As a digital workplace leader, managing Windows applications is a real headache. “It’s a can of worms,” I used to say to anyone that would listen in my JPMorganChase days, running EMEA End User Computing.
Every modernization or efficiency initiative stalled in a web of complexity, such as the time and cost of application discovery and packaging, the constant wrestle to find and engage application owners, the volume and visibility of change driven by internal and vendor app updates compared to packaging team capacity, the usage metrics, the licensing, the sprawl of ‘unmanaged’ apps and the number of delivery and distribution platforms and packaging formats.
Analysts would tell us that the answer was migrating Windows applications to the cloud. Yet today, the effort/cost/benefit reality is that this journey is slow and often impossible. As a result, Windows-based desktop applications continue to remain, and in huge volumes. Left with the ongoing problem of managing hundreds or thousands of Windows applications, many organizations still struggle to get their application portfolio in order.
There has long been a need for change. In this article, I'll explain why now is the time to stop accepting the risk of unmanaged Windows applications due to time, capacity, cost, and tooling constraints, and how automation and AI can help you on the journey to full coverage with less effort and reduced risk. While complete coverage has historically seemed impossible due to the constraints listed above, automation, AI, and emerging technologies are now making this goal more achievable than ever.
Back in 2008, we founded Juriba with a simple goal: to help organizations gain control of their digital workplaces. Our journey began with large-scale Windows migrations, and we quickly realized that applications were typically the largest blocker to accelerated project delivery.
Huge teams with large budgets were required to package and test the applications for a new operating system or platform. It became unsustainable. Following migration to Windows 10, OS updates shifted away from expensive migration programs to business-as-usual change, driving an even greater need for efficient Windows application management.
Countless organizations have wrestled with transitioning applications to new platforms and formats, going all the way back to Citrix implementations in the early 2000s and throughout multiple OS and platform migrations.
As partners in these change events, Juriba has a front-row seat to how the market is evolving, revealing a growing need for an innovative approach to Windows application management —one that has inspired a fresh vision at our company that I am incredibly excited about.
Ask any digital workplace leader what keeps them up at night, and you are likely to get a Windows application management-related answer; service quality, cost, velocity and experience, business productivity, security imperatives, technical debt, and workforce evolution being just a few. The lack of visibility, useful tools, and processes to truly manage and control their Windows application portfolio is a constant struggle.
At a summary level, most organizations are still accepting some or all of these issues:
Despite these challenges, evolutions are happening now that can guide our path forward.
Let us explore six key areas:
With a desire to simplify the process of getting new or updated Windows applications into the environment, we have seen the proliferation of pre-built application catalogs. Tools like Winget and Chocolatey emerged, focused on providing a pre-packaged, publicly available catalog of Windows applications. The Microsoft store now contains thousands of uncurated applications.
Further enterprise-grade solutions like PatchMyPC and Ivanti have also emerged, offering more customization and control for a small subset of common vendor applications. These catalogs often come with pre-configured installation scripts to simplify deployment. Some allow administrators to fine-tune installation and uninstallation options, such as switching off automatic updates or tailoring them to specific enterprise needs with a simple check box or input that translates to an installation parameter.
Despite these advancements, a significant challenge remains — limited coverage. Because most catalogs are restricted to the most common publicly available applications, enterprises often struggle to achieve meaningful coverage of their application portfolio. A typical response is 20% - 30% at best.
As the market evolves, we anticipate a growing desire for comprehensive catalogs or methodologies that can accommodate a wider range of Windows applications, including those not available in the public domain. Additionally, we expect to see further advanced integration between application catalogs and other digital workplace tools, providing a more seamless, proactive, and efficient management experience.
We're challenging organizations to rethink what application coverage looks like when not constrained by the limitations of public catalog scope. While 100% coverage is a challenging goal, automation is making this more of a reality every day.
Windows application packaging and testing have undergone a significant transformation in recent years. Still common today, these organizational processes are manual and time-consuming, relying on specialized teams to repackage, test, quality review, UAT, and publish applications. But this old way of doing things is under scrutiny.
Recently, the market has been shifting towards more automated and efficient approaches. Tools like PSAppDeployToolkit have gained popularity, allowing organizations to take vendor applications and ‘wrap’ them to reduce the need for manual repackaging.
Whilst this approach has consequences such as losing the ability to rollback an application, the desire for efficiency has started to outweigh the benefits of repackaging every Windows application. Indeed, many recent conversations with packaging teams have identified that adoption of new standards that leave the vendor installer to work exactly as it was designed to is taking precedence for many organizations.
