Microsoft Click-to-Run: The future of software delivery?

Remember when you used to buy software at Egghead? With the demise of CompUSA, the days of the specialist PC vendor are all but over. Today’s consumers are more likely to find their software at big-box vendors like Best Buy or Staples, shelved side by side with everything from CDs and DVDs to office furniture and paper towels. As a result, it’s now that much harder for small software vendors to reach customers in the retail channel.

Direct downloads are the obvious solution. The Web doesn’t just cut out the middlemen in the sales cycle; it also eliminates the cost of boxes, shrink wrap, CD duplication, shipping, and all of the other expenses that simply aren’t necessary when software can be delivered directly to customers in a matter of minutes.

But selling software over the Web isn’t always as easy as it sounds. Traditional installer packages are hardly the ideal way to distribute applications to home computer users, many of whom have little experience managing and troubleshooting software installations. For large, complex software suites, just the time required to download the installer can be prohibitive, even over a broadband Internet connection.

Microsoft thinks it has a solution. As part of the Office 2010 beta test program, customers can install a version of the productivity suite using a technology called Microsoft Click-to-Run, which streams the software to the user in stages, rather than downloading it all at once. If successful, the new system could not only transform the way software is delivered, but it could also create new revenue for opportunities for vendors in the modern, Net-centric software market.

Almost virtual Click-to-Run is partially based on Microsoft Application Virtualization — App-V for short — a technology Microsoft acquired when it purchased Softricity in 2006. App-V allows network administrators to centrally manage applications on a server and stream them to users as application “containers,” complete with their associated operating environment and settings.

Click-to-Run extends the App-V idea to Internet scale. Users who sign up to beta-test Office Home and Business 2010 don’t need to download a full installer, which normally would weigh in at around 700MB. Instead, they download a 2MB launcher, which proceeds to configure their systems and download the necessary components from Microsoft’s servers. Everything is automatic; they are asked no questions, and there are no options to configure.

Another feature of Click-to-Run is that users don’t have to wait for the entire suite to download to begin using the applications. Instead, modules are downloaded and installed as users need them. On the downside, this means the applications may occasionally become unresponsive as they fetch new features from Microsoft’s servers. But each module only needs to be downloaded once, and the upshot is that users can get up and running with basic features that much more quickly.

Less obvious to end-users, applications installed using Click-to-Run exist in isolated operating environments that don’t impact system-wide settings the way normal software installations do. Ordinarily you can have only one version of Microsoft Office installed on any single computer, because registry keys and other settings conflict between different versions. But Click-to-Run applications keep their settings private, which means a Click-to-Run installation of Office 2010 can actually coexist with an earlier version on the same PC.

A new paradigm for software sales This new method of software delivery has obvious immediate benefits for software vendors. By making software installation a one-click process, it lowers the barrier to entry for inexperienced customers. Click-to-Run containers also make it easier for customers to test new software before they buy it, without risking conflicts with other software they may already have installed — even other versions of the same product.

Does it really work? Here I have to say the jury’s still out. In my own tests, there was no perceptible performance difference between a Click-to-Run installation of Office 2010 and a traditional one. But although installing the suite using Click-to-Run really was a one-click procedure, the initial installation took around 20 minutes on a modest laptop running Windows XP, and downloading modules post-install stopped me dead for minutes at a time. By Microsoft’s own estimates, a Click-to-Run installation can take up to two hours on a slow Internet connection. That might still be easier than the traditional installation process for some users, but it’s hardly seamless.

But making software easier to install isn’t the only benefit of Click-to-Run. Because it breaks down applications into component modules, Click-to-Run could create new revenue opportunities for software vendors by making it possible to sell a subset of an application’s full feature set at reduced cost. This could also allow vendors to ship functional trial versions of their software, where the upgrade to the full version is completely seamless.

For example, a suite like Microsoft Office could ship with certain feature sets disabled by default. Customers who wish to upgrade to a more advanced version could pay with a credit card and have the missing ribbon tabs streamed to them automatically. Microsoft’s new Office 2010 Starter edition doesn’t work this way so far, but I expect it will someday.

For now, Click-to-Run is still in testing, and it’s far from being a drop-in solution for software developers. Microsoft had to make special modifications to get the technology working with Office 2010. The Click-to-Run technology is well worth watching, however, because if Microsoft is successful, it could have positive implications for the software industry as a whole.

Today’s customers are accustomed to purchasing, downloading, and installing software on their mobile phones with just a few clicks. Meanwhile, the desktop software market has remained essentially unchanged since the 1990s. If PC application vendors want to remain competitive with SaaS, something has to change. Click-to-Run is a step in the right direction.

This article, “Microsoft Click-to-Run: The future of software delivery?,” was originally published at InfoWorld.com. Follow the latest developments on Microsoft and application virtualization at InfoWorld.com.