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VMware ThinApp User`s Manual

1. Filter drivers normally sit on top of file system drivers meaning that they see file system requests before the file system driver does Filter drivers can filter a filesys operation to do something other than what was originally intended Specifically they can reject modify or pass an operation through unmodified Common examples of filter driver types include compression encryption quota monitoring etc Adapter drivers adapter drivers Adapter drivers are special types of kernel mode device drivers that communicate directly with hardware adapters As such they use direct I O and or DMA machine instructions Only kernel mode drivers are allowed to execute these types of privileged machine instructions VMware Inc 143 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 144 VMware Inc Generating MSI Files ThinApp can optionally generate auto registering MSI files during the build process Building an MSI Database You might consider building an MSI database when you need to deliver ThinApp captured applications through traditional desktop management systems to remote locations and have shortcuts and file type associations automatically created You can use MSI packages to do this Most systems including plain Active Directory Group Policy provide simple methods to push and execute MSI packages An MSI database created by ThinApp contains the following m The captured executable files for a specific project if the database is les
2. m Modifications to virtual elements go to the sandbox m Modifications to system elements go to the system m New elements are created on the system WriteCopy m System elements at this location are visible to the application If a system element and virtual element exist at the same location the application sees the virtual element m Modifications to virtual elements go to the sandbox m Modifications to system elements go to the sandbox m New elements are created in the sandbox VMware Inc Full m m m Chapter 6 Configuring Isolation Modes System elements at this location are not visible to the application Modifications to virtual elements go to the sandbox System elements cannot be read or modified New elements are created in the sandbox To change the isolation mode for a directory edit the Attibutes ini file in your package located in the directory where you want to modify the default isolation mode Edit the HKEY_XXXXXX txt file to change the isolation mode for a registry subtree Each registry subtree begins with the isolation mode NOTE ThinApp caches the isolation modes for the registry and file system at runtime in the sandbox If you change the isolation mode for your project and then rebuild the executable file you might need to delete the sandbox for the change to take effect VMware Inc 93 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 94 VMware Inc Using the Virtual File System Th
3. NET uses a technique called just in time compilation to convert IL byte code into native processor code at runtime During installation native image files are generated to the hard drive These files can double or triple your package size By deleting them you can make your packages much smaller In NET 1 1 this process is very fast and it can occur at startup very quickly In NET 2 0 and higher the native image compilation is significantly slower Startup time slows if you decide to delete native images because these images are generated in memory rather than be pre existing in your ThinApp package You can delete native images by deleting the following directory SystemRoot assembly Nativelmages Attributes ini This file controls per directory settings Isolation DirectoryIsoLationMode WriteCopy Merged Full Example DirectoryIsolation writeCopy If isolation is not specified it is inherited from parent directory Compression CompressionType None Fast Small BlockSize 64k 128k 256k 512K 1M BlockType Fixed Rolling FileList ExcLudePattern tmp obj FullName VMware Inc Chapter 2 Capturing and Configuring Applications Plug Ins and Add ins Many applications have the ability to install plug ins or load external components Plug ins can be packaged together or separately from an application To create a single captured application that contains both the main application and its plug in
4. SandboxName My Application 1 0 The SandboxName is used when creating a new sandbox For the example above the default sandbox path is C Documents and Settings USERNAME Application Data Thinapp My Application 1 0 When upgrading an application the sandbox name plays an important role in determining if the user retains their previous personal settings or use new settings By changing the SandboxName with new deployments you can determine whether the user creates a new sandbox with different settings or retains the same sandbox SandboxPath SandboxPath Controls the path where ThinApp creates a new sandbox by default Following are examples of this parameter The following example shows how to create the default sandbox in the same directory as the executable BuildOptions SandboxPath The following example shows how to create the default sandbox in a subdirectory subordinate to the executable location BuildOptions SandboxPath LocalSandbox Subdir1 The following example shows how to create the default sandbox in the user s AppData folder under the subdirectory Thinapp BuildOptions SandboxPath AppData Thinapp VMware Inc Chapter 3 Configuring the Package ini File The following example shows how to create the default sandbox on a network mapped drive BuildOptions SandboxPath Z Sandboxes If an application is meant to run only from portable media such as USB Flash devices use SandboxPath to fo
5. This example enables you to write directly to network mapped drives without changes going to the sandbox default BuildOptions S9andboxNetworkDrives 0 SandboxRemovableDisk SandboxRemovab1le Determines if removable drives have sandboxing applied By default ThinApp enables you to write directly to removable drives without applying sandboxing Removable disks include USB Flash and removable hard drives For example this prevents you from writing directly to removable disks and instead changes go to the sandbox BuildOptions SandboxRemovableDisk 1 This example enables you to write directly to removable disks without changes going to the sandbox default BuildOptions SandboxRemovableDisk 0 RemoveSandboxOneExit RemoveSandboxOnExit Resets the application by deleting the sandbox when the last child process exits All application modifications to registry and file system locations that have isolation modes set to WriteCopy or Full go to a sandbox directory By default the sandbox directory is left behind so that settings are consistent across multiple executions of the application In some cases you might want to delete the sandbox each time the application exits If the application creates child processes the sandbox is not deleted until all child processes exit In some cases applications might leave children behind by design which can stop the clean up operation from occurring For example Office 2003 l
6. 1 2 3 filename extension The following is an example 1 Deploy Version 1 0 of myapp exe Copy the application to a central share at server share myapp exe c Program Files myapp myapp exe is also another typical location Push a desktop or start menu shortcut to the user s desktop that points to a shared executable location at server share myapp exe 2 After some time two users userl and user2 launch myapp exe and continue to use it 3 Now you d like to deploy Version 2 0 of myapp exe but you cannot because the file is locked by 2 users Copy Version 2 0 of myapp exe to the central share at server share myapp 1 After step 3 any time a new user executes server share myapp exe it automatically relaunches using the package data in myapp 1 VMware Inc 87 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 88 Shortcuts do not need to be updated When you upgrade an application the shortcuts continue to point to myapp exe If userl and user2 quit the original version 1 0 of myapp exe and restart it they are using version 2 0 You can deploy version 3 0 of myapp exe by placing it in the same directory with a higher number at the end Copy Version 2 0 of myapp exe to central share at server share myapp 2 Once myapp 1 becomes unlocked you can delete it but myapp exe should remain in place since the user shortcuts continue to point there ThinApp always uses the filename that has the highest vers
7. Macro Name Shfolder dil ID Typical Location Drive_m M Favorites CSIDL_FAVORITES C Documents and Settings username Favorites Fonts CSIDL_FONTS C Windows Fonts Local AppData CSIDL_LOCAL_APPDATA C Documents and Settings username Local Settings Application Data My Pictures CSIDL_MYPICTURES C Documents and Settings username My Documents My Pictures My Videos CSIDL_MYVIDEO C Documents and Settings username My Documents My Videos NetHood CSIDL_NETHOOD C Documents and Settings username NetHood Personal CSIDL_PERSONAL C Documents and Settings username My Documents Profile CSIDL_PROFILE C Documents and Settings username Profiles CSIDL_PROFILES C Documents and Settings Program Files Common CSIDL_PROGRAM_FILES COMMON C Program Files Common Files ProgramFilesDir CSIDL_PROGRAM_FILES C Program Files Programs CSIDL_PROGRAMS C Documents and Settings username Start Menu Programs Recent CSIDL_RECENT C Documents and Settings username My Recent Documents SendTo CSIDL_SENDTO C Documents and Settings username SendTo VMware Inc 97 VMware ThinApp User s Manual Table 7 1 Folder Macros Continued Macro Name Shfolder dil ID Typical Location Startup CSIDL_STARTUP C Documents and Settings username Start Menu Programs Startup S
8. The following registers all Office applications in the specified directory for the currently logged in user ThinReg exe server share Microsoft Office exe The following unregisters just Word for the current user ThinReg exe u server share Microsoft Office 2003 Winword exe The following unregisters all Office applications for the current user and removes the Add Remove Programs entry ThinReg exe u server share Microsoft Office exe NOTE Command line unregistration is supported in ThinApp 3 210 and higher Using Snapshot Typically you do not need to use snapshot exe directly it is invoked by Setup Capture This documentation is for advanced users and system integrators who are building ThinApp functionality into other platforms Command Line Usage All parameters are case insensitive snapshot CaptureFile snapshot BaseDirectory1 BaseDirectory2 BaseRegistry1 BaseRegistry2 Config ConfigFile ini snapshot Original snapshot Diff NewEnvironment snapshot OutputDirectory Config ConfigFile ini Quiet snapshot Original snapshot DiffPrint NewEnvironment snapshot Config ConfigFile ini Snapshot can be used for two purposes saving a snapshot and creating a ThinApp project from two previously captured snapshots VMware Inc 131 VMware ThinApp User s Manual Saving a Snapshot Snapshot can capture a snapshot of a computer s file system and registry that is used later to create
9. This chapter contains information on scripting and an API reference and includes the following sections m Callback Functions on page 150 m Example Scripts on page 150 m API Reference on page 155 Scripting allows you to execute custom code before starting an application packaged with ThinApp or after an application exits Callback functions allow you to specify when blocks of code execute API functions allow you to execute ThinApp specific functions and interact with the ThinApp runtime To add scripts to your application create an ANSI text file with the vbs file extension in the root project directory for an application the same directory in which Package ini is located During the build process ThinApp adds all of the script files to your executable file and then at runtime it executes each of these script files Many applications create child processes and scripts execute for child processes as well To execute code only in the main parent process use callback functions ThinApp uses VB Script to execute script files so any valid VB Script loads under a ThinApp executable Refer to Microsoft s VB Script User Guide for more information VB script can be used to access COM controls registered on the host system or registered within the virtual package VMware Inc 149 VMware ThinApp User s Manual Callback Functions Callback functions with specific names execute only under certain conditions
10. VMware Inc 91 VMware ThinApp User s Manual Working with Isolation Modes 92 Isolation modes can be controlled on a per directory and per registry subtree basis By default Setup Capture produces projects that are configured for a locked down desktop model In a locked down PC environment users typically have write permission only to their desktop their My Documents folder network shares and removable disks The default isolation mode for the project can be changed in the Package ini file This property is inherited by child directories unless you override the isolation mode For non locked down desktop models setting the default isolation mode in the project ini file to Merged instead of WriteCopy enables the user to save files directly to the host file system at any location The main risk for changing the default isolation mode to Merged is the potential for the application to leave behind residue when executing For example many shareware applications try to leave first execution markers in random locations on the PC as part of their licensing system Any disk writes to directories that are set with WriteCopy or Full isolation is redirected to the sandbox The following Isolation modes can be applied to subdirectories and registry subkeys Merged m System elements at this location are visible to the application If a system element and virtual element exist at the same location the application sees the virtual element
11. 162 VMware Inc Chapter 11 Using Scripts GetEnvironmentVariable Function GetEnvironmentVariable Name This function returns the environment variable associated with variable name Name Parameters Name in The name of the environment variable for which the value is to be retrieved Returns This function returns the string value associated with the environment variable name Example MsgBbox The package source EXE is GetEnvironmentVariabLe TS_ORIGIN RemoveSandboxOneExit Sub RemoveSandboxOnExit YesNo This function set toggles whether to delete the sandbox when the last child process exits If you set the Package ini option RemoveSandboxOnExit 1 the default clean up for the package with be Yes In this case you can change the clean up to No by calling RemoveSandboxOnExit with the value of 0 If you did not modify the Package ini option RemoveSandboxOnExit 1 the default clean up for the package with be No In this case you can change the clean up to Yes by calling RemoveSandboxOnExit with the value of 1 Parameters Yes No in Do you want to clean up when the last process shuts down 1 Yes 0 No VMware Inc 163 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 164 Example This turns on cleanup RemoveSandboxOnExit 1 This turns off cleanup RemoveSandboxOnExit 0 SetEnvironmentVariable Sub SetEnvironmentVariable Name Value This function set the value of an environment varia
12. drive or removable disk and relaunches the application using a local fixed disk This is to resolve a problem in which Symantec AntiVirus tries to perform a complete scan of an executable under some conditions and this scan can have a big impact on launch times for large executable files located network shares Symantec AntiVirus performs a full file scan if an executable is launched from a network share or removable disk and when an executable makes its first network connection Because a large number of desktops have Symantec AntiVirus installed ThinApp automatically compensates for this by allowing applications to launch from a network share without incurring the lengthy scan times It does so by creating a small stub executable in the user s sandbox that is then relaunched Because the small executable can be scanned quickly it loads the remainder of the application data from the original source location You can disable this default behavior by adding the Package ini option If your application is small in size or you know that Symantec AntiVirus is not installed on the desktops you are deploying to you might want to turn off NetRelaunch for better first time launch performance VMware Inc 41 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 42 For example disable relaunch of the application locally on a fixed disk BuildOptions NetReLaunch 0 If launched from a network drive re launch using a local stub default BuildOptions
13. kernel32 d11 7c835484 WriteConsoleW gt BOOL 1h OUT LPDWORD 1lpNumberOfCharsWritten 13DD24h gt 29h 000830 0a88 cmd exe 4ad048f4 gt msctfime ime 755c039b GetModuleHandleW IN LPCWSTR LpModuleName 4AD0498Ch gt L KERNEL32 DLL 000831 0a88 GetModuleHandleW KERNEL32 DLL gt 7c800000 000832 0a88 cmd exe 4ad048f4 lt msctfime ime 755c039b GetModuleHandleW gt HMODULE 7c800000h 000833 0a88 cmd exe 4ad04907 gt AcGenral DLL 6f880364 GetProcAddress IN HMODULE hModule 7c800000h IN LPCSTR 1lpProcName 4AD04980h gt CopyFileExw 000834 0a88 GetProcAddress mod 7c800000 C WINDOWS system32 kernel32 d11l CopyFileExw gt 7feb1lfcf 000835 0a88 cmd exe 4ad04907 lt AcGenral DLL 6f880364 GetProcAddress gt FARPROC 7FEB1FCFh 000836 0a88 cmd exe 4ad04919 gt AcGenral DLL 6f880364 GetProcAddress IN HMODULE hModule 7c800000h IN LPCSTR LpProcName 4AD0496Ch gt IsDebuggerPresent 000837 0a88 GetProcAddress mod 7c800000 C WINDOWS system32 kernel32 d11l IsDebuggerPresent gt 7fecOdfa VMware Inc Chapter 9 Using ThinApp Utilities and Tools 000838 0a88 cmd exe 4ad04919 lt AcGenral DLL 6f880364 GetProcAddress gt FARPROC 7FECODFAh 000839 0a88 cmd exe 4ad0492b gt AcGenral DLL 6f880364 GetProcAddress IN HMODULE hModule 7c800000h IN LPCSTR LpProcName 4AD04954h gt SetConsoLeInputExeNamew 000840 0a88 GetProcAddress mod 7c800000 C WINDOWS system32 kernel32 d11l SetConsoleI
14. on page 58 m MSI Generation on page 62 m Sandbox Control on page 66 Isolation and Virtualization Granularity 30 The following sections describe the isolation and virtualization granularity parameters ChildProcessEnvironmentDefault ChildProcessEnvironmentDefault Determines if child processes are run in the virtual environment by default ThinApp s default behavior is to create all child processes inside the virtual environment This option allows you to change ThinApp s behavior so that new child processes are created outside of the virtual environment If certain processes need to be created outside of the virtual environment specify them in the ChildProcessEnvironmentException attribute The following example specifies that default behavior is to create child processes as virtual default BuildOptions ChildProcessEnvironmentExceptions AcroRd exe notepad exe ChildProcessEnvironmentDefault Virtual Specify that default behavior is to create child processes outside of the virtual environment BuildOptions ChildProcessEnvironmentDefauLt External DirectorylsolationMode DirectoryIsolationMode Controls default isolation mode for directories in package DirectoryIsolationMode controls the default isolation mode for the package This setting applies to any directories that do not have an explicitly specified setting The default setting is Merged For example consider a package that looks like t
15. 03698fff C WINDOWS system32 nvwimg d11 SYSTEM_LOADED 035e0000 03ba9ffF C WINDOWS system32 ieframe d11 SYSTEM_LOADED 04730000 04828fff C WINDOWS system32 nvwimg d11 MEMORY_MAPPED_ANON 5000000 050a8fff C Program Files Adobe Reader 8 0 Reader ACE d11 MEMORY_MAPPED_ANON 06000000 064bOfff C Program Files Adobe Reader 8 0 Reader AGM d11 MEMORY_MAPPED_ANON 07000000 07019fff C Program Files Adobe Reader 8 0 Reader BIB d11 MEMORY_MAPPED_ANON 08000000 08239fff C Program Files Adobe Reader 8 0 Reader CoolType d11 SYSTEM_LOADED Offd0000 OfffF7FFF C WINDOWS system32 rsaenh d11 SYSTEM_LOADED 10000000 10165fff C WINDOWS system32 nview d11 SYSTEM_LOADED 20000000 202c4fff C WINDOWS system32 xpsp2res d11 MEMORY_MAPPED_ANON 20800000 20fdafff C Program Files Adobe Reader 8 0 Reader plug_ins AcroForm api MEMORY_MAPPED_ANON 22100000 224f2fff C Program Files Adobe Reader 8 0 Reader plug_ins Annots api MEMORY_MAPPED_ANON 23000000 2311afff C Program Files Adobe Reader 8 0 Reader plug_ins DigSig api MEMORY_MAPPED_ANON 23800000 23951fff C Program Files Adobe Reader 8 0 Reader plug_ins EScript api MEMORY_MAPPED_ANON 24000000 24023fff C Program Files Adobe Reader 8 0 Reader plug_ins EWH32 api MEMORY_MAPPED_ANON 25800000 25817fff C Program Files Adobe Reader 8 0 Reader plug_ins IA32 api MEMORY_MAPPED_ANON 26800000 2680ffff C Program Files Adobe Reader 8 0 Reader plug_ins eBook api MEMORY_MAPPED_ANON 28000000 285d1fff C P
16. 128 Example Usage 129 Using ThinReg 129 Usage 129 Example Usage 130 Using Snapshot 131 Command Line Usage 131 Saving a Snapshot 132 Example Usage 132 Example Usage 132 Displaying Differences Between Two Previously Captured Snapshots 133 Configuration Files 133 Usage 134 Using dll_dump 134 Usage 134 Using ConfigDump 136 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 10 Generating MSI Files 145 Building an MSI Database 145 Microsoft Vista 147 Handling Upgrades to MSI Applications 147 11 Using Scripts 149 Callback Functions 150 Example Scripts 150 batexample 151 timeout example 151 Registry Modify 152 reg example 152 Stopping Service 152 Copyfile Example 153 System Registry Example 154 API Reference 155 AddForcedVirtualLoadPath 155 Function AddForcedVirtualLoadPath Path 155 Parameters 155 Example 155 ExitProcess 156 Sub ExitProcess ExitCode 156 Parameters 156 Example 156 ExpandPath 156 Function ExpandPath InputPath 156 Parameters 156 Returns 156 Example 157 ExecuteExternalProcess 157 Function ExecuteExternalProcess CommandLine 157 Parameters 157 Returns 157 Example 157 ExecuteVirtualProcess 158 Function ExecuteVirtualProcess CommandLine 158 Parameters 158 Returns 158 Example 158 8 VMware Inc Contents GetBuildOption 158 Function GetBuildOption OptionName 158 Parameters 158 Returns 158 Example 159 GetFileVersionValue 159 Function GetFileVersionValue Filename Value 159 Parameters 159 Returns 160 Example 160
17. 7c80ae4b LoadLibraryW gt HMODULE 7c800000h GetLastError returns 2 0 The system cannot find the file specified 007062 0000075c LoadLibraryExW C Program Files Adobe Reader 8 0 Reader en US Microsoft Windows Common Controls DLL flags 2 gt 0 failed KKK 010649 0000075c LoadLibraryExW C Program Files Adobe Reader 8 0 Reader en US Microsoft Windows Common Controls Microsoft Windows Common C ontrols DLL flags 2 gt failed 019127 0000075c MSVCR80 d11 781348cc lt msvcrt d1ll 77c10396 GetEnvironmentVariableA gt DWORD O0h OUT LPSTR LpBuffer Oh lt bad ptr gt GetLastErrorQ returns 203 0 The system could not find the environment option that was entered 019133 0000075c MSVCR80 d11 78133003 lt nview 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 GetLastError returns 6 0 The handle is invalid 019500 0000075c MSVCR8O d11 78134481 lt nview d11l 1000058c GetProcAddress gt FARPROC Oh GetLastError returns 127 0 The specified procedure could not be found 019530 0000075c MSVCR80 d11 78131dcd lt dbghelp d1ll 59a603a1 GetModuleHandleA gt HMODULE 0h GetLastErrorQ returns 126 0 The specified module could not be found 118 VMware In
18. Al lLowUnsupportedExternaLChildProcesses When set to 0 an attempt by the virtualized application to create a child MS DOS or 64 bit process will fail When set to non zero default such a process will be created natively outside of the virtual environment If this value is not specified the default is to allow unsupported external processes For example The default setting allows MSDOS and 64 bit applications to run outside the virtual environment BuildOptions AlLowUnsupportedExternalChildProcesses 1 This setting enables you to execute 64 bit child process tasks on applications when they are running on 64 bit systems Running the print spooler is an example of a 64 bit child process task Use the following setting to block MSDOS and 64bit child processes from being spawned outside of virtual environment Al LowUnsupportedExternalChildProcesses 0 VMware Inc 35 VMware ThinApp User s Manual AutoShutdownServices AutoShutdownServices Controls whether to automatically shutdown virtual services when the last non service process exits By default ThinApp automatically shuts down virtual services when the last non service based child process exits This option instructs ThinApp to keep virtual services running even when all other processes exit This option does not have any effect on non virtual services Following are examples of this parameter Keep virtual services running when the application exits BuildOp
19. For example callback functions allow script code to execute only when an application starts or quits Currently defined callback function names include the following OnFirstSandboxOwner Called only when an application first locks the sandbox This callback is not called if a second copy of the same application is launched using the same sandbox while the first copy is still running If a first application spawns sub process and then quits the sandbox remains locked by the second sub process so this callback does not execute again until all sub processes have quit and the application is run again OnFirstParentStart Called prior to executing a ThinApp executable file regardless of whether the sandbox is simutaneously owned by another captured executable OnFirstParentExit Called when the first parent process exits If a parent process executes a child process and quits this callback is called even if the child process continues to execute OnLastProcessExit Called when the last process owning the sandbox exits If a parent process executes a child process and quits this callback is called when the last child process exits 5 55 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 ch
20. For example AppSyncUpdatedMessage Your application has been updated VMware Inc 61 VMware ThinApp User s Manual AppSyncClearSandboxOnUpdate AppSyncClearSandboxOnUpdate Gives you the option to clear the sandbox after an update By default the sandbox is not cleared Set this to 1 to clear the sandbox or 0 to leave the sandbox uncleared For example AppSyncClearSandboxOnUpdate 0 MSI Generation 62 The following parameters are used for MSI file generation MSIDefaultInstallAllUsers MSIDefaultInstallALLUsers Sets the default installation mode of the MSI database The default setting is 1 This option has an effect only when generation of a Windows Installer database is requested using the MSIFilename option MSIFilename on page 63 When set to 1 the default installation mode of the generated MSI database is set to per machine If you want the default mode to be per user set this option to 0 Setting it to 2 results in a default mode of per machine for administrators and a per user for non administrators For example this directs ThinApp to generate an MSI that is installed on a per user basis by default NOTE By suppling command line arguments to msiexec you can force a per machine installation For example msiexec exe mymsi msi ALLUSERS 1 BuildOptions MSIFilename mymsi msi MSIDefaultInstallAllUsers 0 For example this directs ThinApp to generate an MSI that is installed on a per m
21. GetCommandLine 160 Function GetCommandLine 160 Returns 160 Example 160 GetCurrentProcessName 160 Function GetCurrentProcessName 160 Returns 160 Example 160 GetOSVersion 161 Function GetOSVersion 161 Parameters 161 Returns 161 Example 162 GetEnvironmentVariable 163 Function GetEnvironmentVariable Name 163 Parameters 163 Returns 163 Example 163 RemoveSandboxOnExit 163 Sub RemoveSandboxOnExit YesNo 163 Parameters 163 Example 164 SetEnvironmentVariable 164 Sub SetEnvironmentVariable Name Value 164 Parameters 164 Example 164 VMware Inc 9 VMware ThinApp User s Manual SetfileSystemIsolation 164 Sub Setfile systemIsolation Directory IsolationMode 164 Parameters 164 Example 165 Availability 165 SetRegistryIsolation 165 Sub SetRegistryIsolation RegistryKey IsolationMode 165 Parameters 165 Example 165 Availability 165 WaitForProcess 166 Function WaitForProcess ProcessID TimeOutInMilliSeconds 166 Parameters 166 Returns 166 Example 166 12 Troubleshooting 167 Troubleshooting Specific Applications 169 Microsoft Office 2007 169 Microsoft Outlook 170 Attachments 170 Explore exe 171 Java Runtime Environment JRE 171 Index 173 10 VMware Inc About This Book The VMware ThinApp User s Manual provides information about how to install and configure ThinApp formerly Thinstall The information includes how to upgrade your software configure packages configure isolation modes and sandboxes use the utiliti
22. Optionally you can follow the number by K to indicate kilobytes or M to indicate megabytes The default value is 0 which specifies address space to be reserved For example the following tells the Windows loader to reserve 512KB of address space app exe Source ProgramFiLesDir myapp app exe ReserveExtraAddressSpace 512K VMware Inc Chapter 3 Configuring the Package ini File This tells the Windows loader to not reserve any extra address space default app exe Source ProgramFiLesDir myapp app exe ReserveExtraAddressSpace 0 RetainAlllcons RetainAllIcons Indicates that all of the Source executable s original icons should be retained in the generated captured executable file By default TLink constructs a new executable using a source executable To reduce disk space the new executable image contains only icons viewable from the system shell while all other icons are stored inside of the package and are still accessible to the application while it is running The icons that are accessible by the system cannot be compressed so their disk size is larger In some cases it might be desirable to have all of the application s original icons visible to the system shell Following are examples of this parameter Instruct Tlink to retain all of the application s original icons Lapp exe Source ProgramFiLesDir myapp app exe RetainALLIcons 1 Instruct Tlink to strip out unused icons from the system visible port
23. Setup Use professional setup if you are developing your own application This procedure enables you to copy your updated executable files and DLLs into an existing project and invoke build bat without having to use Setup Capture every time To generate a single executable that runs without cmd exe 1 Copy your NET application DLL files and data files to c project ProgramFilesDir myapp 2 Edit c project Package ini Source SystemSystem cmd exe Source ProgramFiLesDir myapp myapp exe myapp exe is your application s executable 3 Runc project build bat VMware Inc 25 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 26 Reducing Package Size in NET Applications Whether you download precaptured NET Framework projects or you capture the NET installation yourself the size of packages is important Here are a few tips for reducing your package size m Turn on compression The easiest way to generate smaller packages is to enable compression in your Package ini file To do this replace Compression None with Compression Fast in the Package ini file m Delete any MSI files left behind by the installer Many applications leave behind their original installer in MSI format so that they can reinstall if they become corrupted or if any features of the application were installed using install on demand You can safely delete the MSI files captured during the installation of the NET Framework m Delete native images
24. The chapter describes how to stream captured applications how to use captured applications with other system components how to configure access control with Active Directory and how to upgrade captured applications Chapter 6 Configuring Isolation Modes on page 89 describes how you can configure isolation modes to control read and write access for system directories and system registry subkeys The chapter describes the Merged WriteCopy and Full isolation mode options in detail Chapter 7 Using the Virtual File System on page 95 describes the virtual file system which receives requests that are directed to the host operating system VMware Inc 13 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 14 Chapter 8 Using the Virtual Registry on page 99 describes how to configure the virtual registry which stores the settings that are created when you install an application Chapter 9 Using ThinApp Utilities and Tools on page 109 describes how to use the Log Monitor sandbox merge sbmerge ThinReg snapshot DLL dump and ConfigDump utilities Chapter 10 Generating MSI Files on page 145 describes how to generate MSI files to deliver captured applications to remote locations and to create shortcuts and file type associations for your captured packages Chapter 11 Using Scripts on page 149 describes how to create scripts to run custom code before starting a captured application or after an applicati
