14 DAY TRIAL // On Tuesday, Microsoft announced the availability of the second beta release of its Application Virtualization (App-V) 5.0, with some appealing new features inside.
Among them, we can count the availability of the new Office 2013 Customer Preview as an App-V package for the company’s customers.
Apparently, Office was one of the applications that many have been looking for to have virtualized, and Microsoft has finally decided to make this happen.
With the new release, customers will be able to roll out Office 2013 Preview for fast access, while also being capable of delivering on-demand access, co-existence with previous Office versions, and integration with application already available on devices.
Karri Alexion-Tiernan, director of product marketing for Microsoft Desktop Virtualization and MDOP, notes in a blog post that the new release is compatible with Windows 7 and Windows 8, and it can deliver increased efficiency and ease of management in VDI environments.
She also details some more of the features packed inside the new App-V 5.0 Beta 2 release, such as:
- Reporting: We’ve heard this was something you’d like us to spend more time on so in App-V 5.0 Beta 2 we have included reporting. App-V 5.0 Beta 2 now allows you to report on virtual application inventory and utilization, helping IT departments track software assets throughout the enterprise.
- Integration with the System Center Configuration Manager 2012: With the upcoming release of Service Pack 1 for System Center Configuration Manager 2012, you will be able to manage App-V 5.0 Beta 2 virtual applications throughout their lifecycle.
- End-to-end programmability: App-V 5.0 Beta 2 adds PowerShell automation to the management server and the sequencer. For those IT Pros who prefer to get under the hood you now have complete programmability and automation for virtual application management and packaging.
The new App-V 5.0 Beta 2 is available for download through Microsoft’s website. The aforementioned Virtualized Office 2013 Preview packages for AppV 5.0 Beta deployments can be found on this page on the company’s site.
The Office packages contain volume licensed editions of Office Professional Plus, Visio Professional, and Project Professional, as well as documentation on how to deploy them.
They are compatible with Windows 7, Windows 8 Release Preview, Windows Server 2008 R2, and Windows Server 2012 Release Candidate, and will work only with AppV 5.0 Beta.