Microsoft’s App-V Mainstream Support ended back in January 2008, the original end-of-extended support for App-V was January 10, 2023, which fortunately for many of us it was extended to April 14, 2026. Are you ready for this transition yet? App-V has been the app packaging format of choice for many organizations. ( I have been…
Great news for the App-V community… This week, Microsoft finally announced that they will be releasing App-V into the core of the Windows 10 operating system, and will be available to Windows 10 enterprise license holders. The announcement was made by Microsoft’s Steve Thomas, speaking in a webinar with Flexera, As one of the early…
Just in case you missed it, Microsoft released the Microsoft Office 2010 Deployment Kit for App-V which will is required for sequencing and deploying Office 2010 client products with Microsoft Application Virtualization (App-V). The toolkit must be installed on the App-V sequencing station prior to monitoring the Office 2010 client installation, and on the…
Article by Danny Knox It must have been “feast induced drowsiness” that cause me to miss this. Had to be. I was trolling for technology webcasts and found one from thanksgiving week (2009) for SCCM – Technical Overview: System Center Configuration Manager 2007 SP2 and R3 (Level 200) that among other things covers these gems:…
Article by Danny Knox Ya, right. Part of my proof of concept work aside from MDOP delivery, SCCM/MDT and desktop I/O is to demo up and coming products like Office 2010. A lot of our clients want to know how well it works with Vista and Windows 7 and what kind of interaction it might…
Article by Danny Knox Microsoft – why did you kill the radio star? The application virtualization product formerly known as SoftGrid prior to Microsoft’s purchase had a fledgling web based self-service application provisioning tool called Zero Touch. Sure, it sounds like the image deployment methodology from Microsoft called “zero touch” but why kill it? Re-brand…
Article by Rob West As my esteemed colleague Jorge points out, it has been a busy summer (and now autumn) for us on this team, and as such, our posting frequency has not been, shall we say, “optimized.” I’ve been on the road a bit, and speaking at a number of Windows 7 Launch events,…
As always, MMS 2009 is not only a technical conference with lots of good content and “what’s new” on the Microsoft system management tools sets but also a place to catch up with old friends, rekindle some relationships, and make new ones. The business networking that goes on is – I think – highly underestimated. …
A new version of the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP) was realsed early April and includes includes MED-V v1.0, a cummulative update to App-V andupdate to AIS. This update has been a much anticipated primarily because of MED-V which is finally available under the Microsoft name. The official posting at the MDOP blog…
Article by Rob West Over on the Innovative Technology Weblog, my former colleague Kevin Reejuwijk has posted a great article about one my greatest excitements/disappointments in IT in awhile: the kind of bait n’ switch (IMO) integration of App-V and SCCM. App-V traditionally tells a user-centric story, but when integrated with SCCM, becomes more akin…
Download details: AppV™ Application Virtualization WWindows Springboard Series: AppV™ Application VirtualizationKarri Alexion-Tiernan, Director in the Windows Client division, unveils the latest version of this technology for virtualizing applications to reduce application-to-application conflicts and improve manageability.
