VMware ThinApp (formerly ''Thinstall'') is an
application virtualization
Application virtualization is a software technology that encapsulates computer programs from the underlying operating system on which they are executed. A fully virtualized application is not installed in the traditional sense, although it is stil ...
and
portable application creator suite by
VMware
VMware, Inc. is an American cloud computing and virtualization technology company with headquarters in Palo Alto, California. VMware was the first commercially successful company to virtualize the x86 architecture.
VMware's desktop software ru ...
that can package conventional Windows applications
so that they become
portable application
A portable application (portable app), sometimes also called standalone, is a program designed to read and write its configuration settings into an accessible folder in the computer, usually in the folder where the portable application can be f ...
s by running on another operating system. According to VMware, the product has a success rate of about 90–95% in packaging applications.
History
ThinApp (previously known as Thinstall) was originally developed by Jitit Inc. and was acquired by
VMware
VMware, Inc. is an American cloud computing and virtualization technology company with headquarters in Palo Alto, California. VMware was the first commercially successful company to virtualize the x86 architecture.
VMware's desktop software ru ...
on January 15, 2008. VMware later used the code name ''VMware Project North Star'' while the product was in
beta
Beta (, ; uppercase , lowercase , or cursive ; grc, βῆτα, bē̂ta or ell, βήτα, víta) is the second letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of 2. In Modern Greek, it represents the voiced labiod ...
. On June 10, 2008, VMware announced that the final name for the product was going to be ''VMware ThinApp''. The trial version of ''Thinstall'' was initially available only to corporations, then VMware offered a public
trial version
Shareware is a type of proprietary software that is initially shared by the owner for trial use at little or no cost. Often the software has limited functionality or incomplete documentation until the user sends payment to the software developer ...
.
Technology
VMware ThinApp provides
application virtualization
Application virtualization is a software technology that encapsulates computer programs from the underlying operating system on which they are executed. A fully virtualized application is not installed in the traditional sense, although it is stil ...
. ThinApp is able to execute applications without them being installed in the traditional sense by virtualizing resources such as environment variables, files and
Windows Registry
The Windows Registry is a hierarchical database that stores low-level settings for the Microsoft Windows operating system and for applications that opt to use the registry. The kernel, device drivers, services, Security Accounts Manager, and use ...
keys. The virtual environment presented to the client is a merged view of the underlying physical and virtual resources, thereby allowing the virtualization layer to fool the application into thinking that it is running as if it were fully installed. ThinApp does not have any pre-installed components and does not require the installation of device drivers allowing applications to run from USB flash drives or network shares without ever requiring Administrator rights. ThinApp converts standard application installers such as .msi files into self-contained EXE files which includes everything required to run. Also it is able to scan a system before and after an application's installation and create a portable executable based upon changes made to the systems files and registry. Unlike self-extracting ZIP files, ThinApp does not extract files to disk or require system registry changes in order to run applications. ThinApp versions released after 5.2.3 drop support Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 and later.
Editions
The most "basic" version of ThinApp is "VMware ThinApp Starter Edition", offered for free with any purchase of
VMware Workstation
VMware Workstation Pro (known as VMware Workstation until release of VMware Workstation 12 in 2015) is a hosted (Type 2) hypervisor that runs on x64 versions of Windows and Linux operating systemshttps://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/searc ...
,
[http://www.vmware.com/products/workstation/thinapp-starter-edition.html] while the most "advanced" version is "VMware ThinApp Enterprise Edition", which adds support for ''AppSync updating'', ''Active Directory integration'' and allows usage by multiple users (both for the ''ThinApp Packager'' and ''ThinApp Client'').
See also
*
Microsoft App-V
Microsoft Application Virtualization (also known as App-V; formerly Softricity SoftGrid) is an application virtualization and application streaming solution from Microsoft. It was originally developed by Softricity, a company based in Boston, Mas ...
*
Turbo (software)
Turbo (formerly Spoon and Xenocode) is a set of software products and services developed by the Code Systems Corporation for application virtualization, portable application creation, and digital distribution. Code Systems Corporation is an Amer ...
*
Software appliance
A software appliance is a software application combined with just enough operating system (JeOS) to run optimally on industry-standard hardware (typically a server) or in a virtual machine. It is a software distribution or firmware that impleme ...
*
Windows To Go
Windows To Go is a feature in Windows 8 Enterprise, Windows 8.1 Enterprise, Windows 10 Education and Windows 10 Enterprise versions prior to the May 2020 update, that allows the system to boot and run from certain USB mass storage devices such ...
*
Sandboxie
Sandboxie Plus (formerly Sandboxie) is an open-source OS-level virtualization solution for Microsoft Windows. It started out as a sandboxing solution that creates an isolated operating environment in which applications can run without permane ...
*
Portable application creators Portable application creators allow the creation of portable applications (also called portable apps). They usually use application virtualization.
Creators of independent portable
No agent or client is required for these (also called "agentless" s ...
References
External links
* {{Official website, http://www.vmware.com/products/thinapp/
ThinApp
Virtualization software
Utilities for Windows