App-V 4.6: Too little, too late? [Video]

The great Vista debacle claims another victim: Microsoft’s App-V virtualization promise

Credit: Mats Wiklund / Shutterstock

Stop the presses! Microsoft, that bastion of missed opportunities and marketing blunders, has finally announced an updated road map for App-V. Version 4.6, which is slated to appear as a new TAP (Technical Adopter Program) option on Microsoft Connect by April, brings Windows 7 compatibility and 64-bit client support to the company’s much-maligned application virtualization platform.

Actually, you can get the Windows 7 support today in App-V 4.5 by downloading a recently announced compatibility patch. However, given the delay in producing both the patch and the forthcoming 64-bit support, I can’t help but wonder if it isn’t too little too late. While Microsoft was fiddling away deciding just what to do with App-V (and how it might fit into its hodgepodge of virtualization technologies that include Hyper-V and MED-V), its competitors were refining their offerings and, in many cases, leapfrogging the company on the technology front.

[ Related: APP-V, MED-V, and …