The Application Management (AppMgmt) service provides software installation services such as Assign, Publish, and Remove. It processes requests to enumerate, install, and remove applications that are deployed through an organization's network by using Group Policy. When you use Get Programs from the Windows Control Panel to install programs from the network on a domain-joined computer, Windows calls this service to retrieve the list of deployed applications on your network. The service is also called when you use Control Panel to remove an application, or when a component (such as the shell) makes an installation request for an application to handle a file name extension, Component Object Model (COM) class, or programmatic identifier (<ProgID> key) that is not present on the computer. The service is started by the first call, and it does not stop after it is started.

If the Application Management service stops or if you disable it, users cannot install, remove, or enumerate applications that are deployed in AD DS. This service is installed by default, but it is not started unless an application requests it.

When the Application Management service is started in its default configuration, it log on by using the Local System account.

This service is available on Windows 7 Professional, Windows 7 Ultimate, and Windows 7 Enterprise in addition to all versions of Windows Server 2008 R2. It is not available on Windows 7 Starter, Windows 7 Home Basic, or Windows 7 Home Premium.

This service is not dependent on any other system service, nor is any service dependent on it.