25. The processor affinity mask value can be retrieved by using the GetProcessAffinityMask API function System affinity mask x3 A system affinity mask is a bit vector in which each bit represents the processors that are configured into a system A process is only allowed to run on the processors configured in a system The system affinity mask is also returned by the GetProcessAffinityMask API function Creation time Tues 6 Jun 2008 18 56 13 This is the date and time the current process was executed This value can be retrieved using the GetProcessTimes API function Priority boost Normal behavior Each process thread has a dynamic priority This is the priority the Windows scheduler uses to determine which thread to execute Initially a thread s dynamic priority is the same as its base priority The system can raise and lower the dynamic priority to ensure that it is responsive and that no threads need processor time 140 VMware Inc Chapter 9 Using ThinApp Utilities and Tools A thread s priority boost information can be retrieved by using the GetProcessPriorityBoost API function Modules Base Size Entry x01000000 x00014000 x010020BC notepad exe C cmd_test bin notepad exe x7C800000 x0Q0CO00O x00000000 ntdll dll C WINDOWS system32 ntd11 d11 x77E40000 x00102000 x77E646B6 kernel32 d11 C WINDOWS system32 kerne132 d11 x77380000 x00091000 x7739D8F7 USER32 d11 C WINDOWS system32 USER32 d11 This is a list of
26. Windows Installer database is requested using the MSIFilename option This option affects Microsoft Vista only When this option is set to 1 the generated MSI database is marked as requiring elevated privileges If your system is set up for UAC prompts this results in a UAC prompt when installing When you set the option to 0 no UAC prompt is given but you will not be able to install machine wide This creates an MSI file that always prompts for elevated privileges on Vista BuildOptions MSIFilename mymsi msi MSIRequireELevatedPrivileges 1 MSIUpgradeCode MSTUpgradeCode Specifies an upgrade code for the MSI database This option has an effect only when generation of a Windows Installer database is requested using the MSIFilename option VMware recommends that each MSI database has an UpgradeCode Setup Capture generates a suitable default UpgradeCode and places it in the Package ini file Do not change the UpgradeCode value If you change it make sure the new value is a valid GUID globally unique identifier This creates an MSI file with a specified upgrade code BuildOptions MSIFilename mymsi msi MSIUpgradeCode D89F1994 A24B 3E11 0C94 7FD1E13AB93F VMware Inc 65 VMware ThinApp User s Manual Sandbox Control 66 The following sections describe the sandbox control parameters SandboxName SandboxName Sets the name of directory where the sandbox is created and stored For example BuildOptions
27. a ThinApp project If there are no additional parameters Snapshot scans and saves a copy of the following data m All file information for all local drives directories filenames file attributes file sizes and file modification dates m A complete copy of the registry trees HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE and HKEY_USERS because HKCR and HKCU are subsets of HKLM and HKU there is no need to scan them Example Usage snapshot c Capture snapshot Captures a complete snapshot of local drives and registry to the file c Capture snapshot snapshot c Capture snapshot c e Captures a complete snapshot of the drives c and e no registry information is captured snapshot c Capture snapshot c HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE Software Classes Captures a complete snapshot of the drive c and all of the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT registry subtree Snapshot can be used to generate a ThinApp project directory by comparing two snapshots Example Usage snapshot c Original snapshot Diff c NewEnvironment snapshot c MyProject This compares the two specified projects and generates a resulting ThinApp Project in the directory c MyProject 132 VMware Inc Chapter 9 Using ThinApp Utilities and Tools Displaying Differences Between Two Previously Captured Snapshots snapshot Original snapshot DiffPrint NewEnvironment snapshot DiffPrint is similar to Di ff except that is does not have an output directory and all changes detected are printed to the c
28. a clean state ready to capture a new application VMware Server is a free program that you can use to create virtual machines You can download VMware Server from vmware com at the following URL http www vmware com download server For information about how to install and configure VMware Server see the VMware Server Virtual Machine Guide You can also use other VMware products that create virtual machines such as Workstation Using Setup Capture 18 Use the Setup Capture wizard to create and build your packaged application To use Setup Capture 1 Start Setup Capture A full capture of an application requires a clean Windows system for the lowest platform you intend to support For example use Windows 2000 if you plan to support Windows 2000 Windows XP Windows 2003 and Windows Vista 2 Start Setup Capture from the Start menu or by double clicking Setup Capture exe in your Program Files VMware ThinApp directory 3 Optional Click Advanced Settings and select the drives and registry hives to scan and click OK This returns you to the Setup Capture wizard and the pre scan instructions VMware Inc 10 11 VMware Inc Chapter 2 Capturing and Configuring Applications Click Next to begin the scan On a fast clean PC the scan process should take approximately 10 seconds for Windows XP Minimize the Setup Capture wizard and install the applications you want to capture Then maximize the Setup Capture
29. app exe Icon ProgramFilesDir myap myicon ico NoRelocation NoRelLocation Strips relocation information from the resulting executable Windows executables can optionally contain base relocation information that enables Windows to load the executable image at an alternate starting memory address If the base address is above 0x40000 the executable is always loaded at its specified base address so relocation information is not needed and can be safely stripped out of the resulting image Relocation information is typically small on disk so removing this information does not have a big impact on the size of the executable files that are generated For example strip the relocation information from the generated executable file app exe Source ProgramFiLesDir myapp app exe NoReLocation 1 ReserveExtraAddressSpace ReserveExtraAddressSpace Indicates how much extra address space needs to be reserved for the captured executable Normally TLink sets the SizeOfImage field in the generated executable based on the SizeOfImage field of the source executable The SizeOflmage field is used by the Windows loader to determine how much virtual address space to reserve for the executable In special circumstances when you are building a package based on a source executable that is not included in the package you can reserve virtual address space by specifying the ReserveExtraAddressSpace option The value is the number of bytes to reserve
30. calls 1099873523 total cycles 561664565 cycles 201 08 531551734 cycles 190 30 1619002 cycles 1554448 cycles 1481627 cycles 1091972 cycles VMware Inc 04 16 11 20 67 40 07 40 0 58 ms 0 56 ms 0 53 ms 0 39 ms ms ms ms ms ms ms ms 2809 64 ms ms ms ms ms ms ms ms 1593 76 ms ms ms ms ms ms ms ms ms on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on 393 76 ms on ms on on on on on log log log log ms sprof ts_load_internal_module sprof ts_lookup_imports sprof new_thread_start log entry 151922 log entry 152733 entry 72875 entry 637896 entry 72881 entry 580771 117 VMware ThinApp User s Manual Potential Errors The potential errors list is a collection of all log entries that have in their string ThinApp marks entries that could potentially be a problem by adding to the log entry output See Locating Errors for more tips on interpreting this section Potential Errors Detected 006425 0000075c LoadLibraryExW C Program Files Adobe Reader 8 0 Reader Microsoft Windows Common Controls DLL flags 2 gt failed 006427 0000075c LoadLibraryExwW C Program Files Adobe Reader 8 0 Reader Microsoft Windows Common Controls Microsoft Windows Common Control s DLL flags 2 gt 0 failed 006428 0000089c nview d11l 1005b94b lt kernel32 d11
31. char 12 LeadByte 00h OOh OOh OOh OOh OOh OOh OOh O0h OOh OOh OOh 001530 0a88 cmd exe 4ad01680 gt kernel32 d11 7c81b258 SetThreadUILanguage no prototype available 001531 0a88 cmd exe 4ad01680 lt kerne1l32 d11 7c81b258 SetThreadUILanguage no prototype available 001532 0a88 cmd exe 4adQ1bOQd gt kernel32 d11 7c80acOf SetErrorMode CIN UINT uMode 0h 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 lpBuffer 163D60h gt L C test cmd_test bin OUT LpFilePart 13D8D4h gt 163D82h gt L bin 001539 0a88 cmd exe 4ad01b29 gt kernel32 d11 7c80acOf SetErrorMode CIN UINT uMode 0h VMware Inc Chapter 9 Using ThinApp Utilities and Tools 001540 0a88 cmd exe 4ad01b29 lt kernel32 d11 7c80acOf SetErrorMode gt UINT 1h O 001541 0a88 cmd exe 4ad01ba8 gt USERENV d11 769c03b9 GetEnvironmentVariableW IN LPCWSTR lpName
32. collisions within linked packages 56 example workflow 53 pathname formats 55 recursive use not supported 51 security 57 Application Links collisions 57 required 56 application PATH description 23 PATH variable 24 Application Sync 58 application updates 85 B block based streaming description 77 C clean PC description 17 collisions within linked packages 56 D deploy_app_upgrades 87 dil_dump using 134 DLLs global hook 17 loaded into memory 114 recording by Log Monitor 109 drivers packaging 16 support 81 173 VMware ThinApp User s Manual E error messages See log messages 112 F folder macros See virtual file system l isolation modes description 89 92 Full 93 Merged 92 WriteCopy 92 J Java Runtime Environment troubleshooting 171 L log messages API See APIs format 112 Log Monitor troubleshooting 119 using 109 M MSI error messages 111 MSI files building 145 deployment on Vista 147 P Package ini files editing 20 packages large 28 registration 129 upgrading 87 plug ins description 27 portable applications description 76 printers support 81 printing 81 R registry files build format 100 value data 100 S sandbox description 71 location 75 registry files 73 structure 73 sandbox merge See sbmerge sbmerge parameters 128 using 127 scripts bat example 151 reg example 152 callback functions 150 copyfile example 153 registry modify example 152 st
33. 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 Folder Macros on page 96 for more information Icon Icon Indicates the icon file to use for the generated executable file By default each generated application uses the main group icon from its source executable and the individual icon resource pointed to by the group icon You can use an alternate icon by specifying an ico file or executable file For example specify NULL to generate an executable with no icons NoTE NULL cannot be used if the file types directive is used because one icon per file type is allocated in the executable image myapp exe Source ProgramFiLesDir myapp app exe Icon NULL Specify application icon using an executable different from the Source executable myapp exe Source ProgramFiLesDir myapp app exe Icon ProgramFilesDir myapp app2 exe You can optionally specify the set to use by appending 1 2 to the end of the Icon path name like this myapp exe Source ProgramFiLesDir myapp app exe Icon ProgramFilesDir myapp app2 exe 1 VMware Inc 47 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 48 Specify the application icon using a ico file myapp exe Source ProgramFiLesDir myapp
34. injectme2 d11 lsolatedMemoryObjects IsolatedMemory0bjects List specific shared memory objects to isolate from other applications Shared memory objects are created by applications using CreateFileMapping and OpenFileMapping Shared memory objects can be named or anonymous When the objects are named they are visible to other applications running in the same user account Sometimes it is desirable to isolate shared memory objects so that virtual applications cannot see system objects and vice versa By default ThinA pp only isolates shared memory objects used by embedded Internet Explorer instances because a conflict between explorer exe and iexplore exe when they map sandboxed files You can use this option to isolate additional named shared memory objects so they are visible only to other virtual applications using the same sandbox IsolatedMemoryObjects accepts a list of entries that are separated using the semicolon character Each entry can have wildcard characters and to match variable patterns For example isolate two shared memory objects matching anything with outlook in the name and one matching exactly My Shared Object BuildOptions IsolatedMemoryObjects outLook My Shared Object VMware Inc Chapter 3 Configuring the Package ini File lsolatedSynchronization IsolatedSynchronizationObjects List specific synchronization objects to isolation from other applications Windows has several diffe
35. not see the specified subkey even if it exists on the local system NOTE When NoMark is not used vregtool marks the subkey as deleted whether or not it originally exists in the tvr file Example vregtool c tmp test tvr DeLSubkey HKEY_CURRENT_USER Software Adobe Save For Web 3 0 VMware Inc 107 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 108 VMware Inc Using ThinApp Utilities and Tools This chapter describes ThinApp utilities and tools and contains the following topics Using Log Monitor on page 109 Using Sandbox Merge sbmerge on page 127 Using ThinReg on page 129 Using Snapshot on page 131 Using dill_dump on page 134 Using ConfigDump on page 136 ThinApp utilities are stored in the default installation directory for example c Program files Thinapp VS Using Log Monitor Log Monitor enables you to record detailed information about any application s execution history for later review A few things that are recorded Win32 API calls made by applications running in the ThinApp VOS along with parameter and results information A list of potential errors exceptions and security events within the application A list of all DLLs loaded by the application and address ranges Log monitor can be found in your ThinApp installation directory typically C Program Files Thinapp VS It can also be run by selecting the Log Monitor menu entry VMware Inc 109 VMware
36. of eight and Excel has a priority level of four Word can be granted more CPU time implemented using time slices Changing the priority level can greatly aid an application s performance by instructing the CPU to run one program s code before another VMware Inc 139 VMware ThinApp User s Manual Windows allows four priority levels to be set low normal high and real time Low runs the application at a lower priority specifically level four This is useful for large tasks running in the background because with a low priority applications do not degrade the responsiveness of other applications Normal is level eight and is the default High is level 13 and runs the application at a level equal to some services This makes the program very responsive but can slow other processes dramatically You can view a process priority level in Task Manager by selecting View gt Select Columns gt Base Priority and choosing the Processes tab Process Affinity Mask x3 The processor affinity in Windows is a number which specifies the number of processors that will be used by a running process 64 bit Windows supports a maximum of 64 processors 32 bit Windows supports a maximum of 32 processors An affinity mask value is specified in hexadecimal A process affinity mask is a bit vector in which each bit represents the processors that a process is allowed to run on A process affinity mask is a proper subset of a system affinity mask
37. sandbox directory structure directly 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 leaving the sandbox alone and performing all modifications in the virtual environment instead The command line utility vregtool can be used to list the contents of a virtual registry file as shown below Some of the virtual file system data is stored in the registry tree HKLM FS vregtool registry rw tvr printkeys sb_only HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE FS Profile gimp 2 2 unitre deleted HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE FS Profile fonts cache 1 NEW writecopy HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE Software writecopy HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE Software Microsoft writecopy HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE Software Microsoft Windows writecopy HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE Software Microsoft Windows CurrentVersion writecopy HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE Software Microsoft Windows CurrentVersion ExpLorer writecopy HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE Software Microsoft Windows CurrentVersion ExpLorer SheLL Folders writecopy HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE Software Microsoft Windows CurrentVersion ExpLorer User Shell Folders writecopy HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE Software Thinapp full HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE Software Thinapp ProcessList full HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE Software Thinapp RuntimeObjects full HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE Software Thinapp SxS writecopy HKEY_CURRENT_USER Software writecopy HKEY_CURRENT_USER Software Microsoft writecopy HKEY_CURRENT_USER Software Microsoft Windows writeco
38. the virtual environment If any application offers auto update capabilities it can update itself as described earlier If the application update is in the form of a patch exe file the patch program can be run in the virtual environment creating a cmd exe entry point and running the patch program from there Changes occur in your sandbox during auto update or manual update so you can easily revert to the original version by deleting the sandbox You can apply patches in the virtual environment either on an end user desktop machine or on a central packaging machine In the second case sandbox changes made by the patch or update can be merged into the application using the ThinApp sandbox merge utility m Apply patches to already captured project If you need to update a small set of specific files or registry keys replace the files in your captured project This approach is well suited for software developers who can integrate ThinApp builds into their normal process Alternatively you can use Application Sync to synchronize updates to the captured applications you have deployed Application Sync enables you to set your captured applications to periodically check for updates If you make an update to a specified captured application available Application Sync initiates the update process and updates deployed applications For more information about Application Sync see Application Sync on page 58 NOTE If you use Application Sync to
39. use ThinApp to virtualize printer drivers You must manually install printer drivers on a PC Drivers A captured application has full access to any device driver installed on the PC it is running on Captured applications and system installed applications have the same relationship with installed 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 correctly but in a limited fashion For example Adobe Acrobat installs a printer driver that allows applications system wide to render PDF files using their print mechanism When you use a captured version of Adobe Acrobat you can use it to load edit and save PDF files without installation Other applications do not detect a new printer driver unless the driver is installed VMware Inc 81 VMware ThinApp User s Manual Access to Local Disk Removable Disk and Network Shares When you create a project structure ThinApp configures isolation modes for directories and registry subtrees The isolation modes control which directories the application can read and write to on the local PC The default configuration options are m Hard disk for example c The user can write to their Desktop and My Documents folders Other modifications that the application makes go into the user application sandbox The sandbox is located by default in the Appli
40. you force the sandbox to the USB key If the packages are stored in a subdirectory VirtApps on the USB key enter the following to force the cache directory to the USB key too CachePath Sandbox CompressionType CompressionType Controls what type of compression is used ThinApp supports two compression models None and Fast None None is the default when capturing a package This option is useful for building your application quickly for testing purposes No compression also improves application startup time on older PCs or when the application is launched multiple times On subsequent executions of the same application the Windows disk cache can provide data faster without compression enabled Fast This option is recommend for most packages Fast compression has a very fast rate of decompression so it has very little impact on application startup time it also has very little impact on memory consumption at runtime Fast compression achieves similar compression ratios as the ZIP algorithm The following table displays sample compression ratios and startup times for a Microsoft Office 2003 package running from a local hard drive Compression Type None Fast Size 448 616k 257 373k Compression ratio 100 57 Startup time 1st execution 6 sec 6 sec Startup time 2nd execution 0 1 sec 1 sec Build Time 1st build 3 mins 19 mins Build Time 2nd build 2 mins 1 2 mins VMware Inc Chapter 3 Configuring the P
41. 0 822 2992 Overwrite global PermittedGroups just this specific application App1 exe PermittedGroups Guest AccessDeniedMsg You do not have permission to execute this application please call support 1 800 822 2992 Inherit PermittedGroups from BuildOptions App2 exe While building a package ThinApp looks up the specified Group Names into SID values so the Group Names specified must be valid at the time of build ThinApp can resolve group ownership at runtime using cached credentials so laptop users can continue to be authenticated even when they are offline If the user does not have access to execute the package the AccessDeniedMsg can be customized to instruct the user Application Specific Parameters 46 The following sections describe the application specific parameters Disabled Disabled Indicates that a build target is a placeholder and does not generate an executable The following example disables generation of the app exe file during build Changing Disabled to 0 or removing the line enables generation of app exe Lapp exe Source ProgramFiLesDir myapp app exe Disabled 1 VMware Inc Chapter 3 Configuring the Package ini File CommandLine CommandLine Specifies command line arguments for a shortcut executable For shortcut executables you can specify the command line that is passed to the virtual application You should include the application name as the first parameter For example
42. 000 77f56ffF C WINDOWS system32 GDI32 d11 SYSTEM_LOADED 77f60000 77fd5ffF C WINDOWS system32 SHLWAPI d11 SYSTEM_LOADED 77fe0000 77ffOfff C WINDOWS system32 Secur32 d11 MEMORY_MAPPED_ANON 78130000 781cafff C WINDOWS WinSxS x86_Microsoft VC80 CRT_1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b_8 0 50727 163_x ww_681e29fb msvcr80 d11 MEMORY_MAPPED_ANON 7c420000 7c4a6f ff C WINDOWS WinSxS x86_Microsoft VC80 CRT_1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b_8 0 50727 163_x ww_681e29fb msvcp80 d11 MEMORY_MAPPED_ANON 7c4c0000 7c53cfff C WINDOWS WinSxS x86_Microsoft VC80 CRT_1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b_8 0 50727 163_x ww_ 681e29fb msvcm80 d11 SYSTEM_LOADED 7c800000 7c8f3ffF C WINDOWS system32 kerneLl32 d11 SYSTEM_LOADED 7c900000 7c9afffF C WINDOWS system32 ntd1L d11 SYSTEM_LOADED 7c9c0000 7d1d4fff C WINDOWS system32 SHELL32 d11 SYSTEM_LOADED 7e410000 7e49fffF C WINDOWS system32 USER32 d11 SYSTEM_LOADED 7e830000 7eb9efff C WINDOWS system32 mshtmL d11 SYSTEM_LOADED Indicates the DLL was loaded by Windows the file must exist on the disk MEMORY_MAPPED_ANON Indicates the DLL was loaded by ThinApp the file might be loaded from the virtual file system 46800000 46873fff Indicates the address ranges in virtual memory where the DLL was loaded Timing Report list of slowest 150 objects profiled 8255572220 total cycles 2955 56 ms sprof thinapp_LoadLibrary2 VMware Inc 765380728 428701805 410404281 231503734 227419794 211952538 202095103 200356604 1924
43. 1 gt kernel132 d11 7c871a6c ReadConsoleW CIN HANDLE hConsoleInput 3h IN DWORD nNumberOfCharsToRead 2000h IN LPVOID 1LpReserved 13DD20h 001518 0a88 cmd exe 4adQba71 lt kernel132 d11 7c871la6c ReadConsoleW gt BOOL 1h OUT LPVOID lpBuffer 4AD2FAEOh OUT LPDWORD 1lpNumberOfCharsRead 13DD70h gt 8h 001519 0a88 cmd exe 4ad02c97 gt 0le32 d11 774e03f0 Getfile type CIN HANDLE hFile 3h 001520 0a88 Getfile type 3 gt 0x2 VMware Inc 125 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 126 001521 0a88 cmd exe 4ad02c97 lt ole32 d11 774e03f0 Getfile type gt DWORD 2h O 001522 0a88 cmd exe 4ad02cc0 gt kernel32 dll 7c812f39 GetStdHandle IN DWORD nStdHandle FFFFFFF6h 001523 0a88 cmd exe 4ad02cc0 lt kernel32 dll 7c812f39 GetStdHandle gt HANDLE 3h 001524 0a88 cmd exe 4ad 2ccd gt kernel32 d11 7c81af14 GetConsoleMode IN HANDLE hConsoleHand1le 3h 001525 0a88 cmd exe 4adQ2ccd lt kernel32 d11 7c81af14 GetConsoleMode gt BOOL 1h COUT LPDWORD 1pMode 13DD50h gt A7h 001526 0a88 cmd exe 4adQbb9c gt kernel132 d11 7c81b18f GetConsoleOutputCP 001527 0a88 cmd exe 4adQbb9c lt kernel32 d11 7c81b18f GetConsoleOutputCP gt UINT 1B5h 001528 0a88 cmd exe 4adQbbad gt kernel32 d11 7c812e76 GetCPInfo IN UINT CodePage 1B5h 001529 0a88 cmd exe 4adQbbad lt kernel132 d11 7c812e76 GetCPInfo gt BOOL 1h COUT LPCPINFO LpCPInfo 4AD33BAOh gt struct UINT MaxCharSize 1h char 2 DefaultChar 00h
44. 20627 183214731 cycles cycles cycles cycles cycles cycles cycles cycles cycles cycles Chapter 9 Using ThinApp Utilities and Tools 274 01 ms on log entry 21753 153 48 ms on log entry 191955 146 93 ms on log entry 193969 log entry 188438 log entry 190209 log entry 197416 log entry 189394 log entry 194646 log entry 190812 log entry 195836 82 81 75 72 71 68 65 438 total calls 7847975891 total 764794646 426837866 408570540 228790905 224240114 209789307 200287437 198429210 190612618 180322247 cycles cycles cycles cycles cycles cycles cycles cycles cycles cycles 88 42 88 35 73 89 59 cycles 273 80 ms on log entry 21753 152 81 ms on log entry 191955 146 27 ms on log entry 193969 log entry 188438 log entry 190209 log entry 197416 log entry 189394 log entry 194646 log entry 190812 log entry 195836 81 80 75 71 71 68 64 94 total calls 4451728477 total 544327945 385149968 187246661 173617241 173481875 148587579 133165053 126806624 125894370 121213253 cycles cycles cycles cycles cycles cycles cycles cycles cycles cycles 91 28 11 70 04 24 56 cycles 194 87 ms on log entry 21758 137 89 ms on log entry 193970 log entry 190210 log entry 194647 log entry 19065 log entry 195837 log entry 189395 log entry 197417 log entry 200296 log entry 200657 67 62 62 53 47 45 45 43 34 total
45. 32 msctfime ime 75cf0000 75d80fff C WINDOWS system32 MLANG d11 75e90000 75f3ffff C WINDOWS system32 SXS DLL 76390000 763acffFf C WINDOWS system32 IMM32 DLL 76780000 76788fff C WINDOWS system32 shfolder d11 115 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 116 SYSTEM_LOADED 769c0000 76a72fff C WINDOWS system32 USERENV d11 SYSTEM_LOADED 76b40000 76b6cfff C WINDOWS system32 WINMM d11 SYSTEM_LOADED 76bf0000 76bfafff C WINDOWS system32 PSAPI DLL SYSTEM_LOADED 76f60000 76f8bfff C WINDOWS system32 WLDAP32 d11 SYSTEM_LOADED 76fd0000 7704efff C WINDOWS system32 CLBCATQ DLL SYSTEM_LOADED 77050000 77114fff C WINDOWS system32 COMRes d11 SYSTEM_LOADED 77120000 771labfff C WINDOWS system32 OLEAUT32 d11 SYSTEM_LOADED 771b0000 7727efff C WINDOWS system32 WININET d11 SYSTEM_LOADED 773d0000 774d2ffFf C WINDOWS WinSxS x86_Microsoft Windows Common Controls_6595b64144ccf1df_6 0 2600 2982_x ww_ac3f9c03 comct132 d11 SYSTEM_LOADED 774e0000 7761cffF C WINDOWS system32 ole32 d11 SYSTEM_LOADED 77690000 776b0fff C WINDOWS system32 NTMARTA DLL SYSTEM_LOADED 77920000 77a12fff C WINDOWS system32 SETUPAPI d11 SYSTEM_LOADED 77b40000 77b61fff C WINDOWS system32 appHelp d11 SYSTEM_LOADED 77c00000 77c07fff C WINDOWS system32 VERSION d11 SYSTEM_LOADED 77c10000 77c67fff C WINDOWS system32 msvcrt d11L SYSTEM_LOADED 77dd0000 77e6afff C WINDOWS system32 ADVAPI32 d11 SYSTEM_LOADED 77e70000 77f00ffF C WINDOWS system32 RPCRT4 d11 SYSTEM_LOADED 77f10
46. 3DD50h gt A7h 000883 0a88 cmd exe 4ad02c97 gt 01e32 d11 774e03f0 Getfile type CIN HANDLE hFile 3h 000884 0a88 Getfile type 3 gt 0x2 000885 0a88 cmd exe 4ad02c97 lt ole32 d11 774e03f0 Getfile type gt DWORD 2h O 000886 0a88 cmd exe 4ad02cc0 gt kernel32 d1L1 7c812F39 GetStdHandle CIN DWORD nStdHandLe FFFFFFF6h 000887 0a88 cmd exe 4ad02ccQ lt kerne1l32 d11 7c812f39 GetStdHandle gt HANDLE 3h 000888 0a88 cmd exe 4ad02ccd gt kernel32 dL1L 7c81af14 GetConsoleMode IN HANDLE hConsoleHand1le 3h 000889 0a88 cmd exe 4ad02ccd lt kerne132 d11 7c81af14 GetConsoleMode gt BOOL 1h OUT LPDWORD 1pMode 13DD50h gt A7h 000890 0a88 cmd exe 4ad0b9d4 gt kernel32 d1L1 7c812F39 GetStdHandle CIN DWORD nStdHandLe FFFFFFF5h 000891 0a88 cmd exe 4ad0b9d4 lt kerne132 d11 7c812f39 GetStdHandle gt HANDLE 7h 000892 0a88 cmd exe 4ad0ba16 gt kerne132 d11 7c81bc2b GetConsoleScreenBufferInfo IN HANDLE hConsoleOutput 7h 000893 0a88 cmd exe 4ad0ba16 lt kerne132 d11 7c81bc2b GetConsoleScreenBufferInfo gt BOOL 1h COUT PCONSOLE_SCREEN_BUFFER_INFO lpConsoleScreenBufferInfo 13DD08h gt struct COORD dwSize struct SHORT X 50h SHORT Y 12Ch COORD dwCursorPosition struct SHORT X 15h SHORT Y 5h WORD wAttributes 7h SMALL_RECT srWindow struct SHORT Left 0h SHORT Top 0h SHORT Right 4Fh SHORT Bottom 18h COORD dwMaximumWindowSize struct SHORT X 50h SHORT Y 53h 000894 0a88 cmd exe 4ad ba7
47. 4AD34618h gt L PATH IN DWORD nSize 2000h 001542 0a88 GetEnvironmentVariable PATH gt C WINDOWS system32 C WINDOWS C WINDOWS System32 Wbem c program files subversion bin c Program Files Microsoft SQL Server 90 Tools binn c bin C Program Files Microsoft Visual Studio Common Tools WinNT C Program Files Microsoft Visual Studio Common MSDev98 Bin C Program Files Microsoft Visual Studio Common Tools C Program Files Microsoft Visual Studio VC98 bin 001543 0a88 cmd exe 4ad01ba8 lt USERENV d11 769c03b9 GetEnvironmentVariableW gt DWORD 173h COUT LPWSTR lpBuffer 4AD2BA20h gt L C WINDOWS system32 C WINDOWS C WINDOWS System32 Wbem c Program Files su 001544 0a88 cmd exe 4ad01ba8 gt USERENV d11 769c03b9 GetEnvironmentVariableW IN LPCWSTR 1LpName 4AD34608h gt L PATHEXT IN DWORD nSize 2000h 001545 0a88 GetEnvironmentVariable PATHEXT gt COM EXE BAT CMD VBS VBE JS JSE WSF WSH 001546 0a88 cmd exe 4ad01ba8 lt USERENV d11 769c03b9 GetEnvironmentVariableW gt DWORD 30h COUT 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 dll 769c03fa FindFirstFilewW CIN LPCWSTR 1pFileName 1
