News

Revved Up Microsoft Virtualization Tools Now Available

User Experience Virtualization 1.0 and Application Virtualization 5.0 now available through MDOP 2012. Also, second service pack for App-V 4.6.

• By Michael Domingo
• 11/02/2012

On the heels of Microsoft's major OS releases, Microsoft has put forth new versions of its virtualization-related solutions. Most of those updates are contained in the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack 2012 that came out last week.

Components of the MDOP 2012 that are of particular interest to virtualization adopters are User Experience-Virtualization (UE-V)and Application Virtualization (App-V) versions 4.6 SP1 and 5.0.

UE-V works in conjunction with Microsoft's Enterprise Desktop Virtualization and App-V to provide users with a consistent user interface among devices, much like roaming profiles that can be extended out to virtual environments and devices. UE-V is agent-based, so it installs an agent that contains the user's profile for applications that are run at the physical or virtual endpoint. The agents can then be distributed through System Center 2012 or any other rollout tool.

Microsoft has updated App-V, with version 5 sporting a much improved user interface interface. This version also no longer relies on local storage for the shared cache file that is needed by applications. Instead, this version uses what the company calls a http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/jj835812 shared content store, which allows the cache files to be streamed directly from the application's source files.

More news on these releases, as well as other improvements and additions in the MDOP 2012, can be found here.

Not included in the MDOP but just as newsworthy is another service pack update to App-V 4.6 that now allows intermingling of version 4.6 and 5 running on the same client. App-V 4.6 also adds important Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 Remote Desktop Services support and cumulative security fixes. It can be downloaded here.