Friday 26 November 2010

ThinApp 4.5 and 4.6 (Isolation not Virtualization)

A colleague (Carl) mentioned this morning that the VMware Virtualization technology called ThinApp was updated a little while ago. VMware describes the ThinApp technology with the following,
" applications are packaged into single executables that run completely isolated from each other and the operating system for conflict-free execution on end-point devices."
Well, if you are packaging applications and need to isolate them (notice that I don't use the over-used term Virtualization) then ThinApp is a pretty good choice.

You can download ThinApp here:  http://www.vmware.com/products/thinapp/

And, the latest SDK here: http://communities.vmware.com/community/developer/forums/thinapp

If you downloaded the previous version of the SDK (4.5), then it may be helpful to note the differences between 4.5 and 4.6, described in the following snippet from VMware;

  • Full support for Internet Explorer 6 running on Windows 7.
  • ThinApp has been successfully used to help customers virtualize and isolate many browser related issues such as ActiveX controls and various versions of Java.
  • Adds the ability to “Harvest” Internet Explorer 6 from an existing Windows XP instance.
  • Adds a new “ThinDirect” feature which allows redirecting of URLs from native to virtual browsers.
  • Adds support for registering virtual services as boot-time applications
As you will note from the updated features in 4.6, it really looks like the focus for this ThinApp update is Internet Explorer 8 and compatibility issues associated with the migration from IE6 to IE8.

You can also check the VMware blog on What's new with ThinApp 4.6 here: 

http://blogs.vmware.com/thinapp/2010/08/vmware-thinapp-46-whats-new.html

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2 comments:

Unknown said...

There are different types of virtualization.They are : Desktop virtualization and Application Virtualization.Virtualization Technology

Sunny said...

Virtualization is a huge term to understand and it really depends in what sector it is implemented. When it comes to IT sectors, this term is really comes closer to alternative to citrix like virtualization environment. And today an environment in which the virtualization technology is implemented defines it!