The desire for a truly personalized virtual desktop is drawing new names into the market, touting a wide variety of management and customization solutions that recreate the look and feel of a traditional PC.

The latest entrant is Persystent Technologies of Tampa, Fla. The company has released the Persystent Virtualization platform that builds on the company's existing automated repair, configuration management and high-speed imaging technology to both ease deployment of and increase user control over virtual PCs.

The system offers an automated state protection and enforcement feature that eliminates the need to continually reconfigure desktops. It automatically restores corrupted operating systems, registries, applications and settings to maintain compliance with established policies. Patch distribution is simplified through automated image deployment that can update all systems within 30 seconds.

It also provides personal settings for features like address books, short cuts, wall papers and the like, which the company says greatly enhances the process of converting from standard desktops to virtual ones.