Preface

Microsoft first entered the Application Virtualization world in 2006 with the purchase of Softricity. At its core, App-V allows administrators to easily deploy applications in the form of packages to users without having to use traditional deployment methods.

App-V 5 (originally launched in 2012) is a generational step up from the previous versions with the introduction of the .appv extension for packages and the removal of the need to specify a package root at the time of sequencing. Since then, Microsoft has continued to enhance App-V through service packs, the most recent of which has greatly improved the connections group feature, which allows virtual applications to share components with each other.

In this book, you will discover a range of ways to utilize App-V to meet the particular needs of your deployment through step-by-step instructions.