Application Virtualization

Microsoft App-V

Microsoft App-V 4.5 is Microsoft’s first internally developed application virtualization product; it is developed from the code base of SoftGrid Application Virtualization acquired by Microsoft from Softricity in 2006. With Microsoft App-V it is possible to create virtual applications that can be used on computers with the App-V client and thus solving problems like:

Running different versions of the same applications on the same computer although the application itself does not support it.

Creating virtual applications that can be installed, patched and uninstalled without breaking the operating system it is being installed on, this technology can be used to solve a large number of situations that today costs a considerable amount to handle. A very common example is the scenario where an application is needed by a few number of users for a specific need, e.g. a home grown system to manage orders or similar. To avoid having to test this program with every other application supported in the organization platform to know that the program itself or the setup itself does not break the system, it can simply be virtualized and rolled out to the few user that need it.

Components

With Specops Virtual Deploy the two components needed is the App-V Sequencer and the App-V client.

Virtual software deployment

Specops Virtual Deploy makes it possible to take advantage of Microsoft App-V application virtualization directly, using only existing investments in infrastructure and knowledge. This is accomplished by combining the power of Group Policy and Microsoft App-V. Virtual applications are not installed like normal applications on the client computer. Instead the application is published, which means that the application will be downloaded to the local computer when the user uses it for the first time. This makes patching a virtual application very simple. After a patch has been applied the new version of the virtual application is simply added to a streaming server and tagged as an upgrade. The upgraded application will then be downloaded to replace the outdated local version the next time a user starts it.