To profile an application, follow these simple steps:

1. Start Application Profiler.
2. From within Application Profiler, invoke the application you want to profile.
3. In the background, Application Profiler monitors the registry and file system actions of the running application.
4. Change the necessary settings in the application to make sure that all application settings are saved, and exit the application.
5. Application Profiler stops monitoring and outputs the collected information as a Flex configuration file.

If you already have the DEM management console running from a previous exercise, skip this step.

From the Main Console, double-click the DEM Management Console shortcut on the desktop. This will open up the Dynamic Environment Manager Management Console.

In the left side expand the Applications folder to view the list of Flex configuration files in this environment. DEM provides personalization only for those applications and Windows settings you configure by adding Flex configuration files to the management console. You can add configuration files in several ways, including the use of downloadable templates. See the module on Personalization for more information.  

Notice Notepad++ is not in the list of applications.

In this module you will profile the Notepad++ application so you can provide personalization, predefines settings, and more of this application for your end users.

Minimize the DEM Management Console, but do not close it.

From the Main Console Desktop click on the DEM Application Profiler shortcut to open the Application Profiler tool.

The application profiler produces four files upon completion of profiling an app:

1. INI - Dynamic Environment Manager configuration file containing the import and export locations. This file defines the parameters for Dynamic Environment Manager to manage the application.
2. ICO - Icon used by Dynamic Environment Manager Management Console and the Self-Support tool.
3. FLAG - Flag file for FlexEngine, when DIrectFlex is enabled (default)
4. ZIP - Contains the predefined user settings. (Only produced when creating predefined settings)

1. Click Start Session from the top left toolbar of the Application Profiler.
2. Navigate to and select Notepad++.
3. Click OK.

The Application Profiler invokes the executable to start Notepad++. As you make changes to the application configuration, the Application Profiler monitors the file system and registry to track where the changes are made.

1. From the menu bar, select Settings
2. Click on Preferences

1. From the Toolbar list, select Big icons.
2. De-select the Show status bar Show status bar check box.
3. Close the preferences box.

Note: In this example exercise you are making minimal changes to the application. In practice, you should update many settings for an application to ensure all locations are captured by the Application Profiler tool. Remember, profiling an application is not about capturing specific settings, it is about learning where an application stores settings in the file system or registry. Some applications use the registry for some settings and an INI file for others. The more settings you change during profiling, the better the Application Profiler tool can learn to provide personalization for an application.

Application Profiler detects when Notepad++ has stopped running and terminates the monitoring process.

1. The Application Profiler has determined the changes you made to the application settings were stored in <AppData>\Notepad++.
2. Click OK

Leave the Application Profiler and continue to the next step.

1. Click Start
2. Enter: %appdata%
3. Press: Enter

Double-click Notepad++

The Notepad++ stores all sorts of configuration data in this location. During the application profiling process you changed two settings which were written to files in this location. Application Profiler will produce a Flex configuration file that monitors this entire directory for changes because it has learned this is where the application stores them.

If you would like to see where the settings you changed (Big icons, hide status bar) were written:

1. Double-click config.xml
2. Scroll or search for guiconfig

1. Restore the VMware Dynamic Environment Manager Application Profiler from the taskbar
2. From the DEM Application Profiler, Click on Save
3. Click Save Config File from the choices.

Note: Because you select Save Config File, rather than Save Config File with Predefined Settings, the preference settings you changed in this lab will NOT be presented to end users or when you launch the Notepad++ application in the next steps.  You changed preference settings in Notepad++ only so that Application Profiler could monitor and determine the location Notepad++ stores configuration changes.  

If you select Save a Flex Configuration File with Predefined Settings, a profile archive is created to use for predefined settings when a user logs in.

1. Save the files to the desktop by selecting Desktop in the left menu.
2. Give File name of NPP
3. Click Save
4. Close the Application Profiler by clicking on the X in the top right corner of the Application Profiler window.

Now that you have profiled Notepad++ you can import the files created by the Application Profiler to the DEM management console. Once imported, you can use the Flex config file to provide personalization to end users for the Notepad++ application.

1. On the desktop of the Main Console, select all three files created by the Application Profiler: NPP.ini, NPP.ini.flag, NPP.ico.
2. Once all three are selected, Right click on them and select Copy.

Remember the INI file is the application config file, the INI.FLAG file tells DEM to import and export the settings when the application opens and closes, and ICO is the icon file.

1. Open Windows Explorer from the taskbar
2. Navigate to C:\DEMProd\general\Applications
3. Paste the 3 files here by right clicking then select Paste.

1. Navigate to the DEM Management Console. Be sure NOT to click on the Application Profiler window.
2. Click the Refresh Tree Button on the top left bar under Personalization.

Notepad++ (NPP per the name assigned) is located in the list of managed applications.

VMware provides application management templates for commonly-used software packages, and the VMware Dynamic Environment Manager Community Forum contains many more templates created with an included tool called Application Profiler.

Application Profiler is a standalone tool that helps you determine where in the file system or registry an application is storing its user settings. The output from Application Profiler is a configuration file which can be used to preserve and roam application settings for your end users. Optionally, you can record a default set of application settings, and apply and/or enforce these defaults for your users based on a variety of conditions.