VMware ThinApp is an application virtualization solution which helps to accelerate the deployment of application delivery and to eliminate the burden of maintaining applications lifecycle.
ThinApp can also be used with a combination of VMware Horizon view wherein the ThinApp can streamline the application updates without end user disruption.
Using ThinApp with Horizon view also eliminates the need to install an application on every desktop and the ThinApp package can be placed on a NFS wherein the users can stream it to their individual desktop.
VMware ThinApp uses ThinApp runtime which gets started as soon as the user starts the application packaging process and it encapsulates the application registry and other files into a single package which is completely isolated from other applications and can be deployed independently of the Guest os.
In order to control the level of interaction between the application and native file system, we have different types of Isolation modes which can be set per registry subtree and at the directory.
1. Merged File and Registry Isolation Mode applications have rights to modify elements directly on the native file system, which means that all the reads and writes are performed directly on the physical system. This isolation mode is highly recommended for applications like Microsoft office as they heavily rely on reading registry information from a local image.
One common advantage of using merged file and registry isolation mode is that all the document’s which are saved by the user appears on the native file system, which means users can create modify and store the files in their favourite location like Desktop, My Document. However, any changes to the Application Data, System and Program files are not stored in the native file system rather they are stored in the Sandbox (Shadow directory for all native file directories affected during application runtime).
2. WriteCopy File and Registry Isolation Mode user can read from the native file system however the writes are directed to the copy of native file system in Sandbox. With WriteCopy, ThinApp copies the file system changes to the Sandbox to ensure that only the copies are modified not the actual physical files. It provides a good use case wherein we want to lockdown the user from making any changes on the local file system and also for the legacy and untrusted applications.
3. Full File and Registry Isolation Mode for the applications means that the user cannot perform any read/write operations to the native system, all the changes are recorded in the Sandbox directory, it provides a good use case to prevent application conflicts between the virtual applications and the applications which are installed on the native file system.
** Full Isolation Mode can be configured in Package.ini (located in the project folder for virtual application ) or Attributes.ini (located in the folder macros of the project folder).
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