Kurt Shintaku's Blog

We announced the public beta release of Softgrid 4.5 which has the following benefits:

Dynamic Virtualization
Microsoft Application Virtualization 4.5 allows the flexibility to control virtual application interaction. Administrators wanting to consolidate virtual environments, and enable faster, easier administration, can use the product’s Dynamic Suite Composition, which sequences and manages packages for middleware applications separately from the main application. It shrinks potential package size by eliminating redundant packaging of middleware, allowing, for instance, multiple web applications to communicate with the same single instance of a virtualized .NET Framework or Java Runtime Environment (JRE). Updates for the common virtual middleware are simplified as well as one virtual application is updated instead of several. This “many-to-one” capability greatly reduces the cost of updates. It also makes it easier to deploy and manage applications with multiple plug-ins and add-ins, and improves management of plug-in distribution to different user groups.

Extended Scalability
Choose among three flexible deployment modes:

1. System Center Application Virtualization Management Server, which ships as part of the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack and Microsoft Application Virtualization for Terminal Services packages, enables dynamic streaming including package/active upgrades, and requires Active Directory and SQL Server;

2. System Center Application Virtualization Streaming Server, a lightweight version which also ships as part of the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack and Microsoft Application Virtualization for Terminal Services packages, offers application streaming including package/active upgrades without the Active Directory and database overheads, and enables administrators to deploy to existing servers or add streaming to Electronic Software Delivery systems; and

3. Standalone mode allows virtual application execution without streaming and is interoperable with Microsoft Systems Management Server/System Center Configuration Manger 2007 and third-party ESD systems.

New features that enhance manageability include improved diagnostics and reporting on the client and server; health monitoring for System Center Application Virtualization Management Server; integration with System Center Operations Manager 2007; auto-load (pre-cache) options; and support for Microsoft Update for all application virtualization components (except virtualized applications). This release also adds support for Windows Server 2008 32-bit Terminal Services (Microsoft Application Virtualization for Terminal Services only).

Globalization
The product is localized across 11 languages, includes support for foreign language applications with special characters, and supports foreign language Active Directory and servers, as well as runtime locale detection.

Microsoft Security Standards
Microsoft Application Virtualization 4.5 complies with Microsoft security standards including Trustworthy Computing, Secure Windows Initiative and Security Development Lifecycle. It includes support for internet-facing scenarios and provides Secure by Default configuration out of the box.

JOIN THE BETA:
In order to join follow the instructions below:

1. Go to http://connect.microsoft.com
2. Sign in using a Passport account
3. Click on "Available Connections" on the left hand pane.
   You should see table with a listing labeled:  "Application Virtualization 4.5 Public Beta"
4. Click on the link labeled "Apply" in the Options column.
5. Click on the "Downloads" link in the left hand pane.
   You should see another table listing available downloads with a link called "Public Beta Release"
6. Click on "Public Beta Release". 
   This will take you to a download page with a listing that looks like this:
   MSAppVirt_sequencer_setup_4.5.0.606.exe  22.25 MB
   MSAppVirt_server_setup_4.5.0.606.exe  22.23 MB
   MSAppVirt_streaming_server_setup_4.5.0.606.exe  11.69 MB
   MSAppVirt_wd_setup_4.5.0.608.exe  18.59 MB
   MSAppVirt_ts_setup_4.5.0.608.exe  18.58 MB
   SCSoftGrid_PlanDeploy.chm  104 KB
   SoftGridReadme.htm  52 KB
7. Click "Download" next to the items you want.

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LINK:  What’s New in Softgrid Application Virtualization 4.5
http://www.microsoft.com/systemcenter/softgrid/msappvirt45/default.mspx

LINK:  Forums for Support on Softgrid Application Virtualization 4.5
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=103677