Patent ID: 8438555

Claim:
A computer system including at least a processor coupled to memory storage, the system supporting a virtualized workspace, the system comprising: a virtualization workspace including a virtualization agent and one or more virtual software layers, wherein the virtualization workspace comprises a registry that maps signatures to applications; wherein the virtualization agent is configured to: detect a request to open a file in the virtualization workspace; determine whether the file has an extension with a known application association; in response to determining there is not a known application associated with said extension, search the file for embedded metadata previously embedded in order to facilitate use of the file within a target application or environment; determine that the file to open includes embedded metadata, said metadata including a signature useable to identify a virtualized software layer including a virtualized application configured to open the file inserted by either the virtualization agent or a server; in response to determining the embedded metadata is not associated with any locally installed non-virtualized application configured to open the file: use the embedded metadata to identify said virtual software layer, wherein the virtual software layer is locally available for use by the virtualization agent, or is retrievable by the virtualization agent via a request to a remote server; activate the identified virtual software layer; and open the file using the virtualized application that is included in the identified virtual software layer.