Methods, systems and computer program products for centralized management of application programs on a network

An application program management system for managing application programs on a network including a server and a client comprising:

• means for installing a plurality of application programs at the server;
• means for receiving at the server a login request from a user at the client;
• means for establishing a user desktop interface at the client associated with the user responsive to the login request from the user, the desktop interface including a plurality of display regions associated with a set of the plurality of application programs installed at the server for which the user is authorized;
• means for receiving at the server a selection of one of the plurality of application programs from the user desktop interface;
• and
• means for providing an instance of the selected one of the plurality of application programs to the client for execution responsive to the selection.

A computer program product for managing application programs on a network including a server and a client, the computer program product comprising:

• a computer-readable storage medium having computer-readable program code means embodied in said medium, said computer-readable program code means comprising:
• computer readable program code means for installing a plurality of application programs at the server;
• computer readable program code means for receiving at the server a login request from a user at the client;
• computer readable program code means for establishing a user desktop interface at the client associated with the user responsive to the login request from the user, the desktop interface including a plurality of display regions associated with a set of the plurality of application programs installed at the server for which the user is authorized;
• computer readable program code means for receiving at the server a selection of one of the plurality of application programs from the user desktop interface;
• and
• computer readable program code means for providing an instance of the selected one of the plurality of application programs to the client for execution responsive to the selection.