Application Virtualisation : An Application for the 21st Century

Virtualisation - The Future of Your Desktop Applications

Recently I was asked to examine a product called Software Virtualisation Solution (SVS) from Altiris together with an add-on product called DVS4SBC for use in the Citrix/Terminal Server environment.

Essentially these products enable your desktop applications to be effectively decoupled from the desktop operating system and run independently of the operating system or virtualised away from the main OS and are already redefining the way in which applications are installed today.

DLL Hell Still Exists Today

So what are we talking about here?  Well let’s take for example the Microsoft Windows operating system. 

As you may be aware, when you install any set of applications such as Microsoft Office or Adobe Acrobat, they update different parts of your computer system with their files and settings. 

Eg the program files directory, the Windows Operating system directory and the Windows registry database which contains a list of configuration settings for your applications such as screen colours, default directories and so on.

This has caused numerous problems for the IT professional in terms of application migration, application deployment, registry cleanouts and updates, applications with conflicting files needing to be in the same directories (DLL Hell) to name just a few.