Tools 29 Deploying ThinApp in the VMware View Environment 30 Deploying ThinApp on Network Shares 30 Deploying ThinApp Using Executable Files 30 VMware Inc VMware ThinApp User s Manual Facilitating File Launching with the thinreg exe Utility 31 Application Sync Effect on the thinreg exe Utility 31 Run the thinreg exe Utility 32 Optional thinreg exe Parameters 32 Building an MSI Database 35 Customizing MSI Files with Package ini Parameters 36 Modify the Package ini File to Create MSI Files 37 Controlling Application Access with Active Directory 39 Reviewing Package ini Entries for Active Directory Access Control 39 Using ThinApp Packages Streamed from the Network 40 How ThinApp Application Streaming Works 41 Reviewing Requirements and Recommendations for Streaming Packag
148. owing tips might help advanced users investigate errors Look at the Potential Errors Detected section of the txt trace file Entries might not indicate errors ThinApp lists each Win32 API call where the Windows error code changed Look at exceptions that the applications generate Exceptions can indicate errors Exception types include C and NET The trace file records the exception type and DLL that generates the exception If the application such as a NET or Java application creates an exception from self generating code the trace file indicates an unknown module VMware Inc Chapter 5 Monitoring and Troubleshooting ThinApp The following example is a trace entry for an exception xx Exception EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION on read of 0x10 from unknown_module 0x7c9105f8 If you find an exception scan the earlier part of the trace file for the source of the exception Ignore the floating point exceptions that Virtual Basic 6 applications generate during typical use 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 circumstances involving out of process COM a parent application uses COM to start a child process runs a function remotely and continues to run functions When you run applications from a network share that generates two processes ignore the first process
149. perating systems and applications 11 VMware Inc Index updating applications 49 using thinreg exe 31 thinreg exe defining 31 parameters 32 running 32 starting with MSI files 24 updating registrations with Application Sync 51 with Application Sync 31 troubleshooting Explorer exe 80 Java Runtime Environment 81 Microsoft Outlook 79 providing required information to VMware support 65 with Log Monitor 66 U upgrading applications methods and considerations 49 63 V virtual file system format stages 143 representing path locations with macros 144 using 143 using isolation modes 144 VMware support required information for troubleshooting 65 VMware View using captured applications 30 vregtool listing virtual registry contents 132 W WriteCopy isolation mode 24 171 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 172 VMware Inc
150. plication Link utility supports the following path name formats m Path names can be relative to the base executable file For example RequiredAppLinks SomeDirectory results in c MyDir SomeDirectory when you deploy the base executable file to c MyDir SubDir Dependency exe m Path names can be absolute path names An example is RequiredAppLinks c SomeDirectory m Path names can use a network share or a UNC path An example is RequiredAppLinks share somedir Dependency exe m Path names can contain environment variables and dynamically expand to any of the preceding path names An example is RequiredAppLinks MYAPP_ADDONS Dependency exe m Path names can specify multiple links or dependencies with a semicolon that separates individual filenames An example is RequiredAppLinks Dependencyl exe Dependency2 exe RequiredAppLinks The RequiredAppLinks parameter specifies a list of external ThinApp packages to import to the current package at runtime You can specify absolute paths such as c abs path dotnet exe relative paths such as relpath dotnet exe and UNC paths such as server share dotnet exe If the import operation for any specified package fails an error message appears and the parent executable file exits You can use the OptionalAppLinks parameter instead to continue even when load errors occur If you use a wildcard pattern to specify a package and files do not match the wildcard pattern ThinApp does not g
151. plications When the thinreg exe utility 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 or unregister contains spaces you must enclose it in double quotation marks For information about the PermittedGroups setting see PermittedGroups on page 104 Table 3 1 lists optional parameters for the thinreg exe utility Any command that uses the a parameter requires administrator rights Table 3 1 Optional thinreg exe parameters Parameter Purpose Sample Usage a allusers Registers a package for all thinreg exe a users lt server gt lt share gt Microsoft If an unauthorized user Office 2007 Word exe attempts to run the application a message informs the user that he or she cannot run the application q quiet Blocks output thinreg exe q lt server gt lt share gt Microsoft Office 2007 Word exe u unregister Unregisters a package Unregisters Microsoft Word for the uninstall This command removes current user the software from the thinreg exe u Add Remove Programs lt server gt lt share gt Microsoft control panel applet Office 2007 Word exe Unregisters all Microsoft Office applications for the current user and removes the Add Remove
