Using VMware ThinApp to make a software single file tutorial

VMware ThinApp is an Application Virtualization tool, but for me it's more about making single file software and portable software.

VMware ThinApp to the program-related resources such as EXE, DLL, OCX, registry keys, such as encapsulation to a single EXE file, the program runs the resources required from this single EXE virtual environment, so as to achieve the isolation of the operating system.

With VMware ThinApp encapsulation You can make a more pure single file software, and simply set the parameters, VMware ThinApp can also act as the role of making portable software, in most cases, VMware ThinApp can do a good job.

Always wanted to do a simple thinapp use of the tutorial, but always did not adhere to it, this time by the release of the new version of VMware ThinApp the first to make a production idea to come, I hope to explore with you together under the study. But now I still do not like the single file software, especially the ThinApp package, more inclined to green software, portable software and installation-free software.

1. First run the program setup Capture.exe, ThinApp will complete the Program in Wizard mode package, click Next to continue.

2. Here is a brief introduction to attention, the most important thing is to scan a clean system to form a snapshot of the system, the advantage is to get the program to operate the most information required.

For custom Scan configuration, click Advanced Settings ..., where you can set the drive and registry branch you want to scan, and then make sure to return.

3. After clicking Next, ThinApp will scan the current file system and registry and form a snapshot, ThinApp is saving the snapshot:

After the system snapshot is complete, VMware ThinApp prompts you to start installing and configuring the program you need to encapsulate, and recommends that you install the program to the default location. When all is done, click Next to continue:

4. VMware ThinApp system snapshot scanning after program installation:

After the scan is completed, you will be prompted to select the program entry point, that is, from which program to start, typically the main program file, usually ThinApp will automatically choose, click Next to continue.

5. Enter the sandbox location settings, sandbox is thinapp sand table or cache directory, and the program changes to save the path, later run the encapsulated program will read the configuration information from the sandbox, if deleted sandbox words, The program will be restored to its default state (that is, the state of the snapshot);

VMware ThinApp offers three different modes:

* User ' s profile (%appdata%thinstall directory is the system's application Data directory;

* USB flash/portable Media is to save the sandbox to the exe file path, that is, the equivalent of making portable software, sandbox path is packaged with the program in the same directory.

6. Click Next to enter system isolation mode setting; The so-called isolation modes is to set how the changes made by the virtual program affect the actual computer environment.

Merged isolation mode allows the virtual program to save files (such as the C:user path, except the system directory) in the actual file system, or the encapsulated program (thinstalled App) changes the file system to the existing file system;

When Writecopy isolation mode is selected, changes made by the virtual program are saved only to the desktop and the document directory, while saving to other directories (such as C:user) is not visible (redirected and saved to the sandbox). or the encapsulated program changes to the file system will not be visible in the actual file system, and then saved to the sandbox, such as the processed pictures. Here merged isolation mode is used a lot more.

7. Click Next to continue, here you can set the ThinApp project file save path, you can also set the compression mode of encapsulation (Compression);

No compression is not compressed, fast compression for rapid compression mode, it is recommended to choose Fast compression, can provide 57% compression rate, and the program start time and no compression difference, Is that the first time the package time is longer.

After clicking Next, VMware ThinApp begins to save the project file:

8. After you save, you have two choices: build now generates the virtualization program directly with the default parameters, or browse project returns to the engineering file directory to customize more advanced options.

This is the case after the build now is directly selected, and finally the build Complete is prompted, and the encapsulated program is in the Bin folder of the engineering directory:

9. Choose Browse Project to navigate to the Engineering files directory. Here you can delete some unnecessary files to reduce the size of the encapsulated file, such as delete help files, uninstall programs, and so on, and here's the Package.ini is the encapsulation parameter configuration file, called by BUILD.bat, I am here to explain the commonly used parameters. After you modify the parameters, rerun BUILD.bat to generate the virtualization program.

Compression and detach mode, which is already set in the previous wizard, and can be changed directly in Package.ini if it is not satisfied:

Available options are:

Nonecompressiontype=none

Compressiontype=fast

Directoryisolationmode=merged

Directoryisolationmode=writecopy

Sandboxpath settings: Sandboxpath is the sandbox path, Sandboxpath can use a relative path, or an absolute path.

Sandboxpath=. (EXE file the same path)

Sandboxpath=%appdata%thinstall (Appdatathinstall directory of the System)

Sandboxpath=localsandboxsubdir1 (subdirectories under the exe file directory)

Sandboxpath=z:sandboxes

OutDir is the output directory of the packaging program, not too much introduction.

Sandboxname is the sandbox directory name, preferably set to a better name, the default is the software name.

Removesandboxonexit: Whether to delete sandbox at the end of the program.

Removesandboxonexit=1 (delete sandbox)

Removesandboxonexit=0 (do not delete sandbox)

Virtualdrives: Here is a snapshot of the system's drive state, including the type, serial number, and so on to create virtual drive state when running the virtual program, my experience is best to take a snapshot in a virtual machine, and do not have too many partitions.

The above is some commonly used ThinApp package parameters, of course, there are many more advanced options, please refer to the Help file, the description is very detailed, especially the ThinApp Scripts function, you can start or end of the program run batch or VBS script, This will enable more functionality. What needs to be explained is that VMware ThinApp is not suitable for every program, some encapsulation can not run, only through ThinApp upgrades to fix bugs, support more software; it is highly recommended to use VMware ThinApp in a clean system environment. I am not interested in single file software now, VMware ThinApp also used a lot less, but still hope to communicate with you more.

Note : More wonderful tutorials Please pay attention to the triple computer Tutorials Section