Microsoft Application Virtualization (also known as App-V ; formerly Softricity SoftGrid ) is an application virtualization and application streaming solution from Microsoft . It was originally developed by Softricity, a company based in Boston , Massachusetts , acquired by Microsoft on July 17, 2006. App-V represents Microsoft's entry to the application virtualization market, alongside their other virtualization technologies such as Hyper-V , Microsoft User Environment Virtualization (UE-V), Remote Desktop Services , and System Center Virtual Machine Manager .
31-473: App-V allows applications to be deployed ("streamed") in real-time to any client from a virtual application server. It removes the need for traditional local installation of the applications, although a standalone deployment method is also supported. With a streaming-based implementation, the App-V client needs to be installed on the client machines and application data that is stored on the virtual application server
62-510: A sandbox is a security mechanism for separating running programs, usually in an effort to mitigate system failures and/or software vulnerabilities from spreading. The sandbox metaphor derives from the concept of a child's sandbox—a play area where children can build, destroy, and experiment without causing any real-world damage. It is often used to kill untested or untrusted programs or code, possibly from unverified or untrusted third parties, suppliers, users or websites, without risking harm to
93-465: A few common components: The remainder of the 5.x architecture is dependent on the deployment option used. The Full App-V 5.x Server composed of the following additional components: The Configuration Manager composed of the following components: App-V 5 requires the use of System Center Configuration Manager 2012, and above, for full support of App-V features. Deployment by older versions, or other electronic delivery systems, are also possible by using
124-510: A program, which can conserve bandwidth across a WAN . The basic system requirements for Configuration Manager are variable and dependent on the scale of configuration. Microsoft Configuration Management has gone through two brand changes. Both resulted in reducing confusion with other initialism as well as including the software in a Microsoft systems management portfolio. In 2007, System Management Service (SMS) became System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM). This helped avoid confusion with
155-428: Is PowerShell based, while the 4.x client uses a proprietary sftmime interface. Upon receiving the package, the client will download appropriate metadata, and possibly (dependent on both package and client configurations) some or all of the package components. The client is designed to utilize a streaming file system that operates much like local file paging activity. This allows for starting the application without all of
186-544: Is a software deployment, which provides installation and updating of Windows Apps, legacy applications, and Operating Systems across a business enterprise . SMS 2003 saw the introduction of the Advanced Client. The Advanced Client communicates with a more scalable management infrastructure, namely the Management Point. (A Management Point (MP) can manage up to 25000 Advanced Clients.) Microsoft introduced
217-516: Is available as part of System Center Virtual Machine Manager, and is typically used to spin up new instances of servers on a demand-driven basis. Microsoft offers three options for the deployment of virtual applications, which affects the architectural components used: The implementation of these three deployment options are different when version 5.x or 4.x of App-V is used. Each are described separately. The 5.x based architecture has three major options that may be used. All three of these options use
248-412: Is composed of the following components: In 2009 Microsoft offered a new way to implement App-V with enhancements to System Center Configuration Manager . System Center Configuration Manager Architecture consists of the following components: App-V 4.x has direct integrations with Configuration Manager 2007 SP1 through 2012 R2. The App-V clients may also be used in a "stand-alone mode" without either of
279-415: Is frequently used to test unverified programs that may contain a virus or other malicious code without allowing the software to harm the host device. A sandbox is implemented by executing the software in a restricted operating system environment, thus controlling the resources (e.g. file descriptors , memory, file system space, etc.) that a process may use. Examples of sandbox implementations include
310-441: Is installed (streamed) to the client cache on demand when it is first used, or pre-installed in a local cache. The App-V stack sandboxes the execution environment so that an application does not make changes directly to the underlying operating system's file system and/or Windows Registry , but rather is contained in an application-specific "bubble". App-V applications are also sandboxed from each other, so that different versions of
341-418: Is the component which re-packages an application for virtualization and streaming. It analyzes the application for the resources that it requires, supports customization of the applications, and from this creates a package containing the executable components, data files, and registry settings required by the application. The package format for the 4.x and 5.x versions are quite different: The sequencer monitors
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#1732780281835372-597: The Microsoft Windows and Windows Embedded operating systems. Previous versions also supported macOS (OS X) , Linux or UNIX , as well as Windows Phone , Symbian , iOS and Android mobile operating systems. As per the latest release cadence, starting in the year 2023, customers will receive two releases of Configuration Manager per year, one in March (xx03), and another in September (xx09) rather than
403-635: The Short Message Service (SMS) initialism and added the product, along with other system management tools, under a unified System Center brand. In 2019 Configuration Manager moved to the Microsoft Endpoint Manager suite to better align it with Microsoft Intune and related endpoint management products. This change also helped reduce confusion of the oft-used initialism SCCM that is common in other industries such as The Society of Critical Care Medicine (SCCM). In 2023
434-487: The 4.x and 5.x versions. The App-V client receives virtual application package definitions in several ways. When configured to receive from a Full App-V Infrastructure Server, this occurs automatically on logon, or a timer, and is initiated by the App-V Client. It also may be sent instructions via a client API, which is used by System Center deployments, the virtual msi, and stand-alone methods. The App-V 5.x client API
465-408: The Advanced Client to provide a solution to the problem where a managed laptop might connect to a corporate network from multiple locations and thus should not always download content from the same place within the enterprise (though it should always receive policy from its own site). When an Advanced Client is within another location (SMS Site), it may use a local distribution point to download or run
