Under MSDN Microsoft has launched a new site called http://gps.cloudapp.net this site is awesome! The site will allow you to search for group policy settings, filter by Internet Explorer version, office version and others and browse by registry or by policy.

But this tool makes it much easier to find the right settings and apply them either with registry hacks or policy objects.

This is a quick example of a search on hide drives which is pretty commonly used but still..

There is not much more to it, but a great tool for sure, one of my new favorite online tools

The tools is naturally powered by Azure

This is GREAT news, i think it is just what we need.. a hands-on lab with guided exercises to give everyone a better understanding of VDI and especially XenDesktop and the Hyper-V platform integration.

Personally i spend a lot of time working with companies on Proof of Concepts to decide whether or not Virtual Desktops deliver the value-add their company needs. I think this is virtual lab is a great innovation in the quest to spread understanding of both the several hyper-visors available and the concepts needed to build a viable Virtual Desktop proof of Concept.

Deciding whether or not Hypervisors A or B is the best platform for your organization may not be easily decided over this virtual lab, but i think it clearly shows what Hyper-V can offer in the aspect of a virtual desktop host. And let there be no doubt, when you are talking about virtual desktops, the cost of the hypervisor is a parameter.

Citrix XenDesktop to me is the best positioned Virtual Desktop broker in the market. This is from my point of view because of the close integration with the older brother Citrix XenApp, this integration makes it possible to spread your virtual desktops over a dynamic virtual desktop platform, and the much cheaper “shared virtual desktop” platform which Citrix XenApp delivers.

What i do not understand is why VMware has not tried to incorporate terminal services(now RDS) support in a much better way to help accommodate the users which does not need to have their own OS, and by that lowering the total cost of the deployment… but that’s just me.. i do not buy the hype, i did the math.. And if you do VDI without doing the math.. “Oh boy..”

To get more information on this new lab cooperation between Citrix and Microsoft have a look here: http://community.citrix.com/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=116033898

Click here to try out the lab: https://cmg.vlabcenter.com/default.aspx?moduleid=281742e3-2613-42da-bd58-2c3578f039b4

or watch the video here:

I guess i could put in a guide to solve the challenges here but i chose not to. Citrix and MS did a good job on guiding through the challenges and delivering a good lab to work in.. good job!

I Really wish we could see this from more virtualization vendors! this is the way to show off your product!

The truth is i get this question every time there is a new release of Windows Server with improvements to Terminal Services/RDS or whatever it will be called next time

The truth is.. and be ready for a shock, as this is even new to me ….. Windows Server 2008 R2 RDS is truly a great product, and i do believe that many customers could benefit from taking the features and functionality of the new release into consideration.. That said i still think Microsoft has a lot of potential in the area of improving the management capabilities and tools for RDS to compete with the level of management we receive with the Citrix offerings..

To me, small installations, one, two or three servers might be able to live with the management features that are available today in RDS to deliver basic applications like ERP, CRM or similar to the company users. However it has to be kept in mind that the Citrix fundamentals offering is quite cheap and fills most of the gaps we see in the management infrastructure in Terminal Services/RDS.

But again it all depends, and deciding between one or the other based only on the comparison matrix available online is not the right way to go about it.. That said, doing a fair comparison is also a bit of a challenge.. so we need to evaluate our use cases, needs and then choose the product that covers our needs at the best possible price.

To get more information i have gathered a few links here to blogs about the features and technologies:

Jason Conger has done a great post here: http://blog.xcentric.com/2009/08/04/is-windows-server-2008-r2-terminal-services-a-citrix-killer/

Michel Roth explained the new features here: http://www.thincomputing.net/articles/specifics-of-what-is-new-in-windows-server-2008-r2-rds.html

And hopefully we will have a XenApp version available for 2008 R2 soon, so we can do a fair comparison of the products available The signup for the techpreview is available here: http://deliver.citrix.com/go/citrix/xar2techpreview

Rene Vester

The newly available document has undergone heavy revisioning and Christian Fenneberg from ArrowECS has been a driving force behind the revision and the document has returned to the field of battle ready to help us to better tune the platforms we work with.

