MS updates virtual desktop tools
This follows the release of the Microsoft Desktop Optimisation Pack 2011 last Thursday, containing a new application virtualisation pack - App-V 4.6 Service Pack 1 - and Enterprise Desktop-Virtualisation 2.0 (MED-V2).
The optimised desktop concept was outlined in a blog post by Ruben Spruijt, a Microsoft professional. Microsoft's aim with dynamic delivery is to provide solutions that enable workers to work “anywhere at any time," Spruijt explained. The infrastructure needed to accomplish this depends on where the applications will be executed and how the apps are delivered.
According to Channel Register, MED-V2 enables customers to migrate from Windows XP to Windows 7, while letting IE6-based apps run in the new operating system environment.
MED-V2 allows workspaces to be distributed and managed with existing systems like System Centre Configuration Manager 2007 R2 or higher. It has also been updated so users can save their Windows passwords, and it supports USB devices like smartcard readers.
New features in MED-V 2.0 include a Workspace Packager which packages the virtual hard drive with the appropriate settings and image so it can be easily deployed by administrators, writes Ervik.as.
This functionality replaces some of the former console abilities and functionality that managed centralised functions of MED-V.
Datamation.com states that the two tools provide support for virtualising application environments on Windows. For example, the App-V 4.6 contains an addition of what Microsoft calls 'package accelerators'.
"Package accelerators give IT pros and ISVs a way to convert traditional applications directly into App-V. Basically, it speeds up application packaging and App-V deployment, making the move to Windows 7 all the more easier," says Microsoft GM Gavriella Schuster.
The company is also preparing a customer technology preview of an edition of Windows 7 meant to enable PCs to be configured as thin clients.
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