4.0.4

Table Of Contents
ThinApp User’s Guide
76 VMware, Inc.
Examples
Youcanspecifyexceptionstorunningchildprocessesinthevirtualenvironment.Whenthevirtualapplication
startsanotepad.exechildprocess,thechildprocessrunsoutsidethevirtualenvironment.
[BuildOptions]
ChildProcessEnvironmentExceptions=AcroRd.exe;notepad.exe
ChildProcessEnvironmentDefault=Virtual
Configuring File and Block Sizes
YoucanuseThinAppparameterstocompressfileandblocksizesforapplications.
BlockSize
TheBlockSizeparametercontrolsthesizeofcompressionblockswhenThinAppcompressesfilesforabuild.
Usingalargerblocksizecanachievehighercompression.Largerblocksizesmightslowtheperformance
becauseofthefollowingreasons:
Thebuildprocessslowsdownwithlargerblocksizes.
Thestartuptimeandreadoperationsforapplicationsslowdownwithlargeblocksizes.
Morememoryisrequiredatruntimewhenyouuselargerblocksizes.
YoucanspecifytheBlockSizeparameterinthePackage.inifile,wheretheblocksizebecomesthedefault
forallfilesintheprojectunlessotherwisespecified,andinthe##Attributes.inifile,wheretheblocksize
overridestheblocksize
forthepresentdirectoryandallsubdirectories.Youcanusedifferentblocksizesfor
differentdirectorieswithinasingleproject.
Examples
Youcansetthedefaultblocksizeof64KB.
[Compression]
BlockSize=64k
Youcanuseotherblocksizes.
BlockSize=128k
BlockSize=256k
BlockSize=512k
BlockSize=1M
CompressionType
TheCompressionTypeparametersetsthecompressionvaluetoNoneorFast.
Noneisthedefaultvaluewhenyoucaptureanapplication.Thisvalueisusefulforbuildingyourapplication
quicklyfortestingpurposes.Avoidingcompressionimprovesapplicationstartuptimeonoldercomputersor
incircumstanceswhereyoustarttheapplicationmultiple
timesanddependontheWindowsdiskcacheto
providedataforeachstart.
Fastcompressionhasaquickrateofdecompressionandlittleeffectonapplicationstartuptimeandmemory
consumptionatruntime.FastcompressionachievessimilarcompressionratiosastheZIPalgorithm.
Table A1listssamplecompressionratiosand
startuptimesforaMicrosoft Office 2003packagethatrunsfrom
alocalharddrive.