Desktop image management for hosted hypervisor environments

A method for managing desktop images in a hosted hypervisor environment, said method comprising:

• executing a host operating system on the computing device;
• executing a hosted hypervisor within the host operating system, the hosted hypervisor configured to manage one or more virtual machines, each virtual machine including a guest operating system, wherein each virtual machine is associated with a virtual disk;
• and
• deploying an image management client executing within the host operating system, the image management client configured to monitor changes on the computing device and to periodically replicate the changes to a remote server over a network connection;
• wherein each guest operating system on each virtual machine includes a driver configured to:
• detect a modification of a file in the virtual disk of the virtual machine in which the driver is operating;
• and
• provide file identification information of the file that was modified to the image management client operating within the host operating system to enable the image management client to replicate the modification of the file to the remote server;
• wherein the image management client is configured to:
• receive, from the driver, the information identifying the file that was modified in the virtual disk of the virtual machine;
• read the file in the virtual disk via a virtual machine communication interface;
• and
• replicate the modification of the file to the remote server;
• wherein the image management client is configured to use the driver to capture a volume shadow service (VSS) snapshot of the virtual disk and scan the VSS snapshot of the virtual disk at a file level to read the file using the information identifying the file.

A non-transitory computer readable storage medium comprising one or more sequences of instructions, the instructions when executed by one or more processors causing the one or more processors to execute the operations of:

• executing a host operating system on the computing device;
• executing a hosted hypervisor within the host operating system, the hosted hypervisor configured to manage one or more virtual machines, each virtual machine including a guest operating system, wherein each virtual machine is associated with a virtual disk;
• and
• deploying an image management client executing within the host operating system, the image management client configured to monitor changes on the computing device and to periodically replicate the changes to a remote server over a network connection;
• wherein each guest operating system on each virtual machine includes a driver configured to:
• detect a modification of a file in the virtual disk of the virtual machine in which the driver is operating;
• and
• provide file identification information of the file that was modified to the image management client operating within the host operating system to enable the image management client to replicate the modification of the file to the remote server;
• wherein the image management client is configured to:
• receive, from the driver, the information identifying the file that was modified in the virtual disk of the virtual machine;
• read the file in the virtual disk via a virtual machine communication interface;
• and
• replicate the modification of the file to the remote server;
• wherein the image management client is configured to use the driver to capture a volume shadow service (VSS) snapshot of the virtual disk and scan the VSS snapshot of the virtual disk at a file level to read the file using the information identifying the file.