Huzzah! MDOP has been updated! The App-V Blog : MDOP 2008 R2 Releases to Manufacturing! MDOP 2008 R2 Releases to Manufacturing! In case you missed all the fireworks and champagne corks yesterday it was in celebration of Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack 2008 R2 being released to manufacturing. Of course you already know that this version…
Well, we missed posting the scoop on this, as we were all at the Microsoft Virtualization Launch yesterday in Bellevue, rocking out to Live and having a grand time. By the time we all got home, none of us were very fit to post, and then today was a work day. The good news is,…
With Symantec’s purchase of AppStream, the application virtualization story is starting to get more complicated. If you’re a long time SoftGrid/App-V fan, you should read this story. It sounds a lot like the old days. As Microsoft’s product begins to retreat back to the machine-centric model, Symantec’s AppStream duplicates some of classic SoftGrid’s best (IMO)…
One of the things I do on a weekly, if not more frequent basis, is talk about Application Virtualization, and even for someone who breathes this stuff, it’s getting pretty confusing out there, as new products are springing to market all the time. There isn’t a good place that compares all the major players, and…
SoftGrid is no more. Microsoft has officially announced that the new name of the technology formally known as “SoftGrid” will henceforth be known as App-V. Well, at least until they decide to call it something else. (I’m looking at you, BDD/MS Deployment/MDT.) The good folks in Redmond have called upon us “old-timers” to break the…
I decided to take a chance on the possibility that I could get MAV 4.5 Beta running on Server 2008 before a demo I have to give in Dallas this week, so I spent a rainy Sunday putting it together in a Virtual PC VM. Well, after several hours and re-dos, I got it, and…
In the old days, Softricity was a partner of Citrix. Citrix is a partner of Microsoft. And Softricity was a partner of Microsoft, but is now part of Microsoft. See where this is going? When Softricity was acquired, there was some industry speculation as to what would happen to the great interoperability between SoftGrid and…
For those of you who have jobs and can’t watch the Microsoft KB article feed, you may have missed a couple of Hotfix Rollups for SoftGrid 4.1 and 4.2. For the impatient, here are the links: SoftGrid 4.1 SP1 HFRU2 SoftGrid 4.2 HFRU 1 And here’s what’s new: SoftGrid 4.1 SP1 Hotfix Rollup Package 2…
I thought some of you might be interested in a free event that our team is putting on, centered around the business value of virtualizing applications. For Infrastructure Optimization wonks like myself, this technology is poised to become the centerpiece of many future IO engagements for me and our team. Registration is free, and the webinar is an hour long.
If you haven’t already heard of it, you will: The Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack, or MDOP for short, is an add-on subscription for customers with Microsoft Software Assurance (SA) coverage for their Windows desktops. The five core components of MDOP are SoftGrid Application Virtualization, System Center Desktop Error Monitoring, Asset Inventory Service, Diagnostics and Recovery…
My colleagues and I have been hearing a lot about Windows Server 2008 and Terminal Services RemoteApps. Very cool stuff: it’s a great way to publish applications to your users (thin or thick clients) especially if you’re not ready to make a heavy Citrix investment. But, a few of us are refugees from the old…
If application virtualization wasn’t on your IT radar screen with the previous 4.x versions that were Softricity SoftGrid I’d strongly suggest your IT enterprise get a POC (proof of concept) or pilot in place with the most current production version of AppVirt. More on this later – see MDOP near the end of the article….
Buckle up AppVirt drivers! Microsoft has just released a set of “hands-on labs” for those of us that need to break something before we learn it. Good thing it’s virtual! Books, papers and PDF’s are great but if you’re looking for a way to check out many of the features and concepts through a set…
Best Practice Alert – did you folks in the app-virtusphere know that Office 2k7 was not initially designed for virtualization? I’m a bit bemused by the SoftGrid Blog team using that phrase “not designed.” I just wonder, with my tin-hat on, waiting for the black helicopters – did MS do this with intention? Will Biff…
Doing some research this week, I ran into a website called www.jumpbox.com which is a company that provides server-based software installations using Virtualization technology… Essentially they do all of the hard configuration and settings work, and provide a Virtual snapshot of the application ready for it to be used… They have several open-source server based applications…
Just a small pause to reminisce about the future we are heading into…. During a client-call yesterday we heard the “very many challenges” that data centers have with all of the issues that come with the incredible and never ending demand for application services within enterprises… For a while I have mentioned to a few…
Most people I talk to want to implement Application Virtualization to improve internal operations. Refreshingly, the conversation has been shifting over the past few weeks to what application virtualization was originally intended to address: Software as a Service and, in particular, how independent software vendors can take advantage of this technology. In order to begin…
Thin is in again – but with a twist… You don’t have to be thin, just clean …. For a bit over 3 years now, I’ve been working on implementing application virtualization and streaming technology within the enterprise… In recent months I’ve noticed more emphasis on this technology that ever before… Products include SoftGrid, AppStream,…
