Fast application streaming using on-demand staging

At a client computer system including at least one processor and a memory, in a computer networking environment including a plurality of computing systems, a computer-implemented method for rapidly launching a virtual software application using on-demand registry staging, the method comprising:

• an act of creating, on the client computer system, a high-level registry file listing that includes a listing of specified, high-level registry files that are to be used by the virtual software application;
• an act of receiving an indication from an application user that the virtual application is to be accessed;
• an act of dynamically creating those registry files listed in the high-level listing that are to be accessed based on the received indication, such that the created registry files are written into the client computer system registry;
• and
• upon determining that the application is attempting to access one or more additional registry files, an act of dynamically creating the additional registry files in the client computer system registry on demand.

At an administrative computer system including at least one processor and a memory, in a computer networking environment including a plurality of client computing systems, a computer-implemented method for rapidly publishing a virtual software application using on-demand staging, the method comprising:

• an act of receiving an input from a computer administrator indicating that one or more virtual software applications are to be published on one or more client computer systems;
• in response to the received input, an act of publishing the virtual software application to the one or more client computer systems, wherein publishing comprises:
• an act of creating, on at least one of the plurality of client computer systems, a high-level file listing that includes a list of specified high-level data files and directories that are part of a virtual application package;
• and
• an act of creating one or more sparse data files on demand for those data files requested by the virtual software application.