App-V

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 virtualisation technologies such as Hyper-V, Microsoft User Environment Virtualization (UE-V),Remote Desktop Services, and System Center Virtual Machine Manager.

Microsoft Application Virtualization (MS App-V) platform 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 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 Registry, but rather is contained in an application-specific "bubble". App-V applications are also sandboxed from each other, so that different versions of 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 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.

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