Creating Virtual Applications

• US 20090133013A1
• Filed: 11/16/2007
• Published: 05/21/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 11/16/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Yap, Joe, Sheehan, John, Krueger, Anthony Douglas, Criddle, Jefferson B.
• Granted Patent: US 8,635,611 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/174
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/60 Software deployment

Abstract

Embodiments are provided to create a virtual application or suite of virtual applications. In an embodiment, a system is configured to create a virtual package which includes information that can be used in a hosted virtual application environment. The system can provide bits of a virtual package based in part on user demand for an application or certain application functionality. In one embodiment, a system includes a sequencer component which can create a virtual package which includes information associated with setup-time and run-time changes made to a computing device. The sequencer component can use a number of extensible markup language (XML) files to create the virtual package. Other embodiments are available.

Claims

1. A system to provide a virtual package, the system comprising:

a sequencer component to create the virtual package based in part on an associated application, wherein the sequencer component can be configured to use one or more extensible markup language (XML) data structures which include run-time and setup-time changes associated with the application to create the virtual package;

a store to store the virtual package; and

,

a server to communicate aspects of the virtual package to a client.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the server is further configured to provide bits of the virtual package based in part on user demand for a particular application.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the sequencer component includes a machine change component configured to use a machine change XML (MCXML) file to provide machine-related changes to the virtual package.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the machine change component is further configured to use the MCXML file to add file, folder, and registry information to the virtual package.

5. The system of claim 3, wherein the machine change component is further configured to parse the MCXML to generate information associated with machine changes associated with an installation of the application.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the sequencer component includes a project creation component configured to add package details to the virtual package.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the sequencer component includes an optimization component configured to add feature block information to the virtual package, wherein one or more faux feature blocks can be used to identify an optimal set of bits to download for an aspect of the virtual package.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the one or more faux feature blocks can be used to identify a particular application feature.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the system further comprises a script translator component configured to provide an XML file based in part on one or more scripts.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the script translator component is further configured to identify important and unimportant records, wherein identified records can be used by the sequencer component to create the virtual package.

11. The system of claim 9, further comprising a script translator component configured to generate a MCXML file based in part on one or more installer files.

12. The system of claim 1, further configured to order feature blocks and faux feature blocks, wherein the order includes:

1) a first feature block;

     2) product boot faux feature blocks;

     3) faux feature blocks of priority 1 through priority N; and

,

     4) a remainder of a second feature block.

13. The system of claim 1, further configured to host a virtualized application suite associated with the virtual package.

14. A computer-readable storage medium, including executable instructions which, when executed, provide a virtual application image by:

automatically generating an XML file from a script, wherein the XML file includes information associated with changes made to a computing device during an installation of an installable product;

creating the virtual application image based in part on the XML file, wherein the virtual application image includes one or more faux feature blocks for identifying prioritized blocks of code; and

,

hosting the virtual application image for a client.

15. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, further comprising generating a MCXML file from an installation script associated with an installer file, wherein the MCXML represents installation changes made to a computing absent an installation.

16. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, further comprising generating virtualized files, folder, and registries.

17. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, further comprising hosting a suite of virtual applications, including a spreadsheet application, a word processing application, a note-taking application, a database application, and an email application.

18. A method of providing a virtual package comprising:

creating an XML data structure based in part on one or more installer files, wherein the XML data structure includes information associated with a virtual application image including one or more faux feature blocks to identify essential bits of the virtual application image to be used when prioritizing communication of a bits;

extracting machine change information from the XML data structure;

generating the virtual package using the extracted machine change information; and

,

hosting the virtual application image for use by an end-user.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising storing the virtual package in a store for accessing as part of a hosted application service.

20. The method of claim 18, further comprising updated the virtual application image based in part on updates to an installable product.