VMware ThinApp is an agentless application virtualization solution that decouples applications from their underlying operating systems to eliminate application conflict and streamline application delivery. With ThinApp, an entire Windows application and its settings can be packaged into a single executable and deployed to many different Windows operating systems without imposing additional cost and complexity to the server or client.
v5.1 [Nov 23, 2014]
What's New
VMware ThinApp 5.1 is the latest version of ThinApp. This release has the following enhancements.
ThinApp Package Management
In earlier versions of ThinApp, to change some specific Package.ini parameters, you had to first make those changes in the configuration file, save the file, and rebuild the package. Using the new ThinApp package management feature, you can dynamically reconfigure the attributes of deployed ThinApp packages at runtime. ThinApp Package management helps IT administrators manage ThinApp packages and define group policy for each package. Each package to be managed must have an associated group policy defined using its inventory name.
When you install ThinApp 5.1, a new folder named Policy is created in the installation directory. This folder contains tools and templates for managing ThinApp packages and contains the following files:
AppPolicy.exe
README.TXT
ThinAppBase.adml
ThinAppBase.admx
ThinAppGeneric.adml
ThinAppGeneric.admx
ThinApp selects the policy precedence when you rebuild a package and deploy it. If a package is managed by a group policy, ThinApp gives precedence to the policy over its Package.ini configuration.
Group Policy Administrative Templates
ThinApp 5.1 introduces the group policy administrative template (ADMX/ADML) files. With these template files you can reconfigure group policy settings for applications that were packaged by ThinApp. The GPO files work on domain controllers that run in the following environments:
Windows Server 2008
Windows Server 2008 R2
Windows Server 2012
Administrative Template files contain markup language that is used to describe a registry-based Group Policy. The administrative files are divided into language-neutral (.admx files) and language-specific resources (.adml files), available to all Group Policy administrators. These factors allow Group Policy tools to adjust the user interface according to the administrator's configured language.
Reconfiguring Attributes of Deployed ThinApp Packages
In addition to ThinDirect, with ThinApp 5.1 you can now reconfigure or manage the following attributes of a deployed package:
AppSync
AppLink
Entry-Point Shortcuts
Note: To know how to reconfigure these package attributes, see the ThinApp 5.1 User's Guide.
ThinDirect
In ThinApp 5.1, the following enhancements have been made to the ThinDirect plug-in:
Support for the update of ThinDirect settings at specified time intervals
In ThinApp 5.1, the ThinDirect functionality has been enhanced to periodically poll for the ThinDirect setting changes. Since, the ThinDirect settings are now detected dynamically, the user need not restart the browser to view the updated changes.
Support for dynamic changes to ThinDirect via ADM
In ThinApp 5.1, you can use ThinDirect.ADM file to manage the ThinDirect enabled firefox.
Support for overriding the ThinDirect settings through GPO
In ThinApp installation directory, locate the ThinDirect.admx and ThinDirect.adml files. Use these files to manage the settings for ThinDirect feature by defining a group policy object. If the ThinDirect feature is defined through the GPO, these settings would override the text file (ThinDirect.txt) based redirection.
Support for redirection between two virtual browsers
ThinApp 5.1 supports redirection between two virtual browsers.
Support for ThinDirect in Mozilla Firefox
In ThinApp 5.1, ThinDirect has been enhanced to work with Mozilla Firefox version 22 and later. In earlier versions of ThinApp, ThinDirect was limited to Internet Explorer.
New Package.ini Parameter Introduced
ThinApp 5.1 introduces the SandboxWindowClassName parameter. When you set the SandboxWindowClassName=1 you can sandbox or isolate the application defined window class names created and used within the ThinApp package.
Extracting an existing ThinApp project to a system
ThinApp 5.1 allows you to extract an existing ThinApp project to a capture and build operating system by using snapshot.exe and snapshot64.exe commands.