152. project and display the contents of a snapshot file For information about the full procedure to create a ThinApp project from the command line see Create a Project Without the Setup Capture Wizard on page 139 Creating Snapshots of Machine States The snapshot exe utility creates a snapshot file of a machine state ThinApp captures the machine state and saves it to a single file to create a project The snapshot exe utility saves a copy of registry data and file system metadata that includes paths filenames sizes attributes and timestamps Usage snapshot exe SnapshotFileName snapshot Config ConfigFile ini BaseDir1 BaseDir2 BaseReg1 Examples Snapshot My snapshot Snapshot My snapshot Config MyExclusions ini Snapshot My snapshot c MyAppDirectory HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE Software MyApp Options The options specify the directories or subkeys in the snapshot Option Description Config ConfigFile ini Specifies directories or registry subkeys to exclude during snapshot creation If you do not specify a configuration file ThinApp uses the snapshot ini file from the ThinApp installation directory 136 VMware Inc Appendix D Snapshot Commands and Customization Option Description BaseDirl Specifies one or more base directories to include in the scan If you do not specify base directories the snapshot exe utility scans c and all subdirectories If you scan a machine where Windows or program files
153. pter 4 Updating Applications 5 If you must deploy a more current update of Firefox place it in the same directory with a higher number at the end 6 Copy Version 2 0 of Firefox exe to central share at lt server gt lt share gt Firefox 2 After Firefox 1is unlocked you can delete it but Firefox exe should remain in place because the user shortcuts continue to point there ThinApp always uses the filename that has the highest version number If you must roll back to an earlier version and the most recent version is still locked copy the old version so that it has the highest version number Sandbox Considerations for Upgraded Applications When you upgrade an application you can control whether users continue to use their previous settings by keeping the sandbox name consistent in the Package ini file You can prevent users from using an older sandbox with an upgraded application by packaging the upgraded application with a new name for the sandbox Starting the upgraded application the first time creates the sandbox with the new name VMware Inc 63 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 64 VMware Inc Monitoring and Troubleshooting ThinApp You can use Log Monitor to generate trace files and troubleshoot the ThinApp environment This information includes the following topics Providing Information to VMware Support on page 65 Using Log Monitor on page 66 Troubleshooting Specific Applications on page 79
154. puter at a time can use a shared sandbox If a computer is already using a sandbox ThinApp creates a new sandbox to allow you to continue working until the previous copy of the sandbox 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 Thinstal1 Mozilla Firefox 3 0 The typical AppData location is C Documents and Settings lt user_name gt Application Data AppData 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 VMware Inc 129 VMware ThinApp User s Manual Place the Sandbox on the Network You can use the SandboxPath parameter to store the sandbox on a mapped drive Store the sandbox on a mapped drive 1 Open the Package ini file 2 Under the SandboxName parameter set the SandboxPath parameter to the network location SandboxName Mozilla Firefox 3 0 SandboxPath Z Sandbox For example ifMozilla 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 You can use the SandboxPath parameter to set a USB location for the sandbox The captured application loads and saves
155. r 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 placing a copy of thinreg exe located in C Program Files VMware VMware ThinApp alongside the updated package on the server VMware Inc 51 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 52 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 Specify Entry Points Data Containers and Inventory Names on page 18 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 ThinApp supports linking up to 250 packages at a time Each package can be any size The Application Link utility is useful for the following objects m Large shared libraries and frameworks
