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tdubb123
Expert
Expert

office 2007 and plugins

I got some 3rd party plugins for outlook that i need to install after office install. can i install those after office and then do a postscan? is this still the recommended guide for office 2007 thinapp?

http://blogs.vmware.com/thinapp/2008/10/how-to-thinap-1.html

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Theike
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

First i want to make a side note:

We have found that if you are managing complete desktops it is often more practical to exclude MS Office from the virtualisation process. It is used to often by applications (apps that want to send an email message, open a calculation overview in Excel or do a document merge) which is more complicated when virtualised. Also for outlook make sure the PST-files don't end up in the sandbox if you decide to virtualise...

It is possible to capture plugins. If you have a virtualised outlook (or other base application, like IE) and want a plugin to be added you will have 2 options:

- Include the plugin in the main capture

This is the most simple version and just do the post-capture after the installation of the addin.

- Capture the plugin as an add-in.

This is more flexible as you can add and remove it from the capture. Always capture a add-in on a system where locally the application (outlook) has been installed. Preferred the same installation used for capturing the application, but not required. (often a quick rebuild next-next-finish installation is sufficient).

Next start the capture, install the add-in (and configure if required) and post capture. This should always be done on MERGED mode as in ThinApp the thighest isolation 'wins', and you don't want to have the addin set the basic isolation (adding the addin makes the documents go to the sandbox for example).

Now change the main capture (outlook) and enable the OptionalPlugins (tip: do this by default for the subfolder 'plugins' and files with extension *.DAT). In this case you would not need a rebuild if you ever want to add an addin... Just add the folder and copy the DAT!

This works similar to browser extensions and like there: if you have the application natively available you could use the addin by starting the native application via a entrypoint that starts the local application. For ouotlook i would not suggest this btw...

I assume you will have to do quite some testing before releasing the addin.

Kind regards and good luck!

Michael Baars

(Please mark the question answered if so and reward points to those that helped you...)

Michael Baars - Comprehensive ICT Solutions (NL, Weert) (Remember to mark the post answered and reward points to those who helped you...)
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htroyo
Contributor
Contributor

before postscan you can add anything you want to office installation, another alternative is OptionalAppLinking the plugin (or required) to an existing thinapped office, if you applink the plugin i advise you to clean the sandbox before running office because i had a problem with adobe cs5, and pluings, i had to clean the sandbox after adding the applinks and before running the apps because they didnt started with links added without cleaning the sandbox

but if you are going to use the plugin(s) always, you can package them together, my cs5 (not all products) package is 4.7 gb, it is a little bit slow but i found some tips to speed up the apps

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