If your administrator has provided you any applications that are packaged as VMware ThinApp® applications, you require the VMware Identity Manager™ Desktop application to access and use the ThinApp applications. Identity Manager Desktop is a Windows application that syncs the ThinApp packages to your Windows system, after verifying your entitlements.

When you install Identity Manager Desktop and connect to the service for the first time, it checks your entitlements and downloads the ThinApp applications that you can access. Administrators determine the download method for installing Identity Manager Desktop. Download methods include file copy over the network and HTTP download. In some cases, your administrator might have set the option to stream ThinApp applications from a network share. After the ThinApp applications are installed, they appear in your Start > All Programs menu or on your desktop, depending on the application.

Keep Identity Manager Desktop running and connected to the service so that any new or updated applications are synced to your system. The sync occurs at regular intervals. The default sync interval is 5 minutes but it might have been modified by your administrator.

The Identity Manager Desktop menu, displayed by clicking the Identity Manager Desktop icon in the taskbar, displays the next scheduled sync time. If you disconnect from the service, applications are synced the next time you connect and sign in to your apps portal.

When you start a ThinApp application, Identity Manager Desktop checks with the service whether you are entitled to it. You might not be able to start the application if the Identity Manager Desktop is not connected to the service.