Kidaro to Aid Desktop Virtualization

Kidaro’s desktop virtualization technology will enable Microsoft customers to centrally manage virtual machines (VMs) for uses such as deploying Windows Vista-incompatible applications to users running the new desktop OS. In an acquisition announced Mar. 2008, Microsoft plans to include Kidaro’s technology in future versions of the Desktop Optimization Pack for Software Assurance. However, it is unclear whether the Kidaro products will continue to support both Microsoft’s and VMware’s desktop virtualization products.

Desktop virtualization is a special case of hardware virtualization. Hardware virtualization enables multiple OSs and their applications to exist simultaneously on a computer. Each OS runs in a VM, which emulates a complete computer in software. In desktop virtualization, hardware virtualization is used to deploy desktop OSs and applications; this can be useful for running older applications that aren’t compatible with the OS installed on the desktop computer, or to isolate ill-behaved or vulnerable applications (such as browsers) from other applications on the same computer.