When you profile an application, Application Profiler monitors the changes that the application makes to the registry and the file system. It is important that the application saves its configuration during the analysis session.

Only .EXE files are supported for analysis. Some applications install shortcuts in the start menu that refer to an application document instead of to the executable file of the application. You can profile these applications by browsing to the executable and adding any additional arguments after the application path.

Usually, it is sufficient to modify a few of the settings of the profiled application. Many applications save their full configuration whenever a change is made. You might need to change more of the application features and settings, so that the corresponding files are written to disk. For example, you might change settings such as creating a signature in an email client or adding an entry to the custom dictionary in a word processor.

You cannot select applications for which an application template is provided in the VMware Dynamic Environment Manager Management Console for analysis in Application Profiler. For such applications, you can create a Flex configuration file in the Management Console with the appropriate template.

To find the registry and file system definitions for a Flex configuration file, the actual configuration settings are not relevant. Only the locations where the settings are kept in the user profile are important. To create predefined settings, the actual configuration settings do matter, because they become part of the predefined settings archive.

Application Profiler monitors the application you selected and all of the child processes started by that application. Monitoring stops when the main application and all child processes are stopped. For some applications, one or more of those child processes continue to run even when you exit the main application. In that case, you must manually stop the analysis by clicking the Stop Analysis button in the Analyzing Application dialog. Stopping the analysis only affects the monitoring by Application Profiler and does not stop the child processes.

Procedure

  1. Start Application Profiler and click Start Session.
  2. Browse to and select the application to be profiled or select an application from the All Programs tree.
    You can optionally enter command-line arguments after the application path in the Application text box and specify the application start folder in the Start in text box. Put quotes around the path if necessary. If you select a shortcut from the All Programs tree, all settings are read from the shortcut.
  3. Click OK.
    The Analyzing Application window appears and the application starts.
  4. Make the necessary changes to the application configuration and exit the application.
    The main Application Profiler user interface appears, with the analysis results.
  5. (Optional) Adjust the generated settings by modifying the Application Profiler options or making manual changes in the editor.
  6. Click Save and select one of the options and a location for the Flex configuration file.

Results

You successfully profiled an application.