48. 638COh 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 Using Sandbox Merge sbmerge Sandbox Merge sbmerge exe is used to merge runtime changes recorded in the application sandbox back into a ThinApp project A typical workflow for using sbmerge looks like this 1 Use Setup Capture to create a ThinApp project 2 Build a captured application using build bat VMware Inc 127 VMware ThinApp User s Manual Runa captured application customize your user settings and virtual environment The changes go to the sandbox Run sbmerge to merge registry and file system changes from your sandbox into your ThinApp project Build your updated captured application using build bat Deploy your updated captured application including customizations from Step 3 Usage sbmerge exe Print OptionalParameters sbmerge exe Apply Optional Parameters Optional Parameters ProjectDir PathToProject SandboxDir PathToSandbox Quiet Exclude ExcLludeFile ini Main Operation Print displays sandbox changes This is a non destructive operation no modifications are made to the sandbox or original project Apply merges changes from the sandbox into the specified project The project registry and file system are updated to reflect changes fro
49. A virtual machine that you can upload to Technical Support containing the affected system If your operating system is not on a virtual machine use VMware VM Converter to convert your operating system into a virtual machine VM Converter is a free application that you can download at the following URL http www vmware com download converter VMware Inc Chapter 12 Troubleshooting Troubleshooting Specific Applications The following sections describe troubleshooting tips that you can use to create packages for certain applications Microsoft Office 2007 A potential conflict exists when you run a captured Microsoft Office 2007 on a system that has a full native installation of Microsoft Office 2003 In this configuration the captured Microsoft Office 2007 applications detect that the Handwriting feature of Microsoft Office 2003 was installed but because of isolation the applications do not see some of the files registry values belonging to that feature This causes an automatic repair to be started that shows up as a Windows installer pop up window during each launch of a captured Microsoft Office 2007 application To prevent the repair make the files of the Microsoft Office 2003 Handwriting feature visible to the captured Microsoft Office 2007 applications This can be done by changing the isolation mode on the following directories ProgramFilesDir Common Files Microsoft Shared INK ProgramFilesDir Common Files Microso
50. AppData ThinApp also creates three registry files m Registry rw tvr contains all registry modifications made by the application m Registry rw 1ck zero byte lock file used to prevent 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 good execution if corruption is detected On startup the tvr file is restored Additionally if an application executes a child process ThinApp creates a directory name that looks like the following 40000026500002i This directory stores a dynamically generated executable stub for the child process so the correct name is displayed in Explorer for that child process You can delete these directories and they are regenerated the next time they are required ThinApp stores all of its file system information in the virtual registry This enables it 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 twice to determine if the file exists or not once for the real system location and once for the sandbox location Instead ThinApp is able to check for the file s existence by only consulting the virtual registry Because of this ThinApp has great runtime performance VMware Inc 73 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 74 One artifact of this optimization is that if you copy files into the
51. EY_LOCAL_MACHINE txt HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE SYSTEM CurrentControlSet Services 2 On the target machine where you want to run the service write real registry keys where ImagePath points to your captured executable such as this c path_to_captured_apache httpd exe k runservice You can write the registry values using a reg file or as part of an installation process 3 You might need to reboot before the service shows up in the service control panel Start gt Run gt services msc Once it appears you can test starting and stopping the service directly by using the control panel NOTE Rebooting is not required to use the service Rebooting causes the service control panel to refresh its list of available services Delete the following registry keys from HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE txt for the Apache Web server isoLation_full HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE SYSTEM CurrentControLSet Services Apache2 2 Value Type REG_DWORD 10 00 00 00 Value Start REG_DWORD 02 00 00 00 Value ErrorControl REG_DWORD 01 00 00 00 Value ImagePath REG_EXPAND_SZ ProgramFilesDir Apache Software Foundation Apache2 2 bin httpd exe k runservice 2300 Value DispLayName REG_SZ Apache2 2 2300 Value DependOnService REG_MULTI_SZ Tcpip 2300Afd 2 300 2300 VMware Inc Chapter 2 Capturing and Configuring Applications Value DependOnGroup REG_MULTI_SZ 00 Value 0bjectName REG_SZ LocalSystem 2300 Value Description REG_SZ Apache 2 2 3 Win32 2300 isolatio
52. ExpirationDate CDate 03 20 07 if Date gt ExpirationDate then msgbox This application has expired please contact Administrator ExitProcess 0 end if VMware Inc 151 VMware ThinApp User s Manual Registry Modify This example modifies the virtual registry at runtime so that an external ODBC driver can be loaded from the same directory where the package executable is located Get path to package executable files Origin GetEnvironmentVariableC TS_ORIGIN Find last slash in path and grab just the characters before this LastSlash InStrRev Origin SourcePath Left Origin LastSlash Form a new path to the ODBC DLL file located outside of the package DriverPath SourcePath tsodbc32 d11 Modify the virtual registry so that it points to this location This causes the application to load the DLL from an external location Set WSHShell CreateObject Wscript Shel1 WSHShe11 RegWrite HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE SOFTWARE ODBC ODBCINST INI Transoft ODBC Driver Driver DriverPath reg example Import the registry values from an external reg file into the virtual registry at runtime Function OnFirstParentStart ExecuteVirtualProcess regedit s c tmp somereg reg End Function Stopping Service Stop a virtual or real service when the main application quits Function OnFirstParentExit Set WshShell CreateObjectC WScript Shell WshShell Run net stop iPod Service End Function 152 VMware Inc Cha
53. GTOOL regfile tvr ExportDir output_directory HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE Software VREGTOOL regfile tvr ImportDir input_directory VREGTOOL regfile tvr ImportReg regedit reg Merged writeCopy Full NoReplace NoMacros VREGTOOL regfile tvr ExportReg filename reg HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE Software VREGTOOL regfile tvr PrintKeys HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE Software ShowValues ShowData ExpandMacros VREGTOOL regfile tvr PrintStats VREGTOOL regfile tvr SysCompare HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE Software Exact VREGTOOL regfile tvr DelSubkey HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE Software NoMark Exporting Registry Data to ThinApp Registry Directory Format Use the following commands to export registry data to ThinApp registry directory format VREGTOOL regfile tvr ExportDir output_directory registry_tree HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE Software regfile tvr Data file in ThinApp virtual registry file format output_directory registry_tree Output directory where registry data is written HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE Software You can optionally specify a registry subtree to export If no subtree is specified ThinApp exports the entire contents of the tvr file If the specified registry subkey has a space in the name specify the key using quotes like this HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE Software Key with space VMware Inc 103 VMware ThinApp User s Manual Importing Registry Data from ThinApp Registry Directory Format Use the following commands to import registry data from ThinApp registr
54. INE Software You can optionally specify a registry subtree to print If no subtree is specified vregtool prints the entire contents of the tvr file If the specified registry subkey has a space in the name your should specify the key using quotes like this HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE Software Key with space ShowValues Optionally prints the names of all virtual values contained in virtual subkeys ShowData Optionally prints the data associated with each virtual value ExpandMacros Optionally expands macros contained in registry values and data before printing The following is an example vregtool c tmp test tvr PrintKeys HKEY_CURRENT_USER Software Adobe Save For Web 3 0 This operation prints all the virtual registry keys contained ina tvr file to the console Listing Diagnostic Information About a Thinapp tvr File Use the following command to list diagnostic information about a ThinApp tvr file VREGTOOL regfile tvr PrintStats regfile tvr Data file in ThinApp virtual registry file format This option is used mainly for diagnosing issues with tvr files The following is an example vregtool c tmp test tvr PrintStats 106 VMware Inc Chapter 8 Using the Virtual Registry Comparing Virtual Registry Information with Host PC Registry Information Use the following command toComparing VIrtual Registry Information with Host PC Registry Information VREGTOOL regfile tvr SysComapre HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE Software Exact regf
55. LOCAL_MACHINE Software Key with space When exporting to reg format some information is lost including the following m Filename macros are expanded on export If they are not converted back to macros when you import information might be lost m Each Registry subkey in tvr format has a specified isolation mode Because reg format does not have a concept of isolation modes or metadata for subkeys this information is lost m Registry values that cannot be represented in reg format are lost For example a key that is REG_SZ cannot have more than one NULL character in reg format In such a case the registry value data is prematurely truncated in reg format Another example where reg files cannot represent values accurately is a REG_SZ value that is not null terminated For these reasons it is preferable to export registry data to ThinApp registry directory format and then re import into the tvr file when you need to process the data The following is an example vregtool c tmp test tvr ExportReg c tmp test reg HKEY_CURRENT_USER Software Adobe Save For Web 3 0 VMware Inc 105 VMware ThinApp User s Manual Listing all Registry Keys in a ThinApp tvr File Use the following commands to list all registry keys in a ThinApp tvr file VREGTOOL regfile tvr PrintKeys HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE Software ShowValues ShowData ExpandMacros regfile tvr Data file in ThinApp virtual registry file format HKEY_LOCAL_MACH
56. NetReLaunch 1 RuntimeEULA RuntimeEULA Controls the display of the ThinApp EULA display By default the EULA will not be displayed Depending on licensing terms for how ThinApp was licensed you may be required to display an end user license agreement Following are examples of this parameter BuildOptions Default do not show an Eula RuntimeEULA 0 Turn on display of EULA RuntimeEULA 1 Shortcuts Shortcuts List of locations where ThinReg should create a shortcut to a virtual application The list consists of entries separated by semicolons Each entry can contain a macro value Use this setting in an app exe section only not ina BuildOptions section For example use ThinReg to create a shortcut to the virtual Word 2003 application in the Microsoft Office folder that is shown in the Start menu Microsoft Office Word 2003 exe ReadOnlyData bin Package ro tvr Source ProgramFilesDir Microsoft Office OFFICE11 WINWORD EXE Shortcuts Programs Microsoft Office UpgradePath UpgradePath Location to probe for application updates By default ThinApp looks for application upgrades in the same directory as the main executable file This option can be used to specify an alternate location to look for application upgrades VMware Inc Chapter 3 Configuring the Package ini File For example this instructs ThinApp to probe for application upgrades under C Program Files MyAppUpgrades BuildOptions
57. Program Files Adobe Reader C Program Files Adobe Reader C Program Files Adobe Reader C Program Files Adobe Reader C Program Files Adobe Reader C Program Files Adobe Reader C Program Files Adobe Reader C Program Files Adobe Reader C Program Files Adobe Reader C Program Files Adobe Reader C Program Files Adobe Reader C Program Files Adobe Reader C Program Files Adobe Reader C Program Files Adobe Reader SYSTEM_LOADED SYSTEM_LOADED SYSTEM_LOADED SYSTEM_LOADED SYSTEM_LOADED SYSTEM_LOADED SYSTEM_LOADED SYSTEM_LOADED SYSTEM_LOADED SYSTEM_LOADED SYSTEM_LOADED SYSTEM_LOADED SYSTEM_LOADED SYSTEM_LOADED SYSTEM_LOADED SYSTEM_LOADED SYSTEM_LOADED SYSTEM_LOADED SYSTEM_LOADED VMware Inc 59a60000 59b00fff C WINDOWS system32 dbghelp d11 5ad70000 Sada7fff C WINDOWS system32 uxtheme d1L1 5d090000 5d129fF FF C WINDOWS system32 COMCTL32 d11 61410000 61533ffF C WINDOWS system32 urlmon d11L 629c0000 629c8fff C WINDOWS system32 LPK DLL 63380000 633f7fff C WINDOWS system32 jscript d1L 6e850000 6e894FFF C WINDOWS system32 iertutil d1L 71aa0000 71aa7fff C WINDOWS system32 WS2HELP d11 71ab0000 71ac6fff C WINDOWS system32 ws2_32 d11 71bf0000 71c02fff C WINDOWS system32 SAMLIB d11 746c0000 746e8f fF C WINDOWS system32 ms1s31 d11 746f0000 74719f fF C WINDOWS system32 msimtf d11 74720000 7476afff C WINDOWS system32 MSCTF d11 74d90000 74dfafff C WINDOWS system32 USP10 d11 755c0000 755edfff C WINDOWS system
58. Q DLL SYSTEM_LOADED 5d090000 5d127000 C WINDOWS system32 comct132 d1l MEMORY_MAPPED_ANON 5000000 05085000 C Program Files Adobe Acrobat 7 0 Reader ACE d11 MEMORY_MAPPED_ANON 0 3000000 038c9000 C Program Files Adobe Acrobat 7 0 Reader AcroRd32 d11 MEMORY_MAPPED_ANON 06000000 061aqa000 C Program Files Adobe Acrobat 7 0 Reader AGM d1Ll MEMORY_MAPPED_ANON 07000000 0701b000 C Program Files Adobe Acrobat 7 0 Reader BIB dLL MEMORY_MAPPED_ANON 7c3aQ000 7c41b000 C WINDOWS system32 MSVCP71 d11 VMware Inc 135 VMware ThinApp User s Manual Using ConfigDump 136 The ConfigDump dll extracts configuration information from the host machine into the support folder of a captured application ConfigDump dlll can be found in the following directory C Program Files VMware ThinApp Captures lt package name gt Support Capture Machine Overview txt The following are explanations of the text in the Capture Machine Overview txt file Dump started on 5 6 2008 at 18 56 13 498 Dump ended on 56 2008 at 18 56 15 139 The date and time that the ConfigDump was run The time is normally about one second Operating system Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 The platform operating system under which the captured application is running If it is available the service pack data is also shown User name lt name gt This is the login name of the current user Member of None Everyone Debugger Users Administrators Remote Des
59. RCE_REQUIREMENTS_LIST If you need to represent a non published registry type you can specify a decimal base 10 number For example 453 00 VALUE_DATA Specifies value data Data is represented differently depending on if the data type is a string or non string type String types REG_SZ REG_MULTI_SZ REG_EXPAND_SZ Values are represented as escaped string values A unicode text file must be used to represent non ANSI characters ThinApp uses unicode text files by default The new line character tab character carriage return end of file and NULL characters must be escaped if they exist in the original string VMware Inc 101 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 102 Escaped characters begin with and are followed by two hex characters to represent the ANSI value for the character Non ANSI unicode characters do not need to be escaped but can only exist in unicode text files The following are examples REG_SZ Both 00 This example represents a five character string value the fifth character being a NULL 0 character REG_MULIT_SZ String1 00String2 00 00 This example represents a multi string value that contains a list of two values String1 and String2 REG_DWORD 27 c6 00 02 This example represents a 4 byte binary value For binary values data is stored as a string of escaped bytes For DWORD values data is stored in native x86 order little endian so no special processing needs to be performed for binary
60. SANDBOX_DIR environment variable is set try to create a sandbox at this location 2 If the THINAPP_SANDBOX_DIR environment variable is set try to create a sandbox at this location 3 If the SANDBOXPATH Package ini option is set try to create a sandbox at this location 4 Try to create a sandbox in the user AppData Thinapp folder NOTE SANDBOXNAME and SANDBOXPATH come from the Package ini file VMware Inc Chapter 4 Configuring the Sandbox The following examples show you how to use the procedures shown above m You want to run from USB Flash and have your sandbox load and save to the same directory where the executable is located In your Package ini file in the BuildOptions section set SandboxPath m Your users have a mapped drive to store their files and you want the sandbox stored on the mapped drive Use SandboxPath z Sandbox if the drive is always mapped to the same letter or in the user login script set the environment variable THINAPP_SANDBOX_DIR z Sandbox Any captured application run after setting this variable uses z Sandbox for its sandbox storage location Sandbox Structure The sandbox is stored using a file structure nearly identical to the build project structure Macro names are used for shell folder locations instead of hard coded paths This enables the sandbox to migrate to different PCs dynamically when the application is run from new locations In addition to shell folders like
61. Startup Information 000001 0a88 Logging started for Module C test cmd_test bin cmd exe Using archive PID 0xec CommandLine cmd 000002 0a88 Logging options CAP_LEVEL 9 MAX_CAP_ARY 25 MAX_CAP_STR 150 MAX_NEST 100 VERSION 3 090 000003 0a88 System Current Directory C test cmd_test bin Virtual Current Directory C test cmd_test bin 000004 0a88 start_env_var 000005 0a88 start_env_var C C test cmd_test bin 000006 0a88 start_env_var ExitCode 00000000 000007 0a88 start_env_var ALLUSERSPROFILE C Documents and Settings All Users WINDOWS VMware Inc 113 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 114 List of DLLs Loaded into Memory During Runtime The section labeled Modules loaded is located near the end of the log and describes all of the DLLs that were loaded into memory at runtime and the addresses they were loaded to This list also describes whether DLLs were loaded by Windows or by ThinApp Modules loaded PRELOADED_MAP 00400000 00452fff C Program Files Adobe Reader 8 0 Reader AcroRd32 exe PRELOADED_BY_SYSTEM 00400000 00452fff C Program Files Adobe Reader 8 0 Reader AcroRd32 exe SYSTEM_LOADED 00400000 00452fff C test AcroRd32 exe SYSTEM_LOADED 00df0000 O0df8fFfF C WINDOWS system32 NormaLliz d1lL MEMORY_MAPPED_ANON 013b0000 020affff C Program Files Adobe Reader 8 0 Reader AcroRd32 d11 SYSTEM_LOADED 035a0000 035b4fff C WINDOWS system32 nvwddi d11 SYSTEM_LOADED 035a0000
62. ThinApp User s Manual 110 To run Log Monitor 1 Start Menu gt Program Files gt VMware gt ThinApp Log Monitor Any new VMware ThinApp process that starts after Log Monitor appears in the list if the application was built with logging options enabled or with just in time logging options enabled Select a process entry Click Delete to remove any trace files selected in the process list 1 This does not delete any text log files you might have generated Click Kill to stop a currently running process This is an easy way to stop a process from logging additional entries after an error condition occurs Enter a a trace file name or click Browse to select a trace file on your system Enter an output report file or click Browse to select an output report file on your system This file is generated when you click Generate text trace report View the file with a text editor that supports UNIX style line breaks such as Msdev Wordpad or Word Do not use Notepad Locating Errors ThinApp logging functionality created using Log Monitor provides a large amount of information Here are a few tips you can follow to more easily investigate problems Use TextPad to view your log files as it can handle fairly large files Most text file viewers cannot handle large log files and ThinApp trace files can easily be larger than 100MB If your trace file exceeds 200MB you might need to cut the beginning of the file using a uti
63. ThinApp package A exe depends on ThinApp package B exe and package B exe depends on ThinApp package C exe when running ThinApp package A exe the contents of ThinApp package B exe will be imported into the virtual environment but contents of ThinApp package C exe will not VMware Inc 51 VMware ThinApp User s Manual At runtime Application Link presents the running application with a merged view of the system the base application and all linked components Files registry keys services COM objects environment variables from dependency packages will be visible to the base application See Figure 3 1 Figure 3 1 Application Link Presents Merged View of System the Base Application and All Linked Components Local Disk C jj Documents and Settings System Files 4 Program Files jj Common Files jj ComPlus Applications i l Local Disk C Base Application Program Files BaseApplication SA Local Disk C Component Package Program Files Component1 Application Link amp Local Disk C jj Documents and Settings merged view of System Files Program Erres Base Application Base Application Component Package Common Files ComPlus Applications Component1 52 VMware Inc Chapter 3 Configuring the Package ini File Example Workflow for Application Link This example uses Application Link to link a base applica
64. UpgradePath ProgramFilesDir MyAppUpgrades When Application Sync downloads an update from a server it stores the update with a temporary name in the UpgradePath directory After the download is complete the temporary file will be renamed with a 1 extension or 2 if 1 already exists the next time the application is started no other applications can be using the same sandbox ThinApp will attempt to change the 1 name still in the UpgradePath directory to the original file name which might be in another directory If ThinApp is unable to make this change the file keeps the 1 extension in the UpgradePath directory That file will still be accessed when you execute the original application VirtualComputerName VirtuaLComputerName A string returned by GetComputerName and GetComputerNameEx APIs in a ThinApp captured application For the computer name many applications use the name of the machine on which they are installed Some applications connect to a database and use the name of the computer in the connection string For captured applications the computer name is virtualized so it runs well on any machine regardless of the name Before you run Setup Capture rename the clean machine LOCALHOST After you run Setup Capture the Package ini file contains the following entry VirtualComputerName LOCALHOST Because you renamed the machine before you ran Setup Capture the application uses LOCALHOST as its computer name If you ente
65. VMware ThinApp User s Manual VMware ThinApp 4 0 E vmware VMware ThinApp User s Manual VMware ThinApp User s Manual Item EN 000003 01 You can find the most up to date technical documentation on our Web site at http www vmware com support The VMware Web site also provides the latest product updates If you have comments about this documentation submit your feedback to docfeedback vmware com 2008 VMware Inc All rights reserved Protected by one or more U S Patent Nos 6 397 242 6 496 847 6 704 925 6 711 672 6 725 289 6 735 601 6 785 886 6 789 156 6 795 966 6 880 022 6 944 699 6 961 806 6 961 941 7 069 413 7 082 598 7 089 377 7 111 086 7 111 145 7 117 481 7 149 843 7 155 558 7 222 221 7 260 815 7 260 820 7 269 683 7 275 136 7 277 998 7 277 999 7 278 030 7 281 102 7 290 253 and 7 356 679 patents pending 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 11 1 Introduction to VMware ThinApp 13 2 Capturing and Configuring Applications 15 Supported Operating Systems and Applications 15 Applications that ThinApp Cannot Capture 16 Device Drivers 16 Shell Inte
66. _MULTI_SZ then VALUE is listed as a sequence of characters terminated by a new line or carriage return character Escape any unprintable characters into two hex characters REG_SZ This is a Line Oawith a carriage return as part of the data 00 REG_MULTI_SZ This is a line1 00This is Line2 00 00 VMware Inc Chapter 8 Using the Virtual Registry Because the represents an escape character all characters must also be escaped The character is used for ThinApp macro expansion it must also be escaped when the value must remain unexpanded Example of Macro Expansion REG_SZ ProgramFiLesDir AppLicationxX control ocx At runtime when the program accesses this registry value it is expanded by ThinApp Text Format for Virtual Registry The text format for the virtual registry is similar to regedit reg format however it supports macro expansion for string registry values names and value data The format looks like the following isolation_mode FULL_SUBKEY_NAME Value VALUE_NAME VALUE_TYPE VALUE_DATA or Value VALUE_NAME VALUE_TYPE MACRO_VALUE_DATA isolation_mode This can be one of ThinApp s isolation modes as specified by isolation_full isolation_merged or isolation_writecopy VALUE_TYPE This specifies the value data registry type Use one of the following REG_SZ REG_EXPAND_SZ REG_BINARY REG_DWORD REG_DWORD_BIG_ENDIAN REG_LINK REG_MULTI_SZ REG_RESOURCE_LIST REG_FULL_RESOURCE_DESCRIPTOR REG_RESOU
67. achine basis by default NOTE By supplying command line arguments to msiexec you can force a per user machine installation For example msiexec exe mymsi msi ALLUSERS 1 VMware Inc Chapter 3 Configuring the Package ini File BuildOptions MSIFilename mymsi msi MSIDefaultInstallAllUsers 1 For example this directs ThinApp to generate an MSI that is installed on a per machine basis for administrators and per user for non administrators if the user does not have permission to install on a per machine basis NOTE By supplying command line arguments to msiexec you can force a per user machine installation For example msiexec exe mymsi msi ALLUSERS 1 BuildOptions MSIFilename mymsi msi MSIDefaultInstaLlAllUsers 2 MSIFilename MSIFilename Enables the generation of an MSI database and specifies its filename If set this option causes the build to produce a Windows Installer with the specified filename in the output directory For more information see Chapter 10 Generating MSI Files on page 145 For example this directs ThinApp to generate an MSI during build and replace mymsi msi with your own filename BuildOptions MSIFilename mymsi msi MSllnstallDirectory MSTInstallDirectory Specifies the path of the default installation directory This option has an effect only when generation of a Windows installer database is requested using the MSIFilename option By default packages are install
68. ackage ini File CompressionType can be specified in two places m Package ini file The compression type becomes the default for all files in the project unless otherwise specified m Attributes ini file The compression type overrides the compression algorithm for the present directory and all subdirectories In the manner you can use different compression algorithms for different directories within a single project For example use no compression for the fastest build time and fastest load time default Compression CompressionType None Use fast compression for a slow build time good compression ratio and fast load time Compression CompressionType Fast DisableTracing DisableTracing Prevents trace file generation when Log Monitor is running ThinApp s Log Monitor utility can be used to produce a trace file for applications run by ThinApp This option can be used to disable the ability to produce trace files for specific applications This prevents an application from creating a trace file even if Log Monitor is running BuildOptions DisableTracing 1 This allows Log Monitor to create a trace file default BuildOptions DisableTracing 0 You might want to turn off trace file generation capabilities for several reasons m For security purposes it might be preferable to hide the execution history m During testing it might be useful to turn off tracing for specific captured applications t
69. age source might be running from a network share Example MsgBox Running EXE path is GetCurrentProcessName VMware Inc Chapter 11 Using Scripts GetOSVersion Function GetOSVersion This function returns information about the current version of Windows Parameters This function has no parameters Returns This function returns a string in the following format MAJOR MINOR BUILD_NUMBER PLATFORM_ID OS_STRING MAJOR is one the following values Windows Server 2003 5 Windows XP 5 Windows 2000 5 Windows NT 4 0 4 Windows Me 4 Windows 98 4 Windows 95 4 Windows NT 3 51 3 VMware Inc 161 VMware ThinApp User s Manual MINOR is one of the following values Windows Server 2003 2 Windows XP 1 Windows 2000 0 Windows NT 4 0 0 Windows Me 90 Windows 98 10 Windows 95 0 Windows NT 3 51 51 BUILD_NUMBER is the build number of the OS Windows Me 98 95 The low order word contains the build number of the operatingsystem The high order word contains the major and minor version numbers PLATFORM_ID is one of the following values Value 1 for Windows Me Windows 98 or Windows 95 Windows 95 based OS Value 2 for Windows Server 2003 Windows XP Windows 2000 or Windows NT Windows NT based OS OS_STRING Represents additional information about the OS such as Service Pack 2 Example if GetOSVersion 5 1 0 2 Service Pack 2 then MsgBox You are running on Windows XP Service Pack 2 endif
70. ainer even if you create a shortcut This happens early during process startup When you run VBScripts that are included in the package the variable has already been set and it is available to the VBScripts Origin GetEnvironmentVariable Separate the filename from TS_ORIGIN by finding the last backslash and remove everything after this LastSlash InStrRev Origin SourcePath Left Origin LastSlash The source file to copy into the virtual environment is the package path plus config ini SourceFile SourcePath Config ini The location we want to copy to might be in a different location on different computers if the Program Files directory is mapped to a different location than c The following call lets ThinApp expand a macro to get the correct location for the local PC DestFile ExpandPath ProgramFilesDir MyAppLication Config ini VMware Inc 153 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 154 Use the file systemObject to check to make sure the source file exists Set objFSO CreateObject Scripting file systemObject If objFSO FileExists SourceFile Then If the source file exists copy it into the virtual file system The virtual directory ProgramFilesDir MyAppLication is in the package objFSO CopyFile SourceFile DestFile TRUE End if End Function System Registry Example This script adds a value to the system registry Create a reg file and execute regedit s as an external process s
71. alAppLinks instead If a wild card pattern is used to specify a package no error message is displayed if no files match the wildcard pattern VMware Inc Chapter 3 Configuring the Package ini File Importing packages will m Run vb scripts from imported packages m Start auto start services from imported packages m Register fonts from imported packages m Relocate SxS DLLs from XP gt Vista if required You cannot import a shortcut package You can only import the Primary Data Container OptionalAppLinks OptionalAppLinks Operates exactly like RequireAppLinks except that if an import fails to load the error is ignored and the main application will start executing See RequiredA ppLinks on page 56 Collisions and Order of Import ThinApp uses a last import wins policy to determine what happens when two packages are imported that have the same files or registry keys See Collisions Within Linked Packages on page 56 Security and Authorization You must be a member of all PermittedGroups sections for all imported packages Otherwise you will be receive an Access Denied message and the application will fail to load Following are limitations of this feature m ThinApp supports importing up to 250 packages at a time and each package may be any arbitrary size m Packages that have been updated via AppSync will not have updates visible to the parent executable m Sandbox changes from packages being imported
