App-V End of Life: How to Move Forward?
Exploring the challenges of adopting MSIX App Attach, the application virtualization solution for Azure Virtual Desktops.
Microsoft’s App-V solution is the most commonly used application virtualization and delivery solution for enterprise organizations worldwide.
However, after having no new features added for years now, App-V officially will become end of life in 2026.
Its successor is ‘MSIX’ – The two are compared here.
MSIX App Attach
As Microsoft describes here the Azure Virtual Desktop related innovation to application management is a new feature called MSIX app attach. MSIX app attach is a way to deliver MSIX applications to both physical and virtual machines.
However, MSIX app attach is different from regular MSIX because it’s made specifically for Azure Virtual Desktop. This creates separation between user data, the operating system, and applications by using MSIX containers. You can remove the need for repackaging when you deliver applications dynamically. You can reduce the time it takes for a user to sign in to Azure Virtual Desktop, and at the same time reduce infrastructure requirements and cost.
Liquidware FlexApp
Liquidware is the premier provider of third-party Windows digital workspace management solutions used by enterprise organizations around the world, a pioneer in the development of desktop virtualization solutions that complement leading platforms including Azure.
In their webinar they explore ‘App-V End of Life: How to Move Forward?’
They highlight a core challenge, that based on several expert reports, MSIX does not yet meet the needs and requirements of organizations, with the success rate of packaging (without additional external tooling) being only 30-40%.
MSIX is not yet fully supported on all Windows versions (most features are limited to Windows 11) and as a result, organizations using App-V are forced to look at alternatives for their application management. Therefore, in this webinar, they present their fully mature and future-proof alternative: FlexApp™.
FlexApp leverages application layering by pulling applications away from the OS and placing them in their own “application layer”. This way, individual applications can be easily and flexibly delivered to any platform. Andreas van Wingerden explains how FlexApp fits within the Modern Application Management practice and briefly shows the layering concept.
