VMware Horizon Community
Bamdad63
Contributor
Contributor

Running Portable applications on Windows 7 and Windows 8

Hi,

I experienced after packaging some application on Windows 7 or Windows 8 and  running them a message pups off saying this application cannot be run.  Any idea what causes this?

Best regards

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Lakshman
Champion
Champion

Can you provide more details? Is the application natively supported on Win 7?

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Bamdad63
Contributor
Contributor

Hi,

Thank you for responding. Yes, the software is compatible with Windows 7. I attached the error message. If you get a chance Log on to: http://www.arcsoft.com/showbiz/ and download the demo of the ShowBiz and run it for yourself.  I must to add that the portable runs on Windows XP PRO. This is not the only software I am having problem with. Like I said there are many others.Error message.jpg

Best regards

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pbjork
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

Sounds like you would have to start doing some more in-depth troubleshooting.. I would recommend you to look at a tool called SpyStudio from Nektra. I've used it for a while and especially when doing migration between OS it can be helpful.

Collect a trace from a fully functional execution and compare to a failing one.. See a demo video here: Nektra SpyStudio and troubleshooting ThinApp package - YouTube

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Bamdad63
Contributor
Contributor

Hi.

Thanks for responding. I followed your advise and watched the video clip using the Nektra Spy Studio. Is there any way to watch the video clip and hear your voice explaining. This way would help a lot to understand and follow the instruction. After all this problem using the portable on Windows 7 or 8 is a big issue. I also watched your video regarding the "ThinApp Isolation Modes explained which I could your voice and follow".

Best regards

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pbjork
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

Sorry but this Nektra SpyStudio demo video doesn't come with audio.. I am thinking of recording another version with some more details.. What's basically going on in the video is this:

  1. First the application is captured on Windows XP.
  2. Clean test on Windows XP is successful, we know ThinApp is capable of running this application.
  3. On our Windows 7 machine, the production test, the application doesn't even display a GUI.
  4. First step when you have two different environments, where the package executes successfully on one, is to create traces from both and compare them to find differences. SpyStudio offers a unique comparison feature where we easily can spot differences in bold.
  5. Comparing the logs we can see on Windows 7 the application fail to create a COM object.
  6. Taking the COM server dll name we can search through the Windows XP trace and export the registry keys related to the COM server.
  7. By importing the exported registry keys into our project and rebuild we manage to get one step further.
  8. The application is still not running successfully. By repeating step 4-7 we are able to resolve also the last issue.
  9. End result, the Windows XP legacy application can successfully execute on Windows 7.
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