Apr 25 2009
Application virtualization
Install multiple browsers side by side on Windows, useful for browser testing. This is accomplished by application virtualization which is technology that essentially fools the application into thinking that it’s interacting with the underlying OS.
This post has been updated here.
I’ve always wanted to have standalone browsers I could use in Windows for browser testing and have them all co-exist side by side without ugly hacks or running a separate windows virtual machine instance for each of them. In my research I uncovered Xenocode. Prior to this I was using Multiple IE, a good solution, but it was a bit too hacky and had no solution for IE8.
Xenocode provides exactly what I was looking for, they package standalone versions of pretty much all the popular browsers out there and made them available to download. So, how do they do it? They make use of a concept called application virtualization, the applications are packaged using their own virtualization technology. You can read more about it here. Xenocode also has a product that lets you enable a citrix like web based access to the application. I haven’t really tried that out, accessing IE through a browser to browse the internet, doesn’t really appeal to me.
Application virtualization is a pretty broad term, but what it essentially does is encapsulate the application, enhancing it’s portability and compatibility while isolating it from the underlying operating system on which it is executed. It does this by fooling the application at run-time into believing that it is directly interfacing with the OS and it’s resources, when in actuality it’s not. This enables one to carry around a USB flash drive with such virtualized applications and use them on any computer that may or may not have those applications, including those that have strict security policies enforced. The other advantages include increased OS security since you are essentially sandbox-ing the application, easier license management, simplified OS migrations and uses fewer resources than a dedicated Virtual Machine with an OS installed. Amongst the downsides is the fact that not all applications can be virtualized. Apps that heavily integrate with the OS like anti-virus software are difficult to virtualize.
Apart from Xenocode, there are quite a few guys out there, Boxed App, VMWare Thinapp, Microsoft Application Virtualization and Citrix XenApp are some of the others who provide software to create virtualized applications. My experience so far has led me to believe that Xenocode is the best solution for my needs and since they have already packaged the applications I need, it’s free!
Hope this helps some of you guys out there.