72. anual Portable Applications To make an application portable so that it can be executed from a USB Flash device IPod or other similar device the sandbox must operate in local mode In this mode the sandbox is in a subdirectory relative to the executable This mode is not recommended for shared environments like Terminal Server unless each user has his own copy of the application Sandboxes are location specific not user specific To set an application to run with a local sandbox create a directory called Thinapp in the same directory as your captured application You can also move the Thinapp directory from AppData to the application directory and make the existing application settings operate in local mode 76 VMware Inc Deploying and Working with Virtual Applications This chapter describes how to work with virtual applications that you have captured with ThinApp This chapter contains the following topics m Stream ThinApp Packages on page 77 m Using Captured Applications with Other System Components on page 81 m Access Control by Using Active Directory on page 84 m Application Updates on page 85 Stream ThinApp Packages Any network storage device can serve as a streaming server for hundreds or thousands of client PCs To use ThinApp packages in a streaming fashion 1 Place your ThinApp package in a location that is accessible to client PCs 2 Send a link to end users to run the application dire
73. ase desktop image is your clean PC In such cases the desktop PC might already have some components and libraries installed for example NET 2 0 When you capture a package on a PC that has NET 2 0 already installed NET 2 0 is not included in the package The application runs only on PCs that have NET 2 0 already installed Capture the lowest platform you plan to support for your users In most cases this 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 These DLLS are excluded from the package if the application normally installs these DLLs VMware Inc 17 VMware ThinApp User s Manual After you create the ThinApp package structure you can overwrite files in the package with newer versions and rebuild the application without the capture process You can use batch files to compile the application copy updated files and build a ThinApp executable file Installing VMware Server When you create a ThinApp project using Setup Capture VMware recommends using a clean installation of Windows The easiest way to set up a clean PC 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 use Setup Capture to capture an application s installation you can restore the snapshot You can then revert the virtual machine to
74. ation This version is normally made by default not consciously by the developer and usually defaults to Windows NT 4 0 This value obtained using the system API GetProcessVersion function is placed into the application s executable file image header by the linker notepad exe The name of the currently executing application Application names can be viewed using the Applications tab of Task Manager C cmd_test bin notepad exe This is the fully qualified path from which the application was launched Note that this does not have to be local storage For example an application can be run from a network share CompanyName Microsoft Corporation FileDescription Notepad FileVersion 5 1 2600 2180 xpsp_sp2_rtm 040803 2158 InternalName Notepad LegalCopyright Microsoft Corporation All rights reserved OriginalFilename NOTEPAD EXE ProductName Microsoft Windows Operating System ProductVersion 5 1 2600 2180 This is data contained in the version resource block of an application s executable file This information can also be viewed by right clicking on an application s icon or executable file name selecting the Properties submenu item and then clicking the Version tab if there is one Note that many applications do not contain version information Priority class Normal Windows NT and later versions of Windows use priority levels to divide CPU time among processes For example if Word has a priority level
75. ation of a Windows Installer database is requested using the MSIFilename option Each MSI database needs a product code Setup Capture generates a suitable default product code and place it in the Package ini file If you change the product code make sure the new value is a valid GUID Globally Unique IDentifier The following example creates an MSI file with a specific product code BuildOptions MSIFilename mymsi msi MSIProductCode 590810CE 65E6 3E0B O8EF 9CCF8AE20DO0E MSI ProductVersion MSTProductVersion Specify a product version number for the MSI database The default setting is 1 0 This option has an effect only when generation of a Windows Installer database is requested using the MSIFilename option VMware Inc Chapter 3 Configuring the Package ini File The product version number is displayed when you show the properties of the database When you deploy a package to a machine that already has the package installed Windows Installer checks the version numbers and refuses to install an older version over a newer version You must manually uninstall the old version first The following example creates an MSI file with a specific product version BuildOptions MSIFilename mymsi msi MSIProductVersion 1 0 MSIRequireElevatedPrivileges MSTRequireElevatedPrivileges Marks the MSI database as requires elevated privileges The default setting is 1 This option has an effect only when generation of a
76. base see Building an MSI Database on page 145 Select your compression option and click Next The compression settings you choose correspond with the compression parameters you set in the Package ini file For more information see the compression parameters listed in Isolation and Virtualization Granularity on page 30 19 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 20 12 Select Merged or WriteCopy isolation mode The isolation mode determines which files and registry keys are visible and written by the virtual application you create The default isolation mode is merged 13 In the final dialog box of the Setup Capture wizard select from the following three options m Click Browse Project to look at the project files in Windows Explorer m Click Build Now to create an executable or MSI file containing the files you installed during the Setup Capture process The build output is shown in the display box below the Build Now button m Click Finish to complete your work on the project This completes the Setup Capture process ThinApp selects one primary executable to host the ThinApp runtime application registry data and files The other executable files are shortcuts to the main executable and can be deleted prior to distribution to users if they are not needed Executables are selected based on which shortcuts were installed by the application during installation so you can delete unimportant shortcuts before completing the pos
77. ble Parameters Name in The name of environment variable where the value is to be stored Value in The value to be stored Example SetEnvironmentVariable PATH C Windows system32 SetfileSystemlsolation Sub Setfile systemlsolation Directory lsolationMode This function sets the isolation mode of a directory Parameters Directory in Full path of the directory whose isolation mode is to be set IsolationMode in Isolation mode to be set 1 WriteCopy 2 Merged 3 Full VMware Inc Chapter 11 Using Scripts Example Set the isolation mode of the temp directory to Merged Setfile systemIsolation GetEnvironmentVariable TEMP 2 Availability This option requires ThinApp version 3 215 or higher SetRegistrylsolation Sub SetRegistrylsolation RegistryKey IsolationMode This function sets the isolation mode of a registry key Parameters RegistryKey in The registry key whose isolation mode is to be set Start with HKLM for HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE HKCU for HKEY_CURRENT_USER of HKCR for HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT IsolationMode in Isolation mode to be set 1 WriteCopy 2 Merged 3 Full Example Set isolation of HKEY_CURRENT_USER Software Thinapp Test to Full SetRegistryIsoLlation HKCU Software Thinapp Test 3 Availability This option requires ThinApp version 3 215 or higher VMware Inc 165 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 166 WaitForProcess F
78. c Chapter 9 Using ThinApp Utilities and Tools Troubleshooting Using Log Monitor Log Monitor can be used to delve into application problems This section uses an example in which cmd exe is packaged with ThinApp and run with logging recorded To simulate an application behaving incorrectly a simple invalid command is issued In this case we have requested cmd exe to execute the command foobar and cmd exe prints the message foobar is not recognized as an internal or external command By viewing the resulting trace file you can dig into what cmd exe is doing in much greater detail and learn how it operates All applications manifest problems in different ways so there is more than one method to track issues The first place to check in a log file is the section near the end labeled Potential Errors Detected In this section you can find all the API functions in which the GetLastError code was modified The paths highlighted in bold indicate locations that cmd exe was looking for foobar and paths in red indicate locations in the virtual file system that were probed for these file system probes Potential Errors Detected xxx Unable to determine if any services need to be auto started error 2 001550 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 FindFirstFi
79. c 167 VMware ThinApp User s Manual Contacting Technical Support 168 You can contact VMware Technical Support at the following URL http www vmware com support To make your contact with Technical Support as effective as possible please be prepared to provide the following Step by step reproduction of the procedure you were performing when you encountered a problem Make sure to provide a clear concise description of your procedure Include all relevant details in your procedure so that it can be easily replicated Your host configuration information Include the Windows operating system you use whether you use Terminal Services or Citrix and any additional prerequisite programs that you installed natively Copies of your trace files NOTE Generate ASCII text files from your binary trace files and zip the files before sending them A unmodified copy of your capture folder and all content Do not include the compiled executables from the BIN subfolder A description of the expected behavior versus what actually happened A copy of applications that you captured if possible Any non virtual files or registry key settings that might be relevant Any system services or device drivers required Your server components configuration Oracle Server Active Directory etc In addition you can provide the following optional components to assist Technical Support to help you A copy of your sandbox folder
80. cation Data directory m Removable disk By default users can read or write to any location ona removable disk assuming the user has access rights to do so m Network mapped drives By default users can read or write to any location ona network mapped disk assuming the user has access rights to do so m UNC network paths Users can read or write to any location on a removable disk if the user has access rights to do so Access to the System Registry By default captured applications can read the full system registry as permitted by access permissions Specific parts of the registry are isolated from the system during the package creation process This isolation reduces conflicts between different versions of virtual applications and system installed applications By default all registry writes from captured applications are saved in an isolated sandbox and the system remains unchanged Networking and Sockets Captured applications have normal access to networking capability Captured applications can bind to local ports and make remote connections if the user has access permissions to perform these operations 82 VMware Inc Chapter 5 Deploying and Working with Virtual Applications Shared Memory Named Pipes Captured applications can interact with other applications on the system by using shared memory named pipes mutex objects and semaphores ThinApp can isolate shared memory objects and synchronization objects T
81. cmd exe 4adQ5baa gt kernel32 d11 7c81af14 GetConsoleMode IN HANDLE hConsoleHand1le 7h 000870 0a88 cmd exe 4adQ5baa lt kernel32 d11 7c81af14 GetConsoleMode gt BOOL 1h OUT LPDWORD 1pMode 13DA84h gt 3h 000871 0a88 cmd exe 4ad 5dec gt kernel32 d11 7c835484 WriteConsoleW CIN HANDLE hConsoleOutput 7h IN const LpBuffer 4AD2B1E0h IN DWORD nNumberOfCharsToWrite 15h IN LPVOID lpReserved Oh 000872 0a88 cmd exe 4adQ 5dec lt kernel32 d11 7c835484 WriteConsoleW gt BOOL 1h COUT LPDWORD 1lpNumberOfCharsWritten 13DABOh gt 15h 000873 0a88 cmd exe 4adQ bf00 gt 0le32 d11 774e03f0 Getfile type CIN HANDLE hFile 3h 000874 0a88 Getfile type 3 gt 0x2 000875 0a88 cmd exe 4adQbf00 lt ole32 d11 774e03f0 Getfile type gt DWORD 2h O 000876 0a88 cmd exe 4ad02c97 gt 0le32 d11 774e03f0 Getfile type IN HANDLE hFile 3h 000877 0a88 Getfile type 3 gt 0x2 000878 0a88 cmd exe 4ad02c97 lt ole32 d11 774e03f0 Getfile type gt DWORD 2h O VMware Inc Chapter 9 Using ThinApp Utilities and Tools 000879 0a88 cmd exe 4ad02cc0 gt kernel32 d1L1L 7c812F39 GetStdHandle CIN DWORD nStdHandLe FFFFFFF6h 000880 0a88 cmd exe 4ad02ccQ lt kerne132 d11 7c812f39 GetStdHandle gt HANDLE 3h 000881 0a88 cmd exe 4ad02ccd gt kernel32 dL1L 7c81af14 GetConsoleMode IN HANDLE hConsoleHand1le 3h 000882 0a88 cmd exe 4ad02ccd lt kerne132 d11 7c81af14 GetConsoleMode gt BOOL 1h OUT LPDWORD 1pMode 1
82. cription This Product is great Application Link In the Package ini file you can use the features OptionalAppLinks and RequiredAppLinks to dynamically combine ThinApp packages together at runtime onend user PCs See OptionalAppLinks on page 57 and RequiredAppLinks on page 56 This enables you to package deploy and update component pieces separately while retaining the benefits of application virtualization Following are several examples for how you might use Application Link m Linking large shared libraries frameworks You can link runtime components such as NET JRE or ODBC drivers with applications that have dependencies on these applications m Linking add ons and plug ins You might want to package and deploy application specific add ons and plug ins separately from the base application Application Link allows you to easily deploy a single virtualized Microsoft Office to all users and deploy individual add ons on a per user basis m Linking upgrades and service packs As part of the process for rolling out updates and service packs it is important that you can quickly roll back to a previous version if users experience significant issues with the new version of the application Application Link allows you to deploy minor patches and upgrades to applications as a single file so rollbacks can be reduced to removing this file NOTE ThinApp does not support recursive use of Application Link For example if
83. ctly VMware Inc 77 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 78 Figure 5 1 Block Based Streaming Communicating over a Network Share Sandbox Sam s Sandbox Joe s Sandbox On the end user s desktop you can also create shortcuts that point to the centrally hosted executable package s When the user clicks on the shortcut the application begins streaming to the client PC During the initial streaming startup process the ThinApp status bar informs the user of the progress When the application can begin running the status bar slides down and you can begin using the application As more parts of the application are required they are taken from the streaming server Network Requirements for Streaming ThinApp Applications ThinApp does not require a special 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 widely Microsoft Office 2003 requires that only a fraction of the package contents stream before an application can run VMware recommends that you use ThinApp streaming on LAN based environments with 100MB networks VMware Inc Chapter 5 Deploying and Working with Virtual Applications For WAN and Internet deployments in which unexpected disconnections are more frequent VMware recommends one of the following solutions m Deploy applications by usi
84. d from the registry key HKLM SOFTWARE Microsoft Windows CurrentVersion UninstalLl while per user applications are taken from registry key HKCU SOFTWARE Microsoft Windows CurrentVersion Uninstall Environment strings etisi ALLUSERSPROFILE C Documents and Settings All Users APPDATA C Documents and Settings ron Application Data CLIENTNAME LITHIUM ClusterLog C WINDOWS CLuster cluster log CommonProgramFiles C Program Files Common Files COMPUTERNAME THINAPP 1U4 ComSpec C WINDOWS system32 cmd exe DEFLOGDIR C Documents and Settings All Users Application This is a listing of the environment strings These strings can also be viewed by using the Control Panel s System applet and then clicking the Advanced gt Environment Variables button Current process This is information about the currently executing application usually a captured application Process ID 4400 VMware Inc Chapter 9 Using ThinApp Utilities and Tools The process identifier of the currently executing application Windows assigns a unique process ID to each active process View process IDs by using the Processes tab of Task Manager Note that the terms process and application are sometimes used interchangeably in Windows Compare the Applications and Processes tabs of Task Manager Minimum req d operating system ver 4 0 Whenever a Windows application is built a specification is made of the minimum opsys version needed to run the applic
85. data MACRO_VALUE_DATA Specifies value data to be macro expanded prior to use by the application For example the value AppData is expanded at runtime to the location of the user s Application Data directory If value data is not macro expanded the application receives the literal string AppData when queries this registry value Macro expanded data is only supported for string value types REG_SZ REG_EXPAND_SZ and REG_MULTI_SZ The following are examples REG_SZ AppData This represents the value of the Application Data folder on the host PC on which ThinApp is running The length of this registry value changes depending on what machine it runs on REG_SZ 23AppData 23 This represents the value of the actual value AppData This value is always the literal string AppData regardless of the current shell folder location isolation_full HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE Software Classes CLSID 047a9a40 65 7e 11d3 8d5b 00104b35e7ef InprocServer32 Value ThreadingModel REG_SZ Both 00 Value REG_SZ SystemSystem mscoree d11 00 VMware Inc Chapter 8 Using the Virtual Registry Attributes ini This file controls per registry subkey settings RegistryIsolationMode WriteCopy Merged Full The following is an example RegistryIsolation writeCopy If isolation is not specified it is inherited from parent subkey The following is an example of command line usage NOTE All parameters are case insensitive VRE
86. directory on your build file system Each registry value also maps directly to a file An example view looks like this c mypackage HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE Software AppLicationxX Valuel txt c mypackage HKEY_CLASS_ROOT txt Because registry subkeys and value names can have some characters that do not map to filenames any unmappable character must be escaped in the filename like this Registry Subkey HKEY_CLASS_ROOT Maps to filename c mypackage HKEY_CLASS_ROOT 42 42 Because the character is not a valid filename character it has been escaped as 42 Because is used to escape characters it must also be escaped To represent a default value the filename defaul1t is used Because FAT32 has severe limits on maximum filename lengths store all build registry data either on an NTFS drive or use a short parent directory name to store registry build data At runtime FAT32 limitations do not impact the registry Registry Value Data 100 Registry files are saved as plain text or unicode text Unicode text files start with the two byte sequence hex ff hex fe Notepad and Wordpad automatically create unicode and ANSI text files TYPE VALUE TYPE can be one of the following REG_NONE REG_SZ REG_EXPAND_SZ REG_BINARY REG_DWORD REG_DWORD_LITTLE_ENDIAN REG_DWORD_BIG_ENDIAN REG_MULTI_SZ REG_RESOURCE_LIST REG_FULL_RESOURCE_DESCRIPTOR REG_RESOURCE_REQUIREMENTS_LIST If TYPE is string data REG_SZ REG_EXPAND_SZ or REG
87. e gt BOOL 1h 000257 Indicates the log entry number Each log entry has a unique number The Potential Errors Detected refers to individual log entries using their log entry numbers 0a88 Indicates the currently executing thread ID If the application has only one thread this number does not change Because log entries are recorded in order of execution if two or more threads are recording data to the log file you might need to use the thread ID to follow thread specific sequential actions VMware Inc Chapter 9 Using ThinApp Utilities and Tools myd11 d11 Indicates the DLL that is making the API call 4ad0576d Indicates the return address for the API call made by mydll dll Typically this tells you the address in the code where the call is originating gt Indicates the call is being entered For call entry log element all of the input parameters are displayed in and in out parameters lt Indicates the call is returning to the original caller For call exit log entries all of the output parameters are displayed out and in out parameters kernel32 d11 Indicates the DLL where the API call is landing 7c81b10 Indicates the address of the API inside of kernel32 where the call is landing If you disassemble kernel32 dll at address 7c81b1f0 you find the code for the function SetConsoleMode gt BOOL 1h Indicates the API returned the value 1 and the return code has type BOOL Application
88. e installation you will You can specify whether the package needs elevated privileges by using the MSTRequireElevatedPrivileges option see MSIRequireElevatedPrivileges on page 65 If you re going to deploy the installer machine wide set the value to 1 This results in UAC prompts if you have them enabled even if you force a per user installation by using the ALLUSERS command line option By setting the option to 0 you do not receive a UAC prompt but the installation fails if you try to install it machine wide Handling Upgrades to MSI Applications A MSI database contains a number of codes including a ProductCode and an UpgradeCode When rebuilding a package keep the UpgradeCode the same This can be specified using the MSIUpgradeCode option You can change the ProductCode using the MSIProductCode option if desired See MSIUpgradeCode on page 65 The advantage of changing the ProductCode is that it is easier to install a newer version If the ProductCode of the new version is the same as the ProductCode of the old version the installation prompts you to remove the old version using Add Remove Programs first If the ProductCode is different the installation uninstalls the old version and then installs the new version If you do not specify an MSIProductCode option a different ProductCode is generated for each build automatically VMware Inc 147 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 148 VMware Inc Using Scripts
89. e package loads at the same speed If the application opens and reads 32K of data from the 20GB file only 32KB of data is sent The client is part of the executable package but it is small 400K The load time of the client across a network is a few milliseconds After the client is loaded to memory on the client PC the client calculates which blocks of data are required from the server and reads them based on application activity VMware Inc Chapter 5 Deploying and Working with Virtual Applications Using Captured Applications with Other System Components Captured applications can interact with other applications installed on the desktop The following sections describe the various ways applications typically interact with the other components on the desktop Cut and Paste Pasting from system installed applications to captured applications This scenario has no limitations The virtual application can receive any standard clipboard formats text graphics HTML and so on The virtual application can receive OLE objects m Pasting from captured applications to system applications OLE objects created in virtual applications are converted to system native objects when they are pasted into nonvirtual applications Printers A captured application has full access to any printer that is installed on the PC it is running on Captured applications and system installed applications have the same printing ability You cannot
90. e process Typically the application s installer does this automatically VMware Inc 23 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 24 To manually add environment variables to ThinApp packages during the Setup Capture process 1 Select Control Panel gt System gt Advance gt Environment Variables You can add new variables to either system or user Windows stores environment variables on a system wide and user specific basis The files are stored in the following locations m System wide environment variables HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE SYSTEM CurrentControlSet Control Session Manager Environment m User specific environment variables HKEY_CURRENT_USER Environment For packages running under ThinApp any environment variables captured in these two locations are applied for all applications running in the same sandbox Per user values take precedence over per machine values Manually edit HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE txt and HKEY_CURRENT_USER txt to add environment variables after the capture has completed For example you can append the following text to the end of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE txt to add a CLASSPATH environment variable that contains the string c mypath isolation_writecopy HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE SYSTEM CurrentControlSet Control Session Manager Environment Value CLASSPATH REG_SZ c mypath 00 NOTE The PATH variable is ignored by ThinApp instead a new variable VirtualPath is used PATH Variable The PATH environment variable is tr
91. eated differently because typically you do not want to completely replace the local system PATH variable but instead prepend specific values To accomplish this Setup Capture uses a special value called VirtualPath to store the portions of the PATH variable that changed during setup capture This VirtualPath is prepended to the local system PATH during program execution VMware Inc Chapter 2 Capturing and Configuring Applications Packaging NET Applications The following sections describe packaging NET applications Precaptured NET The following guidelines are targeted at software developers and IT administrators who want to deploy a NET application without installing the NET Framework You can do the following with precaptured versions of the NET Framework m Build a cmd exe application that is capable of running NET applications from the host PC even though NET might not be installed m You can add your application files into the precaptured NET project and build a single executable file that runs without installation of NET Use this information only for NET applications that do not require installation of COM components or third party components requiring registry entries m To include Crystal Reports in your package include them in your capture m To include COM components in your package include them in your capture m To include customized registry settings include them in your capture Professional
92. eaves behind a process called ctfmon exe It might be necessary to use a script to kill ctfmon exe and similar children to force this cleanup operation to occur NOTE You can also decide dynamically at runtime whether to delete the sandbox on exit by using the Script API function RemoveSandboxOnExit VMware Inc Chapter 3 Configuring the Package ini File The following example shows how to direct ThinApp to delete the sandbox when the application exits BuildOptions RemoveSandboxOnExit 1 The following example shows how to direct ThinApp to leave the sandbox behind when the application exits default BuildOptions RemoveSandboxOnExit 0 VMware Inc 69 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 70 VMware Inc Configuring the Sandbox This chapter describes the sandbox and contains the following topics m Introduction to the Sandbox on page 71 m Sandbox Structure on page 73 Introduction to the Sandbox The sandbox holds runtime modifications that applications make as they are running The original executable that you built never changes so it can be placed in a shared folder with read only access The name of a sandbox SANDBOXNAME is specified in the Package ini file prior to building your package Under normal circumstances the sandbox is stored under AppData Thinapp SANDBOXNAME On Windows XP this path is C Documents and Settings USERNAME Application Data SANDBOXNAME During startup ThinAp
93. ects inside of the virtual environment all changes made by the COM objects are stored in the sandbox For example the following instructs ThinApp to execute 2 COM objects outside of the virtual environment if they are created by the application BuildOptions ExternaLCOMObjects 8BC3F05E D86B 11D0 A075 00CO04FB68820 7D096C5F ACO8 4F1F BEB7 5C22C517CE39 VMware Inc 31 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 32 ExternalDLLs ExternalDLLs Force some DLLs to be loaded by Windows By default ThinApp determines whether it loads DLLs itself or passes the loading on to Windows If the DLL is located in the virtual file system ThinApp loads the DLL itself In some circumstances it is required to have Windows load the DLL even if it is in the virtual file system An example of this is a DLL that is injected in other processes using a mechanism known as Windows hooks For hooks to work the DLL implementing the hook must be available on the host file system and be loaded by Windows When you specify a DLL in ExternalDLLs the DLL is extracted from the virtual file system into the sandbox and Windows is instructed to load it from there Note that the usefulness of this option is limited If the DLL depends on other DLLs that are located in the virtual file system Windows cannot load it For example this instructs ThinApp to pass loading of inject d11 and injectme2 d11 on to Windows BuildOptions ExternalDLLs inject d11
94. ed in the ProgramFilesDir lt InventoryName gt directory for a per machine install You can change the default installation path by using the MSIInstallDir option When using a relative path the path is relative to ProgramFi LesDir for per machine installations MSIDefaultInstal1Al1lUsers 1 and relative to AppData for per user installations MSIDefaultInstal1lA11lUsers 6 For example if you set MSIInstal1Directory ExampleDir the default installation directory for per machine installations is ProgramFilesDir ExamplLeDir VMware Inc 63 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 64 The following example shows how to create an msi file that is installed to C Program Files My AppLlication BuildOptions MSIFilename mymsi msi MSIInstallDirectory My Application MSIManufacturer MSIManufacturer Specifies the manufacturer to put in the MSI database The default setting is VMware Inc This option has an effect only when generation of a Windows Installer database is requested using the MSIFilename option Set this option to the name of your organization It is displayed when you show the properties of the database but has no effect otherwise For example this creates an MSI file with the manufacturer set to My Company Name BuildOptions MSIFilename mymsi msi MSIManufacturer My Company Name MSIProductCode MSTProductCode Specifies a product code for the MSI database This option has an effect only when gener
