Microsoft App-V: Helpful Tools

I wanted to mention a rather useful tool that have recently come from Microsoft.

As quoted by one of the TechNet blogs;

"The Microsoft Installer (MSI) Utility for Microsoft Application Virtualization, a utility for SoftGrid Application Virtualization solution that bridges the gap between traditional physical control of installed applications and the new paradigm of virtual applications."

This means that you can now load MSI packages into SoftGrid environments and not have to "Sequence" or convert them to SoftGrid (SFT) packages before deployment. This would allow an organization to utilize their existing SMS environment and "dilute" their application management efforts through supporting two different application management formats.


Have a read:
http://blogs.technet.com/softgrid/archive/2007/09/11/microsoft-unveils-plans
-for-the-msi-utility-for-microsoft-virtualization-at-vmworld.aspx

And the official source:

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2007/sep07/09-11virtualization.mspx


This makes sense as the SoftGrid SFT file format was riddled with Open Source/GPL software and the compression algorithm was written by a lovely French chap who detested Microsoft - hardly the recipe for a thriving format for M$. I am not too sure that this is going to work for more difficult/complex applications. However, it may help with some of the rapid proto-typing required to get a SoftGrid (aka MAV) environment off the ground and get some applications sequenced quickly, ready for testing (i.e. thrashing).