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cameyo -> Cameyo usage -> Reversing the packaging process
Post Info TOPIC: Reversing the packaging process
Scott

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Reversing the packaging process
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Is it possible to unpack a Cameyo application so that it installs all the registry keys, creates the directories, and installs all the files in the image?

There have been a couple of situations where I needed to edit a package and either didn't have a patch for the changes or there were installer problems that prevented the patching from working.  It would work fine if I could start a capture on a clean VM, restore the Cameyo package contents, and then make the edits I need.

What I was forced to do was repackage from scratch.  In one case the application was ~20GB and the packaging took me a couple days to complete.

If this isn't possible is there an API to get the package data required in order to build a tool?

Thanks



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mule


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Hello Scott,

Can you edit the package the way you need through Cameyo's Package Editor?  With Package Editor, you can add, delete, and replace files, folders, and registry entries.  Also, please see here for documentation on -Repackage command.



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Scott

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It was too many changes to use the UI for.  Too much to keep track of.  For small changes I've used that method.  I had a batch file and part was an installer but the installer seemed to fail both running with -Patch and starting cmd.exe and running in the virtualization context.  There seem to be some actions that the virtualization misses.  I'm guessing something in the custom action code.  There are shell APIs like launch with default handlers or the shell file browser APIs that seem to be missed that might be what it was trying to do.  For example if you have a PDF file and the host has a reader launching the PDF from the package always fails so I add Foxit to the packages and launch it as the PDF program.  Another example is in the virtualization context command window from a virtualized directory and type "start ." the file browser can't see the virtualized directory so fails with a popup dialog.

Thanks



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mule


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In that case, it seems the best method would be to build the package anew with all configurations and updates completed before the post-installation snapshot.

How would reversing the packaging process be different from building a fresh package?  Wouldn't you still have to capture the reversing process to build the package again?

My packages that don't include a PDF reader within them launch a virtualized instance of the host's default PDF reader when opening the packages' .pdf files from the package menu and from a virtualized Command Prompt.  Perhaps you can test with a smaller package.



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Scott

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Yes I'm currently building all the packages from scratch.  Being able to recreate the image from an existing package would be faster and more convenient.  In some of my packages I'm putting together a suite of applications so I have to grab all the installers then install both the old patches and new ones (not all patches are cumulative).  Then there are some manual steps it would be nice not to have to repeat.  It's error prone to remember or keep track of exactly what was done in previous packaging.  It would make updating the package one step plus the current update.

Thanks



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Scott

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One other thing is the PDF reader works if you have installed an app externally but not if the machine is Windows 8+ where the reader is built into the OS and is the default.  That is why I think it has something to do with the shell APIs.

 

Thanks



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