How Transforms are Included in a ThinApp Application

AdminStudio 2023 | 25.0 | ThinApp Assistant

The ThinApp Assistant supports the inclusion of transform files with Windows Installer packages in a ThinApp application.

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How transforms are applied when building a ThinApp application—When building a ThinApp application, transforms that you have specified are automatically applied to the base Windows Installer (.msi) package to create a temporary package, and then the ThinApp application is generated from that temporary package.

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Creating a new transform—You can create a new transform in InstallShield, and then build a ThinApp application from that transform file. When you create a new transform file in InstallShield, you specify the root .msi file in the Open Transform wizard. The steps you take to generate a ThinApp application after using that wizard are exactly the same as if you were editing a Windows Installer package in Direct Edit mode.

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Converting a Windows Installer package with existing transforms—If you have a Windows Installer package and one or more existing transform files, and you want to include these transforms in the ThinApp application, you need to open one of the transforms in InstallShield (rather than the .msi file). The Open Transform wizard will open, and you will be prompted to specify the root .msi file and which of the existing .mst files you want to include. The steps you take to generate a ThinApp application after using that wizard are exactly the same as if you were editing a Windows Installer package in Direct Edit mode.

Caution:All of the transforms that you add to a ThinApp application must be located in the same folder as the Windows Installer .msi package so that they can be accessed when the ThinApp application is built.