156. rameter Purpose Sample Usage noarp Prevents the creation ofan thinreg exe q noarp entry in the Add Remove lt server gt lt share gt Microsoft Programs control panel Office 2007 Word exe applet noreLlaunch Starts the thinreg exe thinreg exe q norelaunch utility on Microsoft Vista without elevated privileges Standard users can start the utility without a user account control UAC pop up window When the thinreg exe utility detects a need for more privileges such as the privileges required for the allusers parameter the utility restarts itself as a privileged process and generates a UAC pop up window The norelLaunch option blocks this restart process and causes the registration to fail lt server gt lt share gt Microsoft Office 2007 Word exe Building an MSI Database If you do not create MSI files with 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 automatically creating shortcuts and file type associations Basic Active Directory group policies provide ways to distribute and start MSI packages ThinApp creates an MSI database that contains certain files depending on the database size m For databases smaller than 2GB the MSI database consists of captured executable files installer logic and the thinreg exe utility m
157. re Inc 103 VMware ThinApp User s Manual Access Control Parameters ThinApp provides parameters that define user access to packages The parameters include AccessDeniedMsg and PermittedGroups AccessDeniedMsg The AccessDeniedMsg parameter contains an error message to display to users who do not have permission to run a package The default setting is You are not currently authorized to run this application Please contact your Administrator Examples You can customize the string for unauthorized users BuildOptions PermittedGroups Administrator O0fficeUsers AccessDeniedMsg You do not have permission to execute this application please call support 1 800 822 2992 PermittedGroups The PermittedGroups parameter restricts a package to a specific set of Active Directory users When ThinApp builds an application ThinApp assumes any specified group names are valid and converts the names to SID values ThinApp can resolve group ownership at runtime using cached credentials You can continue to authenticate laptop users even when they are offline You can specify group names SID strings or a mix of group names and SID strings in the same line of the PermittedGroups parameter If you use a domain based group name you must be connected to that domain when you build the application package If you enter a SID directly in the parameter value you do not need to connect to the domain where the SID is defined If the user does
158. re ThinApp User s Manual 74 019530 0000075c MSVCR80 d11 78131dcd lt dbghelp d1l 59a603a1 GetModuleHandleA gt HMODULE 0h GetLastError Q returns 126 0 The specified module could not be found Troubleshooting Example for cmd exe Utility In the following example ThinApp packages the cmd exe utility and the utility runs with logging turned on To simulate an application behaving incorrectly you can run an invalid command For example if you request the cmd exe utility to run the foobar command the utility generates the foobar is not recognized as an internal or external command message Scan the trace file and check the Potential Errors Detected section You can locate the API functions that modified the GetLastError code The italicized paths show locations where the cmd exe utility looks for the foobar command The bold paths show locations in the virtual file system that ThinApp probes Potential Errors Detected xxx Unable to determine if any services need to be auto started error 2 001550 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 xxx FindFirstFilew gt HANDLE ffffffffh GetLastError returns 2 203 The system cannot find the file specified xxx FindFirstFilew C test cmd_test bin foobar gt INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE failed F
159. redUsingVersion 93 ChildProcessEnvironmentDefault 84 ChildProcessEnvironmentExceptions 84 CommandLine 106 CompressionType 94 description of common parameters 26 DirectorylsolationMode 85 Disabled 105 DisableTracing 95 editing Application Sync parameters 50 ExcludePattern 95 ExternalCOMObjects 85 ExternalDLLs 86 FileTypes 96 Icon 106 InventoryName 123 IsolatedMemoryObjects 86 IsolatedSynchronizationObjects 87 Localeldentifier 96 LocaleName 97 LogPath 97 modifying isolation modes 26 169 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 170 modifying MSI parameters 37 MSI parameters 36 MSIArpProductlcon 117 MSIDefaultinstallAllUsers 118 MSIFilename 118 MSIInstallDirectory 119 MSIManufacturer 119 MSIProductCode 120 MS ProductVersion 120 MSI RequireElevatedPrivileges 120 MSlIUpgradeCode 121 MSIUseCabs 121 NetRelaunch 98 NoRelocation 107 OptionalAppLinks 113 OutDir 97 parameters 83 125 PermittedGroups 104 Protocols 98 ReadOnlyData 108 RegistrylsolationMode 88 RemoveSandboxOnExit 125 RequiredAppLinks 112 ReserveExtraAddressSpace 108 RetainAlllcons 109 RuntimeEULA 99 SandboxCOMObjects 88 SandboxName 122 SandboxNetworkDrives 124 SandboxPath 122 SandboxRemovableDisk 124 Shortcut 109 Shortcuts 99 Source 110 StripVersionInfo 110 UACRequestedPrivilegesLevel 99 UACRequestedPrivilegesUiAccess 100 UpgradePath 100 Version XXXX 111 VirtualComputerName 101 VirtualDrives 102 VirtualizeExternalOutOfProc
