Desktop Applications are computer programs that need to be installed on a users computer. Common examples of desktop applications are Microsoft Word, Outlook, and Adobe Reader. Desktop applications maintain the majority of the computer code to run the application on the users computer. Sometimes referred to “Standalone Applications”, these programs regularly use data and files from a centralized file or database server, although do not have to.

Some of the advantages to using desktop applications are that they tend to be a lot more functional then web-based applications. Desktop applications can be developed with more features much quicker then web-based applications. Desktop applications typically will perform much faster then web-based applications, and with much of the user-interface and functionality that people have become used to in other Windows applications. When an application is required to run complicated data processing, or other intensive processing, Desktop Applications excel because they distribute much of the work from a centralized server to the users computer.

Some disadvantages of using desktop applications are that they need to be installed on a users computer. And updates to an application typically have to be installed on each computer. A new technology released at the end of November 2005 may help to resolve this issue. The technology is called “Click Once” in which installation of an application is done off of a centralized server to each users computer and then updates to the application are placed on the server and the users application automatically checks and installs the application. Another disadvantage to desktop applications is that a user who is traveling with an application that requires an internal database will have to be setup to access that database over the Internet. As well, if people outside of your organization need to use features of the application, a web-based application may be more practical. If some of the computers running the application are not Windows based computers then separate applications will need to be developed for them.