CUSTOM VIEW POINTS

Corporate IT

Security and flexibility for locked down desktops

With Thinstall, software can be deployed quickly while security and administrative restrictions are maintained.

Managing corporate desktops is one of the most important functions of IT yet it is also the most costly in terms of time to maintain, user productivity, and support tools needed. Best practices have emerged for how to streamline and lower the cost of PC platform maintenance and clearly locked down desktops is one of the optimal solutions successfully in use across many companies.

Challenges

Though locked down desktops provide a range of cost savings benefits, they also can introduce a challenge to IT to quickly respond to delivering business applications. Some of the challenges for deploying software in a locked down environment include:

Multiple applications developed in varied programming languages and versions may need to co-exist on a desktop, which results in conflicts or inconsistent upgrade needs.
Applications often require administrative rights and access to shared directories, which is not possible in a locked down environment
Deploying multiple versions of the same application may be a requirement which often results in using multiple desktops or giving the user permission to install and uninstall software.
Deploying applications on Terminal Server permits even greater desktop control however limitations include not being able to run concurrent versions of the same application which translates to additional server costs.

Thinstall Solution

With Thinstall, software can be deployed while security and administrative restrictions can be maintained. Thinstall Application Virtualization provides a range of benefits that lowers the cost of and simplifies application deployment to better accommodate a streamlined, locked down environment:

Deploy software to locked down machines. Thinstall enables applications to run without installation or system changes on Guest and Restricted User accounts. The application is ‘packaged’ using Thinstall so that the application, the virtual registry and file system, and the Thinstall Virtual Operating System (VOS) are a single EXE and no administrator privileges are required to run.
Substantially reduce quality assurance testing by allowing applications to be deployed in an ‘isolated’ state. This eliminates conflicts and doesn’t require modification of the locked down file system or registry. Testing can be reduced to days rather than weeks and also enables rapid application updates. No longer do all applications or desktops have to be updated at the same time.
Enable multiple application versions to be installed and running at the same time by isolating registry and file system changes to individual packages.
Easily convert normal applications to Terminal Server applications.