Understanding the App-V Infrastructure

The App-V technology represents a huge leap in software execution and delivery, and the ability to abstract the application from the operating system offers a lot of benefits for users and organizations. To fully realize App-V’s benefits, you need to understand the infrastructure elements that are deployed so that clients can actually find, download, and run the App-V virtualized applications. There are three main infrastructure scenarios for App-V: standalone, full, and light; however, before digging into the server-side infrastructure, let’s take a quick look at the client-side infrastructure.

Exploring the App-V Client

Various application virtualization solutions are available in the market today. Some solutions do not leverage any client-side service or client, embedding the virtual environment code in every virtualized application. Others install a small client on the operating system that provides the virtual environment for the virtual applications and can also help with management functions. App-V uses the second approach, so before an operating system can run an App-V virtualized application it must have the App-V client installed.

The App-V client for App-V 4.6 SP1 is supported on the following operating systems, and both 32-bit and 64-bit versions are available:

  • Windows XP Professional SP2 and SP3
  • Windows Vista Business, Enterprise, and Ultimate RTM, SP1, and SP2
  • Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise, and Ultimate RTM and SP1
  • Windows ...

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