160. river installation Other applications do not detect a new printer driver unless the driver is installed Accessing the Local Disk the 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 Review the default configuration options m Hard disk An example of a hard disk is C Isolation modes selected during the capture process affect access Users can write to their Desktop and My Documents folders Other modifications that the application makes go into the user sandbox The default location of the sandbox is in the Application Data directory m Removable disk By default any user who has access rights can read or write to any location on a removable disk VMware Inc Chapter 3 Deploying Applications m Network mapped drives By default any user who has access rights can read or write to any location on a network mapped disk m UNC network paths By default any user who has access rights can read or write to any location on a UNC network path 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 ve
161. rsions of virtual applications and system installed applications By default ThinApp saves all registry modifications from captured applications in an isolated sandbox and the system remains unchanged Accessing Networking and Sockets Captured applications have standard 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 Using Shared Memory and 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 invisible to a captured application Using COM DCOM and Out of Process COM Components Captured applications can create COM controls from the virtual environment 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 Starting 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 VMware Inc 45 VMware ThinApp User s Manual Using File Type Associations
162. s all the modifications in a user specific sandbox For directories and subkeys that have WriteCopy isolation the application recognizes the host computer files and virtual files All write operations convert host computer files into virtual files in the sandbox An application fails because it has write permission to global locations and is not designed for a locked down desktop environment found in a corporate setting or on Windows Vista Use the WriteCopy isolation mode ThinApp makes copies of registry keys and files that the application writes and performs all the modifications in a user specific sandbox For directories and subkeys that have WriteCopy isolation the application recognizes the host computer files and virtual files All write operations convert host computer files into virtual files in the sandbox VMware Inc Chapter 3 Deploying Applications View of Isolation Mode Effect 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 Figure 3 3 Windows Registry as seen by Windows Regedit ODBC Pie Of fice f g 10 0 B 11 0 a 8 0 9 0 j Common j Delivery jj Live Meeting Outlook PowerPoint i Visio When ThinApp runs a captured version of Microsoft Visio 2007 ThinApp sets the HKL
163. s spaces enclose the path in double quotation marks The following command shows the use of double quotation marks thinreg exe DEPLOYSERVER ThinApps Microsoft Office Word 2007 exe For information about thinreg exe parameters see Optional thinreg exe Parameters on page 32 Run the thinreg exe utility 1 Determine the executable files that ThinApp must register with the local environment 2 From the command line type thinreg exe lt optional_parameters gt lt packagel1 exe gt lt package2 exe gt lt packages_by_wildcard gt If the server name is DEPLOYSERVER and the share is ThinApps use the following example to register Microsoft Word for the logged in user ThinReg exe DEPLOYSERVER ThinApps Microsoft Office 2007 Word exe Use the following example 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 The thinreg exe utility monitors the PermittedGroups setting in the Package ini file registering and unregistering packages as needed When the thinreg exe utility 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 executable files VMware Inc Chapter 3 Deploying Ap
164. s to the Web server once a day to check for updates Examples 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 AppSyncUpdateFrequency 1d AppSyncExpirePeriod The AppSyncExpirePeriod parameter sets the application update frequency in minutes m hours h or days d If ThinApp cannot reach the Web server the package continues to work until the AppSyncExpirePeriod ends Examples The default setting for the AppSyncExpirePeriod parameter is 30 days AppSyncExpirePeriod 30d You can prevent the package from expiring with the never value AppSyncExpirePeriod never AppSyncWarningPeriod The AppSyncWarningPeriod parameter sets the start of the warning period before a package expires Examples You can set the AppSyncWarningPeriod parameter to five days AppSyncWarningPeriod 5d AppSyncWarningFrequency The AppSyncWarningFrequency specifies how often warning appear before the package expires When the warning period starts ThinApp checks the Web server every time an application starts VMware Inc 115 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 116 The AppSyncWarningFrequency parameter checks for new versions and downloads updates 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 the virtual
