ZENworks Application Virtualization is a great product that provides tools for packaging applications as virtual applications that can be run on any Windows XP or higher machine and tools for distributing these applications to your end users. Additionally, you can distribute these applications with ZENworks Configuration Management bundles if you prefer.

With ZENworks Application Virtualization 10.1 we’re adding the following capabilities:

• • Direct publishing of applications from ZENworks Application Virtualization Studio to ZENworks Application Virtualization Server. ZENworks Application Virtualization 10 introduced the ZENworks Application Virtualization Server component which provides a quick way to deliver your applications securely over the web to devices with a very small plugin. With ZENworks Application Virtualization 10.1 you can quickly publish applications you build from Studio by clicking the new Publish to ZAV Server button and providing a few basic details about the application you want to create and the credentials for the server you want to publish to. The screenshot below shows these details:
    
    

• • Updated End User Portal. ZENworks Application Virtualizations provides an updated end user experience for the application launch portal. The screenshot below shows the new and improved End User Portal interface. One small update to this hides the categories that have no applications in them.
    
    
    
    Additionally, in the new portal when you click on an Application you can see the description and versions available. This allows you to offer multiple versions of the same application and keep a clean, easy to use experience. The screenshot below shows the application details page in the end user portal.
    
    
    
    

• • Updated Desktop Interface. The end user plugin has also been updated to provide capabilities similar to the portal. This gives the user the ability to interact with ZENworks Application Virtualization without the need to access the web portal if they so choose. The screenshot below shows the main applications list view of the plugin.
    
    
    
    
    Additionally the same capability that exists to see the available versions of applications where multiple versions exist can also be found in the plugin as shown below:
    
    
    
    Integrated search makes it easy for users to find applications if they have a lot of them. Additionally, the plugin continues to provide sandbox synchronization so that when a user makes changes to the applications they launch through it, the changes are automatically synchronized with the server.

• • Web Tags. Web tags allow the administrator to specify a simple name for the application that can be accessed quickly and easily from a browser. This makes it easy to point a user at a specific application when sending an email or posting a link to the application, rather than having the user access the main page.
    
    
    
    

• • Admin Enforced Desktop Registration. The administrator now has the ability to force an application to register or prevent the user from registering with the start menu and desktop. When the Desktop Registration option is enabled and the Register on launch is enabled, as shown below, the application file extensions, start menu shortcuts and desktop shortcuts are all registered with the desktop the first time the user runs the application. This makes it easier than
    ever for the user to use the application going forward.
    
    
    
    

• • Shared Sandboxes.When shared sandboxes are enabled, all versions of a particular application share a common sandbox. This is useful as it ensures that user customizations are available between all of the versions of the application. For instance, if you enabled this on the Firefox application and had ten versions available then when the user changed the home page for one version it would be the same for the others as long as the newer versions look in the same location in the file system or register for the home page option.
    
    
    
    

We expect ZENworks Application Virtualization 10.1 to release before the end of the year. There’s a few other things I’m hoping to sneak into the release, so keep watching for updates as engineering continues to deliver me builds.