95. ed plug ins You can also start the system installed application by running the cmd exe c c myapp exe file VMware Inc 27 VMware ThinApp User s Manual Large Packages ThinApp supports packages of unlimited size The Windows shell the explorer exe file on some Windows platforms has limitations on how it displays icons and might not display the icon for an executable file that reaches a certain size The Explorer exe file tries to map the entire executable file to memory so that it can access the icon resources If the virtual memory address space available is insufficient this file mapping operation fails Typically an application has a maximum of 2GB of address space However DLLs the process heap and other objects break up the virtual address space so a smaller maximum block is actually available On most computers Windows XP does not display icons for executable files larger than 600MB Windows Vista does not have this limitation When building a large package create the following two files m One large file containing the package data m One small file containing icon information For example consider the following Package ini file LargeApplication exe Source ProgramFiLesDir LargeAppLication exe ReadOn1lyData bin Package ro tvr LargeApplication dat Source ProgramFiLesDir LargeAppLication exe ReadOn1lyData bin Package ro tvr LargeApplication exe Source ProgramFiLesDir LargeAppLication exe Shor
96. eged process would be capable of doing LOCALE_SYSTEM_DEFAULT 0409 ENU LOCALE_USER_DEFAULT 0409 ENU Windows employs the concept of locales to specify international regions and languages Each locale is specified by a unique 32 bit identifier that contains a language id and a sort order for that region or country VMware Inc 137 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 138 Installed apps System wide 7 Zip 4 57 AddressBook Branding Capture Express Connection Manager DirectAnimation DirectDrawEx DXM_Runtime Fontcore getPlus R _ocx ICW IDA Pro Standard v4 9 SP Microsoft Internationalized Domain Names Mitigation APIs IE40 IE4Data IES5BAKEX Windows Internet Explorer 7 IEData InstallShield for Microsoft Visual C 6 InstallShield Uninstall Information VMware Lab Manager Microsoft Base Smart Card Cryptographic Per user FileZilla Client 3 0 9 2 This is an enumeration of the applications currently installed on the system Applications appearing in this list were likely placed on the system by an installer As part of the installation process the installer probably added particular keys to the system registry Note that applications that a user places directly into local storage such as applications copied from the Internet will not appear in this list Many installers can install an application for use by anyone using the computer or only for a particular user System wide applications are mine
97. eges are required for the allusers option and relaunches itself as a privileged process causing a UAC pop up window to show The norelaunch option prevents the relaunch and instead the registration fails The standard usage of ThinReg is to register a number of packages stored in a directory probably on a file server during login processing ThinReg server share dir exe This automatically takes care of PermittedGroups specifications registering and unregistering packages as needed When you register a package for the current user no allusers switch is present only shortcuts and filetype associations for that the current user is authorized for in the PermittedGroups setting will be created If there is no PermittedGroups setting the current user is authorized for all executables When registering a package for all users the allusers switch is included all shortcuts and filetype associations are created regardless of the PermittedGroups setting When you double click on a shortcut that you are not authorized for you will still get an Access Denied error message at runtime Example Usage The following registers Word for the currently logged in user ThinReg exe server share Microsoft Office 2003 Winword exe The following registers Word for all users on the system requires admin rights ThinReg exe a server share Microsoft Office 2003 Winword exe VMware Inc Chapter 9 Using ThinApp Utilities and Tools
98. eing retrieved Value in The name of the Value to retrieve from the version information section of the specified file The following values can be retrieved from most DLLs Comments InternalName ProductName CompanyName LegalCopyright ProductVersion FileDescription LegalTrademarks PrivateBuild FileVersion OriginalFilename SpecialBuild VMware Inc 159 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 160 Returns This function returns a string value If the requested Filename does not exist or the specified Value cannot be located in the file the value of is returned Example FileVersion GetFileVersionVaLue c windows system32 kernel32 d11 FileVersion if FileVersion 1 0 0 0 then MsgBox This is Version 1 0 End if GetCommandLine Function GetCommandLine This function allows you to access the command line parameters passed to the current running program Returns This function returns a string that represents the command line arguments passed to the current running program including the original executable Example MsgBox The command line for this EXE was GetCommandLine GetCurrentProcessName Function GetCurrentProcessName This function allows you to access the full virtual path name of the current process Returns This function returns a string that represents the full executable path name inside of the virtual environment Typically this is c Program Files even though the pack
99. el32 d11 7c835484 WriteConsoleW CIN HANDLE hConsoleOutput 7h IN const LpBuffer 4AD38BAO0h IN DWORD nNumberOfCharsToWrite 2h IN LPVOID lpReserved 0h 000857 0a88 cmd exe 4adQ 5dec lt kernel32 d11 7c835484 WriteConsoleW gt BOOL 1h OUT LPDWORD 1pNumberOfCharsWritten 13DAACh gt 2h VMware Inc 123 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 124 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 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 000867 0a88 cmd exe 4ad05b9d gt kernel32 dll 7c812f39 GetStdHandle IN DWORD nStdHandle FFFFFFF5h 000868 0a88 cmd exe 4ad05b9d lt kernel32 dll 7c812f39 GetStdHandle gt HANDLE 7h 000869 0a88
100. es and tools configure MSI files use scripts and use License Manager Intended Audience This book is for anyone who wants to install upgrade or use ThinApp Typical users are system administrators responsible for the distribution and maintenance of corporate software packages Document Feedback VMware welcomes your suggestions for improving our documentation If you have comments send your feedback to docfeedback vmware com Technical Support and Education Resources The following sections describe the technical support resources available to you You can access the current versions of this book and other books by going to http www vmware com support pubs VMware Inc 11 VMware ThinApp User s Manual Online and Telephone Support 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 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 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 availab
101. ft Shared Office11 ProgramFilesDir Common Files Microsoft Shared Office11 1033 ProgramFilesDir Microsoft Office NOTE Depending on the language version of your installation you might have a different directory instead of ProgramFilesDir Common Files Microsoft Shared Office11 1033 After a fresh capture these directories contain a Attributes ini file with DirectoryIsolationMode Full Change this to DirectoryIsolationMode WriteCopy The isolation mode ofa couple of registry files needs to be adjusted too Edit HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE txt and search for these keys HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE SOFTWARE Microsoft Windows CurrentVersion Installer UserDa ta S 1 5 18 Components 379E92CC2CB71D119A12000A9CE1A22A HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE SOFTWARE Microsoft Windows CurrentVersion Installer UserDa ta S 1 5 18 Components 1650EACF3C291D11A92C0006794C4E25 Change the isolationmode_ful1 at the beginning of the lines to isoLationmode_writecopy VMware Inc 169 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 170 Microsoft Outlook Outlook stores its account settings and other data in a number of registry keys and files When you start Microsoft Outlook for the first time it checks if these keys exist and if not prompts you to create a new account This works fine in the virtual environment when Microsoft Outlook is not installed on the physical system However when the user already has Microsoft Outlook installed physically the captured version finds the registr
102. g and Sockets 82 Shared Memory Named Pipes 83 COM DCOM and Out of Process COM 83 Services 83 File Type Associations 83 Example Package ini Files for Active Directory Access Control 85 Application Updates 85 Upgrading Captured Applications 87 Locked Files 87 Deploying Application Upgrades 87 Sandbox Considerations 88 6 Configuring Isolation Modes 89 Understanding Isolation Modes 89 Merged 92 WriteCopy 92 Full 93 7 Using the Virtual File System 95 Folder Macros 96 8 Using the Virtual Registry 99 Build Format 100 Registry Value Data 100 Example of Macro Expansion 101 Text Format for Virtual Registry 101 Attributes ini 103 Exporting Registry Data to ThinApp Registry Directory Format 103 6 VMware Inc Contents Importing Registry Data from ThinApp Registry Directory Format 104 Importing Registry Data from Regedit Format 104 Exporting Registry Data to Regedit Format 105 Listing all Registry Keys ina ThinApp tvr File 106 Listing Diagnostic Information About a Thinapp tvr File 106 Deleting a Registry Subkey 107 9 Using ThinApp Utilities and Tools 109 Using Log Monitor 109 Locating Errors 110 Log Format 112 General API Log Message Format 112 Application Startup Information 113 List of DLLs Loaded into Memory During Runtime 114 Potential Errors 118 Troubleshooting Using Log Monitor 119 Deeper Examination 121 Using Sandbox Merge sbmerge 127 Usage 128 Optional Parameters 128 Main Operation 128 Optional Parameters
103. gration 17 Network Visible DCOM Services 17 Global Hook DLLs 17 Using a Clean PC for Capturing 17 Installing VMware Server 18 Using Setup Capture 18 Editing the Package ini File 20 A Real Windows Service 21 Running Captured Executables as Real Windows Services 22 Application PATH and Environment Variables 23 PATH Variable 24 Precaptured NET 25 Professional Setup 25 Reducing Package Size in NET Applications 26 Attributes ini 26 Plug Ins and Add Ins 27 3 Configuring the Package ini File 29 Isolation and Virtualization Granularity 30 ChildProcessEnvironmentDefault 30 DirectorylsolationMode 30 ExternalCOMObjects 31 ExternalIDLLs 32 IsolatedMemoryObjects 32 IsolatedSynchronization 33 VMware Inc VMware ThinApp User s Manual RegistrylsolationMode 33 VirtualizeExternalOutOfProcessCOM 34 General Options 34 AddPageExecutePermission 34 AllowUnsupportedExternalChildProcesses 35 AutoShutdownServices 36 AutoStartServices 36 BlockSize 37 CachePath 37 CompressionType 38 DisableTracing 39 ExcludePattern 40 FileTypes 40 LogPath 41 NetRelaunch 41 RuntimeEULA 42 Shortcuts 42 UpgradePath 42 VirtualComputerName 43 VirtualDrives 44 Access Control 45 AccessDeniedMsg 45 PermittedGroups 46 Application Specific Parameters 46 Disabled 46 CommandLine 47 Icon 47 NoRelocation 48 ReserveExtraAddressSpace 48 RetainAlllcons 49 Shortcut 49 Source 50 StripVersionInfo 50 WorkingDirectory 50 Version XXXX 51 Application Link 51 Example W
104. hat are known to work since producing extra trace files represents a waste of disk space and CPU time VMware Inc 39 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 40 ExcludePattern ExcludePattern Enables you to exclude specified files during the build process This option can be used to exclude specific files or directories from a project determined dynamically at build time The list of patterns is specified with a comma separator where matches 0 or more following characters and matches exactly one character similar to the DOS dir command Unlike DOS dir command syntax wildcard characters can be applied to both directory names and filenames ExcludePattern can be specified in two places m Package ini file The pattern exclusion applies to the entire directory structure m Attributes ini The pattern exclusion is added to the current list of exclusions and apply only to this directory and subdirectories In this manner you can have a different exclusion list for different directories in your project For example FileList Exclude any path that ends with bak or msi ExcLudePattern bak msi Exclude any directories called svn or cvs and all subdirectories NOTE This pattern does not match filenames or directories that contain svn or cvs in the middle of the string ExcLudePattern svn cvs FileTypes FileTypes List of file extensions that ThinReg should associate with an executable No separators are
105. he application and commandline parameters to execute outside of the virtual environment Returns Integer process ID the process ID can be used with WaitForProcess WaitForProcess on page 166 Example ExecuteVirtualProcess cmd exe c copy c systemfile txt c virtualfile txt Execute a command that requires quotes in the command line ExecuteVirtualProcess regsvr32 s and chr 34 and c Program Files my ocx and chr 34 GetBuildOption Function GetBuildOption OptionName This function returns the value of a setting specified in the BuildOptions section of the Package ini file used for capturing Parameters Option Name in Name of the setting Returns This function returns a string value If the requested Option Name does not exist an empty string is returned VMware Inc Chapter 11 Using Scripts Example Package ini contains BuildOptions DemoOption DemoVa Lue The following line would appear in a VBS file Value GetBuildOption DemoOption Value DemoValue GetFileVersionValue Function GetFileVersionValue Filename Value This function returns version information value from a specific DLL executable OCX etc This function can be used to determine the internal version number of a DLL or retrieve information about the copyright owner of a DLL or product name associated with the DLL Parameters Filename in The name of the filename whose version information is b
106. he following ThinAppProject Package ini ProgramFiLlesDir MyApp Attributes ini VMware Inc Chapter 3 Configuring the Package ini File The Package ini file sets the default isolation mode for the project but individual Attributes ini files might change the isolation mode for specific directories and their children Any directories that are not specified such as C myfolder inherits the isolation mode from the Package ini file Directories that are created under Program Files myapp inherits the isolation mode from the Attributes ini file Following are examples of this parameter WriteCopy isolation allows the application to read from the host PC but not write to it default Isolation DirectoryIsolationMode writeCopy Merged isolation allows the application to write to any location on the PC except where the package specifies otherwise Isolation DirectoryIsolationMode Merged ExternalCOMObjects ExternalCOMObjects Controls whether a specific COM object CLSID is created by ThinApp or by Windows By default ThinApp creates all COM objects inside of the virtual environment instead of Windows COM supports out of process exe servers as well as service based COM objects If an application can create such COM objects on the host PC and cause these COM objects to modify the host PC then the integrity of the host PC cannot be assured However if ThinApp executes out of process and services based COM obj
107. hinapp Using Active Directory the user s AppData is often mapped to a shared network drive to allow for easy backups When this is the case users can log into any machine and retain their application settings ThinApp transparently remaps registry and file data while the application is running to enable shared application profile information to instantly migrate to different operating systems For example if the application registers DLLs to c winnt system32 while running on Windows 2000 the user can quit the application and login on a Windows XP machine On the Windows XP machine the files automatically appear to exist at c windows system32 and all related registry keys automatically point to c windows system32 On Windows Vista ThinApp automatically moves Windows SxS DLLs and policy information to match Vista versus XP file path styles This functionally allows most applications to instantly migrate to newer or older operating systems ThinApp provides SxS support for applications running on Windows 2000 even though the underlying operating system does not This enables most applications captured on Windows XP to run on Windows 2000 without changes NOTE Only one computer can be actively using a shared sandbox If a sandbox is already in use by another computer ThinApp displays a warning and creates a new sandbox to allow you to continue working until the previous copy closes VMware Inc 75 VMware ThinApp User s M
108. his isolation makes them invisible to other applications and other application objects are not visible to a captured application COM DCOM and Out of Process COM Captured applications can create COM controls from the virtual 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 COM objects that virtualized applications provide are invisible to other applications on the system unless the application is running in the same virtual environment You can run system applications in a virtual environment so they can access COM objects that virtual environments provide For example a system installed application can access virtualized Microsoft Office components by running the system application in the virtualized environment Services Captured applications can start and run system installed services and virtual services By default system services are run in the virtual environment so that the virtual environment controls modifications that the services make File Type Associations Captured applications can execute system installed applications using file type association File type association can be added to the local PC s registry to point to captured executable files on a per user or per machine basis VMware Inc 83 VMware ThinApp User s Manual Access Con
109. ibutes ini in this case the block size overrides the block size for the present directory and all subdirectories In the manner you can use different block sizes for different directories within a single project For example the default block size is 64K Compression BlockSize 64k Other block size options follow BlockSize 128k BlockSize 256k BlockSize 512k BlockSize 1M CachePath CachePath Sets the path to the cache directory where font files are stored This setting can contain macros like Local AppData which will be expanded before use If the path is relative it is interpreted relative to the directory where the package is stored The setting can be overridden at runtime by the environment variable THINAPP_CACHE_DIR If neither the CachePath setting nor the THINAPP_CACHE_DIR environment variable are present a default is used The default depends on the presence of a SandboxPath setting in the Package ini file If there is a SandboxPath setting and it is a relative path then CachePath defaults to the same path If there is no SandboxPath setting or the path setting is absolute then CachePath will default to Local AppData ThinApp Cache VMware Inc 37 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 38 For example set the cache directory to C VirtCache CachePath C VirtCache With the package located in C VirtApps this will set the cache to C VirtApps Cache CachePath Cache Ina typical USB key scenario
110. ild processes Example Scripts The following are example scripts 150 Timeout an application on a specific date Run a bat file from a network share inside the virtual environment Modifying the virtual registry VMware Inc Chapter 11 Using Scripts m Import reg file at runtime m Stop a virtual service when the main application quits m Copy an external system configuration file into the virtual environment on startup To use an example 1 Save contents to a plain text file with the vbs extension in the same directory as your Package ini file produced by Setup Capture It doesn t matter what filename you use all vbs files are added to the package at build time and run 2 Rebuild the application bat example This script executes an external bat file from a network share inside of the virtual environment The bat file can make modifications to the virtual environment by copying files deleting files or apply registry changes using regedit s regfile reg Make sure you only execute this for the first parent process otherwise each copy of cmd exe executes the script and an infinite recursion will develop Function OnFirstParentStart Set Shell CreateObject Wscript Shell Shell Run jcdesk2 test test bat End Function timeout example Prevent an application from being used after a specified date This check is performed on the parent process startup as well as any child process startup
111. ile tvr Data file in ThinApp virtual registry file format HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE Software Optionally specifies the registry subkey to begin comparing If this is specified only subkeys at this level and below are considered in the comparison Exact Optionally specifies that system comparison reports all differences between the virtual registry and system registry If this option is not specified vregtool does not print the system registry keys that do not exist in the virtual registry if the virtual registry subkey is set to Merged or WriteCopy isolation mode but prints the differences for subkeys with isolation mode set to Full This option is useful in finding differences between a working system registry and virtual registry file The following is an example vregtool c tmp test tvr SysCompare HKEY_CURRENT_USER Software Adobe Deleting a Registry Subkey Use the following command to delete a registry subkey VREGTOOL regfile tvr DeLSubkey HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE Software NoMark regfile tvr Data file in ThinApp virtual registry file format HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE Software Specified the registry subkey to delete If the specified registry subkey has a space in the name specify the key using quotes like this HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE Software Key with space NoMark Optionally specifies that the subkey should be deleted if it exists but not marked as deleted When a subkey is marked as deleted applications running under ThinApp does
112. in view O fs entry not found ProgramFilesDir Microsoft Visual Studio Common Tools foobar fs entry not found ProgramFilesDir Microsoft Visual Studio Common Tools xxx FindFirstFilew C Program Files Microsoft Visual Studio VC98 bin foobar gt INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE failed system probe C Program Files Microsoft Visual Studio VC98 bin foobar gt ffffffffh no virtual or system matches xxx FindFirstFilew C Program Files Microsoft Visual Studio VC98 bin foobar gt INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE failed FS missing in view O fs entry not found ProgramFilesDir Microsoft Visual Studio VC98 bin foobar fs entry not found ProgramFilesDir Microsoft Visual Studio VC98 bin As you can see the potential errors does a good job of highlighting possible areas where the application is failing Deeper Examination 001550 FindFirstFileW C test cmd_test bin foobar gt INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE failed system probe To determine why cmd exe is probing the location c test cmd_test bin search the log for this line of text using the log entry number and find out what is occurring before this call In the bold excerpts below two possible places are seen where cmd exe obtained the path c test cmd_test The first is obtained by calling GetCurrentDirectoryw and the second is from calling GetFullPathNameW with as the path specifies In both cases this returns the path for the current working directory ma
113. inApp User s Manual Both the embedded and sandbox file systems uses folder macros to enable file paths to dynamically expand at runtime Folder Macros ThinApp uses macros to represent file system path locations that might relocate when running on different operating systems or PCs The table below list the available macros When creating a new ThinApp project using Setup Capture these macros are automatically hard coded paths with macro forms See Table 7 1 for example folder macros Table 7 1 Folder Macros Macro Name Shfolder dil ID Typical Location AppData CSIDL_APPDATA C Documents and Settings username Application Data Common AppData CSIDL_COMMON_APPDATA C Documents and Settings ALL Users Application Data Common Desktop CSIDL_COMMON_DESKTOPDIREC C Documents and TORY Settings ALL Users Desktop Common Favorites CSIDL_COMMON_FAVORITES C Documents and Settings ALL Users Favorites Common Programs CSIDL_COMMON_PROGRAMS C Documents and Settings ALL Users Start Menu Programs Common StartMenu CSIDL_ COMMON_STARTMENU C Documents and Settings ALL Users Start Menu Common Startup CSIDL_COMMON_STARTUP C Documents and Settings All Users Start Menu Programs Startup Desktop CSIDL_DESKTOPDIRECTORY C Documents and Settings username Desktop Drive_c c 96 VMware Inc Table 7 1 Folder Macros Continued Chapter 7 Using the Virtual File System
114. ing Applications Shell Integration Some applications that ThinApp captures such as applications that provide shell integration might have reduced functions When they are captured they are no longer integrated with other applications on the system Network Visible DCOM Services ThinApp isolates COM and DCOM Applications that install network accessible DCOM services are accessible on the local PC only by other captured applications running in the same sandbox ThinApp supports virtual DCOM and COM on the same PC 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 PC The added DLL can intercept Windows messages This method captures keyboard and mouse input from other applications ThinApp ignores requests from applications that use SetWindowsHookEx to try to install Global Hook DLLs Using a Clean PC for Capturing VMware recommends using a clean PC to capture application installations because installers skip files that already exist on the PC If the installer skips files the ThinApp package does not include them If that happens the application might fail to run on other PCs where the files do not exist Setup Capture can scan the PC file system and registry quickly when it is clean A clean PC is a PC that has a Windows operating system installed and nothing else In a corporate environment where you have a base desktop image the b
115. ion number If you need to perform a roll back to an earlier version and the most recent version is still locked copy the old version so it has the highest version number Sandbox Considerations When you release an upgrade to an application you can control whether the user continues to use his or her previous settings by keeping the sandbox name consistent in your Package ini file By deploying anew application version with a new sandbox name each user creates a separate sandbox and starts with a new installation maintaining isolated settings If you deploy the package with the same sandbox name users keep their previous settings VMware Inc Configuring Isolation Modes This chapter describes isolation modes and contains the following topics m Understanding Isolation Modes on page 89 m Working with Isolation Modes on page 92 Understanding Isolation Modes Isolation modes are used to control the read and write access for specific system directories and system registry subkeys ThinApp s Isolation Modes help solve the following classes of problems Problem 1 An application fails to run due to previous or future versions existing simultaneously or not uninstalling correctly Solution ThinApp hides host PC files and registry keys from the application when the host PC files are located in the same directories and subkeys created by the application s installer ThinApp calls this full isolation For directories a
116. ion of the executable file default Lapp exe Source ProgramFiLesDir myapp app exe RetainAllIcons 0 Shortcut Shortcut Points to the name of the ThinApp generated executable that hosts the package data For example this creates a shortcut application that references HostApp exe HostApp exe should be listed somewhere in the package and also needs to be present in the same directory in order for MyShortcutApp exe to run MyShortcutApp exe Source ProgramFiLesDir Myapp MyShortcutApp exe Shortcut HostApp exe VMware Inc 49 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 50 Source Source Points to the executable file that is initially loaded by ThinApp Source is specified on a per executable basis If an application suite has 3 accessible user entry points for example Winword exe Powerpnt exe and Excel exe your Package ini lists three application entries and each entry has a different source entry The following are examples of this parameter Creates a user accessible entry point for C Program Files Myapp app1 exe app1 exe Source ProgramFiLesDir Myapp app1 exe Creates an user accessible entry point for C Program Files Myapp app2 exe Lapp2 exe Source ProgramFiLesDir Myapp app2 exe StripVersionInfo StripVersionInfo Removes all version information from the source executable when building the target application Version information in an executable can be found in the Properties dialog bo
117. is chapter describes the ThinApp virtual file system The virtual file system is represented in three different stages m The package build format This format stores files directly on the normal file system as they are to be compiled into the embedded virtual file system Folder Macros Folder Macros on page 96 are used to represent Windows standard shell folder locations m The embedded virtual file system read only This file system is embedded in executable files during the build process The read only file system might be compressed and provides block based streaming to client PCs m The file system sandbox read write This directory structure holds file data that was modified by the application Any file modification operation causes embedded virtual files to be extracted to the sandbox including the following m Changing a file s timestamp or attributes m Opening a file with write access m Truncating a file m Renaming or moving a file Prior to building an application you can adjust isolation modes on a per directory basis using Attributes ini files Isolation modes enable you to specify whether the application is presented with a merged view of the virtual file system or only see virtual files Isolation modes also control what happens when an application tries to write to a directory For more information on isolation modes see Chapter 6 Configuring Isolation Modes on page 89 VMware Inc 95 VMware Th
118. is used to separate information assigned to different drive letters To change the isolation mode for a virtual drive 1 Add the folder Drive_X to your ThinApp project 2 Inthenew directory place an Attributes ini file to specify the isolation mode for this drive letter Access Control The following sections describe the access control parameters AccessDeniedMsg AccessDeniedMsg Contains an error message to display to a user if he or she does not have permission to run a package The default setting is You are not currently authorized to run this application Please contact your Administrator For example BuildOptions PermittedGroups Administrator 0fficeUsers AccessDeniedMsg You do not have permission to execute this application please call support 1 800 822 2992 This setting controls the string that is displayed to the user if they are not authorized to execute the application VMware Inc 45 VMware ThinApp User s Manual PermittedGroups PermittedGroups Restricts usage of a package to a specific set of Active Directory groups For example specify a list of Active Directory Group names separated by a semicolon BuildOptions can set default for applications in project that can be overwritten by individual App exe sections BuildOptions PermittedGroups Administrator O0fficeUsers AccessDeniedMsg You do not have permission to execute this application please call support 1 80
