This post describe a method for having a locally-installed process automatically launch inside a virtual environment, and does not require publishing new shortcuts for the local application. If you've ever been curious enough to look at shortcuts that App-V publishes for virtual applications, you may’ve noticed something interesting. The shortcuts points to App-V launcher process (sfttray.exe) and pass a parameter that tells launcher which application should be launched, instead of pointing directly to app. For e.g., you’ve virtualized Microsoft Word 2007, look at Microsoft Word shortcut properties, you may expect to see a path something like: Q:\office\office12\winword.exe, instead you’ll see "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Application Virtualization Client\sfttray.exe" /launch "Microsoft Office Word 2007". This’s the mechanism that App-V uses to ensure Virtual Environment for application gets set up before the process’s launched. Its the only supported way for a non-virtual process to launch a process inside of a virtual environment.

Full Article: John's blog