Does anyone have the lowdown on using Filter Drivers on VMWare ThinApp? How
does one deploy a FSFD if ThinApp does not support device drivers? I assume
that means that AV scanners don’t work either?
I read that “Any software that installs and requires a device driver to
function. Applications that use pre-installed device drivers can function
without issues”.
Any idea what that means? Is it like Parallels where you have to submit
your driver for validation?
“Many windows applications can be packaged and made portable with VMware ThinApp, with the following notable exceptions:
Any software that installs and requires a device driver to function. Applications that use pre-installed device drivers can function without issues.[8]”
pre-installed device drivers are the ones that are already in windows so you will have to install your filter prior to running your thinapp
ThinApp works in UM, so all redirection a virtualized application (Using ThinApp) see is performed in UM, which apparently means that if an application comes with a kernel driver, the driver will\can not see the virtual files even if the app is virtualized.
>so you will have to install your filter prior to running your thinapp
Whether that driver will work properly or not, depends upon the things this driver wants to access. If it want to access a file (which comes at installation time and hence redirected), it will not found that, no matter when the driver itself is installed.
Where as if the driver is concerned only about file/registry available locally (means not virtual or non-redirected), it should work.
For example, files copied at the time of application installation are virtualized by ThinApp (In UM), now if there are 3 UM Process and 1 FSFD in the app, All 3 UM process/service will see the files but FSFD don’t.
Aditya
wrote in message news:xxxxx@ntfsd…
> ThinApp works in UM, so all redirection a virtualized application (Using
> ThinApp) see is performed in UM, which apparently means that if an
> application comes with a kernel driver, the driver will\can not see the
> virtual files even if the app is virtualized.
>
> Whether that driver will work properly or not, depends upon the things
> this driver wants to access. If it want to access a file (which comes at
> installation time and hence redirected), it will not found that, no matter
> when the driver itself is installed.
Does that mean that a virus scanner will not see those files either?
>>Does that mean that a virus scanner will not see those files either?
You mean if AV is the application virtualized by thinApp. Than the loaded FSFD (I actually doubt it will load) won’t be able to see its installation files. Generally the output of a Virtual package is few .exe files + 1 .dat file. All your AV driver will see is these .exe & .dat only. Process though will see everything fine.
I hope it answers (if not you can mail me )
Aditya