LucD
Leadership
Leadership

ThinApp project cleanup best practices ?

Is there a document that contains guidelines/best practices for cleaning up a ThinApp project ?

I'm thinking of folders like for example %Cookies% or %drive-C%\MSOCache that seem to be present in nearly every ThinApp project, but which are probably not needed for most softwares.

The Registry also contains quite some entries that are most probably not needed.


Blog: lucd.info  Twitter: @LucD22  Co-author PowerCLI Reference

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Cievo
Commander
Commander

Nope. No official document Smiley Happy

Just feeleing and knowledge Smiley Happy

***Good question is half of the answer...***
LucD
Leadership
Leadership

I was afraid of that Smiley Sad

Wouldn't that be a useful technote ? I can imagine other ThinApp users would benefit as well.


Blog: lucd.info  Twitter: @LucD22  Co-author PowerCLI Reference

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Cievo
Commander
Commander

That's maybe true, but:

  • Every application is different. For example: some might and some might not use isolation modes of Cookies directories.
  • Including directory MSOCache is discutable, because you have to decide if users will be able to install some additional things from MSIs.
  • Some shortcuts' icons are directly from MSIs located in MSOCache

It's not always clear what needs to be in package :slightly_smiling_face:

***Good question is half of the answer...***
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LucD
Leadership
Leadership

True, but then again there will always be exceptions to a BP rule Smiley Wink

I was just thinking about some general concepts, that would avoid that packagers would have to reinvent the wheel each time.

And the remarks you just made would be useful exceptions to the general BP. At least people would know, or consider why, for example the Cookies folder would have to be kept in the package.


Blog: lucd.info  Twitter: @LucD22  Co-author PowerCLI Reference

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pbjork
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

I hear you.. I could start on one but I'm interested in learning what others are doing. I'm sure we can all learn from each other..

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LucD
Leadership
Leadership

Thanks Peter, that was my idea as well.

Although my contribution will be minimal, I have no problem starting Smiley Wink

When I'm creating a ThinApp package I have some fixed steps I run though to clean up the package.

  • I prefer using something like ThinAppHelper, because it gives me a visual view on the Folders and the Registry entires
  • Folders:
    • I look first at the obvious candidates
      • %Cookies%
      • %Fonts%
      • %Local AppData% for automation services (in our case RES),
      • %Personal%
      • %SystemRoot%\Installer
      • %SystemRoot%\ServiceProfiles
      • %SystemSystem%\Spool
    • Then I browse through the other folders to find any obvious unrelated entries
  • Registry: defenitely more intricate as the Folders. In fact I don't have any BP rules I follow, I just browse through the structure and remove the obvious branches.

    It is obvious that somewhat with a lot more ThinApp packaging exprience would be able to give more concrete BPs (out of his experience).


    Blog: lucd.info  Twitter: @LucD22  Co-author PowerCLI Reference

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    Squidly_Man
    VMware Employee
    VMware Employee

    As others have said, there are no specific guides.  There are other documents, discussion threads, and presentations discussing this, however.

    ThinApp Troubleshooting - http://blogs.vmware.com/thinapp/2009/05/app-troubleshooting.html

    ThinApp Troubleshooting-Repost - http://blogs.vmware.com/thinapp/2010/01/thinapp-troubleshooting-repost.html

    ThinApp Bootcamp - http://communities.vmware.com/community/vmtn/desktop/thinapp/bootcamp

    See the Performance Enhancing, Design Best Practices, and Implementation Best Practices sessions.

    -Dean F. https://www.vmware.com/support/pubs/identitymanager-pubs.html
    LucD
    Leadership
    Leadership

    Thanks for the answer and the links Dean, and for the constant flow of good ThinApp information you deliver to us.

    Those 2 blog posts are in my Bookmarks since day 1 Heart

    My suggestion was to bring all that, somewhat dispersed, information together in one central location (beit a paper or a website).

    The 2nd part of my suggestion was to have some kind of user experiences repository.

    Something like ITNinja (the former AppDeploy) is doing with their Software Library.


    Blog: lucd.info  Twitter: @LucD22  Co-author PowerCLI Reference

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    pbjork
    VMware Employee
    VMware Employee

    I've started on a document here, https://blogs.vmware.com/thinapp/2013/02/thinapp-project-folder-cleaning-up-best-practices.html

    You can all leave comments to the blog post and I will add your suggestions to the original post.

    View solution in original post

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    oliAH
    Enthusiast
    Enthusiast

    This may be a bit off but if someone doesn't want to bother cleaning the project folder, he can add to following line to the package.ini (typically Office products):

    [FileList]

    ExcludePattern=*.bak, *.msi, *.mst, *.msp, *.cab, *.tmp

    Blog: http://oliah.net >> Twitter: @olivier_ahson
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    MWIProd
    Contributor
    Contributor

    Hi Everybody,

    I'm also interesting in best practices to optimise my ThinApp.

    I made a little prog to automatise this painful task.

    If anybody want to test, download attached file.

    1. Unzip files on any folder.
    2. Edit reg file and modify path and name for exe file.
    3. Launch reg file to add fonction to context menu.
    4. Modify ini files to add filters.
    You must add "=1" at end of line to enable cleaning.
    "=0" disable cleaning.
    5. Right click on ThinCapture folder and choose "ThinCapture Cleaner".

    Caution ! Reg files are backuped but others files are deleted.

    ESXi 6.0.0 View 6.2.3 PowerCLI 6.5.1
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    pbjork
    VMware Employee
    VMware Employee

    I've yet to try it but what a great idea.. Thanks for sharing..

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