165. s 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 file entry point Changes occur in the sandbox during automatic 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 use the sbmerge exe utility to merge sandbox changes made by the update with the application See Application Updates That the Administrator Triggers on page 57 m Inthe captured project If you must 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 61 VMware ThinApp User s Manual Upgrading Running Applications on a Network Share ThinApp allows you to upgrade or roll back an application that is running on a network share for multiple users The upgrade process occurs when the user quits the application and starts 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 Starting an application locks the executable file package You cannot replace delete or move the application This file lock ensures that any computer or user who accesses a specific versi
166. sers running the thinreg exe utility directly instead of relying on login scripts Deploying ThinApp Using Executable Files You use this basic option in an environment where disk usage is limited You can create executable files for the captured applications copy them from a central repository and run the thinreg exe utility manually to register file type associations desktop shortcuts and the application package on the system 30 VMware Inc Chapter 3 Deploying Applications Facilitating File Launching with the thinreg exe Utility ThinApp requires you to use the thinreg exe utility to facilitate starting files such as a doc document or an html page For example if you click a URL in an email message ThinApp must be set to start Firefox You do not have to run the thinreg exe utility for MSI files because MSI files start the utility automatically during the application installation The thinreg exe utility 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 the thinreg exe utility allows you to see the same menu options fora doc file in a native environment If an application runs SMTP or HTTP
167. sets the DirectoryIsolationMode parameter in the Package ini file to Merged m ThinApp assigns the Merged isolation mode to the following directories m Personal m Desktop m SystemSystem spool If you save documents to the desktop and My Documents folder ThinApp saves the documents to the physical system regardless of the Merged mode selection because Merged mode affects documents saved to global locations such as C myfiles VMware Inc 21 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 22 m ThinApp excludes some locations from the Merged isolation mode and assigns the WriteCopy isolation mode to the following directories and their subdirectories m AppData m Common AppData m Local AppData m Program Files Common m ProgramFilesDir m SystemRoot m SystemSystem m ThinApp assigns the Full isolation mode to any new directories that the application creates during the installation The Merged option in the Setup Capture wizard has the same effect as the Merged mode setting in the Package ini file but the directory exceptions that use WriteCopy isolation mode apply only to the wizard option The wizard configures the directory exceptions for you and adds Attributes ini files within the directories To achieve the same result outside of the wizard you must configure these directory exceptions manually WriteCopy isolation mode allows ThinApp to intercept write operations and redirect them to the sandbox VMware reco
168. shooting 18 updating with Application Sync 51 G global hook DLLs reduced function with ThinApp 13 l iexplore exe defining 18 installing ThinApp 14 inventory name purpose of 19 isolation modes effect on virtual file system 144 Full 26 Merged 24 modifying 26 sample configuration 46 using Application Link 55 WriteCopy 24 VMware Inc L log format 69 Log Monitor extra options 67 suspending and resuming logging 67 troubleshooting procedures 66 using 66 M Merged isolation mode 24 Microsoft Vista deploying MSI files 38 MSI files automating the thinreg exe utility 24 building the database 35 customizing parameters 36 deploying on Microsoft Vista 38 generating 24 modifying the Package ini 37 overriding the installation directory 38 parameters 117 N nested links using Application Link 55 network streaming packages 40 O operating systems support for 11 using the lowest version for ThinApp installation 14 P Package ini AccessDeniedMsg 104 Active Directory parameters 39 AddPageExecutePermission 89 AllowUnsuppportedExternalChildPr ocesses 90 VMware Inc Index AnsiCodePage 91 AppSyncClearSandboxOnUpdate 117 AppSyncExpireMessage 116 AppSyncExpirePeriod 115 AppSyncUpdateFrequency 115 AppSyncUpdateMessage 117 AppSyncURL 114 AppSyncWarningFrequency 115 AppSyncWarningMessage 116 AppSyncWarningPeriod 115 AutoShutdownServices 91 AutoStartServices 91 BlockSize 92 CachePath 93 Captu
169. source executable file when ThinApp builds the application Version information for executable files is in Windows properties Properties information includes the copyright trademark and version number By default ThinApp copies all version information from the source executable file The StripVersionInfo parameter strips version information from the captured application Examples You can generate a target application without version information Lapp exe Source ProgramFiLesDir myapp app exe StripVersionInfo 1 WorkingDirectory The WorkingDirectory parameter sets the current working directory before the application starts You can set the Current Working Directory CWD for individual applications The CWD value does not need to exist on the system VMware Inc Appendix A Package ini Parameters Examples You can set the current working directory to C Program Files My Application Application exe WorkingDirectory ProgramFilesDir My Application Version XXXX The Version XXXX parameter overrides executable file version strings or adds new version strings ThinApp copies version resources from the original executable file You can override the version resource strings and add new ones with a Version lt string_name gt lt string_valLue gt setting Examples You can set My New Product Name as the version product name value Application exe Version ProductName My New Product Name Version Description This
