4.6.1

Table Of Contents
VMware, Inc. 53
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Youcanupdatevirtualapplicationswithdifferentutilitiesdependingontheextentofchangeand
dependenciesonotherapplications.
Thisinformationincludesthefollowingtopics:
ApplicationUpdatesThattheEndUserTriggersonpage 53
ApplicationUpdatesThattheAdministratorTriggersonpage 60
“A u t o m a t i c ApplicationUpdates”onpage 62
“SidebySideUpgradingofRunningApplicationsonaNetworkShare”onpage 63
“SandboxConsiderationsforUpgradedApplications”onpage 64
“UpdatingtheThinAppVersionofPackagesonpage 64
Application Updates That the End User Triggers
ThinAppprovidestheApplicationSyncandApplicationLinkutilitiestoupdateapplicationswithnew
versionsornewcomponents.TheApplicationSyncutilityupdatesanentireapplicationpackage.
The ApplicationLinkutilitykeepssharedcomponentsordependentapplicationsinseparatepackages.
Application Sync Updates
TheApplicationSyncutilitykeepsdeployedvirtualapplicationsuptodate.Whenanapplicationstartswith
thisutilityenabled,theapplicationqueriesaWebservertodetermineifanupdatedversionoftheexecutable
fileisavailable.Ifanupdateisavailable,thedifferencesbetweentheexistingpackageandthenewpackage
aredo
wnloadedandusedtoconstructanupdatedversionofthepackage.Theupdatedpackageisusedfor
futurelaunches.
TheApplicationSyncutilityisusefulformajorconfigurationupdatestotheapplication.Forexample,you
mightupdateFirefoxtothenextmajorversion.Remoteusersoruserswhoarenotconn
ectedtothecorporate
networkcanmakeuseoftheApplicationSyncutilitybyembeddingupdatesettingswithinthepackageand
usinganyWebservertostoretheupdatedversionofthepackage.
Using Application Sync in a Managed or Unmanaged Environment
Ifyouusevirtualapplicationsthatupdateautomaticallyinamanagedcomputerenvironment,donotusethe
ApplicationSyncutilitybecauseitmightclashwithotherupdatecapabilities.
Ifanautomaticupdatefeatureupdatesanapplication,theupdateexistsinthesandbox.IftheApplicationSync
utilityattemptstoupdatetheapplicationaf
teranautomaticapplicationupdate,theversionupdatestoredin
thesandboxtakeprecedenceoverthefilescontainedintheApplicationSyncversion.Theorderofprecedence
forupdatingfilesisthefilesinthesandbox,thevirtualoperatingsystem,andthephysicalmachine.
Ifyouhaveanunmanagedenvironmentthatdoe
snotupdateapplicationsautomatically,usetheApplication
Syncutilitytoupdateapplications.
Updating and Linking Applications
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