... Priceless

Although the AutoCAD R14 thinapp went through two weeks of user testing, within hours of the deployment a user called me asking me to add a set of fonts for all of the users. I added the fonts to the capture and recompiled the package. Then I changed the extension from .exe to .1 (AutoCAD R14.1) and dropped it in the thinapp network share... done.

First ThinApp deployment via SCCM

A few weeks ago Autodesk AutoCAD R14 stopped working for the Engineering Dept after the Security Policies were tightened, and the usual solution of granting local access to a file/folders wouldn't work for the native app. We have a number of ThinApp packages in development/testing, and are under the usual pressure to deliver on our ROI... so I dropped everything and jumped at the chance to solve the issue with Thinapp!

The packaging was easy. There were some files that had to be added to the package (winhlp32.exe to %System%System%) manually, and dropping custom .lsp routines into the %ProgramFilesDir% worked fine.

The difficulty came with deployment via SCCM. The strategy was to create a Software Distribution Package which contained thinreg, and an uninstall script. The thinreg command line would point to the .exe on the network share. The SCCM package would uninstall the native version of the software, register the thinapp from the network share, and dump a shortcut on the desktop. The app would run off the network share via appstream.

This failed many times and the solution was this:

* Make sure and use a fully qualified UNC in the command/script

* Configure the SCCM package for thinreg to run with User Rights.