496-541: The Microsoft Remote Desktop Server Client Access License for use on Remote Desktop Servers. MDOP is a suite of technologies available as a subscription for Software Assurance customers. There also exists a licensing model that exists for hosting (cloud services) providers. Microsoft released Version 5 of App-V in late November 2012, which is a third generation major redesign of the entire platform. Version 5 modernized
527-488: The application are integrated into the user's desktop shell by the App-V client. When two or more virtual applications have a dependency on each other, the individual virtualized applications may also be configured to run together in a single isolated bubble. Microsoft App-V is an additional component requiring licensing for use. Licensing is user-based and is either acquired by licensing Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP) for use on client operating systems, or as part of
558-569: The application installation, configuration, and runtime use of file and registry resources to determine package contents and configuration. It abstracts machine and user specific information to improve portability of the application components, allowing most applications to be run by different users, on different hardware, and even on different operating systems in some cases. The package is also configured for streaming operations, where portions of files may be delivered on an as-needed basis to clients. Guidelines for sequencing applications are different for
589-426: The cached copy of the application is not changed. In some cases, this allows for the deployment of applications that are not multi-user aware to be used on Remote Desktop Shared Host systems. Version 5.x, in addition to being a redesign, added a number capabilities not previously available in the 4.x version. 5.0 Service Pack 2 added to these. They include: Sandbox (computer security) In computer security ,
620-421: The company today, this product provided streaming services with very limited virtualization support. An offshoot of App-V was released by Microsoft under the name Microsoft Server Application Virtualization (“App-V for Servers”). This platform, which supports virtualization redirection but without isolation, is aimed at delivering virtualized server loads that would not have intra-application conflicts. The product
651-442: The file(s) present in the cache locally. When the application requires a file portion not present, an operation called a stream-fault is performed that retrieves the needed file portion. The streamed package contents are cached by the client in memory for the duration of the application session, and may be retained in a local disk cache for future use. User settings are stored in the local system itself using redirection to ensure that
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#1732780281835682-461: The following: Some of the use cases for sandboxes include the following: System Center Configuration Manager Microsoft Configuration Manager (ConfigMgr) is a systems management software product developed by Microsoft for managing large groups of computers providing remote control , patch management , software distribution , operating system deployment , and hardware and software inventory management . Configuration Manager supports
713-448: The host machine or operating system . A sandbox typically provides a tightly controlled set of resources for guest programs to run in, such as storage and memory scratch space . Network access, the ability to inspect the host system, or read from input devices are usually disallowed or heavily restricted. In the sense of providing a highly controlled environment, sandboxes may be seen as a specific example of virtualization . Sandboxing
744-425: The newer operating system features are not available for virtualized applications using App-V 4.x. The Microsoft standard end of support date for App-V 4.x was July 2015. Versions 3.x and 2.x are not known to be in production use any more; support for these versions ended with the acquisition of Softricity by Microsoft. Versions 2.x through 4.x represent the second generation application virtualization product. There
775-409: The previous release cadence of xx03, xx07, and xx11. Configuration Manager has evolved since Microsoft originally released it as "Systems Management Server" in 1994. Significant releases include: Microsoft Systems Center product suite Microsoft Endpoint Manager product suite Microsoft Configuration Manager product suite SMS went through three major iterations: The most frequently used feature
806-460: The product, replacing components designed for use originally against Windows NT and Windows 2000 some 11 years earlier. The redesign also allowed for support of newer operating system features and improvements to virtualization support. Version 4.x of the product is still in widespread use and is currently in active support. Microsoft extended the version 4 based support for up to Windows 8.1 and Server 2012 R2 client operating systems; however, some of
837-456: The same application can be run under App-V concurrently and so that mutually exclusive applications can co-exist on the same system. Nevertheless the separation is not a security boundary. App-V thus allows centralized installation and management of deployed applications. It supports policy based access control; administrators can define and restrict access to the applications by certain users, or on certain computers, by defining policies governing
868-542: The server infrastructures previously described. In this case, the sequenced packages are delivered using an external technique, such as an Electronic Software Delivery system or manual deployment. Aside from the operations associated with the deployment operations, App-V Application Virtualization mainly comprises two components – the App-V Sequencer and the App-V Client . The App-V sequencer
899-421: The usage. App-V also features a tracking interface to track the usage of the virtualized application. Servers may be implemented in highly available configurations when desired. The App-V client presents the user with a neat, locally installed application experience for virtualized applications. Access to start the virtualized application appears to be identical to the locally install application, as extensions for
930-461: The virtual msi method of deployment. The App-V 5.x clients contains a PowerShell API that is ultimately used by both of the server modes above. It is sometimes desirable to use this API directly at the client, either manually or using additional tooling developed by third parties. The 4.x based architecture has three major options that may be used as well. All three of these options use a couple of common components: The App-V 4.x system architecture
961-405: Was no 1.x version of the product. Prior to the release of SoftGrid 2.0, Softricity was known as SoftwareWow.com . SoftwareWow.com was an early cloud based service provider with an application store that streamed applications (primarily games) to consumers. The service used an in-house first generation product to provide Software As A Service (SaaS). Although little online information exists about