A few weeks ago I’ve posted an article about a new book which was written by my colleague Peter Björk, who’s a ThinApp specialist at VMware but also a great chap. When the book came out I had of course to read it as I know about Peter’s expertise and passion for VMware’s application virtualization solution. In this article I’ll give you a quick overview of what I think about the book.

First of all I have to say that the book is very easy to read for me and this is important as I’m not a native English speaker and it is very practical. The first chapters gives you a great overview of application virtualization and the used vocabulary which is great I think. I don’t like it if I’m reading a book and suddenly I’ve to check the product related vocabulary in the appendix or so.

As I’m working with ThinApp for years as well it was great to see how Peter does explain the fundamentals and functionality of ThinApp.

Actually with VMware ThinApp 4.7 Essentials you’ve everything you need as a new starter to the solution but also as an experienced user you’ll find the book helpful as it gives you also deep insides into parameters and troubleshooting for example.

Especially for people who’re planning to migrate from Windows XP to Windows 7 this book is valuable as they can learn about Internet Explorer 6 virtualization. This is one of the major issues during the migration process. People always think about the Windows applications compatibility, but what about the Web apps?

All in all I can say: A great read from a great colleague! 

The book is available in several online book stores as paperback, but also as eBook Reader edition. 

If you want to support That’s my View, please feel free to use our affiliate link for Amazon.

Link:  http://www.packtpub.com/vmware-thinapp-4-7-essentials/book

If you want to automate processes around ThinApp or you just want to extend the functionality of the product, you can use the integrated ThinApp SDK. Tim wrote a great article about that on hi blog HorizonFlux.com. If you’re interested please visit his website.

Most of the times when I talk to our customers they want some functionality in ThinApp which it doesn’t offered out of the box.  For example:

• Allow to run a virtualized application only until a specific date.
• Update a configuration file every time the applications is launched.
• Allow an application only to be executed when user is inside the corporate office.
• Messure the usage of an application.
• Enforce licensing restriction.
• And so on…

While such functionality, as already said, isn’t offered by ThinApp out of the box there is something else much more powerful available.

Link: http://www.horizonflux.com/thinapp-scripting-with-vbscript/

Over at Horizon Flux my colleague Tim from our Professional Services Organization has published a cool tiny Powershell Script which helps you to identify the ThinApp version a package was built with. You can download the script at Tim’s blog for free.

Link: http://www.horizonflux.com/how-to-check-what-thinapp-version-a-package-was-built-with/

Yesterday I’ve posted an article about a new VMware View 5 book. During my research on Amazon I found that there are a few books available now. Here are an overview of all books I could find. There are also books in other languages but I’ve chosen only English books.

  VMware View 5: Building a Successful Virtual Desktop (http://amzn.to/UBlN1v)

 VMware View 5 Desktop Virtualization Solutions (http://amzn.to/13jeMCB)

 Mastering VMware View (http://amzn.to/10fPHuA)

 VMware ThinApp 4.7 Essentials (http://amzn.to/WtZB3A)

Check this out! VMware View 5.1 and ThinApp have been awarded as winners or the readers choice award. Please feel free to visit the link below to get more information.

Link: http://virtualizationreview.com/articles/2013/01/01/readers-choice-awards.aspx

VMware has published a new Knowledge Base article which describes the parameters PermittedComputers and PermittedComputersAccessDeniedMsg which can be used in the ThinApp package.ini configuration file. Those parameters have been introduced with ThinApp 4.0.1 but haven’t been supported so far what changed now. Please visit the VMware KB article for detailed information. If you like to check the whole ThinApp documentation please visit this site.

Link: http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1030989

My colleague Tim Aren’t who’s a consultant for End User Computing in our Profesional Service Organization (PSO) at VMware has released a great article on using the brand new ThinApp 4.7.3 SDK. In his article he describes how to use Powershell with the ThinApp SDK. A true must read!

