VMware THINAPP 4.6 - Defining Entry Points as Shortcuts into the Virtual Environment; Set Entry Points

VMware, Inc. 17
Chapter 2 Capturing Applications
4 (Optional)Starttheapplicationandrespondtoanymessagesforinformationbeforeyoucontinuewith
theSetupCapturewizard.
Ifyoudonotrespondtoanymessagesatthistime,eachuserwhousestheapplicationmustdosoduring
theinitialstart.
5Closetheapplication.
6 MaximizetheSetupCapturewizard,click
Postscantoproceedwithanotherscanofthecomputer,and
clickOKtoconfirmthepostscanoperation.
ThinAppstoresthedifferencesbetweenthefirstbaselineimageandthisimageinavirtualfilesystemand
virtualregistry.
Defining Entry Points as Shortcuts into the Virtual Environment
Entrypointsaretheexecutablefilesthatactasshortcutsintothevirtualenvironmentandstartthevirtual
application.Theentrypointsyoucanchoosefromdependontheexecutablefilesthatyourcaptured
applicationcreatesduringinstallation.
Forexample,ifyouinstallMicrosoftOffice,youcanselectentrypointsfor
MicrosoftWord,MicrosoftExcel,
andotherapplicationsthatareinstalledduringaMicrosoftOfficeinstallation.IfyouinstallFirefox,youmight
selectMozilla Firefox.exeandMozilla Firefox (SafeMode).exeifusersrequiresafemodeaccess.
DuringthebuildprocessthatoccursattheendoftheSetupCapturewizard,ThinAppgeneratesone
executablefilefor
eachselectedentrypoint.IfyoudeploytheapplicationasanMSIfileorusethe
thinreg.exeutility,thedesktopandStartmenushortcutscreatedonuserdesktopspointtotheseentry
points.
Entry Points for Troubleshooting
ThinAppprovidesentrypointstotroubleshootyourenvironment.
Debugginganapplicationmightinvolvethefollowingentrypoints:
 cmd.exe–Startsacommandpromptinavirtualcontextthatenablesyoutoviewthevirtualfilesystem.
 regedit.exe–Startstheregistryeditorinavirtualcontextthatenablesyoutoviewthevirtualregistry.
 iexplore.exe–Startsiexplore.exeinavirtualcontextthatenablesyoutotestvirtualized
ActiveX controls.
Entrypointsstartnativeexecutablefilesinavirtualcontext.Entrypointsdonotcreatevirtualpackagesof
cmd.exe,regedit.exe,oriexplore.exe.
Ifyoucannotpredicttheneedfordebuggingortroubleshootingtheenvironment,you
canusetheDisabled
parameterinthePackage.inifileatalatertimetoactivatetheseentrypoints.
Set Entry Points
Youcandesignatetheexecutablefilesthatmakeupthelistofentrypoints.ThinAppinstallstheexecutable
filesduringthecaptureprocess.
Set entry points in the Setup Capture wizard
1OntheEntryPointspage,selectthecheckboxesforuser‐accessibleentrypoints.
Thewizarddisplaystheexecutablefilesthatweredirectlyaccessiblethroughthedesktop
orStartmenu
shortcuts.
2 (Optional)Todebugyourenvironment,selecttheShowentrypointsusedfordebuggingcheckboxto
displaytheiexplore.exe,regedit.exe,andcmd.exetroubleshootingoptions.