VMware THINAPP 4.6 - Extracting and Registering Thindirect; Capturing Multiple Application Installers with Thinapp Converter; Thinapp Converter Process

VMware, Inc. 29
Chapter 2 Capturing Applications
9 (Optional)Whenyouhavesav edthepackage,opentheThinDirect.txtfile,whichcontainstheentry
pointtoInternetExplorer6andthelistofredirectaddresses,andeditthefile.
ThisfileonlyexistsafteryoucreateentriesintheNativeBrowserRedirectdialogbox.
Theredirectionlistislocatedin%appdata%\roaming\Vmware\VMware Thinapp\Thindirect
.
10 Followthepromptstobuildtheproject.
TheThinDirect.exefileisembeddedinthepackage,withtheplug‐inThinDirect.dllandplug‐in
launcherThinDirectLauncher.exefiles.
Extracting and Registering ThinDirect
AfteryouhavebuilttheInternetExplorer6package,youneedtoextractandregistertheThinDirectplug‐in
onthetestmachine.TheThinDirectplug‐inmustbeinstalledaspartofthevirtualpackage.Theplug‐inis
installedinyournativebrowserduringtheregistrationprocess.
Extract and register ThinDirect
Inthe
console,runthethinreg /a VirtIE6.execommandtoextracttheThinDirectapplication,andextract
andregistertheThinDirectlibrary.
TheThinDirectapplicationisinstalledintheProgram Files/VMware/VMware ThinApp/ThinDirect
directory.
YoucanhavemultipleThinDirecttextfilesintheThinDirectdirectory,iftheyallhaveuniquenames.The
ThinDirectplug‐inthenreadsallfiles.
Inadditiontoindividualmachineregistration,youcanregisterWebpageredirectsonaindividualuserbasis
byomittingthe/aswitch.Toachieveindividual‐userredirectsrequiresthattheThinDirectplug‐inbe
installedasaseparatestepfromanAdministratoraccount.IfyoudonotinstalltheThinDirectplug
‐inasa
separatestep,Thinregdisplaysanerror.
YoucanpushadditionalWebpageredirecttoend‐usercomputersbycopyingfileswithaspecificformatto
specificindividual‐machineorindividual‐userlocations.
Capturing Multiple Application Installers with ThinApp Converter
OnvirtualmachinesrunningaWindowsoperatingsystem,youcanuseThinAppConvertertoconvert
multipleapplicationinstallersintoThinApppackages.Afteryouprovideaconfigurationfilewithspecific
settingsthattheconverteraccesses,ThinAppConverterrunsapplicationsinsilentmode.Silentmodemeans
thattheprocessoccurswithoutrequiringuser
input,afterinitialconfigurationsettingsarespecified.ThinApp
Convertertransparentlycapturesinstallationcontent,generatesThinAppprojects,andbuildtheprojectsinto
aThinApppackageinvirtualmachinesyouspecifyintheconfigurationfile.Thisprocessisfullyautomated,
fromwhenThinAppConverterstartstorununtiltheThinApppackageis
built.
TheThinAppexecutablefileandtheapplicationinstallerscanrunonvirtualmachines.
ThinApp Converter Process
BeforeyourunThinAppConverter,youmustusetheThinAppConverter.iniconfigurationfileasa
templatetospecifythevirtualmachineenvironmentonwhichtheapplicationstobeconvertedreside,the
networksharepaths,andvariousothermandatoryandoptionalparameters.Youthenusethe-fcommand
lineswitchtospecifythe
configurationfilethatyoucreated,whichThinAppConverterwilluse.Forexample,
ThinAppConverter.exe -f myConfig.ini.
ThinAppConverterreadstheconfigurationfiletoidentifywhichinstallersaretobeconvertedandthevirtual
machinesonwhichtheconversionistooccur.
ThinAppConverterthenpowersoneachvirtualmachineandtakesasnapshotthat
isusedafterthe
conversionprocessiscomplete.