Image Source: http://www.horizonflux.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/ThinAppSDKFolder1.png

Link: http://3url.de/cu7

VMware has released a new version of their application virtualization solution ThinApp today. The new version 4.7.3 Build 891762 adds support for packaging and execution of virtualized applications on Windows 8 operating systems. Of course it only supports Intel but NOT ARM technology. Next to this main feature VMware added a new package.ini parameter which prevents applications from loading Global Hook DLL’s if they’re already loaded by another application.

You can download the release here: http://www.vmware.com/products/thinapp/

VMware has also fixed loads of issues with prior versions:

• JavaScript errors are displayed on the EULA screen when you attempt to install ThinApp application.
• When you start virtualized Internet Explorer 7 on a Windows 8 or Windows Server system, the following error message is displayed:
  Cannot find 'url'. Make sure the path or Internet address is correct.
• Virtualized Microsoft Outlook 2003 running on Windows 2000 fails when it receives an e-mail message containing an embedded object as an attachment.
• When you start virtualized applications for the first time, an access violation error message is displayed. This issue is observed for applications virtualized with ThinApp 4.7.2.
• Virtualized Internet Explorer 6.0 stops responding when you attempt to open a PDF file from the Acrobat Reader X installed on the system.
• ThinApp MSI upgrade option fails when you try to upgrade virtualized Mozilla Firefox 12 to Mozilla Firefox 13.
• Crossbase application virtualized using ThinApp 4.7.1 fails to start on Windows XP and Windows 7 operating systems.
• Compared to ThinApp versions 4.6.1 or 4.7 the performance of virtualized Firefox 12 is inconsistent on ThinApp 4.7.1.
• Service Center Perigrine virtualized with ThinApp fails to start on Windows 7 and Windows 7 X64 operating systems.
• When you activate EULA with RuntimeEULA=1 in Package.ini file and run the application package, ThinApp displays older version of the VMware logo and EULA text.
• On a Windows 8 operating system, if you open a file with a virtualized instance of PowerPoint 2003, PowerPoint fails with the following error message:
  Microsoft Office PowerPoint has stopped working.
• When you try to run the virtual version of Lotus Notes whose sandbox path is on a Novell share, the application fails with the following error message:
  Unable to access data directory 'C:\Programme\IBM\Lotus\Notes' using the preferences file 'J:Notes\Data\notes.ini'
• When you attempt to use the record function of a HP Vugen application virtualized with ThinApp 4.7 the application fails with the following error:
  iexplorer.exe- Application Error The application failed to initialize properly (0xc0000005). Click on OK to terminate the application.
• Virtual version of Eclipse might not recognize the system path and the system environment variable if the user modifies them.
• If the directory in the DFS share is hosted on a NetApp device, in the user interface ThinApp might not display directories or files present on the DFS share.
• ThinApp forces the repair of the Microsoft Office 2010, when you launch some instances of Microsoft Excel from the virtual version of SAP 7.20.
• When you open and close a PDF file multiple times using Adobe Acrobat in virtual Internet Explorer 6.0 as an inline viewer, virtual IE 6.0 fails due to increased memory usage.
• Virtual Internet Explorer 6.0 fails to access any Website on Windows 8 operating system.
• Internet Explorer does not redirect the Thindirect URLs to the SeaMonkey browser even, if you enable the Thindirect plug-in.
• When you perform Appsync upgrade of an application from ThinApp 4.7.0 to 4.7.2 it results in the following error message:
  The system cannot find the file specified. For more information see Knowledge Base article 2036567.
• The ThinDirect plug-in allows only the virtual Internet Explorer 6.0 to redirect the URLs to the native browser. On other browsers the redirection option might not work.
• When you enable the Turn on User Account Control option in Control Panel, virtual Internet Explorer 8.0 and Internet Explorer 9.0 might not display Internet Explorer help topics.
• Virtualized Google Chrome browser fails to start on Windows 8 operating system.
• On Windows 8 operating system, you cannot save a file with .pdf or .xps extension with virtualized Microsoft Word 2010 or Microsoft PowerPoint 2010.
• ThinApp fails to start virtual URL package on Windows 8 operating system.
• Virtualized Internet Explorer 7.0 fails to start on Windows 8 operating system.
• In virtualized Internet Explorer 7.0 when you select What’s new in windows Server 2012 option from the help menu, Internet Explorer fails with the following error message:
  Internet Explorer has stopped working
  This issue is observed on the Windows Server 2012 operating system.
• When you start the virtual version of HP User Generator for the first time, the application displays the following error message:
  spill file I/O error.
• In virtualized Internet Explorer 6.0 the Browse option in the Certificate Import Wizard (Tools >Internet Options >Content >Certificates >Import) might not work. This issue is observed on Windows 8 operating system.
• On Windows 8 operating system, when you attempt to print a Web page from virtualized Internet Explorer 6.0 the application displays the following Printing error message:
  An error occurred during this operation.
• When you start Camtasia Studio virtualized with ThinApp 4.7.1 the application fails with the following error message:
  Camtasia Studio has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience.
• ThinApp sandbox might not save the changes made to the virtual version of Mozilla Firefox on Windows 8 operating system.
• On Windows 8 operating system, the buttons on the Manage Add-ons page of virtualized Internet Explorer 9.0 might not work.
• The Protected Mode settings of the virtualized Internet Explorer 9.0 are inconsistent with the native Internet Explorer settings on Windows 8 operating system.
• Blackberry 9780 Simulator’s browser might not start on ThinApp which is deployed on a system with Windows XP operating system.
• Some Log monitor features like Profiling Data and Function Usages do not work on official ThinApp builds of Buildweb.

