App-V and UE-V to Come Standard in Windows 10 Anniversary Edition

When Windows 10 Anniversary becomes available in early August, Microsoft is taking the step to begin including both Application Virtualization (App-V) and User Environment Virtualization (UE-V) as part of the overall OS installation.

In addition to the inclusion in Windows 10 Anniversary update, both will be included in-box in Windows Server 2016 Datacenter.

Microsoft states that this change will help customers by not having to install them separately, and, since the solutions will now be part of the OS, updates to both client virtualization pieces will be delivered through normal channels, i.e., Windows Update. However, it should be emphasized that future updates and enhancements to both App-V and UE-V will only come to those running Windows 10 Anniversary update or later.

Microsoft provides a few FAQ answers about this change in the announcement blog post:

App-V and UE-V to be included with Windows

Note that App-V and UE-V will be available as part of the normal SA licensing, meaning the solutions will only be available in Windows Enterprise and Education editions. Additionally, Microsoft addresses the one burning question that will sure to be raised by current App-V users in smaller environments…

If your organization is currently running App-V or UE-V on Windows 10 Professional or earlier and plan to upgrade to the Windows 10 Anniversary release, you will need to deploy the Enterprise edition to use App-V and UE-V on those devices.