4.6.1

Table Of Contents
VMware, Inc. 31
Chapter 2 Capturing Applications
ThinAppConverterreadstheconfigurationfiletoidentifywhichapplicationinstallersaretobeconvertedand
thevirtualmachinesonwhichtheconversionistooccur.
ThinAppConverterthentakesasnapshotofthevirtualmachinewhenitispoweredoff,whichisusedto
preservethevirtualmachinestates.
Afterthesnaps
hotistaken,ThinAppConverterpowersonthevirtualmachineandpushesasilentcapture
agentintothevirtualmachine.Thesilentcaptureagentrunstransparentlyonthevirtualmachines,capturing
theapplicationinstallationprocessinasimilarwaytothatoftheSetupCapturewizardwhenanapplication
isbeingcaptu
redmanually.Thesilentcaptureagentperformsthefollowingactions:
RunsaThinAppprescan
Installsanapplicationfromthenetworksharespecifiedintheconfigurationfile
Runsapostscan
GeneratesaThinAppprojectonthenetworksharespecifiedintheconfigurationfile
Performsprojectpostprocessingtasks
BuildstheThinAppprojectonthenetworkshareintoapackage
ThesilentcaptureagentthenreturnscontroltoThinAppConverter,whichrevertsthevirtualmachinestotheir
precapturestate,usingtheirpoweredoffsnapshots.
Theprocessisthenrepeatedforthenextapplicationinstallationprocessthatneedstobeconverted.When
m
ultiplevirtualmachinesarespecified,thesilentcaptureagentrunsonthevirtualmachinessimultaneously.
Asavirtualmachinebecomesavailable,itisonceagainusedforconvertingthenextapplication
Figure 2-1. Overview of the Conversion Process
ThinApp Converter Limitations
Notallapplicationinstallationprocessessupportsilentinstallationmode.ThinAppConverterdoesnot
supportautomaticcaptureforanapplicationinstallerthatdoesnotsupportsilentinstallation.
Theinstallerdirectorynamemustnotcontaintheequalssymbol(=).
Donotsuspend,poweroff,orpoweronanyofthevirtualmachinesthatarepartoftheconversionatany
timeduringtheprocess.
OnlyoneinstanceofThinAppConvertercanuseavirtualmachineduringtheconversionprocess.