Turbo (formerly Spoon and Xenocode) is a set of software products and services developed by the Code Systems Corporation for

application virtualization Application virtualization is a software technology that encapsulates computer programs from the underlying operating system on which they are executed. A fully virtualized application is not installed in the traditional sense, although it is sti ...

, portable application creation, and

digital distribution Digital distribution, also referred to as content delivery, online distribution, or electronic software distribution, among others, is the delivery or distribution of information or materials through digital platforms. The distribution of digital ...

. Code Systems Corporation is an American corporation headquartered in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

, Washington, and is best known for its Turbo products that include Browser Sandbox, Turbo Studio, TurboServer, and Turbo. Kenji C. Obata founded Code Systems Corporation in 2006 and introduced Turbo’s precursor, Xenocode. Xenocode was an early application virtualization engine for the Windows platform. Obata was the

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

of the

corporation A corporation or body corporate is an individual or a group of people, such as an association or company, that has been authorized by the State (polity), state to act as a single entity (a legal entity recognized by private and public law as ...

, which had become commonly known as Spoon since a rebranding in 2010. Turbo’s tools package conventional software applications for

Microsoft Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

in a

portable application A portable application (portable app), sometimes also called standalone software, is a computer program designed to operate without changing other files or requiring other software to be installed. In this way, it can be easily added to, run, ...

format that can be delivered via a single executable or streamed over the web. Files and settings automatically synchronize across devices via Turbo’s patented virtualization

technology Technology is the application of Conceptual model, conceptual knowledge to achieve practical goals, especially in a reproducible way. The word ''technology'' can also mean the products resulting from such efforts, including both tangible too ...

which allows access to local files and printers from web-based

applications Application may refer to: Mathematics and computing * Application software, computer software designed to help the user to perform specific tasks ** Application layer, an abstraction layer that specifies protocols and interface methods used in a ...

About the company

CEO Obata graduated from Yale University in 1999 and spent several years as a development lead at

Microsoft Corporation Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

before attending the University of California, Berkeley to obtain his Ph.D. in Computer Science. He returned to Seattle in 2006 to grow the company. From 2006 to 2009, Code Systems Corporation developed Xenocode, one of the first application virtualization engines for the Windows platform. The product focused on application deployment via preconfigured executables. Spoon was launched in 2010 as a reintroduction of Xenocode’s virtualization engines. Turbo’s technology combines application and storage virtualization with web-based network and synchronization protocols, machine learning algorithms, and semistructured large data storage systems. Turbo.net virtual applications run in isolated sandboxes Products include web development and testing tools such as Browser Sandbox, Browser Studio.Free accounts allow users to stream hundreds of brand-name applications like Skype, Chrome, and Firefox without installing them. All accounts also come with cloud storage hosted on Turbo.net. Turbo is headquartered in

and employee-owned.

Turbo.net

Turbo.net, the official website of Turbo, hosts applications that can be launched via the web with no installation. Turbo’s application library includes popular software like Chrome, Skype, VLC Media Player, SketchUp, and hundreds of other top free and open-source applications. Turbo works through a small browser plugin with no administrative privileges or drivers required. The introduction of Turbo, which combines

Selenium Selenium is a chemical element; it has symbol (chemistry), symbol Se and atomic number 34. It has various physical appearances, including a brick-red powder, a vitreous black solid, and a grey metallic-looking form. It seldom occurs in this elem ...

, transfers the Turbo Virtual Machine (SVM) as a lightweight implementation of core operating system APIs, including the filesystem, registry, process, and threading subsystems. they're within the Windows user-mode space. Applications executing within the Turbo virtual environment interact with a virtualized filesystem, registry, and process environment, rather than directly with the host device operating system. The virtualization engine handles requests within the virtualized environment internally or, when appropriate, routes requests to the host device filesystem and registry, possibly redirecting or overriding requests as determined by the virtual application configuration.

Cross-browser testing - Browser Sandbox

Turbo.net hosts browsersandbox.com, which allows users to run multiple versions of browsers such as

Internet Explorer Internet Explorer (formerly Microsoft Internet Explorer and Windows Internet Explorer, commonly abbreviated as IE or MSIE) is a deprecation, retired series of graphical user interface, graphical web browsers developed by Microsoft that were u ...

Google Chrome Google Chrome is a web browser developed by Google. It was first released in 2008 for Microsoft Windows, built with free software components from Apple WebKit and Mozilla Firefox. Versions were later released for Linux, macOS, iOS, iPadOS, an ...

