System Requirements For Running Thinapp Converter; Preparing The Configuration File For Thinapp Converter - VMware THINAPP 4.6 Manual

ThinApp User's Guide
After the snapshot is taken, ThinApp Converter pushes a silent capture agent to virtual machines. The silent
capture agent runs transparently on the virtual machines, capturing the application installation process in a
similar way to that of the Setup Capture wizard when a single application is being captured. The silent capture
agent performs the following actions:

Runs a ThinApp prescan

Installs an application from the network share specified in the configuration file

Runs a postscan

Generates a ThinApp project on the network share specified in the configuration file

Performs project post‐processing tasks

Builds the ThinApp project on the network share into a package
The silent capture agent then returns control to the ThinApp Converter, which reverts the virtual machines to
their precapture state, using their original snapshot.
The process is then repeated for the next application installation process that needs to be converted. When
multiple virtual machines are specified, the capture agent runs on the machines simultaneously. As a virtual
machine becomes available, it is once again used for converting the next application
ThinApp Converter Limitations

Not all application installation processes support silent installation mode. ThinApp Converter does not
support automatic capture for an installation process that does not support silent installation.

The installer directory name must not contain the equals symbol (=).

System Requirements for Running ThinApp Converter

ThinApp Converter requires one of the following virtual machine environments:

VMware ESX Server 4.0, or later

VMware vCenter Server 4.0, or later

VMware Workstation 7.0, or later
The virtual machines that are used in the conversion process must have the following items installed:

Windows XP with Service Pack 3, Windows Vista, or Windows 7

The latest version of VMware Tools
ThinApp Converter includes a private copy of the VMware VIX API library. If a more recent version of the
library already exists on the host machine, ThinApp Converter tries to use the newest version.
VMware recommends that you use Windows 2003 or Windows 2008 as a file server for network share. The file
server needs to have sufficient system resources to handle a large quantity of file operations. Do not use the
host machine that runs the ThinApp Converter executable file as the file server for the network share.
When using a VMware Workstation environment, ensure that the network settings are in bridged mode.

Preparing the Configuration File for ThinApp Converter

A sample configuration file, ThinAppConverter.ini, is included in the ThinApp installation. The file is
generally located in C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware ThinApp.
Modify or create a copy of this file to suit your requirements. Use UTF‐8 encoding when you specify parameter
values.
The ThinAppConverter.ini configuration file includes the following section headings:

[HostEnvironment] contains virtual machine hosting parameters.

[VirtualMachineN] contains virtual machine‐specific parameters.
30 VMware, Inc.