Next generation software deployment

Thinstall provides an application ‘sandbox’ which protects the local OS from installation modifications that could affect stability or security and also enables applications to be run safely from restricted user accounts without local installation.

What is Application Virtualization?

Application Virtualization is the core technology of the Thinstall. It is next generation technology yet fits into how software is being deployed today.  Application virtualization enables the deployment of software without modifying the local operating system. It allows software to be delivered and updated in an isolated environment ensuring the integrity of the operating system and all applications.  Application Virtualization works completely in user space, rather than as a device driver, which means it can run on all versions of Windows 95+, without requiring changes to the local file system, registry, or security policies for individual machines. 

Thinstall virtualization incurs no noticeable runtime performance impact or source code changes. The Thinstall Virtual OS technology component is less than 300K on disk and occupies approximately 1 MB RAM at runtime.

Application Virtualization Components

The Thinstall Virtual Operating System

Thinstall acts as a thin Virtual OS that transparently merges a virtual system environment with the real system environment.  The Thinstall Virtual OS consists of the Virtual File system (VFS), and Virtual Registry (VREG).

Thinstall's Virtual OS Technology, combined with the developer GUI is the development environment that enables entire applications to be packaged into a single EXE that can be run without an installation process, and without modifying the resident operating system. The Thinstall Virtual (VOS) performs:

• Process Loading. The VOS loads a starting EXE file from the Virtual File System and allows it to execute any other EXE directly from the Virtual File System or from the normal file system.  
• DLL Loading. The VOS loads any DLL dependencies the EXE/DLL/OCX files may have directly from archive when instructed.
• Thread & Process Management. The VOS is responsible for keeping track of all processes and threads created inside the virtual machine including out-of-process COM and utility applications.

Thinstall Packaging GUI

Thinstall packages the VOS, VFS, and VREG along with the application EXE, DLLs, data files, and registry keys into a single compressed EXE. When the application is running, virtual files and registry keys will override system files and registry keys where they might collide, otherwise the application can access any system files and registry keys it normally could.

 

 

White Paper

Overview of Thinstall Application Virtualization Technology
Learn More

 

See Examples

How Thinstall works, try sample applications

See How