Benefits of Using the Automated Application Converter

AdminStudio 2023 | 25.0 | Automated Application Converter

Previously, when converting a Windows Installer package to a virtual application, there were cases when you needed to capture its installation prior to being able to perform a successful conversion. Repackaging is sometimes required because it is not possible to determine the run-time behavior of certain Windows Installer package elements—such as conditional components and custom actions—without actually running the install. While converting a Windows Installer package to a virtual application is automated and is a batch process, repackaging setups is a manual process requiring a packager to individually repackage each setup on clean machines and then to convert them into virtual applications—which is a time consuming task requiring several hours of a packagers time.

The Automated Application Converter examines a group of setups to automatically determine which need to be repackaged and which can be virtualized without repackaging. It converts the setups that can be directly converted and then automatically repackages the others by launching virtual machines, running the setups, and capturing them prior to converting them into the target virtual formats.

The Automated Application Converter provides the following benefits:

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Automated repackaging on virtual machines—The Automated Application Converter provides an interface to provision and manage virtual machines, silently repackage installs on them, and create virtual packages for the resulting MSIs.

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Ability to repackage non-MSI setups—You can use the Automated Application Converter to repackage legacy (non-MSI) setups to create an MSI package that can be converted to a virtual package.

Note:These setups must support silent install mode.

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Conversion of packages from multiple sources—Using the Automated Application Converter, you can convert setups from multiple sources:

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AdminStudio Application Catalog

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Specified directory or file

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Efficiently manages repackaging queue on multiple virtual machines—The Automated Application Converter efficiently manages the virtual machine queue, allowing setups to be packaged simultaneously on multiple machines.

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Easy-to-understand reports—The Automated Application Converter generates easy-to-understand HTML reports for each conversion run, providing detailed information on each package.

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Easy-to-read progress indicators with one-click access to virtual machines—The Automated Application Converter provides dashboard-type progress indicators with one-click access to open a virtual machine in a Remote Desktop session, enabling you to view the progress of a repackaging session and to quickly perform troubleshooting.

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Provides option to use App-V 5.0 Sequencer when converting to App-V 5.0 format—When converting a package to Microsoft App-V 5.0 format, you can choose to either use AdminStudio’s virtualization technology to perform the conversion or to use the App-V 5.0 Sequencer, Microsoft’s native technology. For more information, see Comparison of the App-V 5.0 Conversion Methods.