Plan for Migrating from a Previous Version of App-V

Use the following information to plan how to migrate to App-V 5.0 from previous versions of App-V.

Migration requirements

Before you start any upgrades, review the following requirements:

  • If you are upgrading from a version earlier than App-V 4.6 SP2, upgrade to version App-V 4.6 SP3 first before upgrading to App-V 5.0 or later. In this scenario, upgrade the App-V clients first, and then upgrade the server components. Note: App-V 4.6 has exited Mainstream support.

  • App-V 5.0 supports only packages that are created using App-V 5.0, or packages that have been converted to the App-V 5.0 (.appv) format.

  • App-V 5.0 SP3 only: If you are upgrading the App-V Server from App-V 5.0 SP1, see About App-V 5.0 SP3 for instructions.

Running the App-V 5.0 client concurrently with App-V 4.6

You can run the App-V 5.0 client concurrently on the same computer with the App-V 4.6 SP3 client.

When you run coexisting App-V clients, you can:

  • Convert an App-V 4.6 SP3 package to the App-V 5.0 format and publish both packages, when you have both clients running.

  • Define the migration policy for the converted package, which allows the converted App-V 5.0 package to assume the file type associations and shortcuts from the App-V 4.6 package.

Supported coexistence scenarios

The following table shows the supported App-V coexistence scenarios. We recommend that you install the latest available updates of a given release when you are running coexisting clients.

App-V 4.6 client type App-V 5.0 client type

App-V 4.6 SP3

App-V 5.0

App-V 4.6 SP3 RDS

App-V 5.0 RDS

Requirements for running coexisting clients

To run coexisting clients, you must:

Client downloads and documentation

The following table provides link to the TechNet documentation about the releases. The TechNet documentation about the App-V client applies to both clients, unless stated otherwise.

App-V version Link to TechNet documentation

App-V 4.6 SP3

About Microsoft Application Virtualization 4.6 SP3

App-V 5.0 SP3

About Microsoft Application Virtualization 5.0 SP3

For more information about how to configure App-V 5.0 client coexistence, see:

Converting “previous-version” packages using the package converter

Before migrating a package, created using App-V 4.6 SP3 or earlier, to App-V 5.0, review the following requirements:

  • You must convert the package to the .appv file format.

  • The Package Converter supports only the direct conversion of packages that were created by using App-V 4.5 and later. To use the package converter on a package that was created using a previous version, you must use an App-V 4.5 or later version of the sequencer to upgrade the package, and then you can perform the package conversion.

For more information about using the package converter to convert a package, see How to Convert a Package Created in a Previous Version of App-V. After you convert the file, you can deploy it to target computers that run the App-V 5.0 client.

Planning to Deploy App-V