New Free tool for App-V Deployment

In conjunction with a Virtualization Deep Dive Day February 12, 2010 presentation I am doing I have released a couple of new tools for use with App-V 4.5 and above.  AppV_DeployApp and AppV_PublishApp are available as free downloads from the TMurgent website.

These tools make it possible to deploy App-V virtual applications to multiple-user machines and images without additional back-end servers and yet still get the features of per-user application publishing and "Active Update".  The primary scenarios are deployment to Terminal Servers or VDI.   I also find AppV_DeployApp ideal for quick testing newly sequenced applications.

The tools use the App-V client installed in the stand-alone mode, but rather than use the optional MSI output and the windows installer, these tools interface with the command line interface utilities of App-V to customize how the applications are added.

All that is needed on the back-end is a file share to store application packages, and an Organizational Unit in Active Directory to hold groups that will receive the applications.  Upon login, a simple program is run to publish applications that the user is authorized to have.

This provides a new alternative to the full App-V infrastructure with a server, database, and console, or to deploying via SCCM with it's infrastructure (and feature limitations), or the MSI.

There is a short Video that shows how you would use the tool to achieve per-user publishing on a 2008R2 Remote Desktop Session Host.