119. it is unavailable for use Check your network connection and try again AppSyncUpdatedMessage AppSyncClearSandboxOnUpdate 0 The following sections describe the Application Sync parameters NOTE If you use Application Sync VMware recommends that you disable automatic application updates that are configured in your virtual application Conflicts might occur between the linked packages and the software that is automatically updated If an automatic update feature updates an application it stores the updates in the sandbox If Application Sync then updates the application to a different version the updates stored in the sandbox take precedence over the files contained in the version that Application Sync created The order of precedence for the update files are those in the sandbox then the virtual operating system and then the physical machine AppSyncURL AppSyncURL URL of the Web server where updates are stored Application Sync works over both the HTTP unsecure and HTTPS secure protocol Part of HTTPS is that the identity of the Web server is checked You can include a username and password in the AppSyncURL that will be used for basic authentication The standard Windows Internet Explorer proxy setting is respected For example AppSyncURL https exampLe com some path PackageName exe VMware Inc 59 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 60 AppSyncUpdateFrequency AppSyncUpdateFrequency By default a package will con
120. king it clear exactly how cmd exe is obtaining this path VMware Inc 121 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 122 You can see in the log file how cmd exe creates the c test cmd_test bin gt prompt This is accomplished by querying the environment variable PROMPT that returns P G and uses the API function WriteConsoleW to print the prompt to the screen after internally expanding P G to c test cmd_test bin gt 000824 0a88 cmd exe 4ad0697a lt ADVAPI32 d11 77dd038f FormatMessageW gt DWORD 29h COUT LPWSTR 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 C Copyright 1985 2001 Microsoft Corp 000827 0a88 cmd exe 4ad069d1 lt ADVAPI32 d11 77dd038f FormatMessageW gt DWORD 29h COUT LPWSTR lLpBuffer 4AD38BAOh gt L C Copyright 1985 2001 Microsoft Corp Dh Ah 000828 0a88 cmd exe 4ad08d01 gt kernel132 d11 7c835484 WriteConsoleW IN HANDLE hConsoleOutput 7h IN const LpBuffer 4AD38BAO0h IN DWORD nNumberOfCharsToWrite 29h IN LPVOID lpReserved 0h 000829 0a88 cmd exe 4adQ8d01 lt
121. ktop Users Users REMOTE INTERACTIVE LOGON INTERACTIVE Authenticated Users This Organization lt name lookup failed gt LOCAL NTLM Authentication These are the various user groups to which the user belongs Note the lt name lookup failed gt entry above which indicates that a problem occurred when trying to get that particular group name Computer name THINAPP 1U4 This is the hardware name associated with the computer This name can also be viewed using the control panel s system applet under the Computer Name tab IE version 7 0 5730 11 This is the version of Internet Explorer currently in use This data can also be viewed in the Help gt About menu item of IE Drives Drive C Fixed NTFS serial 3892890922 xE808CD2A 294 211 MB user free CASE_SENSITIVE_SEARCH CASE_PRESERVED_NAMES UNICODE_ON_DISK PERSISTENT_ACLS FILE_COMPRESSION VOLUME_QUOTAS SUPPORTS_SPARSE_FILES SUPPORTS_REPARSE_POINTS SUPPORTS_OBJECT_IDS SUPPORTS_ENCRYPTION NAMED_STREAMS Drive D CD ROM CDFS serial 2681771136 x9FD89480 MB user free CASE_SENSITIVE_SEARCH UNICODE_ON_DISK READ_ONLY_VOLUME VMware Inc Chapter 9 Using ThinApp Utilities and Tools This is information about each of the physical drives attached to the computer The entries in capital letters show the various features supported by each drive and are normally meaningful only to support personnel or experienced users Working dir C cmd_test bin This is the working directory a
122. l registry VMware ThinApp ensures that the settings that are needed by the application to function correctly are available to it without actually changing the system registry ThinApp registry information exists in three forms m Build format Unicode text files such as HKHEY_LOCAL_MACHINE txt the build process converts this format into the embedded format m Embedded format read only Compressed and stored inside the application executable file in a binary format m Sandbox format read write Stores the differences from the embedded format as the application makes registry writes NOTE Because applications can be upgraded by dropping in a new file in the same directory as the main application the directory and not just the file where an application is hosted must be read only for normal users After you build a package all registry values and files exist in a read only image inside of the executable you are distributing At runtime the read only image presents a view of the registry for new users of a package As the application modifies the registry these changes are saved in the sandbox persistent file with the extension tvr The VRegTool utility can be used to list and modify data contained ina tvr file VMware Inc 99 VMware ThinApp User s Manual Build Format The build format shows what registry data looks like after you perform Setup Capture In this format each registry subkey maps directly to a
123. le onsite in the classroom and live online For onsite pilot programs and implementation best practices VMware Consulting Services provides offerings to help you assess plan build and manage your virtual environment To access information about education classes certification programs and consulting services go to http www vmware com services 12 VMware Inc Introduction to VMware ThinApp VMware ThinApp enables you to package run and manage your software applications ThinApp captures the installation of an application in a single executable file and enables you to install your captured application with no dependencies on the host personal computer PC This manual describes how to use ThinApp to capture and configure applications Chapter 2 Capturing and Configuring Applications on page 15 describes how to prepare a clean PC or virtual machine how to use Setup Capture to capture applications and how to configure your packages Chapter 3 Configuring the Package ini File on page 29 describes the Package ini file This file provides settings you can use to configure your application captures Chapter 4 Introduction to the Sandbox on page 71 describes the sandbox The sandbox holds runtime modifications that applications make as they are running Chapter 5 Deploying and Working with Virtual Applications on page 77 describes how to work with virtual applications that you have captured
124. lew 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 FS 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 FindFirstFilewW 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 119 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 120 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 subversi
125. lity such as tail exe Look at the Potential Errors section first The most important part of the log for diagnosing problems comes at the end of the log in the section labeled _ Potential Errors Detected It is located at the bottom of the txt trace file Many entries listed in the potential errors section do not actually indicate an error ThinApp lists each Win32 API call where the Windows error code changed and most of these do not indicate a real problem VMware Inc VMware Inc Chapter 9 Using ThinApp Utilities and Tools m Exceptions Many applications generate exceptions while they are running Exceptions do not always indicate an error or fault but are generally a good indicator Exceptions have different types C NET Floating point Access Violation Data Execution Prevention etc The trace file records the type of exception generated and the DLL that generated the exception If the application created an exception from self generating code as is sometimes the case for NET and Java applications the trace indicates unknown_module The following is an example trace entry for an exception xx Exception EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION on read of 0x10 from unknown_module 0x7c9105f8 NOTE Because VB6 applications throw many floating point exceptions during their normal execution you can ignore these If you find an exception look higher in the trace file to see if you can locate the source
126. llowing option MSIDefaultInstallAllUsers 0 see MSIDefaultInstallAllUsers on page 62 This creates a database with a default of per user installation msiexec command line parameters No matter what you specified at package build time you can still override the type of installation at deployment time For example if you created the database with MSIDefaultInstallAllUsers 1 you can still force a per user deployment by deploying using msiexec i lt database gt msi ALLUSERS To force a per machine deployment use msiexec i lt database gt msi ALLUSERS 1 To default to per machine installation for Administrators belonging to the Administrators group and per user for non Administrators set the value of MSIDefaultInstal1lA11Users to 2 When doing a per machine deployment the default installation directory is the localized equivalent of ProgramFilesDir lt InventoryName gt captured Fora per user deployment the default is AppData lt InventoryName gt captured In both cases you can override the installation directory by passing an INSTALLDIR property to msiexec msiexec i lt database gt msi INSTALLDIR C Mydir Mypackage VMware Inc Chapter 10 Generating MSI Files Microsoft Vista For deployment on Vista you must indicate whether an installer needs elevated privileges or not Normally when performing a per user installation you do not need elevated privileges but when doing a per machin
127. m the sandbox The sandbox directory is deleted when this operation completes Optional Parameters The following are optional parameters 128 ProjectDir specifies the project directory The default is the current directory SandboxDir specifies the sandbox location The default is the active sandbox Quiet does not print progess messages The Exclude file defaults to the snapshot ini file VMware Inc Chapter 9 Using ThinApp Utilities and Tools Example Usage The following prints changes that are recorded in the sandbox c ThinAppdir gt sbmerge Print ProjectDir c myproject The following merges the changes from the sandbox into the project directory located at c myproject sbmerge uses the normal search order for sandbox probing c ThinAppdir gt sbmerge Apply ProjectDir c myproject c somedir gt sbmerge Apply ProjectDir c myproject SandboxDir c documents and settings username application data thinstall myproject If you are running from the project directory you must supply the complete path to sbmerge exe For example c Program Files VMware VMware ThinApp sbmerge exe Using ThinReg ThinReg ThinReg exe is used to register ThinApp packages on a PC including m Creating Start Menu and desktop shortcuts m Setting up file type associations m Adding uninstall information that can be executed from the system control panel m Unregistering previously registered packages Usage ThinReg exe Optio
128. mine where a particular shell folder is located There are currently about 25 different shell folder specifications VMware Inc 141 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 142 System services AeLookupSvc Application Experience Lookup Service Process ID 812 Shared process Yes State Running Flags x00000000 Not running in system process Alerter Alerter Process ID 0 Shared process Yes State Stopped Flags x00000000 Not running in system process System services are relatively long running executables that perform specific functions and that normally do not require user intervention Windows services can be configured to start when the operating system is first loaded or they can be loaded at some later point on demand Services run in the background as long as Windows is running or until they are either stopped or abort Windows services are similar in concept to a Unix daemon System services can be viewed in the Processes tab of the Task Manager They are usually identified by a user name such as system local service or network service though not all processes with the system username are actually services System services are managed by a special system component known as the Service Control Manager or SCM 32 bit device drivers Kernel mode drivers Abiosdsk Abiosdsk ACPI Microsoft ACPI Driver ACPIEC ACPIEC adpu160m adpu160m Like system services device drivers usually run without the awarenes
129. mines which package wins The last package imported will win in such cases and the file or registry contents from that package will be visible to the running application Application Links are imported in the order they are listed in the RequiredAppLinks or OptionalAppLinks parameter If either parameter specifies a wildcard character that matches more than one file alphabetical order will be used to determine which package is imported first If two or more packages include VB scripts the order of execution for the VB Scripts will be alphabetical order by the name of the package If two packages contain a VB script with the same name the last import wins policy will be used to execute only the version of the VB script from the last imported package containing a script with that name Because VB Script name collisions could cause scripts from other packages not to be executed it is important to use unique name for VB Script filenames Following is an example of package import order OptionalAppLinks a exe b exe plugins exe For this example the import order is 1 The base application 2 a exe 3 b exe 4 plugins a exe 5 plugins b exe RequiredAppLinks RequiredAppLinks Specifies a list of external ThinApp packages to import into the current package at runtime If any specified package fails to import an error message will be displayed and the parent executable file will exit To continue even if load errors occur use Option
130. ming 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 PCs in a block based fashion As an application requests specific parts of data files this information is read in the compressed format over the network using standard Windows file sharing protocol After a client PC receives data the data is decompressed directly to memory and provided to the application Because no data is written to disk the process is fast Also client PCs need minimal disk space to host the operating system 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 PC runs low on memory Windows discards some of its disk cache and provides the memory resource to other applications VMware Inc 79 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 80 Figure 5 2 Application Streaming packaged executable VMware ThinApp VOS local PC 128K read request virtual registry compressed file decompressed Block 1 64k Block 1 Ethernet 64k Block 2 decompressed Block 2 64k Block 3 64k Block 4 64k Block 5 A large package does not necessarily take a long time to load over the network The size of the package does not affect the startup time of an application If you add an extra 20GB file to a package that is not used at runtime th
131. n_full HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE SYSTEM CurrentControLSet Services Apache2 2 Parameters Value ConfigArgs REG_MULTI_SZ f 2300 ProgramFilesDir Apache Software Foundation Apachez2 2 conf httpd conf 2300 d 2300 ProgramFilesDir Apache Software Foundation Apache2 2 2300 2300 isoLation_full HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE SYSTEM CurrentControLSet Services Apache2 2 Security Value Security REG_BINARY 01 00 14 80 90 00 00 00 9c 00 00 00 14 00 00 00 30 00 00 00 02 00 1c 00 01 00 00 00 02 80 14 00 ff 01 0f 00 01 01 00 00 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 00 02 00 60 00 04 00 00 00 00 00 14 00 fd 01 02 00 01 01 00 00 00 00 00 05 12 00 00 00 00 00 18 00 ff 01 0f 00 01 02 00 00 00 00 00 05 20 00 00 00 20 02 00 00 00 0 0 14 00 8d 01 02 00 01 01 00 00 00 00 00 05 0b 00 00 00 00 00 18 00 fd 01 02 00 0 1 0 2 00 00 00 00 00 05 20 00 00 00 23 02 00 00 01 01 00 00 00 00 00 05 12 00 00 00 01 01 00 00 00 00 00 05 12 00 00 00 isolation_full HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE SYSTEM CurrentControlSet Services Apache2 2 Enum Value 0 REG_SZ Root LEGACY_APACHE2 2 0000 2300 Value Count REG_DWORD 01 00 00 00 Value NextInstance REG_DWORD 01 00 00 00 Application PATH and Environment Variables Setup Capture automatically captures system and user environment variables These changes occur indirectly by capturing and comparing the registry If an application needs a specific environment variable to run correctly you can make environment variable changes prior to completing the Setup Captur
132. nal Parameters PackageName exe Package2 exe PackagesByWildcard Optional Parameters include a allusers Register a package for all users This will register the package for all users but if an unauthorized user attempts to run the application a message will appear that tells the user he or she cannot run the application q quiet Do not output any information u unregister uninstall Unregister a package If needed this also removes the software from the Add Remove Programs control panel applet r reregister VMware Inc 129 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 130 Re register a package Normally ThinReg detects if a package is already registered and skips it if itis By using the r option you can force ThinReg to re register the package k keepunauthorized keep If ThinReg detects a registration for a package for that you re no longer authorized you are no longer part of the PermittedGroups specified in the packages Package ini it removes the registration information for that package By specifying this option ThinReg won t remove the registration info noarp Do not create an entry in the Add Remove Programs control panel applet norelaunch This option has an effect on Microsoft Vista only ThinReg is launched on Vista without elevated privileges That means standard users are able to invoke ThinReg without a UAC pop up window When ThinReg detects that it does need more privileges those privil
133. nction if the application needs to load external DLLs that have dependencies on DLLs located inside the package Parameters Path in The filename or path for DLLs to load as virtual Example Load any DLL located in the same directory as the executable as a virtual DLL TS_ORIGIN is the path from which the executable is running Origin GetEnvironmentVariableC TS_ORIGIN To delete the filename from TS_ORIGIN so find the last backslash and remove everything after it LastSlash InStrRev Origin SourcePath Left Origin LastSlash Tell ThinApp to load all DLLs in the same directory or deeper from where the source executable is This allows us to drop additional files in the SourcePath tree and have them resolve imports against virtual DLLs AddForcedVirtuaLLoadPath SourcePath VMware Inc 155 VMware ThinApp User s Manual ExitProcess Sub ExitProcess ExitCode This function quits the current process and sets the specified Error Code Parameters ExitCode in The error code to set This information might be available to a parent process Typically a value of 0 is used to indicate no error Example Exit the process and indicate success ExitProcess 0 NOTE As the process exits the scripting system receives its Function OnEndProcess callback Also any DLLs that are loaded run their termination code so they can properly clean up ExpandPath Function ExpandPath InputPath This func
134. nd is also known as the current directory This is the directory that is reported whenever an application uses the GetCurrentDirectory system function ADO version 2 82 3959 0 This is the version of Active Data Objects ADO that is currently installed ADO is a relatively new compared with ODBC Microsoft only technology It is a set of COM objects used to access data sources providing a layer between a programming language and the OLE DB whether they are databases or otherwise in a uniform manner ADO enables a developer to write programs that access data without knowing how the database is implemented Terminal services Not running This specifies whether Terminal Services is currently active Terminal Services enable a server to host multiple simultaneous client sessions For example on WinXP Prof along with the Server 2003 family Remote Desktop uses Terminal Services to allow a single session to run remotely The Terminal Services Remote Desktop Web Connection extends Terminal Services technology to the Web Remote session Yes This specifies whether a Remote Desktop session is currently being used LUA enabled No This stands for Least privileged User Account as opposed to an administrator account This feature usually applies to Microsoft Vista The principle of least privilege is based on the notion that if a low privileged process is compromised it will do a lot less damage to a system than a high privil
135. nd subkeys that have full isolation set the applications will only see virtual files and subkeys Any system values that may exist at the same location will be invisible to the application Problem 2 An application fails because it was not designed or tested for multi user environments The application should be able to modify files and keys without impacting other users Problem 3 An application fails because it should have write permission to global locations and was not designed for locked down desktop environments found in corporate environments or Windows Vista VMware Inc 89 VMware ThinApp User s Manual Solution to Problems 2 and 3 ThinApp makes copies of registry keys and files written by the application and performs all the modifications in a user specific sandbox ThinApp calls this WriteCopy Isolation For directories and subkeys that have WriteCopy isolation the application recognizes both the host PC s files and virtual files However all write operations convert host PC files into virtual files in the sandbox ThinApp has three different isolation modes that are automatically determined by Setup Capture Setup Capture has some rules for determining what isolation mode to apply to a registry subtree or directory during capture m Ifthe application created a new directory or registry subtree during its installation on a clean PC the isolation mode is set to full isolation m User specific storage areas like Deskto
136. nect to the Web server once per day to see if an updated version is available You can set the frequency by modifying this setting For example AppSyncUpdateFrequency 1d The Application Sync update frequency can be set to AppSyncExpirePeriod AppSyncExpirePeriod Sets the update frequency in minutes m hours h or days d If the Web server cannot be reached the package will continue to work until the AppSyncExpirePeriod is reached This default setting is 30 days but you can change that setting by modifying this setting For example AppSyncExpirePeriod 30d If you do not want the package to expire set this as follows AppSyncExpirePeriod never AppSyncWarningPeriod AppSyncWarningPeriod Sets the start of the warning period before a package expires For example AppSyncWarningPeriod 5d AppSyncWarningFrequency AppSyncWarningFrequency Sets the frequency of warnings before the package expires With the default of one day the warning message will be displayed once per day only To configure the warning to pop up on every application launch use 0 After the warning period has started the Web server will be checked on every launch of an application overriding the setting VMware Inc Chapter 3 Configuring the Package ini File As long as a package has not expired this parameter checks for new versions and downloads will occur in the background The user can continue to use the old version If the applicati
137. needed or allowed between the file extensions in the list so a typical list would be doc docx This setting only makes sense in an app exe section not in the BuildOptions section Normally Setup Capture will place the FileTypes list in the Package ini file that it generates You can manually remove extensions that you do not want to associate with the virtual package For example if you are virtualizing Microsoft Office 2007 and have Office 2003 installed natively you can remove the doc extension from the FileTypes list and leave docx so doc files are opened by Word 2003 and docx by Word 2007 VMware Inc Chapter 3 Configuring the Package ini File For example use ThinReg to create file type associations for doc and dot extensions linking them to Microsoft Word Microsoft Office Word 2003 exe ReadOnlyData bin Package ro tvr Source ProgramFilesDir Microsoft Office OFFICE11 WINWORD EXE FileTypes doc dot LogPath LogPath Controls where to store trace files when logging For example direct ThinApp to store log files in c ThinappLogs NOTE Unlike most paths in ThinApp LogPath cannot contain macros such as AppData or Temp BuildOptions LogPath C ThinappLogs NetRelaunch NetReLaunch Controls whether to relaunch an application from the local disk when running from a net share or removable disk By default ThinApp automatically detects if an application is being run from a network
138. ng a URL m Use a desktop deployment solution to push the package to the background Allow it to run only after the entire package downloads These solutions reduce failures and eliminate situations in which the application requires unstreamed portions during a network outage A company with many branch offices typically designates one application repository that mirrors a central shared folder at each branch office This setup optimizes local performance for clients that are located at the branch office Security and Streaming For security purposes VMware recommends that you make a central shared directory read only Users can then read the package contents but not change the executable contents As multiple users stream a package from a shared location changes that the application makes are stored in the user s sandbox A user s sandbox location defaults to AppData Thinapp APPLICATION_NAME You can configure the sandbox location at runtime or at package time A common configuration is to locate the user s sandbox on another central storage device The user can use any PC and retain individual application settings at a central share When packages are streaming from a central share they remain locked until all users have exited the application ThinApp provides a mechanism for updating applications while they are still running For more information see Upgrading Captured Applications on page 87 How ThinApp Application Strea
139. nputExeNameW gt 7fe90c21 000841 0a88 cmd exe 4ad0492b lt AcGenral DLL 6f880364 GetProcAddress gt FARPROC 7FE90C21h 000842 0a88 cmd exe 4ad02c97 gt 0le32 d11 774e03f0 Getfile type CIN HANDLE hFile 3h 000843 0a88 Getfile type 3 gt 0x2 000844 0a88 cmd exe 4ad02c97 lt ole32 d11 774e03f0 Getfile type gt DWORD 2h O 000845 0a88 cmd exe 4ad 2ccQ gt kernel32 d11 7c812f39 GetStdHandle IN DWORD nStdHandLe FFFFFFF6h 000846 0a88 cmd exe 4adQ2ccO lt kernel32 d11 7c812f39 GetStdHandle gt HANDLE 3h 000847 0a88 cmd exe 4adQ2ccd gt kernel32 d11 7c81af14 GetConsoleMode IN HANDLE hConsoleHand1le 3h 000848 0a88 cmd exe 4adQ2ccd lt kernel32 d11 7c81af14 GetConsoleMode gt BOOL 1h OUT LPDWORD 1pMode 13DDCCh gt A7h 000849 0a88 cmd exe 4ad05b74 gt 01e32 d11 774e03f0 Getfile type CIN HANDLE hFile 7h 000850 0a88 Getfile type 7 gt 0x2 000851 0a88 cmd exe 4ad05b74 lt 0le32 d11 774e03f0 Getfile type gt DWORD 2h O 000852 0a88 cmd exe 4adQ5b9d gt kernel32 d11 7c812f39 GetStdHandle IN DWORD nStdHand1le FFFFFFF5h 000853 0a88 cmd exe 4ad05b9d lt kernel132 d11 7c812f39 GetStdHandle gt HANDLE 7h 000854 0a88 cmd exe 4ad 5baa gt kernel32 d11 7c81af14 GetConsoleMode IN HANDLE hConsoleHand1le 7h 000855 0a88 cmd exe 4adQ5baa lt kernel32 d11 7c81af14 GetConsoleMode gt BOOL 1h OUT LPDWORD 1pMode 13DA80h gt 3h 000856 0a88 cmd exe 4ad 5dec gt kern
140. o it accesses the system registry instead of the virtual registry Function OnFirstParentStart Create the reg file ina place that has IsolationMode set to Merged so it can be easily accessed from both the virtual environment this script and the system environment regedit s One directory that has a Merged IsolationMode by default is the Personal directory so create the reg file there RegFileName ExpandPath Personal thin reg Set fso CreateObject Scripting file systemObject Set RegFile fso CreateTextFile RegFileName true 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 GetBuildOption InventoryName and chr 34 RegFile Close Enter the information in the system registry wait until it is done RegEditPid ExecuteExternalProcess regedit s and chr 34 and RegFileName and chr 34 WaitForProcess RegEditPid 0 Clean up fso DeleteFile RegFileName End Function VMware Inc Chapter 11 Using Scripts API Reference This chapter contains API reference information for ThinApp AddForcedVirtualLoadPath Function AddForcedVirtualLoadPath Path This function instructs ThinApp to load all DLLs from the specified path as virtual DLLs even if they are not located in the package Use this fu
141. of the exception m MSI error messages The MSI system starts for applications that are not installed correctly and tries to perform self repair Unless a feature was installed using on demand installation the feature usually indicates that there is something wrong in the environment Luckily MSI provides good indicators and error messages in the trace file before it starts self repair Search your trace file for calls to FormatMessage which provides you with important information from the MSI installer The error might occur in a child process make sure you look at the correct trace file Log Monitor produces one trace file for each process that is started If your application starts several child processes the first step is to determine which process is causing the problem In some cases such as out of process COM a parent application uses COM to launch a child process executes a function remotely and then continues executing When running applications from a network share two processes are always created Ignore the first one To work around Symantec AntiVirus slow performance issues ThinApp always relaunches processes when running from a network share 111 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 112 m Search for the error message you see in dialog boxes Many applications call the Win32 API function MessageBox to display unexpected errors at runtime You can search your trace file for either MessageBox or the conten
142. on 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 Files subversion bin foobar gt INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE failed FS missing in view O fs entry not found ProgramFilesDir subversion bin foobar fs entry not found ProgramFilesDir subversion bin x 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 k FindFirstFileW c bin foobar gt INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE failed system probe c bin foobar gt ffffffffh no virtual or system matches xxx FindFirstFileW c bin foobar gt INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE failed FS missing in view 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 Vis
143. on exits Chapter 12 Troubleshooting on page 167 describes what you need if you must contact customer support The chapter also provides application specific troubleshooting tips VMware Inc Capturing and Configuring Applications To perform the procedures in this chapter you must use the MSI installation file to install ThinApp on your computer This chapter includes the following topics Supported Operating Systems and Applications on page 15 Using a Clean PC for Capturing on page 17 Installing VMware Server on page 18 Using Setup Capture on page 18 A Real Windows Service on page 21 Application PATH and Environment Variables on page 23 Packaging NET Applications on page 25 Plug Ins and Add Ins on page 27 Large Packages on page 28 Supported Operating Systems and Applications ThinApp supports the following operating systems and applications VMware Inc 32 bit platforms Windows NT Windows 2000 Windows 2000 Server Windows XP Windows XPE Windows 2003 Server Windows Vista 64 bit platforms Windows XP 64 bit Windows 2003 64 bit Windows Vista 64 bit 16 bit applications running on 32 bit Windows operating systems 15 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 16 m 32 bit applications running on 32 bit and 64 bit Windows operating systems m Terminal Server and Citrix Metaframe In addition ThinApp supports the following items m Single package sup
