OS21st

OS21st is an application virtualization software product for Windows. An Adobe Flash enabled browser can connect to a Windows server running OS21st software and start a virtual session with a desktop, taskbar and the ability to launch applications. The server streams all the graphical output of the session to the browser using Adobe's Real Time Messaging Protocol.
Multiple autonomous sessions can be started on the same server computer. Each session can be shared by many users who will see the same desktop and applications. Control can be assigned to a single user or a group of users, in which case mouse movements, clicks and keyboard input is accepted from every user in the group. OS21st does not use Remote Desktop Services for server session creation and control.
Because OS21st compresses and video streams the session's virtual desktop from the server to the client's web browser, graphically rich applications can be streamed with a high frame rate. This makes it possible to work with modern applications with sophisticated graphical user interface (such as the one that can be built with Windows Presentation Foundation) and play games remotely without macroblocking artifacts.
OS21st does not require the server to have a graphics processing unit (GPU). When a Windows application paints itself, it paints directly to a memory frame buffer allocated by OS21st using the Graphics Device Interface (GDI) of Windows. The application is not aware that it is actually drawing to an off-screen buffer and assumes that it is drawing to the screen.
Hardware accelerated applications and games which do require a GPU on the server can also be streamed. OS21st captures the contents of the GPU's video buffer, copies it to system memory and streams it to the client. Both OpenGL and DirectX technologies are supported.
An OS21st server knows when an application needs to be repainted by monitoring the application's calls to Windows GDI drawing functions. For example, when an application makes a request to draw a rectangle on the screen, the OS21st server receives that request along with the operating system and knows that a part of the screen has been updated. It does not use any kind of polling to detect screen updates.

Main Menu

See Also

Main Menu