Application Installs, be gone!

As a follow up to my earlier post about modularising my computer, I wanted to add a couple of points which I either missed out, or did not explain so well :-S

The first, which is a common question, is how to install Windows 7 into a VHD file without having to first install Window Server 2008 with Hyper-V onto a computer.  You can read the details on how to do this with this blog post by Keith Combs; he has even created a webcast showing how it is done!

I mentioned that I try not to install applications into the operating system anymore, instead using App-V.  What I forgot to mention is that, whenever possible, I try to use PortableApps as replacement for applications that I previously had to install.  While not a perfect substitute, often these alternative applications give me all the functionality (and sometimes more) that I need.  Also, by placing all these applications into a folder that I keep in Live Mesh, they are automatically copied down to my computer when it is reinstalled.  It also allows me to share the application files between the two operating systems I have in a dual-boot setup without any duplication of files as they go into a separate partition and require no install process.  Couldn’t be simpler!

This works both ways, an example of a good replacement is that of VLC Player replacing Windows Media Player.  VLC has all the codecs you could ever imagine built into it, and offers pretty much the same functionality as Windows Media Player.  However, trying to find a good replacement for Windows Live Messenger is pretty much impossible; the closest I have found so far is Pidgin, but it lacks an awful lot of functionality that Windows Live Messenger has.