Access IT Automation Blog

Internet Explorer, the web browser you either love or hate or both, is being retired by Microsoft (and relatively quickly at that) in favor of Edge, the Chromium-based browser. While most consumers won't feel any discomfort from this, the impact on businesses ranges from security threats to LOB web applications and critical shortcuts not working. This is yet another major IT initiative organizations have to contend with, just like hardware refreshes and migrating to/updating versions of Windows 10, Office/Microsoft 365, etc., not to mention Microsoft's other recent major announcements of Windows 11 and Cloud PC.

We all know that automating the often tedious, lengthy, and expensive user acceptance testing (UAT) is going to result in a much faster process — but how much acceleration can you realistically expect? Today, I want to answer that question by walking you through the real-world results we achieved with a very large international investment bank. 

First, I want to walk you through the actual processes that were being used (both the manual and the automated) and show step-by-step how long each process took manually and how much time the large investment bank saved by switching over to automated processes. Then, let's have a look at the impact this change would have if you either package 500 applications at once or 20 applications per week, every week.

Ever since the introduction of Microsoft Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD), also formerly known as Windows Virtual Desktop (WVD), we often get asked what the main differences between this solution and Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) are. 

While a variety of vendors have implementations of Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI), we are going to compare Microsoft’s VDI solution (Azure Virtual Desktop) to Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops (CVAD) as this is what people commonly refer to when they say VDI.

Windows Virtual Desktop, which was first announced back in September of 2018 and was GA in September of 2019, was introduced to provide a virtual desktop/app experience using cloud technology. This service enables users to login to a virtual machine from anywhere and have a desktop experience that would feel the same to them as if they were sitting in the office. Enterprises offering Windows Virtual Desktop services would realize savings in licensing, software, and hardware costs.

Most people know that Microsoft had announced that Windows 10 was going to be the last Windows ever released, but what most don't know is that even Windows 10 has had an End-of-Life date from the very beginning. As it says on Microsoft's Windows 10 Enterprise and Education Modern Lifecycle page, "Microsoft will continue to support at least one release of Windows 10 Semi-Annual Channel until October 14, 2025. The below table reflects the released versions to date."

In November 2020, we showed you how you use Access Capture, our automated application packaging and testing solution, to automate your MSIX and app attach creation in order to accelerate your application modernization journey, and with it, enable your Modern Desktop including Windows Virtual Desktop (WVD).

Today, we are thrilled to show you how you can also use Access Capture to automate your VMware App Volumes creation process. App Volumes refers to a set of application and user management solutions that run on VMware Horizon, Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops, and RDSH virtual environments. 

A few days ago, Microsoft announced that on June 24th, 2021, at 11 am EST, it is hosting a special event called "What's Next For Windows." Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Chief Product Officer Panos Panay are expected to talk about next-generation Windows.

Since then, excitement has been buzzing and rumors have been flying. Industry analysts, MVPs, IT professionals, and end users alike have been speculating about a possible Windows 11 release and what it could entail. Many are citing the missing crossbar in the Windows logo and the unusual (for Microsoft events) start time as evidence that the new release will be called "11" despite the fact that Microsoft said Windows 10 would be the last Windows they would ever release. Others are using "Sun Valley", the code name for the upcoming UI enhancements planned for the 21H2 (which is code-named Cobalt), as the new name for whatever is coming next.

Access IT Automation's premise for 2021 and beyond is to enable Modern Desktops for enterprises everywhere and anywhere. This means that with Access IT Automation you will be able to enable all applications, all users, and all devices, whether you are utilizing our solutions on-promise, in a hybrid solution, or hosted in the cloud.

A few weeks ago, we announced Access AppScan being hosted on Microsoft Azure which was an important step into this direction. Today, I am thrilled to announce that we are now hosting Access Capture, our application packaging and testing automation solution on Microsoft Azure as well. 

So much has happened in the last six months! We have been incredibly busy behind the scenes building and improving extremely useful features, but we haven't publicly talked about them. For example, we have built the ability to:

In the past few product-oriented blog posts, we have talked a lot about getting your estate ready for the Modern Desktop using Access Capture for application packaging and testing. For example, we've discussed ways to help you migrate onto Windows 10 and Office 365 or manage your environment using Evergreen IT in order to keep up with the pace of updates for those products. But it is equally important to have the ability to check if your applications work in a variety of different Windows environments. Thanks to some new features, this is now easier than ever.

Today, I am pleased to announce a new Access Capture capability that will be such a value-add to many of our clients: support for Windows 10 Enterprise Multi-Session. We are constantly adding to and improving our IT automation tool stack, updating it with the latest from Microsoft so that not only can our clients take advantage of the latest Microsoft technology, but they can also have options for their Windows 10 deployment.