User Experience Virtualization Roams State

User Experience Virtualization (UE-V), released in a public beta in May 2012, will become a component of the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP). UE-V makes applications behave consistently across all the computers where a user may access the application by recording any changes that the user makes to an application, such as modifying the application’s toolbars or view settings, and then using those settings wherever the user subsequently accesses the application. UE-V fills a gap in Microsoft’s virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) toolset, providing a consistent user experience without the time-consuming synchronization at log-on required by the existing Windows Roaming User Profiles feature.

What Is UE-V?

UE-V records the configuration changes a user makes to an application, such as changing the layout of the Office 2007 or Office 2010 Ribbon, the zoom level in Internet Explorer, or the default calendar view in Outlook 2010. These changes represent the user’s preferences for how the user wants the application configured. While the application is running, UE-V monitors the application for any user-initiated configuration changes, and when the application is closed, these preferences are saved to a network share. The next time the user launches the application on another system where UE-V is installed, the user’s configuration preferences are retrieved, so the application appears consistent to the user. UE-V can manage preferences for applications that are