Once the application is packaged, it is common for an application owner within the business to test the installation, functionality, and uninstallation. Often, this testing requires the creation of a new virtual machine environment with the new or updated application available, followed by a stream of cajoling the application owner to complete their task. This virtual machine management has also seen a shift towards automation.
Tools such as Juriba's App Readiness and Rimo3 that can dynamically process the installation, launching, uninstallation, and management of virtual environments have emerged, offering significant cost and time savings.
As these capabilities evolve, they unlock the possibility of scaling application packaging and testing in a way that we didn't previously think possible. Early adopter organizations can already respond faster to package, test, publish, and deploy application updates, improve quality, and lower costs.
You cannot manage what you cannot measure, and Windows application inventory and usage tracking have long been a complex challenge for digital workplace leaders. Traditional methods relied on tools like Microsoft Configuration Manager for basic inventory and metering, but these often provided incomplete or inconsistent data.
Recent tooling advancements have improved data collection and analysis. Digital experience (DEX) vendors such as Nexthink, 1E, ControlUp, and Lakeside have enhanced the ability to track application performance and crashes. Licensing tool vendors such as Flexera have integrated with inventory data to align applications with their licensing metrics.
Despite these improvements, significant challenges remain.
Data inconsistencies between various sources, such as ARP entries, package names, and executable names, make it difficult to obtain a comprehensive, accurate, and consolidated view of the application estate. This lack of visibility extends to managing application dependencies, security vulnerabilities, and licensing compliance, all of which get resolved through point solutions such as Tenable and Qualys.
The impact of this consistency in Windows application inventory is substantial. Projects can be delayed due to the time and effort required to reconcile conflicting data, leading to inefficiencies, increased costs, and security risks. The lack of a sole source of Windows application truth also creates a bottleneck for change, encouraging application sprawl in the environment.
The trend here is organizations adopting more robust and integrated approaches to application inventory and usage. This includes investing in modern tools that can effectively consolidate and analyze data from various sources, as well as establishing standardized processes and methodologies for managing Windows application information.
The silver bullet, a platform that can merge data effectively from multiple platforms and match it to a common Windows application name, is a likely evolution, especially when used with a machine learning capability designed for the task.
As organizations consider how to better deliver Windows applications to their end users, there has been a proliferation of new platforms that evolve the existing application delivery methods. This array of new options has meant that Windows application migration is now a recurring necessity.
But each move typically requires a migration of each Windows application from the traditional MSI (Microsoft installer) or common App-V approach to something new. From traditional Citrix-based deployments to modern cloud-based options, organizations are constantly evaluating and adapting their Windows application delivery strategies.
Today's deployment options include Microsoft Intune, Omnissa Workspace One, Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD), Windows 365, and Citrix combined with vendor-specific solutions like Liquidware FlexApp, Omnissa App Volumes, and Numecent Cloudpager, alongside standard formats such as MSIX, MSIX with App Attach, and traditional MSI packages. This variety introduces significant complexity and challenges for Windows application management teams.
The key trends we are seeing in application migration include:
With every platform or modernization move requiring changes to the Windows applications, the need to find ways to convert or repackage applications fast is the key enabler for the change. I would encourage you to listen to the first episode of our podcast series, App Management Experts, where Tim Mangan, a renowned expert in endpoint management, shares his perspective on the recent App-V announcements, the transition to MSIX, and his view on the future of Windows Application Management.
Windows application management automation is a strategic priority for many organizations with automation in general in the top three of many CIO priority lists. No longer will our colleagues wait for days or sometimes weeks for their Windows application to become available, nor stomach the cost of delivering it. This trend is driven by the desire to streamline processes, reduce manual effort, and improve efficiency in the 20 year old process that is generally termed 'application readiness'.
There are three key components of Windows application readiness automation:
In our current 'State of the Windows Application Nation' survey, organizations stated that they were averaging 4.2 days to turnaround a typical Windows application packaging request, and the average cost of each request was $646.
Thankfully, tools and technologies are emerging to automate application readiness processes, reducing manual effort, and improving efficiency whilst reducing cost.
The market is shifting towards integrated solutions that can work across multiple systems. This allows organizations to achieve end-to-end automation, from initial service request to final device deployment.
