Using The Earliest Operating System Required For Users; Install Thinapp Software; Checking Thinapp Installation Files - VMware THINAPP 4.6 Manual

Application installers skip files that already exist on the computer. If the installer skips files, the ThinApp
package does not include them during the application capture process. The application might fail to run on
other computers where the files do not exist. A clean computer enables the capture process to scan the
computer file system and registry quickly.
If you install ThinApp and capture an application on a computer that has Microsoft .NET 2.0 already installed,
.NET 2.0 is not included in the ThinApp package. The captured application runs only on computers that have
.NET 2.0 already installed.
Using Virtual Machines for Clean Computers
The easiest way to set up a clean computer 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 capture an
application, you can restore the snapshot and revert it to a clean virtual machine state that is ready for the next
application capture.
You can use VMware Workstation or other VMware products to create virtual machines. For information
about VMware products, see the VMware Web site.

Using the Earliest Operating System Required for Users

Install ThinApp on a clean computer with the earliest version of the operating system you plan to support.
In most cases, the earliest platform 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 lacks. ThinApp
excludes these DLLS from the captured application package if the application typically installs these DLLs.
After you create a ThinApp application package, you can overwrite files in the package with updated versions
and rebuild the application without the capture process.

Install ThinApp Software

Use the ThinApp executable file to install ThinApp.
Install ThinApp software
1 Download ThinApp to a clean physical or virtual Windows machine.
2 Double‐click the ThinApp executable file.
3 In the Patent Lists dialog box, click Next.
4 Accept the license, type the serial number, and type a license display name that appears when you open
applications that ThinApp captures.
5 Click Install.
ThinApp is installed.

Checking ThinApp Installation Files

The ThinApp installation generates the VMware ThinApp directory in C:\Program Files\VMware. You might
check the files in this directory to perform operations such as starting the Log Monitor utility to view recent
activity.
The following key files in the VMware ThinApp directory affect ThinApp operations:

AppSync.exe – Keeps captured applications up to date with the latest available version.

logging.dll – Generates .trace files.

dll_dump.exe – Lists all captured applications that are currently running on a system.

log_monitor.exe – Displays the execution history and errors of an application.

relink.exe – Updates existing packages to the latest ThinApp version installed on the system.
VMware, Inc.
Chapter 1 Installing ThinApp
13