VMware THINAPP 4.6 - Sandbox Structure; Making Changes to the Sandbox; Listing Virtual Registry Contents with Vregtool

ThinApp User’s Guide
106 VMware, Inc.
Sandbox Structure
ThinAppstoresthesandboxusingafilestructurealmostidenticaltothebuildprojectstructure.ThinAppuses
macronamesforshellfolderlocations,suchas%AppData%,insteadofhardcodedpaths.Thisstructureenables
thesandboxtomigratetodifferentcomputersdynamicallywhentheapplicationrunsfromnewlocations.
The
sandboxcontainsthefollowingregistryfiles:
 Registry.rw.tvr–Containsallregistrymodificationsthattheapplicationmakes.
 Registry.rw.lck–Preventsothercomputersfromsimultaneouslyusingaregistrylocatedonanetwork
share.
 Registry.tvr.backup–Containsabackupofthe.tvrfilethatThinAppuseswhentheoriginal.tvr
fileiscorrupted.
Inadditiontotheseregistryfiles,thesandboxcontainsdirectoriesthatinclude%AppData%,
%ProgramFilesDir%,and%SystemRoot%.Eachofthesefolderscontainsmodificationstorespectivefolders
inthecapturedapplication.
Making Changes to the Sandbox
ThinAppstoresfilesysteminformationinthevirtualregistry.ThevirtualregistryenablesThinAppto
optimizefilesystemaccessinthevirtualenvironment.For example,whenanapplicationtriestoopenafile,
ThinAppdoesnothavetoconsulttherealfilesystemfortherealsystemlocationandagainforthe
sandbox
location.Instead,ThinAppcancheckfortheexistenceofthefilebyconsultingonlythevirtualregistry.This
abilityincreasestheThinAppruntimeperformance.
VMwaredoesnotsupportmodifyingoraddingfilesdirectlytothesandbox.Ifyoucopyfilestothesandbox
directory,thefilesarenotvisible
totheapplication.Ifthefilealreadyexistsinthesandbox,youcanoverwrite
andupdatethefile.VMwarerecommendsthatyouperformallmodificationsfromtheapplicationitself.
Listing Virtual Registry Contents with vregtool
Becausethesandboxcontainsthemodificationstotheregistry,youmightneedthevregtoolutilitytoview
modifiedvirtualregistrychanges.YoumusthaveaccesstothevregtoolutilityinC:\Program
Files\VMware\VMware ThinApp.
Asamplecommandtolistthecontentsofavirtualregistryfileisvregtool registry.rw.tvr printkeys.