144. on is terminated by the user before the download is complete the download will resume when a virtual application is launched again After the download completes the new version will be activated on the next launch When the package has expired the version check and download will happen in the foreground A progress bar will be shown during the download phase For example AppSyncWarningFrequency 1d AppSyncWarningMessage AppSyncWarningMessage If the connection to the Web server fails a message box will be shown The default message is shown in the example below For example AppSyncWarningMessage This application will become unavailable for use in AppSyncwarningPeriod days if it cannot contact its update server Check your network connection to ensure uninterrupted service AppSyncExpireMessage AppSyncExpireMessage After the expiration limit has been reached and a virtual application is started it will try to connect to the Web server and check for a new version If the connection fails a message box will be shown and execution will be terminated The default message is shown in the example below For example 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 AppSyncUpdatedMessage When an updated package is first launched an information message can be shown
145. onsole Configuration Files The configuration file allows you to specify directories and subkeys to be excluded from a scan of created projects If no configuration file is specified Snapshot attempts to load its config file from these locations 1 Application Data Thinapp Snapshot ini user s AppData directory 2 C Program Files Thinapp Snapshot ini location from which Snapshot exe is run See the default Snapshot ini inthe C Program Files Thinapp Snapshot ini for more details about customizations that can be performed Snapshot exe can be used for m Saving the state of a PC s file system and registry For example snapshot C data snapshot snapshot C data snapshot C HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE m Comparing two previously recorded states For example snapshot C start snapshot diffprint C end snapshot m Printing contents of a saved state For example snapshot C start snapshot print m Generating a ThinApp project by comparing two previously saved states For example snapshot C start snapshot SuggestProject C end snapshot C project ini snapshot C project ini GenerateProject VMware Inc 133 VMware ThinApp User s Manual Usage snapshot CaptureFile snapshot BaseDirectory1 BaseDirectory2 BaseRegistry1 BaseRegistry2 Config ConfigFile ini snapshot Original snapshot Diff NewEnvironment snapshot OutputDirectory Config ConfigFile ini Quiet snapshot Original snapshot DiffPrin
146. opping service example 152 system registry example 154 timeout example 151 using 149 Setup Capture locating errors 110 using 18 20 snapshot command line interface 131 saving 132 using 131 VMware Inc Index support 81 V applications 15 virtual file system drivers 81 folder macros 96 operating systems 15 using 95 virtual registry T comparing information with host PC ThinReg using 129 registry 107 troubleshooting deleting a registry subkey 107 applications 169 exporting data to regedit format 105 general information 167 importing data from regedit Java Runtime Environment 171 format 104 Microsoft Office 2007 169 listing diagnostic information 106 Microsoft Outlook 170 listing registry keys 106 text format 101 VMware Server installing 18 U updates application 85 upgrade_captured_apps 87 upgrading applications 87 utilities description 109 VMware Inc 175 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 176 VMware Inc
147. orkflow for Application Link 53 Application Link Pathname Formats 55 Collisions Within Linked Packages 56 RequiredAppLinks 56 4 VMware Inc OptionalAppLinks 57 Collisions and Order of Import 57 Security and Authorization 57 Application Syne 58 AppSyncURL 59 AppSyncUpdateFrequency 60 AppSyncExpirePeriod 60 AppSyncWarningPeriod 60 AppSyncWarningFrequency 60 AppSyncWarningMessage 61 AppSyncExpireMessage 61 AppSyncUpdatedMessage 61 AppSyncClearSandboxOnUpdate 62 MSI Generation 62 MSIDefaultInstallAllUsers 62 MSIFilename 63 MsSIInstallDirectory 63 MSIManufacturer 64 MSIProductCode 64 MSIProductVersion 64 MSIRequireElevatedPrivileges 65 MsSIUpgradeCode 65 Sandbox Control 66 SandboxName_ 66 SandboxPath 66 InventoryName 67 SandboxNetworkDrives 67 SandboxRemovableDisk 68 RemoveSandboxOnExit 68 4 Configuring the Sandbox 71 Introduction to the Sandbox 71 Sandbox Structure 73 Controlling the Location of the Sandbox Portable Applications 76 VMware Inc Contents 75 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 5 Deploying and Working with Virtual Applications 77 Stream ThinApp Packages 77 Network Requirements for Streaming ThinApp Applications 78 Security and Streaming 79 How ThinApp Application Streaming Works 79 Using Captured Applications with Other System Components 81 Cut and Paste 81 Printers 81 Drivers 81 Access to Local Disk Removable Disk and Network Shares 82 Access to the System Registry 82 Networkin
148. ot perform macro substitution for registry values that contain paths to short path name or shell folders When this flag is not set the values contained in tvr are replaced with macro versions of paths VMware Inc Chapter 8 Using the Virtual Registry For example if the reg file contains a string registry value of C windows system32 kernel32 d11 the tvr file contains the value systemsystem kernel32 d11 When the application requests the value of this registry key it receives the value C windows system kerne132 d11 when running on Windows 98 ME and XP If the application runs on Windows NT or Windows 2000 it receives the value C winnt system32 kerneL32 d11 Usually macro substitution is preferable However in some cases you might want to disable this and store a hard coded path in the registry Exporting Registry Data to Regedit Format Use the following commands to export registry data to Regedit format VREGTOOL regfile tvr ExportReg filename reg HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE Software regfile tvr Data file in ThinApp virtual registry file format regedit reg The reg file to export to The file produced is in REGEDIT 5 0 format unicode text HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE Software You can optionally specify a registry subtree to export If no subtree is specified vregtool exports the entire contents of the tvr file If the specified registry subkey has a space in the name you should specify the key using quotes like this HKEY_
149. ot run the NET exe directly d Save the NET project to C Captures dotnet VMware Inc 53 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 54 2 Capture the base application a Using the same PC or virtual machine resulting from the end of step 1 capture the installation of the application with the NET framework already installed on the PC as shown in the following illustration b Save the project to C Captures MyApp Workstation Setup Capture pre install scan clean Windows Net framework installed post install scan save Net framework ThinApp project pre install scan clean Windows base application installed Net framework installed post install save base application scan ThinApp project VMware Inc Chapter 3 Configuring the Package ini File Enable the optional AppLinks parameter for the base application package a Open the text file c Captures MyApp Package ini in a text editor b Add the following line after the line BuildOptions RequiredAppLinks dotnet dat Build net and base application packages a Run the batch file c Captures MyApp build bat a Run the batch file c Captures dotnet build bat By running these batch files you build two separate ThinApp packages Deploy your application to an end user desktop at the location c Program Files MyApp a Copy c Captures MyApp bin MyApp exe to enduserdesktop ProgramFiLesShare MyApp MyApp exe b Copy c Captures dotne
150. oup and the everyone group have the same SID on every Active Directory domain and workgroup Other groups you create have a domain specific SID Users cannot create their own local group with the same name to bypass authentication VMware Inc Chapter 5 Deploying and Working with Virtual Applications Example Package ini Files for Active Directory Access Control In the following example App1 and App2 will both inherit PermittedGroups from BuildOptions BuildOptions PermittedGroups Administrators 0fficeUsers App1 exe App2 exe In the following example App users can use App1 exe and members of the Everyone group can use App2 exe The default message for denied user is also changed for App1 BuildOptions PermittedGroups Everyone App1 exe PermittedGroups App1Users AccessDeniedMsg Sorry you can t run this application App2 exe Application Updates If an application has built in auto updating capabilities its update mechanism still functions when running under ThinApp If the application downloads and runs an installer or patching program this runs inside the virtual environment and all of the changes made by the update software are written to the sandbox When the application restarts it uses the version of the executable in the sandbox and not from the original package For example if you capture Firefox 1 5 your auto update mechanism might ask if you want to upgrade to Firefox 2 0 If you do it do
151. p and My Documents are set to merged isolation so the application has direct write access to these locations m All other directories and subkeys default to WriteCopy isolation NOTE Network shares are not affected by isolation modes Read and write operations to network shares occur unchanged by ThinApp For example the following image shows a section of the Windows registry for a PC that has various older Office applications installed Office 2003 creates the registry subtree HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE Software Microsoft 0ffice 11 0 The following is the registry as seen by Windows Regedit H a J opec PA 10 0 11 0 jj 8 0 39 0 L Common jj Delivery Live Meeting Outlook PowerPoint i Visio AR E E E 90 VMware Inc Chapter 6 Configuring Isolation Modes When running a captured version of Visio 2007 ThinApp sets the HKLM Software Microsoft O0ffice registry subtree to full isolation This setting prevents Visio 2007 from failing because of registry settings that might pre exist on the host PC at the same location The following is the registry as seen by a captured Visio 2007 application Lemma fi 12 0 H E Access Connectivity Common H B Registration H B User Settings Visio E 10 0 11 0 8 0 HA 9 0 E E Common j Delivery HHE Live Meeting i Outlook E E PowerPoint i Visio
152. p searches for an existing sandbox in the following locations in the order listed below If a sandbox already exists ThinApp uses the existing sandbox rather than creating a new one To search using an application specific environment variable 1 SANDBOXNAME_SANDBOX_DIR ComputerName For example if SANDBOXNAME Mozilla Firefox 1 0 the environment variable Mozilla Firefox 1 0 SANDBOX_DIR ComputerName is consulted 2 SANDBOXNAME_SANDBOX_DIR VMware Inc 71 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 72 To search using a global environment variable that applies to all captured applications 1 THINAPP_SANDBOX_DIR SANDBOXNAME ComputerName Example THINAPP_SANDBOX_DIR ComputerName 2 THINAPP_SANDBOX_DIR SANDBOXNAME To search for an application specific local sandbox 1 ExeDirectory SANDBOXNAME ComputerName 2 ExeDirectory SANDBOXNAME To search for a local sandbox for all captured applications 1 ExeDirectory Thinapp SANDBOXNAME ComputerName 2 ExeDirectory Thinapp SANDBOXNAME To use the SandboxPath Package ini value to set a custom sandbox path 1 SANDBOXPATH SANDBOXNAME ComputerName 2 SANDBOXPATH SANDBOXNAME To search in the user s Application Data Thinapp folder for a sandbox 1 AppData Thinapp SANDBOXNAME ComputerName 2 AppData Thinapp SANDBOXNAME If an existing sandbox cannot be found ThinApp creates a new sandbox ThinApp creates a new sandbox using the following logic 1 If the SANDBOXNAME_
153. perform application updates make sure you disable the auto update feature of your captured application VMware Inc Chapter 5 Deploying and Working with Virtual Applications Upgrading Captured Applications ThinApp allows you to upgrade or roll back an application version that it is still running The upgrade process occurs automatically when the user quits the application and runs it a second time In Terminal Server environments you can have multiple users executing different versions at the same time during the transition period The process for doing in place upgrades or roll backs is very simple and is described in the following sections Locked Files When applications are running the executable package is locked and it cannot be replaced deleted or moved This file lock ensures that any computer or user who accesses a specific version of an application continues to have that version available as long as their application processes and subprocesses are running If an application is hosted in a central location and run by many users this file lock means a user cannot replace a packaged executable with a new version until all users have released their locks on the file Deploying Application Upgrades ThinApp has an upgrade mechanism that enables you to deploy application upgrades even while older versions are still in use by users This mechanism is as simple as copying the new version into the old deployment directory with a
154. port on all platforms m Automatic migration for Windows NT or Windows 2000 to Windows XP and Windows XP to Windows Vista ThinApp does not support the following operating systems and applications m 16 bit or non x86 platforms such as Windows CE m 64 bit applications running on 32 bit or 64 bit Windows operating systems m 16 bit applications running on 64 bit Windows operating systems Applications that ThinApp Cannot Capture ThinApp does not support the capture of all applications and in some cases application functions might be degraded The following is a list of software that you typically must deploy using traditional installation technologies m Applications requiring installation of kernel mode device drivers ODBC drivers work because they are user mode m Products such as anti virus and personal firewalls m Scanner drivers and printer drivers m Some VPN clients The following sections list some known limitations Device Drivers Applications that require device drivers do not work when they are packaged with ThinApp You must natively install those device drivers on the host PC Antivirus VPN clients personal firewalls and disk and volume mounting related utilities are usually not good candidates for ThinApp to capture In addition applications that make their features available by installing printer drivers cannot include a printer driver when ThinApp packages them VMware Inc Chapter 2 Capturing and Configur
155. pter 11 Using Scripts Copyfile Example The following scripts demonstrate how you can copy a configuration file located in the same directory as your captured executable into the virtual file system each time the application starts One use for this is to enable you to have an external configuration file that is easy to edit after deployment Because the copy occurs each time you run the application any edits to the external version are reflected in the virtual version For example if your captured executable is running from server share myapp exe this script looks for a configuration file located at server share config ini and copies it to the virtual file system location c Program Files my application config ini By putting this code in the OnFirstParentStart function it is only called once per execution Otherwise it is executed for every child process as well Function OnFirstParentStart TS_ORIGIN is set by ThinApp to indicate the full path to a captured executable package A virtual application sets the TS_ORIGIN variable to the physical path of the main data container If you have a virtual application consisting of a main exe and a shortcut exe both of them are placed in C VirtApp When you run C VirtApp main exe the TS_ORIGIN var will be set to C VirtApp main exe When you run C VirtApp shortcut exe the TS_ORIGIN environment variable will be set to C VirtApp main exe it is always set to the main data cont
156. py HKEY_CURRENT_USER Software Microsoft Windows CurrentVersion writecopy HKEY_CURRENT_USER Software Microsoft Windows CurrentVersion ExpLorer writecopy HKEY_CURRENT_USER Software Microsoft Windows CurrentVersion ExpLorer MountPoi nts2 writecopy HKEY_CURRENT_USER Software Microsoft Windows CurrentVersion ExpLorer MountPoi nts2 c1664 b80 e468 11db 8906 806d6172696f writecopy HKEY_CURRENT_USER Software Microsoft Windows CurrentVersion ExpLorer MountPoi nts2 c1664 b81 e468 11db 8906 806d6172696f writecopy HKEY_CURRENT_USER Software Microsoft Windows CurrentVersion ExpLorer MountPoi nts2 c1664 b82 e468 11db 8906 806d6172696f VMware Inc Chapter 4 Configuring the Sandbox writecopy HKEY_CURRENT_USER Software Microsoft Windows CurrentVersion ExpLorer MountPoi nts2 c1664 b83 e468 11db 8906 806d6172696f writecopy HKEY_CURRENT_USER Software NVIDIA Corporation writecopy HKEY_CURRENT_USER Software NVIDIA Corporation Global writecopy HKEY_CURRENT_USER Software NVIDIA Corporation GLobal nView Controlling the Location of the Sandbox The sandbox is the directory where all changes made by the application are stored The next time the user executes the application those changes are remembered from the sandbox By deleting the sandbox directory you can instantly revert the application back to its captured state By default the sandbox is located in the users AppData directory c documents and settings username AppLlication Data T
157. r a GetComputerName or GetComputerNameEx command the machine will return LOCALHOST If your system requires that the GetComputerName and GetComputerNameEx APIs behave normally do not rename the machine LOCALHOST The VirtualComputerName parameter is commented out in the Package ini file as shown below 4OriginalMachineName will be substituted by the machine name VirtualComputerName 0riginalMachineName VMware Inc 43 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 44 VirtualDrives VirtualDrives Specifies additional drive letters that should be available to the application at runtime Virtual drives can help solve issues in which applications rely on hard coded paths to specific drive letters that might not be available on the client PCs you are distributing to For example some legacy applications might be designed to expect that the D drive is a CD ROM and that various data files are available at D media Virtual drives are visible only to applications running in the virtual environment they do not have any impact on the real Windows environment Isolation modes for virtual drives are inherited from the project s default isolation mode unless you specific override it as shown below If you configure your virtual drive with the isolation mode setting set to IsolationMode Merged any writes to that drive fail if it does not exist on the real system Projects created by Setup Capture automatically list virtual drive information for d
158. rce the application to use a local sandbox You can also control the default location of the sandbox using environment variables or by creating a Thinapp directory Environment variables and a local Thinapp directory takes precedence over the path specified by SandboxPath InventoryName InventoryName Optional string that is used for package identification by inventory control systems For example InventoryNanme is typically a version independent string that tracks a specific resource of interest to inventory scanning applications BuildOptions InventoryName Microsoft Office 2003 InventoryName is meant to be a version independent string that can be used to track a ThinApp package with inventory scanning software When deploying new versions of an application you might want to change the SandboxName so that the new version has isolated user settings However InventoryName can be left constant across versions of the same application InventoryNanme is not used by ThinApp during build or execution SandboxNetworkDrives SandboxNetworkDrives Determines if network mapped drives have sandboxing applied By default ThinApp enables you to write directly to network mapped drives without applying sandboxing For example the following prevents the user from writing directly to network mapped drives and changes the sandbox instead BuildOptions SandboxNetworkDrives 1 VMware Inc 67 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 68
159. rent named Synchronization objects m Mutex accessed using OpenMutex and CreateMutex m Semaphore accessed using OpenSemaphore and CreateSemaphore m Events accessed using OpenEvent and CreateEvent By default ThinApp does not isolate synchronization objects You can specify a list of synchronization objects to isolate from other applications not running in the same virtual namespace A namespace is defined by the location of the application s sandbox If two applications share the same sandbox path they have the same namespace for isolated synchronization objects If two applications have the same sandbox name but the path to the sandbox is different the applications have separate namespaces IsolatedSychronizationObjects accept a list of entries that are separated using the semicolon character Each entry can have wildcards characters and to match variable patterns For example isolate two synchronization objects matching anything with outlook in the name and one matching exactly My Shared Object BuildOptions IsolatedSychronizationObjects outlook My Shared Object RegistrylsolationMode RegistryIsolationMode Controls default isolation mode for registry keys in package RegistryIsolationMode controls the default isolation mode for the package This setting applies to any registry keys that do not have an explicitly specified setting For example this enables the application to read keys from the host PC bu
160. res the file in the sandbox To solve this the isolation mode of the directory where the attachments are stored needs to be set to Merged VMware Inc Chapter 12 Troubleshooting Next you need to find out the name of the directory the last part of the name was randomly chosen To solve this add a value to HKEY_CURRENT_USER txt that sets the name of attachment directory isolation_full HKEY_CURRENT_USER Software Microsoft O0ffice 11 0 OutLook Security Value Out LookSecureTempFolder REG_SZ Profile Local Settings Out LookTempxxxx 2300 NOTE The 11 0 in the key name is for Outlook 2003 use the appropriate version number for your version of Outlook For slightly increased security replace the last four xxxx characters with something random Next create a directory Profile Local Settings Out LookTempxxxx in your project and create an Attributes ini file there containing Isolation DirectoryIsolationMode Merged The directory Profile Local Settings Out LookTempxxxx is just an example you can use whatever you want as long as you make sure that the directory is named in the OutlookSecureTempFolder registry key and is set to the correct isolation mode Explore exe The Windows Shell explorer exe checks for an already running copy using GetShellWindow If explorer exe detects a shell is already running it sends a message to the running copy and exits If you want to run explorer exe in the virtual en
161. rives that were present at the time of capture VirtualDrives is specified as a single string that can hold information for multiple drive letters and optional parameters for those drive letters The format for VirtualDrives should look like this VirtualDrives Drive A Serial 12345678 Type REMOVABLE Drive B Serial 9ABCDEFO Type FIXED The semicolon is used to separate drive letters and comma is used to separate parameters for individual drive letters Drive single character between a and z Serial 8 digit hex number Type m FIXED The drive has fixed media For example a hard drive or internal Flash drive m REMOVABLE The drive has removable media For example a floppy drive thumb drive or flash card reader m CD ROM The drive is a CD ROM drive m RAMDISK The drive is a RAM disk VMware Inc Chapter 3 Configuring the Package ini File The simplest usage is to specify a single virtual drive letter By default a drive is assigned a serial number and type of FIXED Build 1Drives Drive M This specifies three virtual drive letters X D and Z BuildOptions VirtualDrives Drive X Serial ff897828 Type REMOVABLE Drive D Type CDROM Drive Z Drive X appears to be a removable disk with Serial number ff797828 Drive D appears to be a CD ROM drive with an automatically assigned serial number Drive Z appears to be a FIXED disk with an automatically assigned serial number NOTE The character
162. roRd32 exe ReadOn1lyData bin Package ro tvr This change results in a virtualized application that can be run directly from a network share on restricted accounts without installation or modification to local PCs The captured executable is read only and unmodifiable so it can be placed in a central location where it is shared by multiple users For descriptions of the parameters contained in the Package ini file see Chapter 3 Configuring the Package ini File on page 29 A Real Windows Service Real Windows services have the following features m They are packaged as a separate captured executable files m They run on boot up m They run under the account specified by the service m They are directly visible to the control panel services manager m They can be started and stopped by any application m They require global system registry changes VMware Inc 21 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 22 Running Captured Executables as Real Windows Services You might want to run some applications with real Windows services at system boot up rather than when an application is started by a user To install a captured packaged executable as a real service 1 Remove virtual registry keys from your ThinApp project relating to services 2 Addrealsystem registry keys for the associated service that point to your ThinApp packaged executable To use Apache Web server 1 After capture delete all service registry keys from HK
163. rogram Files Adobe Reader 8 0 Reader plug_ins PPKLite api MEMORY_MAPPED_ANON 28800000 2885dfff C Program Files Adobe Reader 8 0 Reader plug_ins reflow api MEMORY_MAPPED_ANON 29000000 29227fff C Program Files Adobe Reader VMware Inc 8 0 Reader plug_ins MakeAccessible api MEMORY_MAPPED_ANON 29800000 2985afff 8 0 Reader plug_ins Accessibility api MEMORY_MAPPED_ANON 29a00000 29a1dfff 8 0 Reader plug_ins ReadOutLoud api MEMORY_MAPPED_ANON 2a000000 2a018f ff 8 0 Reader plug_ins Search5 api MEMORY_MAPPED_ANON 20a300000 2a359f ff 8 0 Reader plug_ins Search api MEMORY_MAPPED_ANON 2a800000 2a821f ff 8 0 Reader plug_ins SendMail api MEMORY_MAPPED_ANON 2b000000 2b045f ff 8 0 Reader plug_ins SpelLling api MEMORY_MAPPED_ANON 2b800000 2b865f ff 8 0 Reader plug_ins PDDom api MEMORY_MAPPED_ANON 2d800000 2d94ef ff 8 0 Reader plug_ins Multimedia api MEMORY_MAPPED_ANON 2e000000 2e02ffff 8 0 Reader plug_ins webLink api MEMORY_MAPPED_ANON 30800000 30829f ff 8 0 Reader plug_ins Updater api MEMORY_MAPPED_ANON 31800000 31810f ff 8 0 Reader plug_ins HLS api MEMORY_MAPPED_ANON 32000000 3204df ff 8 0 Reader plug_ins SaveAsRTF api MEMORY_MAPPED_ANON 40800000 40821f ff 8 0 Reader plug_ins DVA api MEMORY_MAPPED_ANON 45800000 458cfffFf 8 0 Reader plug_ins Checkers api MEMORY_MAPPED_ANON 46800000 46873f ff 8 0 Reader plug_ins ImageViewer API Chapter 9 Using ThinApp Utilities and Tools C Program Files Adobe Reader C
164. s VirtualizeExternaLOutOfProcessCOM 0 This instructs ThinApp to execute all external out of process COM objects in the virtual environment default BuildOptions VirtualizeExternaLOutOfProcessCOM 1 General Options 34 The following sections describe the general options parameters AddPageExecutePermission AddPageExecutePermission Used to fix applications that don t work in DEP environments Windows XP SP2 Windows Server 2003 and above have a feature called Data Execution Prevention that is designed to protect against some security exploits that occur with buffer overflows Because this feature causes a number of compatibility issues it is turned off by default on XP SP2 and it is possible to use an machine specific opt in or opt out list of the applications to apply DEP protection to Opt in and opt out VMware Inc Chapter 3 Configuring the Package ini File policies can be difficult to manage when a large number of machines and applications are involved This option instructs ThinApp to add Execution Permission to pages allocated by an application so that it can run on machines that have DEP protection enabled without having to modify the opt out list For example BuildOptions Disable some Data Execution protections for this particular application AddPageExecutionPermission 1 BuildOptions Do not change DEP protections default AddPageExecutionPermission 0 AllowUnsupportedExternalChildProcesses
165. s install the plug ins during the capture process after you have captured your application The virtualized application can load and use the add ins as if they are installed on the host PC Alternatively you can use the Application Link feature to link a virtual application to its plug ins or add ins For more information see Application Link on page 51 Using Setup Capture to capture an application and its plug ins or add ins might require specific knowledge of how the application works and adjustments to the package to enable a virtualized application to see plug ins installed on the host PC For example applications commonly load plug ins based on specific registry values or file system locations For default projects created by Setup Capture some registry subtrees and directories are set up with full isolation Full isolation prevents the application from detecting host PC registry keys or files so the application might not see plug ins that exist on the host PC If you are not sure which registry subtrees or directories are used to locate and load plug ins Log Monitor can help you find that information By changing the isolation mode from Full to WriteCopy or Merged you enable the application to see and load plug ins from the host PC You can use a virtualized cmd exe file to start a system installed application The system installed application runs in the virtualized environment The application can detect and load your virtualiz
166. s of the typical user There are two classes of drivers kernel mode and user mode Kernel mode drivers are very special types of software than run within ring 0 of the processor alongside the operating system itself Drivers are responsible for things such as talking to the platform s hardware managing network connections interacting with user mode processes and implementing file systems User mode drivers do many of the things that kernel mode drivers do except that they do not have the special privileges of kernel drivers As a result they are far less likely to cause the kinds of catastrophic problems that wayward kernel mode drivers can cause VMware Inc Chapter 9 Using ThinApp Utilities and Tools User mode drivers do not appear in the above list File system and filter drivers Cdfs Cdfs DfsDrive DfsDriver Fastfat Fastfat FltMgr FltMgr MRxDAV WebDav Client Redirector MRxSmb MRxSmb File system drivers and file system filter drivers are special types of kernel mode drivers that deal with the various file systems installed on the computer Examples include the FAT NTFS and CDFS file systems File system drivers stand between user applications and the hardware drivers that talk directly to the drives They implementa file system on top of the bare hardware layer of a drive tracks sectors cylinders etc For example a file system s directory and subdirectory structures are implemented by file system drivers
