Sebastian Gottschalk <seppi@seppig.de> wrote in news:52qco0F1p3b7tU1
@mid.dfncis.de:
> nemo_outis wrote:
>
>>
>> FWIW Thinstall 3.035 has very recently been posted on the warez scene.
>> Worthwhile downloading (for experimentation only, of course :-)
because
>> Thisnstall is so filthy expensive (and its licencing scheme sucks
hard).
>>
>> My interest in it is quite circumscribed: as an aid in making programs
>> portable (since it virtualizes the registry).
>
> Maybe I misread the description, but doesn't it basically just do the
COM
> Component Registration in HKCU (thus user-dependent registry)?
>
I have not had a chance to work with it yet so I can say nothing
authoritative, just give my interpretation of the docs and what others
have done with the tool. But my understanding that it is possible to
package a program as a single executable with no registry entries.
FWIW, answers.com says,
"On Windows, Thinstall... essentially work[s] by intercepting filesystem
and registry requests by an application and redirecting those requests to
a preinstalled isolated sandbox, thus allowing the application to run
without installation or changes to the local PC."
....
"Thinstall works by packaging an application into a single EXE which
includes the runtime plus the application data files and registry.
Thinstall’s runtime is loaded by Windows as a normal Windows application,
from there the runtime replaces the Windows loader, filesystem, and
registry for the target application and presents a merged image of the
host PC as if the application had been previously installed. Thinstall
replaces all related API functions for the host application, for example
the ReadFile API supplied to the application must pass through Thinstall
before it reaches the operating system. If the application is reading a
virtual file, Thinstall handles the request itself otherwise the request
will be passed on to the operating system. Because Thinstall is
implemented in user-mode without device drivers and it does not have a
client that is preinstalled, applications can run directly from USB Flash
or network shares without previously needing elevated security
privileges."
Incidentally, for those who wish to download an experimental copy of the
latest Thinstall (complete with crack) nip on over to:
http://mikicun.blogsome.com/
Regards,