Press Release: Sept 20, 2004
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

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 Thinstall Ends DLL Hell for Software Developers and
Corporate IT Administrators
Thinstall 2.5 Eliminates the Obstacles and Pitfalls of COM Installations, Saving IT Support Costs

San Francisco, Calif. - September 20, 2004 - Thinstall Ô , the installation platform preferred by thousands of software/corporate IT developers for. NET and Visual Basic Ô applications as well as all other programming languages, today announced the release of Thinstall 2.5, adding a scripting system which allows developers to link scripting code with any executable without needing source code or causing it to perform additional actions during install, uninstall, program start, program end or license key change. The company also announced its 300 th major enterprise customer, marking a major milestone with this next-generation v2.5 product release. Thinstall continues its commitment to help business remove the pain and cost of deployment, and better manage IT environments for the on-demand enterprise.

Thinstall 2.5 protects Microsoft Office Ô documents by allowing the publisher to place limits on what machine the file can be viewed on, how many times it can be viewed, and time/date restrictions. The publisher can also disable printing and copy/paste rights. The protected documents are deployed as a single compressed EXE file that does not require any additional files or installation. In addition Thinstall 2.5 adds anti-virus protection and obfuscation technology which generates unique secure EXEs for each customer. Using this method, developers can protect their applications against virus infections and eliminate "false positives" that occur due to mistakes from anti-virus companies.

How Thinstall Works
 Traditional software deployment involves creating an installation or setup package that extracts files and modifies registry keys on an end user's computer. This process, even when done correctly, is prone to errors because of reliance on components shared with other applications. Thinstall combines advanced file compression algorithms similar to those provided by WinZip and WinRAR with virtual machine technology similar to VMWare and Virtual PC to create a powerful deployment platform. By packaging application files, registry keys, and a copy of the virtual machine into a single EXE, software deployment can be simplified to a single file-copy operation. The resulting EXE runs on any PC without needing installation and no longer relies on shared software components. At runtime, applications running inside Thinstall's virtual machine have full access to the real filesystem and registry so they can interact with other applications and save files to the user's hard drive. Thinstall's virtual machine has a low memory and disk foot print (~150k and ~1MB respectively) and because all code runs natively, applications do not suffer performance penalties seen in other virtual machine technologies.

End of DLL Nightmare of COM
 Component Object Model (COM), Microsoft's strategic building block approach for developing application programs, makes life easier for middle-ware vendors. Before COM components can be used, they must first be installed, resulting in a large number of immediate and long term failure points. These deployment failures contribute heavily IT and help desk support cost. A few common failures include:
§ restricted file and registry access during installation
§ backwards compatibility issues for new shared components;
§ failure due to improper registration;
§ difficulty uninstalling COM components; and
§ corruption of successfully installed COM components downstream when other applications are installed.

Thinstall requires no administrator rights because no system registry or filesystem changes are needed to use COM components. There is no possibility of causing other applications to fail because it does not modify existing files or change registry values. Because Thinstall creates applications that are deployed and run as a single EXE file, it eliminates dependencies on outside shared components. The install process becomes trivial - developers can place a single EXE on CDROM or a network drive and users can run it directly without installation. The uninstall requires only a simple file deletion. And most importantly, no source code changes are needed so developers do not need to modify their existing processes. Thinstall loads almost all 32 bit Windows applications and COM files without source changes, including 3 rd party COM components.

"Thinstall lets companies concentrate on software sales and development while eliminating costly deployment help desk issues. Thinstall opens new markets and increases sales by enabling painless deployment of applications to enterprise, government, and educational sites." said Jonathan Clark, president of Thinstall. "We work closely with our customers to ensure they not only have successful deployments, but success products."


Thinstall - Overview
 Thinstall has been used to deploy software to nearly one hundred million PCs around the world. Thinstall solves major deployment issues by eliminating DLL Hell and offering "no installation" deployment for existing applications. Thinstall permits .NET and Visual Basic applications to be run without requiring the .NET Framework or Visual Basic Runtime. It eliminates administrator access requirements for install and has zero impact on other applications. Thinstall protects executable code and data files from copying, disassembly, and reverse engineering. Thinstall saves money downstream by eliminating the majority of Help Desk support issues related to installation and PC lifetime volatility. Thinstall's Virtual Machine technology allows developers to package entire applications into a single file that can be run without an installation process, add new abilities to existing applications and libraries without source code changes.



About Thinstall
After years of private research by the founders, Thinstall incorporated in 1999 and is based in San Francisco, California. Since 2001, Thinstall Ô is the company's premier product and has been used by thousands of software developers and corporate IT administrators to deploy software to nearly a hundred million PCs around the world. Thinstall has a strong commitment to providing new software technologies backed by excellent technical support. Thinstall's customers include some of the largest enterprises in the world including the US Internal Revenue Service, Defense Department, US Navy, US Pentagon, General Electric, Philips, Fujitsu, and Lucent. For more information visit www.thinstall.com, or email: info@thinstall.com.
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Press Inquiries
 Jonathan Clark
Thinstall
(415) 274-2558
press@thinstall.com

Kaye McKinzie
Quatrain PR
(415) 927-7365
Kaye@QuatrainPR.com