170. ss ThinApp starts this utility during the setup capture process 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 133 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 134 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 you 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 Snapshot Commands and Customization The snapshot exe utility creates a snapshot of a computer file system and registry and creates a ThinApp project from two previously captured snapsho
171. stemlsolation The Setfile systemIsolation Directory IsolationMode 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 set 1 WriteCopy 2 Merged 3 Full Examples You can set the Merged isolation mode for the temp directory Setfile systemIsolation GetEnvironmentVariableC TEMP 2 VMware Inc 163 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 164 SetRegistrylsolation The SetRegistryIsolation RegistryKey IsolationMode function sets the isolation mode of a registry key Parameters RegistryKey in The registry key on which to set the isolation mode Start with HKLM for HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE HKCU for HKEY_CURRENT_USER and HKCR for HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT IsolationMode in Isolation mode to set 1 WriteCopy 2 Merged 3 Full Examples You can set the Full isolation mode for HKEY_CURRENT_USER Software Thinapp Test SetRegistryIsolation HKCU Software Thinapp Test 3 WaitForProcess The WaitForProcess ProcessID TimeOutInMillLiSeconds function waits until the process ID is finished running Parameters ProcessID in The process ID to end The process ID can come from ExecuteExternalProcess or ExecuteVirtualProcess TimeOutInMilliSeconds in The maximum amount of time to wait for the process to finish running before continuing A value of 0 specifies INFINITE VMware Inc Returns T
172. t the cmd exe regedit exe or iexplore exe entry points during the application capture process and you develop a need to debug or troubleshoot the environment you can set the Disabled parameter to 0 and rebuild the project to generate these entry points For information about the troubleshooting entry points see Specify Entry Points Data Containers and Inventory Names on page 18 VMware Inc 105 VMware ThinApp User s Manual Examples You can prevent the generation of the application executable file during the build process app exe Source ProgramFiLesDir myapp app exe Disabled 1 You can use a value of 0 for the Disabled parameter or remove the line to generate the application executable file app exe Source ProgramFiLesDir myapp app exe Disabled 0 CommandLine The CommandLine parameter specifies command line arguments for a shortcut executable file When you specify the command line argument that ThinApp passes to the virtual application include the application name as the first parameter Examples You can 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 144 for more information Icon The Icon parameter specifies the ico
173. t 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 During the build process that occurs at the end of the Setup Capture wizard ThinApp generates one executable file for each selected entry point If you deploy the application as an MSI file or use the thinreg exe utility the desktop and Start menu shortcuts created on end user desktops point to these entry points To troubleshoot or debug your environment select the following 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 ActiveX controls Entry points start native executable files in a virtual context Entry points do not create virtual packages of cmd exe regedit exe or iexplore exe If you cannot predict the need for debugging or troubleshooting the environment you can instead use the Disabled parameter in the Package ini file at a later time to active
174. 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 Automatic Application Updates 60 If an application can update automatically its update mechanism 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 application restarts it uses the version of the executable file in the sandbox and not the executable file from the original package For example if you capture Firefox 1 5 your autoupdate 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