Mozilla Firefox Mozilla Firefox, or simply Firefox, is a free and open-source web browser developed by the Mozilla Foundation and its subsidiary, the Mozilla Corporation. It uses the Gecko rendering engine to display web pages, which implements curren ...

Opera Opera is a form of History of theatre#European theatre, Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by Singing, singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically ...

, and

mobile browser A mobile browser is a web browser designed for use on a mobile device such as a mobile phone, PDA, smartphone, or tablet. Mobile browsers are optimized to display web content most effectively on small screens on portable devices. Some mobile bro ...

s on a single machine. Web developers can use Browser Sandbox for

cross-browser Cross-browser compatibility is the ability of a website or web application to function across different browsers and degrade gracefully when browser features are absent or lacking. History Background The history of cross-browser is involved ...

testing to ensure websites function correctly in multiple versions of popular browsers. Virtualized browsers behave exactly like installed browsers, and because they run locally, web applications tests can be hosted on the user’s own development machine or on internal servers. Turbo.net supports standard browser components like Java applets and ActiveX controls as well as popular browser plugins like Firebug, IE Developer Toolbar, and CSS and JavaScript debugging consoles.

App Library

Similar to their Browser Sandbox, Turbo hosts an extensive application library filled with hundreds of free and open-source applications that Turbo streams to end users. The app library is part of Turbo’s free basic account and lets anyone stream and use full desktop applications like

Skype Skype () was a proprietary telecommunications application operated by Skype Technologies, a division of Microsoft, best known for IP-based videotelephony, videoconferencing and voice calls. It also had instant messaging, file transfer, ...

VLC media player VLC media player (previously the VideoLAN Client) is a free and open-source software, free and open-source, software portability, portable, cross-platform media player software and streaming media Server (computing), server developed by the Vide ...

, Sublime Text,

Notepad++ Notepad++ (sometimes npp or NPP) is a text and source code editor for use with Microsoft Windows. It supports tabbed editing, which allows working with multiple open files in one window. The program's name comes from the C postfix increment op ...

, and

GIMP Gimp or GIMP may refer to: Clothing * Bondage suit, also called a gimp suit, a type of suit used in BDSM * Bondage mask, also called a gimp mask, often worn in conjunction with a gimp suit Embroidery and crafts * Gimp (thread), an ornamental tr ...

without installing them. Turbo virtual applications do not need to be accessed through a browser. Users with Turbo’s plugin can press lt+Winto bring up the Spoon Console, which acts as an alternate Start menu that can launch both local and virtualized applications and files. They claim that running these applications in virtual sandboxes is faster, safer, and more portable than installing them locally.

Software

Turbo Studio

Turbo Studio (formerly Spoon Studio and Xenocode Virtual Application Studio) is an application virtualization tool that runs on Microsoft Windows. The tool packages software applications into portable applications; these single executable files can be run instantly on any Windows computer. Turbo Studio emulates the operating system features that are necessary for applications to run and therefore reduces resource overhead. Turbo Studio allows the user to convert existing applications into virtual applications. Deployment models include standalone EXE, MSI package, and HTTP-based delivery via the Turbo browser plugin. Turbo packages application files, settings, runtimes, and components into a single package that runs without setup.

TurboServer

TurboServer (formerly Spoon Server) is an application deployment platform that allows software packaged with Turbo Studio to be deployed, patched, and managed via the web. End users log into a website from any browser and are able to launch and use desktop-level applications like Microsoft Word and Photoshop without having to install them. It is a private version of the Turbo.net service. Applications are streamed to user desktops and run on clean desktops without administrative privileges. Desktops can be re-imaged and locked-down.

Turbo

Turbo (formerly Spoonium) is a platform of tools that allows users to package Windows desktop applications and their dependencies into software containers. Application containers made with Turbo can run on any Windows machine without installers, app breaks, or dependencies. Containers can be used to streamline the

software development life cycle In software engineering, a software development process or software development life cycle (SDLC) is a process of planning and managing software development. It typically involves dividing software development work into smaller, parallel, or s ...

. Developers can ensure that their applications run as intended by including specific dependencies within containers. Software testers can rapidly pull and test software without having to install dependencies, can test multiple application versions side-by-side, and can return application containers to their development teams in specific app states. System administrators can reduce failures due to differences in development, testing, production, and end-user environments. Theiir service is currently in an open beta.

References

{{Virtualization software Virtualization software Software companies based in Seattle Windows-only proprietary software Shareware Software companies of the United States