Some programs don’t play well with others, some programs are very finicky. Some programs are too much work to install on every desktop and create massive management headaches trying to keep them up to date. For programs like this there is a solution: Application Vitualization.
Application virtualization’s objective is to decouple the application from the operating system. Decoupling allows the application to run on a computer, but without the tangle of files, DLLs and registry changes that come with a regular install.
Instead of loading an application and all its related files on the computer the application comes packaged with all files it needs. Additionally, the package contains its own internal registry.
By packaging all the necessary parts of the application together desktop management is simplified. Applications that couldn’t coexist before can now run side by side without issue. I.E. Access 2000 and 2003 can be virtualized and both run on the same computer. To simplify desktop management, applications get setup once and then the package is distributed. If a patch or update needs to be applied to the software it is done on the master copy and the new package is rolled out to users.
Where can you get Application Virtualization? Microsoft has App-V, Symantec has Workspace Virtualization, and VMware has ThinApp.