About Microsoft Application Virtualization 4.5
Formerly known as SoftGrid Application Virtualization, Microsoft Application Virtualization (App-V) 4.5 is the first Microsoft-branded release of the product. It includes new capabilities that make it easy for enterprise IT organizations to support large-scale, global application virtualization implementations.
Dynamic Virtualization: App-V 4.5 provides the flexibility to control virtual application interaction. Administrators who want to consolidate virtual environments and enable faster, easier administration, can use the product’s Dynamic Suite Composition, which sequences and manages packages for middleware applications separately from the main application. It shrinks potential package size by eliminating redundant packaging of middleware. This lets multiple Web applications communicate with the same single instance of a virtualized application of, for example, Microsoft .NET Framework or Sun Java Runtime Environment (JRE). Updates for the common virtual middleware are simplified and one virtual application is updated instead of several. This “many-to-one” capability greatly reduces the cost of updates. It also makes it easier to deploy and manage applications that use multiple plug-ins and add-ins, and improves management of plug-in distribution to different user groups.
Extended Scalability: Choose among three flexible deployment modes:
Application Virtualization Management Server, which ships as part of the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack and Microsoft Application Virtualization for Remote Desktop Services packages, enables dynamic streaming including package and active upgrades, and requires Microsoft Active Directory Domain Services and Microsoft SQL Server.
Application Virtualization Streaming Server, a lightweight version which also ships as part of the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack and Microsoft Application Virtualization for Remote Desktop Services packages, offers application streaming including package and active upgrades without the Active Directory Domain Services and database overheads, and enables administrators to deploy to existing servers or add streaming to Electronic Software Delivery (ESD) systems.
Standalone mode enables virtual applications to run without streaming and is interoperable with Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager and third-party ESD systems.
Globalization: The product is localized across 11 languages, includes support for foreign language applications that use special characters, and supports foreign language Active Directory and servers and runtime locale detection.
Microsoft Security Standards: Microsoft Application Virtualization (App-V) 4.5 complies with Microsoft security standards including Trustworthy Computing, Secure Windows Initiative and Security Development Lifecycle. It includes support for Internet-facing scenarios and provides Secure by Default configuration out of the box.
In This Section
Microsoft Application Virtualization Management System Release Notes Provides the most up-to-date information about known issues with Microsoft Application Virtualization (App-V) 4.5.