VMware THINAPP 4.6 - Dynamic Updates Without Administrator Rights; Upgrading Running Applications on a Network Share; File Locks; Upgrade a Running Application

VMware, Inc. 63
Chapter 4 Updating and Linking Applications
Dynamic Updates Without Administrator Rights
Youcanupdateapplicationsdynamicallywithoutrequiringadministratorrights.For example,.NET‐based
applicationsthatdownloadnewDLLfilesfromtheInternetaspartoftheirupdateprocessmustrunthe
ngen.exefiletogeneratenativeimageassembliesforstartupperformance.Intypicalcircumstances,the
ngen.exefilewritestoHKLMandC:\WINDOWS
,bothofwhichareonlyaccessiblewithadministratoraccounts.
WithThinApp,thengen.exefilecaninstallnativeimageassembliesonguestuseraccountsbutstoreschanges
inauser‐specificdirectory.
Youcanupdatethepackageonacentralcomputerandpushthechangestoclientmachinesortocentral

networksharesasanewcapturedexecutablefile.Useoneofthefollowingoptionsforapplyingupdates:
 Duringthesetupcaptureprocess.
 Insidethevirtualenvironment.
Applicationswithauto‐updatecapabilitiescanundergoupdates.Iftheupdateisapatch.exefile,the
patchprogramcanruninthevirtualenvironmentandrunfromacmd.exefileentrypoint.Changesoccur
inthesandboxduringautomaticupdatesormanualupdatestoallowyouto
reverttotheoriginalversion
bydeletingthesandbox.
Ifyouapplypatchesinthevirtualenvironmentonacentralpackagingmachine,youcanusethe
sbmerge.exeutilitytomergesandboxchangesmadebytheupdatewiththeapplication.See
“ApplicationUpdatesThattheAdministratorTriggers”onpage 60.
 Inthecapturedproject.
Ifyoumustupdateasmallsetoffilesorregistrykeys,replacethefilesinthecapturedproject.
This approachisusefulforsoftwaredeveloperswhointegrateThinAppbuildswiththeirworkflow.
Upgrading Running Applications on a Network Share
ThinAppallowsyoutoupgradeorrollbackanapplicationthatisrunningonanetworkshareformultiple
users.Theupgradeprocessoccurswhentheuserquitstheapplicationandstartsitasecondtime.InTerminal
Serverenvironments,youcanhavemultipleusersexecutingdifferentversionsatthesame
timeduringthe
transitionperiod.
File Locks
Startinganapplicationlockstheexecutablefilepackage.Youcannotreplace,delete,ormovetheapplication.
Thisfilelockensuresthatanycomputeroruserwhoaccessesaspecificversionofanapplicationcontinuesto
havethatversionavailableaslongastheapplicationprocessesandsubprocessesarerunning.
Ifyou
storeanapplicationinacentrallocationformanyusers,thisfilelockpreventsadministratorsfrom
replacingapackagedexecutablefilewithanewversionuntilallusersexittheapplicationandreleasetheir
locks.
Upgrade a Running Application
Youcancopyanewversionofanapplicationintoanexistingdeploymentdirectorywithahigherfilename
extension,suchas.1or.2.ThisprocedureusesFirefoxasasampleapplication.
Youdonothavetoupdateshortcuts.
Upgrade a running application
1Deploytheoriginalversionoftheapplication,suchasFirefox.exe.
2Copythe
applicationtoacentralshareat\\<server>\<share>\Firefox.exe.
AsamplelocationisC:\Program Files\Firefox\Firefox.exe.