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Understanding Virtual Applications

The NxTop solution allows administrators to quickly assign a virtualized application to a NxTop. A Virtualized Application is an application that has been processed to uncouple the application from the operating system. Instead of interacting with an operating system, the application interacts with a virtualization agent that handles the interaction with the operating system. By avoiding direct installation, the application is much more portable.

There are advantages and disadvantages to both virtual applications and installed applications, some of which are displayed in the following table.

  Directly installed Virtualized applications
Pro
  • Normal installation process
  • Fully compatible with OS
  • Easy to assign or unassign to NxTop, Group or User
  • Shared pool of licenses. Assign applications when people need them
  • Update does not require republishing NxTops that include the application
  • Does not increase the size of the NxTop image
Con
  • Image bloat
  • Need volume licensing
  • May not work well with applications that use special drivers
  • Auto updates may not work
  • Application vendor may not support this deployment method.

Determine which type of application will best serve the needs of the organization and the users assigned to the NxTop.

When a Virtualized Application is assigned to a NxTop, it is downloaded when the NxTop Engine next contacts NxTop Center and prepared for use.

The NxTop solution does not include a tool or utility to create a virtualized application. Packaging, or “sequencing,” tools are provided by application virtualization products. Virtualized applications are imported into the NxTop Center Software Library, and can then be assigned to NxTops at the NxTop, Group, or User level.

Presently, NxTop supports Xenocode Virtual Application Studio and Symantec Endpoint Virtualization Suite (SVS). Other virtualization tools may be used, but are not supported.

Xenocode and NxTop

Xenocode Virtual Application Studio allows you to build customized virtual applications for use with NxTop. The applications are downloaded as executable files. During the first reboot of the NxTop after a Xenocode virtualized application is downloaded, the application is registered, providing desktop and start menu icons, and registration of file extensions (if applicable). NxTop includes a set of sample Xenocode Virtualized Applications for your use.

Click here for more information about Xenocode.

Symantec Endpoint Virtualization Suite and NxTop

Symantec SVS requires an agent resident on the NxTop to run virtualized applications. Download the agent and copy it to the c:/ folder on each NxTop image that will use virtualized applications built using Symantec SVS; add a product key for the SVS agent on NxTop Center. When published and loaded on individual user NxTops, the agent is assigned the license and can run any SVS virtual applications. See the instructions below for details.