167. s than 2GB If the database exceeds 2GB it only contains the installer logic and the ThinReg registration utility For databases larger than 2GB the captured executable files are stored in two or more cabinet files named lt inventoryname gt _1 CAB lt inventoryname gt _2 CAB etc These files must be distributed with the MSI file to have a complete installer m ThinReg registration utility When you execute a ThinApp MSI file the MSI database extracts your captured executable files to c Program Files Use the optional configuration option MSTInstallDirectory see MSIInstallDirectory on page 63 to control the extraction destination If you specify ALLUSERS to msiexec or you create an MSI package that installs per user by default using the configuration option MSIDefaultInstal1Al11Users see MSIDefaultInstallAllUsers on page 62 then the captured executable files are extracted to the user s AppData directory VMware Inc 145 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 146 The MSI installation executes ThinReg to register file types and create shortcuts To build an MSI database 1 Edit a package file generated by Package ini to specify MSIFilename lt filename gt msi MSIFilename on page 63 2 Enterrun build bat NOTE IfMSIFilename is not specified MSI generation is skipped during the build process By default the generated database installs machine wide You can change this by setting the fo
168. t NewEnvironment snapshot Config ConfigFile ini The following is an example bat file to generate a ThinApp project using a start and ending snapshot snapshot c start snapshot echo Please install application and press ENTER when installation is complete pause snapshot C end snapshot s napshot C start snapshot SuggestProject c end snapshot c SuggestedProject ini At this point a GUI application can look at SuggestedProject and ask the user which executables they want to be accessible from Package ini snapshot C SuggestedProject ini GenerateProject c ProjectLocation del C start snapshot del C end snapshot del C SuggestedProject ini Using dil_dump 134 Use dll_dump to list all captured applications that are currently running on a PC DIl_dump lists both the processes that are running and all DLLs loaded within that process whether the DLL is loaded virtually or by the system DIl_dump can be found in the following directory C Program Files Thinapp VS gt d11_dump exe Usage dll_dump ADDRESS shows the DLL and process that has this address loaded dll_dump SUBSTRING shows DLLs loaded by ThinApp processes where the name matches the SUBSTRING dll_dump shows DLLs loaded by all ThinApp processes dll_dump fp shows DLL full path for all ThinApp processes running not just filenames VMware Inc Chapter 9 Using ThinApp Utilities and Tools dll_dump ADDRESS SUBSTRING only shows processes ma
169. t bin cmd exe to enduserdesktop ProgramFilesShare MyApp dotnet dat NOTE Ifyou plan to use msi distribution to deploy packages linked using AppLink change the RequiredAppLinks to the value dotnet dotnet dat for the base package and make sure the net ThinApp package installs to c program files dotnet Application Link Pathname Formats Application Link supports the following pathname formats VMware Inc Pathnames can be relative to the base EXE For example RequiredAppLinks SomeDirectory will result in c MyDir SomeDirectory if the base EXE is deployed to c MyDir SubDir Dependency exe Pathnames can be an absolute pathname For example RequiredAppLinks c SomeDirectory Pathnames can be located on a network share or use a UNC path For example RequiredAppLinks share somedir Dependency exe Pathnames can contain environment variable and dynamically expand to any of the above For example RequiredAppLinks MYAPP_ADDONS Dependency exe 55 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 56 m Multiple links or dependencies can be specified by using the character to separate individual filenames For example RequiredAppLinks Dependencyl1 exe Dependency2 exe Collisions Within Linked Packages If the base application contains a file or registry entry at the same location as a dependency package a collision occurs When this happens the order of import deter
170. t install Setup Capture scan on the capture machine If you want a different primary executable after Setup Capture is completed you can edit the Package ini file Shortcut executables cannot be run unless the primary executable is located in the same directory Shortcut executables and the primary executables share a common virtual registry and file system and can interact with each other Editing the Package ini File The Setup Capture wizard makes modifications to your Package ini file The Package ini file can be found in your package directory For example C Program Files VMware VMware ThinApp Captures my_virtual_app You can edit the Package ini file to customize the output of the Setup Capture process For example for Acrobat Reader you can make AcroRd32 exe the only executable In the Package ini file find BuildOptions OutDir bin SandboxName reader7 VMware Inc Chapter 2 Capturing and Configuring Applications AdobeDownloadManager exe Source ProgramFiLesDir Common Files Adobe ESD AdobeDownLoadManager exe ReadOn1lyData bin Package ro tvr AcroRd32 exe Source ProgramFilesDir Adobe Acrobat 7 0 Reader AcroRd32 exe Shortcut AdobeDownloadManager exe reader_sl exe Source ProgramFiLlesDir Adobe Acrobat 7 0 Reader reader_sl exe Shortcut AdobeDownloadManager exe Replace it with BuildOptions OutDir bin SandboxName reader7 AcroRd32 exe Source ProgramFilesDir Adobe Acrobat 7 0 Reader Ac
171. t not write to it default If no registry isolation mode is specified in the Package ini file the default value will be WriteCopy Isolation RegistryIsolationMode writeCopy Allows the application to write to any key on the PC except where the package specifies otherwise Isolation RegistryIsolationMode Merged VMware Inc 33 VMware ThinApp User s Manual VirtualizeExternalOutOfProcessCOM VirtualizeExternalOutOfProcessCOM Controls whether external out of process COM objects are run in the virtual environment Captured applications can create COM objects that are registered in the virtual environment as well as COM objects from the host system This option determines how to treat out of process COM objects that are not part of a ThinApp package and not registered in the virtual registry By default ThinApp executes external out of process COM objects in the virtual environment so such COM objects cannot modify the host PC If you run into a compatibility issue with an external COM object running in the virtual environment this option can be used to allow such objects to be created by and run on the host system If you want to run only specific COM objects outside of the virtual environment you can list each COM object s CLSID explicitly using ExternalCOMObjects For example this directs ThinApp to execute all external out of process COM objects in the system context not in the virtual environment BuildOption
172. tching SUBSTRING where ADDRESS is loaded One of the most useful purposes for d11_dump is to list all running captured applications on a PC If you use a spy program like Process Explorer on a captured application you do not see DLLs that are loaded by ThinApp because they are virtualized and Windows does not recognize that they exist Likewise if you attach a debugger to a running ThinApp process the debugger is not aware of virtual DLLs If you are investigating code running at a specific address you can use dll_dump to convert this address into a virtual DLL name and base address Using log monitor you can generate a trace and convert this to text format This section lists all DLLs that were loaded by the application over the course of its execution history DLLs that are described as SYSTEM_LOADED are loaded by Windows from the host PC including all the basic OS DLLs like kerne132 d11 DLLs that are described as MEMORY_MAPPED_ANON are loaded by ThinApp and completely isolated from Windows For Adobe Reader you should see something like this PRELOADED_BY_SYSTEM 00400000 00410000 C Program Files Adobe Acrobat 7 0 Reader AcroRd32 exe PRELOADED_MAP 00400000 00410000 C Program Files Adobe Acrobat 7 0 Reader AcroRd32 exe SYSTEM_LOADED 00400000 00410000 C thinstest 1072 Adobe Reader 7 0 bin Adobe exe SYSTEM_LOADED 77dd0000 77e6b000 C WINDOWS system32 ADVAPI32 d11 SYSTEM_LOADED 76fd0000 7704f000 C WINDOWS system32 CLBCAT
173. tcut LargeApplication dat 28 VMware Inc Configuring the Package ini File The Package ini file contains parameters that configure your captured applications during the build process By editing the contents of the Package ini file you can configure the isolation mode and several build options including MSI settings Application Link Application Sync user specified entry points for your virtual applications and other general settings The Package ini file contains one BuildOptions and one or more individual Application exe sections You set many of your Package ini file settings when you use the Setup Capture wizard to capture an application For more information see Chapter 2 Capturing and Configuring Applications on page 15 The BuildOptions apply to all applications and any options set in this section are inherited by individual applications unless the application section specifically overrides these settings The Application exe parameters provide the application entry points that you create during the build process This chapter describes the parameters of the Package ini file and contains the following sections m Isolation and Virtualization Granularity on page 30 m General Options on page 34 m Access Control on page 45 m Application Specific Parameters on page 46 m Application Link on page 51 VMware Inc 29 VMware ThinApp User s Manual m Application Sync
174. the DLL modules currently loaded by an application Note that any modules previously loaded and then unloaded will not show up in this list Also note that modules in this list are not necessarily loaded directly by the application Modules can in turn load other modules 32 bit processes x0000 idle system process x0004 system process x0124 smss exe SystemRoot System32 smss exe x016C winlogon exe C WINDOWS system32 winLogon exe x019C services exe C WINDOWS system32 services exe x01A8 lsass exe C WINDOWS system32 lsass exe x025C svchost exe C WINDOWS system32 svchost exe x032C svchost exe C WINDOWS System32 svchost exe x03CC spoolsv exe C WINDOWS system32 spoolsv exe A list of all the 32 bit processes currently running Note that processes do not necessarily directly correspond to applications Any 16 bit processes will not show up in this list Shell folders ProgramFilesDir C Program Files Common StartMenu C Documents and Settings All Users Start Menu StartMenu C Documents and Settings ron Start Menu Common AppData C Documents and Settings All Users Application Data Local AppData C Documents and Settings ron Local Settings Application Data Shell folders are special folders that Windows uses to indicate the default location for many types of settings and data Most users are familiar with folders such as Program Files My Documents and Documents and Settings Use the SHGetFolderPath AP function to deter
175. tion called MyApp exe with a separate package containing the NET 2 0 Framework The first step is to capture the main base application and allow its dependencies to be in separate packages For this example we will capture two projects 1 C Captures dotnet dependency for the main base application 2 C Captures MyApp the main base application The order of capture is important because the main base application must be captured without the NET framework being included in the project The following procedure requires a clean PC or virtual machine See Using a Clean PC for Capturing on page 17 This procedure assumes that you are familiar with the process of capturing an application in ThinApp See Chapter 2 Capturing and Configuring Applications on page 15 To link a base application called with a separate package containing the NET 2 0 Framework 1 Capture the installation of NET framework only a Start the capture process on a clean PC or virtual machine that does not have NET or the main base application b Before saving your NET framework capture follow the prompt to select at least one user accessible entry point c Rename the final exe produced by ThinApp from a exe toa dat filename extension so users are not confused and accidently run the application The name of the exe you select does not matter and cmd exe is a suitable choice The NET exe produced will be used only for linking purposes Users will n
176. tion converts a path from macro format to system format Parameters InputPath in A path in macro format Returns The expanded macro path in system format 156 VMware Inc Chapter 11 Using Scripts Example Path ExpandPath ProgramFilesDir Myapp exe Path c Program Files myapp exe NOTE All macro paths must escape the and characters by replacing these characters with 25 and 23 ExecuteExternalProcess Function ExecuteExternalProcess CommandLine This function executes a command outside of the virtual environment It can be used if you need to make real system changes Parameters Command Line in CommandLine represents the application and commandline parameters to execute outside of the virtual environment Returns Integer process ID the process ID can be used with WaitForProcess WaitForProcess on page 166 Example ExecuteExternalProcess cmd exe c copy c systemfile txt c newsystemfile txt Execute a command that requires quotes in the command line ExecuteExternalProcess regsvr32 s Files my ocx and chr 34 and chr 34 and c Program VMware Inc 157 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 158 ExecuteVirtualProcess Function ExecuteVirtualProcess CommandLine This function executes a command inside of the virtual environment It can be used if you need to make changes to the virtual environment Parameters CommandLine in CommandLine represents t
177. tions AutoShutdownServices 0 Stop virtual services when the last non service application exits default BuildOptions AutoShutdownServices 1 AutoStartServices AutoStartServices Controls whether to automatically start virtual service when the first application starts By default ThinApp automatically starts virtual services that were installed with the startup type of Automatic The virtual services are started when the first parent process is executed by the user This option can be used to disable auto starting of virtual services Following are examples of this parameter Do not start virtual services BuildOptions AutoStartServices 0 Start virtual services when first process is launched default BuildOptions AutoStartServices 1 36 VMware Inc Chapter 3 Configuring the Package ini File BlockSize BlockSize Controls the size of compression blocks used when compressing files during build Using a larger block size can achieve higher compression However larger block sizes can have a negative impact on performance m The build process slows down with larger block sizes m Startup time and file reads for applications are slower with large block sizes m More memory is required at runtime when larger block sizes are used BlockSize can be specified in two places 1 Package ini file in this case the block size becomes the default for all files in the project unless otherwise specified 2 Attr
178. trol by Using Active Directory 84 You can control access to applications using Active Directory groups When you build a package ThinApp converts Active Directory group names into SID values A SID is a small binary value that uniquely identifies an object similar to a GUID SIDs are not unique for a few special groups such as the administrator group Because SID values are stored in packages for later validation the following considerations apply You must be connected to your Active Directory domain during the build process and the groups you specified must exist ThinApp looks up the SID value during build If you delete a group and recreate it the SID might change so you need to rebuild the package in order to authenticate against the new group When users go offline they can be authenticated using cached credentials If the user can log into his or her machine ThinApp Active Directory authentication still works You can set the period of time cached credentials are valid using a group policy Cached credentials might not refresh on clients until the next Active Directory refresh cycle You can force a group policy on a client by using the gpupdate command This command refreshes local group policy settings as well as group policy settings and security settings that are stored in Active Directory Sometimes you might need to log off before Active Directory credentials can be recached Special groups like the administrator gr
179. ts of the string displayed in the error dialog For example if the application displayed a cryptic error message such as Unexpected child node Press OK to continue you could search for this string or part of the string and find what the application was doing just before the dialog box appeared m Terminate the application as soon as it encounters an error situation By terminating the application as soon as possible you have less information to sift through in the trace file If you kill the application immediately after it has an error chances are good that you can look at the end of the trace and scan upwards to see the source of the problem m You can generate txt versions of trace files while an application is still running If needed you can convert a trace file into a text report while the application is still running m Narrow your focus on calls originating from a specific DLL and thread ThinApp s log format Log Format on page 112 enables you to see which DLL and thread is making a call When tracking back from the source of an error you can usually ignore other threads and often ignore calls from system DLLs Log Format General API Log Message Format The general format for API calls looks like this 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 SetConsoleMod
180. ual 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 INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE failed FS missing in view O fs entry not found ProgramFilesDir Microsoft Visual Studio Common Tools WinNT foobar fs entry not found ProgramFilesDir Microsoft Visual Studio Common Tools WinNT xxx FindFirstFilew C Program Files Microsoft Visual Studio Common MSDev98 Bin foobar gt INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE failed system probe C Program Files Microsoft Visual Studio Common MSDev98 Bin foobar gt ffffffffh no virtual or system matches VMware Inc Chapter 9 Using ThinApp Utilities and Tools 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
181. unction WaitForProcess ProcessID TimeOutInMilliSeconds This function waits until the specified ProcessID has completed execution Parameters ProcessID in The processID to wait for completion The process ID can come from ExecuteExternalProcess or ExecuteVirtualProcess TimeOutinMilliSeconds in The maximum amount of time to wait for the process to end before continuing If 0 is specified INFINITE is used Returns This function returns an integer 0 Timeout failed 1 Process exited 2 The process does not exists or security denied Example id ExecuteExternalProcess cmd exe WaitForProcess id 0 VMware Inc Troubleshooting This chapter describes troubleshooting for ThinApp and contains the following sections m Contacting Technical Support on page 168 m Troubleshooting Specific Applications on page 169 Use volume license keys when they are available This usually eliminates problems in which applications refuse to run on a machine different from the packaging machine Applications that use per machine network activation might not work when they are run after being captured on one machine and run on a different machine When packaging applications that bind to a specific host do not run your virtual application prior to snapshot finalization Some applications might store hard coded path information in data files and might operate incorrectly when roaming to a new computer VMware In
182. uture deployments You can use Application Sync to do the following m Distribute runtime components separately from the applications that use them For example the Java Runtime Environment JRE or ODBC drivers m Link add ons and plug ins to applications For example Microsoft Office add ons or Adobe Photoshop plug ins can be linked using Application Sync m Apply layered service packs to your applications Application Sync enables you to distribute service packs and roll back to previous versions if necessary You can configure Application Sync with Setup Capture or by editing the package ini file For more information on using Setup Capture see Using Setup Capture on page 18 To make changes manually open your Package ini file The default location of your Package ini file is the Program Files VMware ThinApp Captures directory VMware Inc Chapter 3 Configuring the Package ini File Following are the default settings for Application Sync AppSyncURL https example com some path PackageName exe AppSyncUpdateFrequency 1d AppSyncExpirePeriod 30d AppSyncWarningPeriod 5d AppSyncWarningFrequency 1d AppSyncWarningMessage This application will become unavailable for use in AppSyncwarningPeriod days if it cannot contact its update server Check your network connection to ensure uninterrupted service AppSyncExpireMessage This application has been unable to contact its update server for AppSyncExpirePeriod days so
183. vironment you can do the following steps 1 Kill the currently running process explorer exe using Task Manager 2 Run the explorer exe from a ThinApp virtual environment Java Runtime Environment JRE A conflict might occur if one version of Java is installed natively and another one is included in a captured executable This is because newer versions of Java also install a plug in DLL that gets loaded by IE This plug in DLL overwrites virtual registry keys when it is loaded and can conflict with a virtualized copy of older Java runtimes You can prevent IE from loading plug ins by adding the following line to beginning of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE txt isolation_full HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE Software Microsoft Windows CurrentVersion ExpLorer Browser Helper Objects VMware Inc 171 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 172 VMware Inc Index Symbols Attributes ini file description 103 file controls 26 A access control See Active Directory Active Directory access control 84 add ins description 27 APIs AddForcedVirtualloadPath 155 ExecuteExternalProcess 157 ExecuteVirtualProcess 158 ExitProcess 156 ExpandPath 156 GetBuildOption 158 GetCommandLine 160 GetCurrentProcessName 160 GetEnvironmentVariable 163 GetFileVersionValue 159 GetOSVersion 161 log message format 112 RemoveSandboxOnExit 163 SetEnvironmentVariable 164 Setfile systemlsolation 164 SetRegistrylsolation 165 WaitForProcess 166 VMware Inc Application Link
184. will not be visible to the parent executable The following are examples This will import a single package located in the same directory as the parent executable RequiredAppLinks PLugin exe VMware Inc 57 VMware ThinApp User s Manual This will import a single package located in a subdirectory of the parent executable RequiredAppLinks pLugins PLugin exe This will import all executables located in the plugins directory NOTE If any executable fails to import because it is not a proper Thinapp package or because of a security issue the parent executable will fail to load RequiredAppLinks pLugins exe This will import all EXEs located at the absolute path n plugins RequiredAppLinks n pLugins exe This expands the environment variable PLUGINS and imports all executables found at this location RequiredAppLinks PLUGINS exe This loads two specified plug ins and a list of executables found under plugins RequiredAppLinks plugin1 exe plugin2 exe plugins exe Application Sync 58 Application Sync enables you to automatically keep deployed virtual applications up to date When an application starts up Application Sync can query a Web server to see if an updated version of the package is available If an update is available the differences between the existing package and the new package will be downloaded and used to construct an updated version of the package The updated package will be used for f
185. wizard When the scan finishes select your user accessible entry points and click Next Your entry points are the executable files that start your virtual applications The entry points you are able to choose from depend on the executables that your captured application creates during installation For example if you install Microsoft Office you can choose entry points for Word Excel and other applications that are installed during a Microsoft Office installation Select any Active Directory Groups that you want authorized to use the package you are creating For more information on this setting see PermittedGroups on page 46 Select your sandbox location and click Next NOTE If you select Network drive custom be sure to enter the relative path to the location where you want the sandbox created For example thinapp sandbox application1 The sandbox holds runtime modifications that your virtual applications make as they are running For more information on the sandbox see Chapter 4 Configuring the Sandbox on page 71 Enter the directory where you want to save your package Your package stores your captured software applications A default directory is provided for you If you want to build an MSI package select the Build MSI Package check box and enter your MSI file name For more information about MSI package settings see MSI Generation on page 62 For more information on setting up an MSI data
186. wnloads updates writes them to the sandbox and prompts you to restart When you run the captured application again you are running Firefox 2 0 If you delete the sandbox Firefox reverts back to version 1 5 The VMware ThinApp Sandbox Merge utility can be used to merge changes made by an application s update mechanism into the original package to build an executable to redeploy to end user machines For more information on sbmerge see Using Sandbox Merge sbmerge on page 127 VMware Inc 85 VMware ThinApp User s Manual 86 ThinApp opens new possibilities for updating applications dynamically without requiring administrator rights For example NET based applications that download new DLL files from the Internet as part of their update process need to execute ngen exe to generate native image assemblies in order to improve startup performance Normally ngen exe writes to HKLM and c windows both of which are off limits for non administrator accounts When running under VMware ThinApp ngen exe can install Native Image assemblies even on guest user accounts However these changes are stored in a user specific directory You might want to update the package on a central computer and push the changes to clients or central network shares as a new captured executable file Create a ThinApp project that contains the application updates Choose one of these approaches m Apply patches during capture m Apply patches inside
187. x from the Windows shell Typically this includes copyright trademark and version number information By default ThinApp copies all version information from the source executable specified using Source See Source on page 50 This option can be used to strip version information from the resulting application For example this generates a target application with no version information app exe Source ProgramFiLesDir myapp app exe StripVersionInfo 1 WorkingDirectory WorkingDirectory Sets the current working directory before the application starts This option can set the CWD Current Working Directory for individual applications The CWD setting is applied before the application starts The CWD value does not need to exist on the system For example this sets the current working directory to C Program Files My Application Application exe WorkingDirectory ProgramFilesDir My Application VMware Inc Chapter 3 Configuring the Package ini File Version XXXX Version XXXX Used to override executable version strings or add new version strings Version resources are normally copied from the original executable You can override the version resource strings and add new ones using a Version lt string_name gt string_value setting For example this sets the VersionInfo field ProductName to the value My New Product Name Application exe Version ProductName My New Product Name Version Des
188. y directory format VREGTOOL regfile tvr ImportDir input_directory where ImportDir is a keyword regfile tvr Data file in ThinApp virtual registry file format input_directory Input directory in which registry data is read The following is an example vregtool c tmp test tvr ImportDir C jc code VOS2 thinapp setup_capture Debug Captures 05 07 2006 01 14 Importing Registry Data from Regedit Format 104 Use the following commands to import registry data from Regedit format VREGTOOL regfile tvr ImportReg regedit reg Merged writeCopy Full NoReplLace NoMacros regfile tvr Data file in ThinApp virtual registry file format regedit reg The reg file to import entries imported are added to the specified tvr file This file can be in REGEDIT 4 0 ansi text or 5 0 unicode text format Isolation Mode options If no isolation mode is specified WriteCopy is used Merged Specifies that registry keys that do not already exist have isolation mode set to Merged WriteCopy Specifies that registry keys that do not already exist have the isolation mode set toWriteCopy Full Specifies that registry keys that do not already exist have the isolation mode set to Full NoReplace Do not replace or modify existing registry values If this option is not selected when a tvr already contains a value specified in the reg file this value is overwritten with the value specified in the reg file NoMacros Do n
189. y keys in the system registry and use those settings which is probably not what is intended Full Isolation Mode is required for the registry keys and files where Microsoft Outlook stores its settings so the captured version pretends the system settings do not exist To set this up some changes need to be made to the capture Add the following to the HKEY_CURRENT_USER txt file isolation_full HKEY_CURRENT_USER Identities isolation_full HKEY_CURRENT_USER Software Microsoft Windows NT CurrentVersion Windows Messaging Subsystem Profiles Next a file named Attributes ini with the following contents Isolation DirectoryIsolationMode FullL This setting must be created 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 Create the subdirectories as needed Attachments By default Microsoft Outlook creates a directory where it stores attachments when you open an attachment for viewing This directory is typically C Documents and Settings lt username gt Local Settings Temp Temporary Internet Files OLKxxxx where the last xxxx is replaced by something randomly chosen This works fine when the viewing application runs in the same virtual sandbox as Microsoft Outlook However external application might not be able to find the file it is supposed to show This is because Microsoft Outlook sto
190. ystemRoot CSIDL_WINDOWS C Windows SystemSystem CSIDL_SYSTEM C Windows System32 TEMP C Documents and Settings lt username gt Local Settings Temp Templates CSIDL_TEMPLATES C Documents and Settings username Templates Macros requiring shfolder dll version 5 0 or higher include ProgramFilesDir Common AppData Local AppData My Pictures and Profile Macros requiring shfolder dll version 6 0 or higher include My Videos Personal and Profiles ThinApp uses shfolder d11 to obtain the location of Shell folders Older versions of shfolder d11 do not support some macro names If there is a requirement for a specific version of shfolder d11 on the host OS it is listed Special processing for SystemRoot When running in a Terminal Services environment there are two Windows directories a shared Windows directory for example C Windows and a private Windows directory for example C Documents and Settings User Windows For Terminal Services environments ThinApp uses the user specific directory for Systemroot VMware Inc Using the Virtual Registry Operating systems and applications store a large amount of settings in the system registry The virtual operating system intercepts requests to open files and redirects them to the virtual file system it also intercepts requests to look up and store values in the registry and redirects them to the virtual registry By storing the settings in the virtua

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