VMware ThinApp 4.6.2 Release Notes
These release notes cover the following topics:
ThinApp 4.6.2 | 25 Aug 2011 | Build 467908
Last Document Update: 24 Aug 2011
The ThinApp 4.6.2 release adds the following features to improve usability, performance, and provide updates:
- Multiple enhancements have been made in the ThinDirect component, and outstanding known issues addressed, to improve performance and reliability.
- ThinDirect now supports the redirection of all browser pages except a specified list of URLs, instead of only supporting the redirection of only a list of specified URLs. This enhancement new in ThinApp 4.6.2, is supported only on Internet Explorer 6.
- New parameters in the thinreg utility allow for enhanced package registration options. See New Parameters in thinreg.exe.
- The thinreg utility can now uninstall applications without dependence on .vbs file association to run the uninstall script.
- Microsoft Office 2007 application startup times have been improved by approximately 30%.
- The IgnoreDDEMessages parameter has been added to the Package.ini file. This parameter, which is automatically set for virtualized Internet Explorer 6 packages, causes an application to ignore any DDE messages that it receives, meaning that it can be used to ensure Document Open operations always launch in the native application and not an open virtual application.
For additional information about ThinApp 4.6.2, visit the following Web sites:
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Prior Releases of VMware ThinApp 4
Features from prior releases of VMware ThinApp 4 are described in the release notes for each release. To view release notes for prior releases, click one of the following links:
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Before You Begin
Read the ThinApp User's Guide for installation requirements. Verify that the Windows operating systems have the latest security patches.
New Parameters in thinreg.exe
New parameters have been added to the thinreg utility to provide you with additional options when searching for directories and files, or specifying excludes.
- Setting Recursive Paths to Search Multiple Levels of Directories
The thinreg utility evaluates all directories and files that it detects and registers the EXE files that match the search criteria.
You can use wildcards to set recursive paths to search all levels of directories. In the following example, thinreg searches four levels of directory for applications. The thinreg utility registers all applications (EXE files) that it detects in the three-level directory structure. Wildcards (*) are used to specify that all directories at a specific level are to be searched for all EXE files.
Example: thinreg /a c:\thinapp\*\*\xyz*\*.exe
You can also use wildcards to limit a search to specific directories and files. In the following example, thinreg searches for all directory and file names that begin with xyz at the second level, and registers the EXE files that have names beginning with xyz.
Example: thinreg c:\thinapp\*\xyz*\*
- Excluding Directories from a Search and Excluding EXE Files from Registration
You can use the /e or /exclude command to prevent thinreg from searching specified directories, or from registering specified EXE files.
- You must use one /e command for each directory or file that you want to exclude.
- Each exclude must be separated from the next exclude by a space.
- You can use wildcards.
- You cannot specify file paths.
The following example shows three exclude commands (note the spacing).
Example: thinreg /e abc /exclude def /e hi*
- Specifying a Text File of thinreg Commands
You can use /f <full path name> <filename> to specify a text file of commands that thinreg processes when registering EXE files. This is useful when you have long or numerous commands.
Example: /f c:\xyz\file.txt
- Do not specify thinreg at the beginning of the command.
- You can use hard line breaks (Enter) in the text editor.
The ThinApp 4.6.2 release resolves these issues:
- When ThinDirect is used to redirect a URL from Internet Explorer 8 to a virtualized Internet Explorer 6 URL, the Internet Explorer 6 window might be hidden behind the Internet Explorer 8 window. In addition, the redirection message might appear in a second Internet Explorer 8 tab, adjacent to the original Internet Explorer 8 tab.
- When you use the Application Link utility, you must build the base package and linked packages using the
same version of ThinApp.
To upgrade older packages to include the latest version of the ThinApp runtime, use the relink.exe utility.
- The Application Sync utility fails when the AppSyncURL parameter in the Package.ini file contains Japanese characters.
To prevent this failure, use ASCII characters in the AppSyncURL parameter.
- When you use the Application Sync utility to update a virtual browser that has ThinDirect implemented, changes that have been made to the ThinDirect.txt file are not detected.
