14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft has reached an important milestone with the development of Application Virtualization (App-V) for Windows. The Redmond company is currently offering testers the Beta milestone of Application Virtualization (App-V) version 4.6 through Microsoft Connect. According to the software giant, the focus of the App-V 4.6 Beta release is to make the solution play nice with all flavors of Windows, including Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. However, Microsoft has labored to have App-V 4.6 Beta support not only for the 32-bit, but also the 64-bit variants of Windows client and server platforms.
“This will be the first version of App-V to support both x64 and x86 Windows platforms. The primary focus of this release is to enable App-V to take advantage of 64-bit Windows platforms including Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. We’ve also made some improvements in the App-V Sequencer such as simplifying the workflow for creating virtual applications and adding the ability to sequence true 64-bit applications, a first to market! For customers running Windows XP or Windows Vista, you can also use App-V 4.6 Beta and take advantage of the support for Office 2010, 64-bit platform support and additional features in the release,” explained a member of the MDOP team.
Customers looking to test drive the latest development milestone of App-V need to grab the bits via Microsoft Connect. In order to access the download, all that users need to do is sign in with a Windows Live ID, or register if that is the case, and fill the App-V 4.6 Public Beta Nomination Survey. The next version of App-V is on track for general availability in the first half of 2010.
“For customers who are currently using App-V 4.5 CU1 with their 32-bit Windows 7 systems, we will release an update to the 4.5 version of the product. App-V 4.5 SP1 will be available within 90 days of Windows 7 general availability and provide full support for running App-V 4.5 and Windows 7 (32-bit) in production,” the MDOP team representative added.