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Category Archives: Tips

Virtualizing Microsoft Office 2010 on German Windows XP

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There is quite a few blog posts and KB articles describing how to virtualize Microsoft Office 2010 with the help of ThinApp.

KB articles:
http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2021901
http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1022287

A blog post:
http://thinappguru.blogspot.se/2012/03/notes-on-packaging-office-project-and.html

If you have Office locally installed but need to virtualize Project or Visio (many steps are the same as for Office 2010):
http://blogs.vmware.com/thinapp/2013/02/thinapp-microsoft-visio-and-project-2010-while-locally-installed-microsoft-office-2010.html

Additional information for German Windows XP:
If you follow the procedures described in above posts your package should work very well on an English OS. Jonathan Wilk (@DooDleWilk), Escalation Engineer at VMware Global Support Services, just sent me his notes working on a case. The package worked just fine on English Operating Systems and German Windows 7 (32 and 64-bit) but failed on a German Windows XP.

After some troubleshooting he realized that on an English Windows XP the OfficeSoftwareProtectionPlatform folder is located in the “Documents and Settings” folder. On a German Windows XP the folder is called “Dokumente und Einstellungen”. So the workaround was simply to create the “Dokumente und Einstellungen” folder underneath the %Drive_C% folder macro and copy the content from your “Documents and Settings” folder. Rebuild and it works.

I wouldn’t be surprised if other applications will have the same issue and therefore would need the same fix in order to be portable.

ThinApp project folder cleaning up best practices

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I’m often asked about best practices when it comes to cleaning up the project folder. This is not a simple subject because it varies greatly depending on the application you captured. I’ve been discussing with myself how to best attack this task. I ended up deciding for a blog post but this one will have the comments functionality turned on. This way I hope you, the readers, will help me make this post better by adding your own experience. I will now and then merge comments into the original post for ease of consumption.
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ThinApp Microsoft Visio and Project 2010 while locally installed Microsoft Office 2010

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While many are virtualizing Microsoft Office 2010 during a Proof Of Concept (POC) most companies decide to install Microsoft Office natively rather than virtualizing it. Both packaging method are valid but many times it’s easier and more efficient to have Office locally installed. That said, virtualizing Microsoft Visio and Project is a whole different ballgame. Virtualizing Visio/Project makes very much sense in many designs. There are quite a few KB articles and blog posts out there covering Office 2010 and it’s components. But so far I’ve yet to see a complete list of what is needed in order to build a Visio/Project package and have it coexist and to a certain degree integrate with native Office. So I started to collect all data I found on Internet. I ended up adding a couple thinks myself as well.

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The . . . Definitive Guide for VMware ThinApp

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Over the last four years I’ve been working with customers and partners on articulating and demonstrating the value of VMware ThinApp.  While ThinApp does offer one of the most flexible and streamlined solutions for virtualizing Windows applications there are still times when you need to put the product knowledge and the application expert together to get the results you want.  That has now occurred in written (and ebook) form with the release of the definitive guide for VMware ThinApp.  The title, VMware ThinApp Essentials, much like the author, is understated as you will find the relevance of this book greatly exceeds the ‘essentials’.  Yes, the author is one of our own VMware employees, but see for yourself that Peter Bjork always speaks to the reality of the customer environment and the satisfaction of well-implemented technology.  Leverage Peter’s dedication to the technology, wide spectrum of application experience, and commitment to help you extract the most value out of your investment in application virtualization.

Using Horizon Application Manager to update ThinApp packages.

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Deploying ThinApps with the help of VMware Horizon Application Manager is a great method, but what about updating? Horizon supports updating ThinApp packages and this blog post will walk you through one method of doing that.
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Horizon ThinApp Packages Generating Prompt

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Launching a ThinApp from Horizon Shows a Prompt for the First Time:

Do you or your users get an error “Do you want to allow this website to open a program on your computer?” prompt the first time they go to launch a ThinApp package in Horizon?

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ThinApp Icons Not Appearing in Horizon

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Often times we hear how someone is trying to publish a ThinApp Package via Horizon and not getting an icon. Continue reading →

One more method of finding out what processes are running within the virtual environment.

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Many times you have to find out what processes are actually running within the virtual environment. I’ve already posted one method found here: (http://blogs.vmware.com/thinapp/2011/04/whats-keeping-my-sandbox-locked.html) but now it’s time for yet one more method.

This method uses an Entry Point running regedit.exe within the virtual environment. When you navigate the virtual registry you can see a HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Thinstall\ProcessList key. Looking in this key you’ll see the list of processes correctly running.

Virtualizing the VMware View Client using ThinApp

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By Joshua Spencer, End User Computing Specialist, VMware

Introduction

Over the years there has been much debate about which display protocol provides the best performance while being the most efficient. I think the debate is finally over, and the blog post you can find here goes a long way toward ending it. Leveraging the PCoIP protocol and the PCoIP Secure Gateway Server, VMware is helping end users stay connected from anywhere, at any time, using any device they choose.

Challenge

We can think of connecting to a VMware View desktop using PCoIP as a client/server application. The virtual machine, which resides in the datacenter, gets the VMware View Agent installed. Because PCoIP is completely host-side rendered, this agent acts as the PCoIP server. On the end point device, we install the VMware View Client, which serves as the PCoIP client. The PCoIP server (View Agent) encrypts and compresses display information and sends it down to the View Client where the display is rendered on the screen.

What this means is that the View Client has to be installed on every end point that will connect to a VMware View desktop. Installing the client is a simple process of connecting to a website and running the executable.

The client includes two drivers: one for Virtual Printing and another for Advanced USB Redirection. Because of this, the View Client requires local administrative privileges for installation. While local admin privileges are not usually an issue on personal or IT-managed devices, I have seen a number of customers encounter situations where they cannot install the VMware View Client. VMware View is a highly adopted technology in the healthcare industry. Healthcare professionals often roam to multiple clinical sites throughout their network, and View provides a means of accessing a standard desktop workspace from any location. But what happens if he or she cannot install the View Client due to lack of permissions on a given PC? Likewise, I have seen this come up on public kiosk-like computers. For example, you are at a public library and you want to connect to your View desktop to get some work done. Library and other public-facing machines are often locked down, preventing the installation of any software, including the View Client.

Resolution

One solution to this problem is to leverage a simple, yet powerful, tool called VMware ThinApp. With ThinApp we can virtualize the VMware View Client software, allowing it to run on any Windows device regardless of privilege level. ThinApp will take all of the files and registry keys that make up the View Client and produce a single executable file.

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ReadOnlyData or readonlydata?

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Should you use ReadOnlyData or readonlydata? With ThinApp version 4.7.2 it doesn’t matter! Many package.ini parameters have been case sensitive in ThinApp version 4.7.1 and older. With version 4.7.2 all parameters in package.ini are case insensitive.