175. the files and registry keys of Application B and Application B can access the files and registry keys of Application C Affecting Isolation Modes with Application Link ThinApp loads an Application Link layer during application startup and merges registry entries and file system directories If ThinApp finds a registry subkey or file system directory that did not previously exist in the main package or layer that is already merged ThinApp uses the isolation mode specified in the layer being loaded VMware Inc 55 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 56 If the registry subkey or file system directory exists in the main package and a layer that is already merged 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 Effect on Linked Packages If you link two applications and you specify a value for the PermittedGroups parameter the user account used for starting the application must be a member of at least one of the Active Directory groups for this parameter in the Package ini files of both applications For information about the PermittedGroups parameter see Access Control Parameters on page 104 Sandbox Changes for Standalone and Linked Packages Sandbox changes from linked packages are not visible to the parent executable file For example you can install Acrob
176. ting systems or computers The use of macros allows shared application profile information to instantly migrate to different operating 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 transparently 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 Windows Vista instead of using Windows XP file path styles This feature allows most applications to migrate to updated or older operating systems VMware Inc Appendix E ThinApp Virtual File System 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 List of Folder Macros ThinApp uses the shfolder d11 file to obtain the location of shell folders Older versions of the shfolder d11 file do not support som
177. tion is unlimited The virtual application can receive any standard clipboard formats such as text graphics and HTML The virtual application can receive OLE objects VMware Inc 43 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 44 m Pasting from captured applications to system applications ThinApp converts OLE objects created in virtual applications to system native objects when you paste them into native applications Accessing Printers A captured application has access to any printer installed on the computer that it is running on Captured applications and applications installed on the physical system 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 that it is running on Captured applications and applications installed on the physical system have the same relationship with device drivers If an application requires a device driver you must install the driver separately from the ThinApp package 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 the printer d
178. ts You do not need to start the snapshot exe utility directly because the Setup Capture wizard starts it Only advanced users and system integrators who are building ThinApp functionality into other platforms might make direct use of this utility 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 This information includes directories filenames file attributes file sizes and file modification dates m 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 The snapshot ini configuration file specifies what directories and subkeys to exclude from a ThinApp project when you capture an application You might customize this file for certain applications This information includes the following topics m Methods of Using the snapshot exe Utility on page 136 m Sample snapshot exe Commands on page 138 m Create a Project Without the Setup Capture Wizard on page 139 m Customizing the snapshot ini File on page 140 VMware Inc 135 VMware ThinApp User s Manual Methods of Using the snapshot exe Utility You can use the snapshot exe utility to create snapshot files of machine states create the template file for the Package ini file create a ThinApp
179. ty updates an entire application package 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 determine if an updated version of the executable file 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 VMware Inc 49 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 50 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 Using Application Sync in a Managed or Unmanaged Environment If you use virtual applications that update automatically in a managed computer environment do not use the Application Sync utility because it might clash with other update capabilities If an automatic update feature updates an application the update exists in the sandbox If the Application Sync utility attempts to update the application after an automatic application update the version update stored in the sandbox take precedence over the files contained in the Application Sync version The order of precedence for updating files is the f
