This is a copy of a post I placed on www.appvirtguru.com in the ThinApp board.
In the VMware Knowledge Base there is a document explaining the different isolation modes for the file system and the registry inside the virtualization, how to configure these isolation modes and some possible issues you might run into when they are configured wrong for your application. Although most ThinApp-ers are aware of these isolation modes, the Sandbox and how to use them, it couldn’t harm posting some information here right?
The article: Configuring Isolation Modes for the File System and Registry in ThinApp
If you run into similar issues like the next, the KB article can be very useful to you:
For example:
When you try to virtualize a different version of a locally installed application and the virtual app does not work like you expect
- When you’re trying to create a multiuser version of a typical single user application, for example to store per user settings
- When you can’t read or write files on your local disk from inside your virtual application, typically the writes in locked-down desktops
The isolation modes allow you to dictate what registry locations and file system directories/files the virtual application can see or make changes to. These boil down to the following three isolation modes available to you as packager:
Isolation modes:
- Full: The application can’t read or write to the physical location
- Merge: The application reads and writes to the physical location
- WriteCopy: The application reads from the physical location and writes to the virtual location(called the Sandbox)
These isolation modes are for both registry and file system.
More detailed information on the isolation modes you find here: Verifying isolation mode usage in ThinApp on kb.vmware.com.
This link also mentions: Configuration of isolation modes are stored in the Sandbox. If you rebuild your package it might be necessary to delete the Sandbox.
When selecting the default file system isolation mode the Setup Capture wizard you are provided with two options:
- Modified Merged isolation mode:
Is for applications your know and trust. The virtual application has full access to about every directory but the following directories are sandboxed:- %AppData%
- %Local AppData%
- %Common AppData%
- %SystemRoot%
- %SystemSystem%
- %ProgramFilesDir%
- %Program Files Common%
- Modified WriteCopy isolation mode:
Almost all directories are sandboxed accept the following:- %Desktop%
- %Personal% (My Documents)
- %SystemSystem%\spool
These modifications to the isolation modes should increase your success factor for creating ThinApp-ed versions of your applications.
The KB article I’m writing about now, covers the differences between setting the default isolation modes in the Setup Capture Wizard and using the configuration file Package.ini.
Some important notes on this:
- The default file system isolation mode in the Setup Capture Wizard is (a modified) Merged mode
- The default file system isolation mode in the Package.ini is WriteCopy without the modifications added by the Setup Capture Wizard when choosing the WriteCopy mode there
- The Setup Capture Wizard does not allow for selecting the Full isolation mode as the default mode. (Because it isn’t such a good idea)
- The Setup Capture Wizard does not provide an option to configure the default registry isolation mode
- The default registry isolation mode in the Package.ini: WriteCopy
This is important to know when, for example, you’re not using the Setup Capture Wizard to create ThinApp packages.
When you created a project with the Setup Capture Wizard and you change the default isolation mode afterwards, the directories created during the Capture maintain the setting from the Setup Capture Wizard. So you have to change those directories manually.
The default isolation mode does not apply to network drives and removable media.
To change the isolation mode per directory or registry key check the ThinApp User Guide on VMware.com.
So that’s the KB article I guess. Hope it was of some use to you.
