What Is a Client Operating System?

A client hypervisor is a hypervisor that resides on a laptop, personal computer, or other client device. A hypervisor is a program that allows multiple operating systems to share a single hardware host.

Client Management Program

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A client hypervisor is a hypervisor that resides on a laptop, personal computer, or other client device. A hypervisor is a program that allows multiple operating systems to share a single hardware host.

A client hypervisor is a hypervisor that resides on a laptop, personal computer, or other client device. A hypervisor is a program that allows multiple operating systems to share a single hardware host.

There are two types of client hypervisors. The type 1 "bare metal" hypervisor is installed directly on the client hardware and creates a virtualization layer below the operating system (OS) layer. It then allocates system resources to the virtual machines running above and supports multiple operating systems that can run in isolation one by one. XenClient, launched by Citrix in October 2010, is an example of this type of client management program.

The second type of client hypervisor creates a virtualization layer on top of the client layer and runs as an application that can support multiple instances of the virtual operating system. The native mode feature introduced by VMware in September 2010 is an example of a second type of client hypervisor.

Client hypervisors are very useful when they isolate the operating system from the hardware and make the operating system hardware-agnostic. Client hypervisors can also be used to isolate and run different operating system versions on the same machine, otherwise this is not possible. For example, a user with a Windows 7 machine can run a virtualized version of Windows XP and an older version of Internet Explorer to access legacy applications that are not supported by Windows 7.

In addition, companies deploying desktops using virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) can use client hypervisors to support unlinked VDI. One problem with desktop virtualization is that users can only access their desktops when connected to the network. With the client hypervisor, their virtual desktops can run on client devices even when users do not have broadband access. ^[1]