Snapshot.exe
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Typically you do not need to use snapshot.exe directly, it is invoked by SetupCapture. This documentation is for advanced users and system integrators who are building Thinstall functionality into other platforms.

Command Line Usage:
note: all parameters are case-insensitive

snapshot CaptureFile.snapshot [BaseDirectory1][BaseDirectory2][BaseRegistry1][BaseRegistry2][-Config ConfigFile.ini]
snapshot Original.snapshot -Diff NewEnvironment.snapshot OutputDirectory [-Config ConfigFile.ini][-Quiet]
snapshot Original.snapshot -DiffPrint NewEnvironment.snapshot [-Config ConfigFile.ini]


snapshot can be used for 2 purposes, saving a snapshot and creating a Thinstall project from 2 previously captured snapshots.

Saving a snapshot
Snapshot can capture a snapshot of a computer's filesystem and registry which is then used later to create a Thinstall project. If no additional parameters, Snapshot will scan and save a copy of:

- All file information for all local drives (Directories, Filenames, File Attributes, File Sizes, and File modification dates)
- A complete copy of the registry trees HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE and HKEY_USERS (because HKCR and HKCU are subsets of HKLM and HKU, there is no need to scan them)

Example usage:
snapshot c:\Capture.snapshot
Captures a complete snapshot of local drives and registry to the file c:\Capture.snapshot

snapshot c:\Capture.snapshot c:\ e:\
Captures a complete snapshot of the drives c:\ and e:\, no registry information is captured

snapshot c:\Capture.snapshot c:\ HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Classes
Captures a complete snapshot of the drive c:\ and all of the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT registry subtree

Creating a Thinstall project from 2 previously captured snapshots.

Snapshot can be used to generate a Thinstall project directory by comparing 2 snapshots.

Example usage:
snapshot c:\Original.snapshot -Diff c:\NewEnvironment.snapshot c:\MyProject
Compares the two specified projects, and generates a resulting Thinstall Project in the directory c:\MyProject

Displaying Differences between 2 previously captured snapshots
snapshot Original.snapshot -DiffPrint NewEnvironment.snapshot
-DiffPrint is similar to -Diff execept that is does not have an output directory and all changes detected are printed to the console



Config Files
The Config file allows you to specify directories and subkeys to be excluded from a scan of created projects.

If no config file is specified Snapshot will attempt to load it's config file from the locations:

1. Application Data\Thinstall\Spanshot.ini (User's AppData directory)
2. C:\Program Files\Thinstall\Snapshot.ini (Location where Snapshot.exe is run from)

See the default Snapshot.ini in the C:\Program Files\Thinstall\Snapshot.ini for more details about customizations that can be performed.