Application virtualization

Application virtualization consists of isolating the “application logic” component from the operating system component.

The objective of this virtualization is to ensure that applications can operate independently of the specific characteristics of the environment in which they run. This eliminates compatibility problems between applications, or between application components, and other errors typical of concurrent application execution.

Application virtualization does not virtualize the presentation, i.e. the user continues to interact directly with the computer running the virtualized application. To achieve its goal, application virtualization creates a specific execution environment for each application instance. Any resource that the application may need (dll, registry keys, ActiveX controls…) is exclusively available to it.

Other types of virtualization, such as hardware virtualization or presentation virtualization, can solve problems of application compatibility with operating systems. Application virtualization is used to solve incompatibility problems between applications that have to run on the same hardware and operating system environment.

Coinciding with the upgrade of inLab and FIB administration PCs, this project was developed to have a Windows 7 image with virtualized applications (known as “layers”) that the user himself can activate or deactivate without the need to be an administrator of the machine. This has functioned as a pilot test in order to be able to use the same technology on a massive scale in the faculty’s computer classrooms.

This project was carried out in collaboration with Symantec. InLab has discovered incompatibilities of the virtualization software in Windows 7, which have been solved thanks to our experience.