VMWare has been spitting out a flurry of press releases of late, perhaps to try to smother all the bad news about earnings and CEO ousters. I'll give them a hand by talking instead about their launch of version 4 of ThinApp (formerly known as Thinstall).

ThinApp is an application level virtualization technology, which provides an easier entry point for enterprises interested in virtualization than full-blown desktop virtualization, and which provides at least some of the same benefits. You will not realize the same advantages in the Maximization of hardware utilization as you would with desktop virtualization, but application virtualization allows a high degree of standardization at the application level, and considerable customization of application deployments for specific scenarios. Best of all, application virtualization provides a means of running programs which require a high degree of access to the operating system in a bubble which allows the PC itself to be locked down tightly without affecting the operation of the application.

As discussed here previously, Thinstall represents a new avenue of attack for VMWare, which has traditionally concentrated on complete VM solutions and had not, until this year, spent much time addressing the more practical aspects of application virtualization.

The new highlights in version 4 include the ability of encapsulated virtual applications to be updated over standard HTTP connections, and for independent virtual applications to intercommunicate seamlessly despite being encapsulated.