ThinApp Overview

Continuing with our VMware ThinApp application virtualization series, we wanted to discuss deployment techniques surrounding ThinApp. But before we continue further, we want to make it clear that ThinApp can be deployed without using VDI (virtual desktop infrastructure) also know as VMware View.  In fact, I find many of my customers begin with ThinApp virtualized applications and then later migrate to a fully virtualized desktop.  We will be speaking to most of this in the context of use with a virtualized environment, but the tools and techniques remain the same should you deploy ThinApp in a non-virtualized environment.

For those that are not familiar with ThinApp, it basically virtualizes your applications.  ThinApp decouples the application from the underlying OS removing the issues associated with conflicting DLL's and registry entries.  After creating a ThinApp virtualized application such as Microsoft Office - see our ThinApp Office 2007 KB, you can run any of the Office programs on a machine that previously didn't have Office installed, but without the hassle of installing Office!  Keeping with our Office example, you can also run several different versions of the application all within the same PC.  So for example, you could have Word 97, Word XP and Word 2007, all running on the same machine conflict free!  I even have ThinApp installs of Internet Explorer 6, 7 and 8 on my desktop for web development purposes.  ThinApps many uses go well beyond our examples but hopefully you can begin to see the power of such a tool.

Getting back to the topic at hand, as most of you probably already know, application deployment can be a major challenge for both small and large organizations.  To my surprise, I have found that most of my clients have no means to roll-out new or updated releases of existing applications.  I usually find one of two things:

• All the PC's running in the enterprise are imaged from a single gold image that contains all the applications used by the company.
• The PC's have a mix of applications (inconsistent versions) based on the user(s) that use the PC.

Now, although both of the above scenarios do work, they come at a severe cost to the client.  I typically find the single image approach used in larger, more advanced organizations.  They have a tech that images all their new PC's from their gold image using something like Ghost.  Not only are they wasting a tremendous amount of money in licensing (having applications loaded on the PC that will never get used), they also have no easy means to upgrade the existing applications once they have been installed.

The other approach, which I usually see in smaller organizations, installs only the applications each user needs on their PC.  The problem with this approach, is that it's time consuming and there is no consistency across the enterprise.  Should someone use another PC other than the one assigned to them, they might find the application they need missing.  I liken this to a custom built sports car, no two are ever alike.

We can greatly simply both of these deployment scenarios using ThinApp.  Lets see how easy it can be to deploy a new ThinApp application.

Deployment Configuration

Before we begin our configuration, we must first have some prerequisites fulfilled:

• You should have already created a ThinApp package.  For this example, we will use the Microsoft Office 2007 ThinApp package created from our ThinApp Office 2007 KB.
• Some basic knowledge of batch and vbscript script is a plus
• Download the example logon.vbs from the downloads area
• Administrative privileges on the domain
  

Lets begin by connecting to your domain controller as a domain administrator.

1. Run Active Directory Users and Computers from your domain controller as a domain administrator.  Click the Start button followed by Run on the Start Menu
   
   
   
   
2. In the Run dialog box, type "dsa.msc" and click "OK".  This will launch Active Directory Users and Computers.
   
   
   
   
3. Locate a user in your domain that will be used for our test deployment
   
   
   
   
4. Right click on the user name and select the "Properties" option
   
   
   
   
5. Click the "Profile" tab from the User Properties window
   
   
   
   
6. Enter the name of a logon script in the user profile area.  If you do not already have a logon script, type in a new file name.  Click "OK" when finished
   
   
   Note: Logon scripts are located in the %LOGONSERVER%\NETLOGON folder.  The logon script should be a batch file (ending in .bat, i.e. All_Users.bat)
   
   
7. We must now create/edit the logon script.  Use notepad to create/update the logon script
   
   
   
   
8. The All_users.bat should execute a vbscript called "logon.vbs" that is located within the same directory.  Make the appropriate changes to the batch file saving it once complete.
   
   
   
   
9. Download/extract our example logon.vbs from the downloads area (or create your own) and copy it to your domains %LOGONSERVER%\NETLOGON folder.
   
   
10. Edit logon.vbs script to suite your environment. 
    
    
    
    
11. Pay close attention to the ThinReg section.  ThinReg registers virtualized applications within the underlying operating system.  You'll need to update the script to reflect the full path to the binaries of the virtualized application.
    
    
    
    Example:
    

    WSHShell.Exec( """%LOGONSERVER%\NETLOGON\THINREG.EXE"" ""\\<DOMAIN>\<SHARE>\<PATH TO APP>\Microsoft Office Word 2007.exe"" /Q" )

    
    Note: Thinreg can also be used to uninstall a ThinApp package using the /U command line switch.  Running thinreg with no arguments will give a complete list of command line options
    
    
    
    
12. Once you've finished editing logon.vbs, copy "THINGREG.EXE" to the NETLOGON share.  THINREG.EXE can be found in the installation directory of ThinApp (the same directory as "Setup Capture.exe".)
    
    
    
    
13. Logon to a workstation using the user name from step #3 above.  Assuming the virtualized application installs shortcuts on the start menu and desktop, you should see them and be able to run the application by double clicking on them.  You should also see the application listed in the "Add/Remove Programs" control panel.
    
    

Assuming all went as planed, you've just deployed you're first ThinApp application!  The real beauty of this deployment is how easily this yields to roll based application deployment.  Since the applications are now being controlled based on group membership, a user can go to any computer in the enterprise and always be assured they have the applications necessary to perform their critical job functions.  Additionally, you'll never have to visit another PC for an install, and I don't know about you, but I like being lazy!  Good Luck!

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Paul Butler |18/12/2009 04:13:39 Just a quick addition - you can put a check in your logon.vbs to see if the thinapp is already registered so it won't waste time re-registering it again If INGROUP... If NOT RegKeyExists("HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Thinstall\ThinReg\Microsoft Office Enterprise 2007_48000095") Then THINREG... End If You will have to register the application to get the value of the registry key to check for the next time, but its a one off job. Hope this helps! Reply | Quote

thirt |04/01/2010 10:37:43 Paul - Great idea, I like it! I haven't really paid enough attention to how long it takes to register/re-register on login, but I could imagine this could begin to add up if you have a lot of virtualized apps. Thanks for the comment, keep them coming! -Tom Reply | Quote

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