Automated Application Converter

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Hello,

Is Automated Application Converter mainly used for converting media sources into virtualized applications?  Reading the online documentation, it appears that way, but I would like to confirm.

From the Benefits of Using the Automated Application Converter Flexera documentation, it states:

• 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.
• 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.

So, for example, repackaging an EXE using Automated Application Converter, you would not be able to make selections via the EXE's user interface to customize the install?  The install will happen silently in the VM?

Is manual repackaging using Remote Repackager the recommended approach when repackaging legacy EXE's that require customization using the EXE's user interface?

Thanks!

[moconn · Accepted solution]

The Automated Application Converter (AAC) can be used to automate the use of virtual machines for application package conversion, including EXE to MSI and EXE/MSI to MSIX and legacy app virtualization formats.

If the application being captured can be run completely unattended via command-line switches or through the use of transform files (for MSI packages), then the entire process can be run automatically without user interaction.

For those application packages being converted, if they do require user interaction AAC supports that by detecting that the installer package is running and waits for it to complete.  Running the Conversion Wizard from the Application Manager (which uses the AAC) or launching and running the AAC tool directly allows you to log into the VM in question via a Remote Desktop (RDP) connection in order to interact with the installer if it cannot run silently.

You can define soft and hard time outs for when the AAC will notify the user that the package has not completed and requires your input (soft) and when it should just stop the process and shut the machine off (hard).  More detail and where to set that info in the product documentation here (using the current version of the documentation at the time of this reply).

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@moconn thank you!