- To ensure that non-English versions of virtual applications that are captured by ThinApp display the correct language user interface, during the ThinApp capture you must open the natively installed version on the capture machine before you start the post scan operation.
- When use of a proxy is enabled in virtual Microsoft Excel 2007 running on Windows XP SP2 32-bit, you cannot perform Web queries or import data.
- When attempting to search for something using the Research pane in virtual Microsoft Excel 2003 running on Windows Vista and Windows 7 unexpected behavior is encountered. Windows Installer opens and the following error message appears Error 1719: The Windows Installer Service Could not be accessed. This can occur if the Installer is not correctly installed. Contact your support personnel for assistance.
Click OK each of the three times that the error message is displayed. The Research pane shows the result for the searched keyword.
- When running ThinApp Converter on Workstation virtual machines, ensure that the Workstation virtual machines are using bridged networking.
- When running more than one instance of ThinApp Converter, ensure that the INI files are configured so that the Converters do not use the same virtual machines.
- For optimal performance, use Windows 2003 or Windows 2008 as a file server for network share. The file server requires sufficient system resources to handle a high volume of file operations. Do not use the host that runs the ThinAppConverter.exe as the file server for the network share.
- RTF files in a ThinApp project cannot be opened by a natively installed Microsoft Office 2010.
- The case in which virtualized Microsoft Windows Live Messenger returns a failed to create process default activation context message when attempting startup has been resolved.
- Virtual Internet Explorer 6 no longer generates new browser instances on Windows Vista x64 operating systems.
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The following known issues affect the ThinApp 4.6.2 release:
- Virtual Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional cannot create a PDF file from a native Microsoft Word or native Microsoft Excel document. ThinApp does not support virtualization of printer drivers.
- If you install Adobe Flash Player on a capture system to watch the Quick Start video in the Setup Capture wizard,
and you capture applications that require Adobe Flash Player, the captured applications fail when you deploy them on a system that does not have Adobe Flash Player.
To avoid deployment errors, you can install Adobe Flash Player to watch the video and revert to a clean snapshot of the capture system before you capture an application. If you do not want to install Adobe Flash Player, you can watch the video on YouTube from a browser
outside of the capture environment.
- Virtual Internet Explorer 6 does not display Internet Explorer Help correctly on Windows 7.
- Non-administrative users cannot run thinreg /a. If a non-administrative user runs thinreg /a on Virtual Internet Explorer 6 with a ThinDirect.txt file, redirection is not implemented, however an error message does not appear.
- When deploying virtual Japanese 2007 Office on Windows 7, the Japanese characters inserted in Word might display incorrectly. To correct the display, change the font to ＭＳ ゴシック.
- A ThinApp package must be used with the ThinApp SDK on an operating system that uses the same code page (language).
- The Help for virtual Microsoft Office 2010 applications running on the Windows 2008 or Windows 7 64-bit platforms does not display correctly.
- In virtual Internet Explorer 9, you need to clear the Enable Protected Mode check box in the Internet Options > Security tab, so that the "Open in new tab" feature works.
- When you attempt to run virtual Microsoft 2010 applications the first time by double-clicking a file name, the application might fail to open and an error message is displayed that Windows cannot find a file. To search for the file, go to Start > Search > For files or folders and enter the file name. The application launches and the file opens.
- Virtual Adobe Premiere Elements 8 does not run on 64-bit platforms.
- You cannot open files in virtual Word 2010 running on Windows Vista 32-bit or Windows 2008 64-bit platforms when Word is running in Protected View.
- An error message is displayed in the console when you use non-ASCII characters in application installer subdirectory names. However, the package is successfully built.
- Virtual Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Express SP1 services fail to start on Windows 64-bit platforms.
- ThinApp Converter runs on multiple virtual machines simultaneously. To prevent errors, ensure that the virtual machines do not have identical names.
- Thinreg.exe registers thinapped applications even if a bad argument is used.
- After appsyncing Firefox 3.0 or Firefox 3.6.3, the Mozilla Firefox.ex$ file remains in the application folder on Windows XP 64 bit machines.
For more information about known issues with ThinApp packages, see the VMware Knowledge Base.
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