Link: Release Notes | ThinApp User Guide for 4.7.3 | ThinApp Package.ibi Refrence Parameters

My colleague Sascha Thiede who’s a Thinapp specialist at VMware in Central EMEA and I just had a conversation about the new Microsoft App-V version 5 which was released today within the MDOP 2012. There are loads of changes and “enhancements” in the new version which doesn’t make it easier for customers to manage their legacy systems. As you may know the support for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 is going EOL and this seems to be reflected into App-V 5 as the new application virtualization version doesn’t support Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 anymore. These are still supported in 4.6 and you can also run the 4.6 and 5.0 servers side by side but is this really a good option? In the App-V supported configurations documentation you’ll find only Windows 7 and Windows 8 as supported client OS. Does that mean that Windows Vista is also not longer supported?

With version 5 of App-V, the client needs .NET 3.5, .NET 4 and Silverlight installed on the system. A great enhancements in our eyes is the “compatibility” to VDI. You can now disable the local application cache which makes of course sense.

Let’s see what additionally to the support is gone.

• No support for 16-Bit apps (Thinapp doesn’t have that one a 64-Bit system, but on 32-Bit)

App-V is grown up to a good solution within the last years since it was Softgrid but it still has a bloated machinery in the backend. You need a server or more which will server the roles Publishing, Streaming and Database, maybe SCCM and of course we shouldn’t forget IIS in some cases.

It’s just our private opinion but compared to Thinapp, App-V does cost a fortune. Think about the licenses needed for MDOP, (Ok, that’s included in an EA), the licenses for the server OS, the database, the hardware or resources, maintenance.

Think about Thinapp…

No need for a backend infrastructure, with that no additional licenses for servers, no hardware + maintanance (only file service, storage)

• Agentless/Clientless Architecture
• Pakets still run on Windows XP, Vista and Windows Server 2003
• Simply plugs in any Enterprise Software Deployment Framework (SCCM, Landesk, Enteo, Matrix42 and more…)
• Standard formats (EXE or MSI)
• Easily integrates into any existing software deployment process
• Thinapp supports IE6, IE7 and IE8 virtualization
• Execute applications in user mode with no administrative rights
• Browser virtualization with URL specific control (ThinDirect)

What’s your opinion on that?

Interesting video on how to capture SAP GUI with VMware ThinApp. As mentioned in an old article on my blog there is a SAP support note ID which declares support for this solution.