180. ual 24 Specify the isolation modes in the wizard Select the isolation mode to determine which files and registry keys are visible and written by the virtual application you create Option Action Merged Allows the application to read resources on and write to the local machine WriteCopy Allows the application to read resources on the local machine and restrict most modifications to the sandbox ThinApp copies physical file system changes to the sandbox to ensure ThinApp only modifies copies of files instead of the actual files Proceed to select the application package location create an MSI package and compress the executable file See Specify Location MSI and Compression Options on page 24 Specify Location MSI and Compression Options You can change the location of the package that stores the captures application create MSI files with executable files and compress the package size 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 MSI packages automate the process of registering file type associations registering desktop and Start menu shortcut and displaying control panel extensions If you plan to deploy ThinApp executables directly on each machine you c
181. uild bat output Examples You can specify the bin directory as the location for the build bat output BuildOptions OutDir bin VMware Inc 97 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 98 NetRelaunch The NetRe Launch parameter determines whether to restart an application from the local disk when you run the application from a network share or removable disk The default ThinApp behavior detects whether an application runs from a network drive or a removable disk and uses a local hard disk to restart the application This process resolves a problem that Symantec AntiVirus might generate when it tries to perform a complete scan of an executable file The scan can affect start times for large executable files located on network shares Symantec AntiVirus performs a full file scan on executable files that start from a network share or removable disk and on executable files that make the initial network connections Because a large number of desktops have Symantec AntiVirus ThinApp allows applications to start from a network share without incurring lengthy scan times ThinApp creates a stub executable file in the user sandbox and restarts the file ThinApp can load the remainder of the application data from the original source location because Symantec AntiVirus can scan the stub quickly If your application is small or you know that Symantec AntiVirus is not installed on the desktops you are deploying the application to you might want to turn
182. user_name gt SendTo Startup C Documents and Settings lt user_name gt Start Menu Programs Startup SystemRoot C Windows 146 VMware Inc Appendix E ThinApp Virtual File System Table E 1 Folder Macros Continued Macro Name Typical Location 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 VMware Inc 147 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 148 VMware Inc ThinApp Scripts Scripts modify the behavior of virtual applications dynamically You can create custom code before starting an application packaged with ThinApp or after an application exits You can use scripts to authenticate users and load configuration files from a physical to virtual environment Callback functions run code during specific events If applications create child processes use callback functions to run code only in the main parent process API functions run ThinApp functions and interact with the ThinApp runtime API functions can authenticate users and prevent the start of applications for unauthorized users Adding scripts to your applic
183. x40000 Windows always loads the executable file image at its specified base address You can safely remove unnecessary relocation information from the resulting image Relocation information is typically small on disk Removing this information does not affect the size of the generated executable files Examples You can strip the relocation information from the generated executable file app exe Source ProgramFiLesDir myapp app exe NoReLocation 1 VMware Inc 107 VMware ThinApp User s Manual ReadOnlyData The ReadOnlyData parameter specifies the name of the read only virtual registry file created during the application build If the ReadOnlyData parameter appears in an application specific section of the Package ini file the specified file is the primary data container Examples You can specify Package ro tvr as the name of the virtual registry file ReadOnlyData bin Package ro tvr ReserveExtraAddressSpace The ReserveExtraAddressSpace parameter indicates the amount of extra address space to reserve for the captured executable file In typical circumstances the tlink exe utility sets the Windows SizeOfImage field in the generated executable file based on the SizeOfImage field of the source executable file 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
184. yment on Microsoft Vista Installations for individual users 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 MSIProductCode parameter makes it easier to install a new version of the application An MSI database contains 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 specifying an MSIProductCode value and allow ThinApp to generate a different product code for each build Regardless of the parameter values specified at build time you can override the settings at deployment time See Force MSI Deployments for Each User or Each Machine on page 37 For more information on MSI parameters see MSI Parameters on page 117 36 VMware Inc Chapter 3 Deploying Applications 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 36 and MSI Parameters o

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