If you consider the entire Windows application readiness lifecycle, the most common frustrations are summarised as follows:
Looking across the market today, automation technologies continue to advance in most areas of the process, whether it is pre-packaging applications, notifications on new versions, unattended repackaging, automated testing, automated publishing, dynamic UAT or batch processing. These tools will radically enhance the capabilities and capacity of existing Windows applications packaging teams to deliver more with the same.
Gartner predicts that, “by 2029, over 50% of organizations will adopt AEM [autonomous endpoint management] capabilities within advanced endpoint management and DEX [digital employee experience] tools to significantly reduce human effort, an increase from nearly zero in 2024. (Gartner Research (Innovation Insight: Autonomous Endpoint Management (Tom Cipolla, Dan Wilson - Gartner Clients ONLY)))
Artificial intelligence (AI) is already playing a significant role in Windows application management. While the term "AI" is often overused, the practical applications of AI in application management have reached a tipping point, enabling automation that wasn’t possible 12 months ago.
Here, Bob Kelly, our CPO, demonstrates an AI-driven interactive installation of FileZilla, with the results being captured to produce customer deployment packages in formats like MSI, MSIX, and App-V.
One area where AI is particularly valuable is in application data management. AI models can be used to normalize application lists, identify relationships between executables, ARP entries, security CVEs, package names, and vendor titles. This significantly accelerates the cleansing and rationalization of application estates and allows us to start thinking about a single pane of glass for our Windows application data.
Other potential applications of AI in Windows application management include:
While the full impact of AI in Windows application management may take time to realize, Juriba’s customers are already exploring ways to leverage AI with promising developments and early-stage implementations. In this article, Bob Kelly our CPO, outlines the impact of AI on App Management.
Windows application management is ripe for transformation. While changes to digital workplace delivery have been the norm for the past twenty years, it is time for a more strategic approach to get Windows applications under complete control, backed by the capabilities available today.
I see a future where federated data empowers informed decision-making, and automation streamlines Windows application readiness processes. Imagine a world where application owners request, package, test, publish and deploy in a single process, all whilst security are seamlessly managed. Imagine a world where new applications are automatically packaged and ready for distribution without any need for human intervention.
This vision is what drives me to believe that 100% Windows application coverage is the right North Star. It's how we will move from reactive process today to proactive Window application management tomorrow.
After many years in this industry, I know the path to this future is not without its challenges. Many organizations struggle with the sheer volume of applications, hindering the journey towards efficient, manageable, and scalable Windows application management processes. You cannot boil the ocean as one of my old bosses used to tell me!
An effective strategy is to prioritize automation and process improvements for new applications while gradually addressing existing technical debt. This approach delivers immediate benefits without requiring a complete overhaul.
By combining a clear application management strategy with automation, organizations can move from reactive, partial control to proactive, near-complete coverage. This shift isn't just operational, it's cultural.
When we stop asking, "What can we get done with the time we have?" to "What value could we bring if the manual efforts were gone?" that's when we stop settling for partial visibility and start building toward 100% application coverage.
I'm proud to say that Juriba is at the forefront of innovation in Windows application management. Our expertise, combined with our innovative product management, positions us to play a leading role in shaping the future of this category and we are investing heavily in solutions that will have a major impact on the daily lives of thousands of digital workplace leaders and their teams.
The addition of Bob Kelly and Kiran Mantagi, renowned experts in Windows application management, to the Juriba team marked a significant step in realizing our vision. Bob's extensive background in packaging and his involvement in IT communities such as IT Ninja further cement our position as a trusted leader in this field.
Leveraging our extensive experience in application migration and our focus on federated data and application readiness, Juriba can bring a unique perspective to the table. Our proven success in accelerating application rollouts and improving security compliance, demonstrates the tangible impact of our solutions as highlighted in recent case studies for organizations across the globe.
I am really excited by the changes and opportunities are seeing in the Windows application management space and believe that this will be shaped by the insights and experiences of those leading the way. The 'Application Management State of the Nation Survey' is an opportunity to have your say, highlight the challenges you face, and contribute to shaping our industry. Take 10 minutes to contribute - because your perspective matters, and be one of the first to receive each updated report.
We’re seeing some big shifts in how Windows applications are managed — but the most valuable perspective on what’s working (and what’s not) comes from people like you, who are in it every day. That’s why we’re running the Application Management State of the Nation Survey. It’s a chance for all of us to share what’s really going on: the wins, the bottlenecks, the things we wish we’d known sooner. It takes about 10 minutes. Your input helps shape where the industry goes next — and we’ll make sure you’re first to get the results, too.
Take the Windows Application Management State of the Nation Survey now.