I am looking forward to participate in this project for years to come and would like to extend a thank you to especially Christian Fenneberg and Rick Dehlinger but also all other past, present and future contributors.

To find the new updated document you can use this link: http://www.dkcug.dk/?page_id=14/sponsor-indlg/citrix-tuning-doc

The document is still in a beta, lacking key sections, but there is already a lot of good stuff in there(document will be updated just like the picture in this post:)).

Rene Vester

Will Windows XP ever really die? Maybe this is the primary platform for VDI even in the future?

Microsoft announced the availability of Remote Desktop Connection 7.0 for Windows XP SP3, Vista SP1 and Vista SP2. This is way cool allowing customers to take advantage of new features from the Windows Server 2008 R2 Remote Desktop services.

Some of the very cool features are:

• Access to personal virtual desktops by using RD Connection Broker
• Access to virtual desktop pools by using RD Connection Broker
• Windows Media Player redirection
• Bidirectional audio
• Multiple monitor support
• Enhanced video playback

To get a list of the complete feature list and known issues check: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/969084

To see the RDS Team blog post look here: Announcing the availability of Remote Desktop Connection 7.0 for Windows XP SP3, Windows Vista SP1 and Windows Vista SP2

Remote Desktop Load Simulation Toolset

Another cool announcement is the RD Load Simulation tools, Microsoft released a set of tools to help test scalability and measure load on server based computing environments. The tools simply allow for test to be made loading a large number of users on to your infrastructure to help test the scalability.

To download the tool and get documentation visit: This Link

To read the RDS Team blog post look here: Remote Desktop Load Simulation Toolset

Rene Vester

In Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2008 TS CALs and Windows Server 2008 R2 RDS CALs will be treated as equal in all respects. So, if a customer has a Windows Server 2008 TS CAL, it will allow the same functionality (connection, experience etc.) as a Windows Server 2008 R2 RDS CAL.

Quote from: RDS Blog

This goes for both installation and issuance. Windows Server 2008 TS CALs can this way be issued from a Windows Server 2008 R2 server. Besides a post on the RDS blog i do not have too much info, but i will investigate and update accordingly.

for more information on TS/RDS CAL licensing: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/us/licensing-terminal.aspx

Rene Vester

Alex finished publishing videos and presentations from Pubforum in Dublin 2009!

You can now go visit the pubforum site here to access the materials: http://www.pubforum.info/welcome/PFResources/tabid/55/Default.aspx

On another note i would like to mention a new initiative which Alex is launching in Europe. The RDS999.. you can find more information here: http://www.rds999.com

I will be hosting Alex’s european tour in Denmark through The danish Citrix User Group with help from sponsors. Maybe you are in a position to help Alex in another country so we can spread the word on the great new features in Remote Desktop Services 2008.

More information will follow with the dates and venues for the Danish event. Dates are set to 14+15th of September.

Rene Vester

Update: Jacob Berg from Application Delivery Consulting commented below that this hotfix from MS solved the issue for him: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/941158

After updating to Internet Explorer 7 it is no longer a good idea to use the Internet Explorer maintainance in Group policies under Windows Settings.

However luckily Microsoft has already released the administrative templates allowing us to do the same modifications as we used to do with the Internet explorer maintainance options.

They can be downloaded here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=11ab3e81-6462-4fda-8ee5-fcb8264c44b1

After installing this the adm templates you will find the needed settings under Administrative Templates –> Windows Components –> Internet Explorer .

It can be a bit hard to find the settings we need as they have naturally been rearranged, but the settings should be there

Thanx to Martin for supplying the information

Rene Vester

Wouldnt it be cool if you could use your 1920×1080 resolution 24" monitor to do more tasks simultaneously? A fullscreen rdp connection on one side, a maximized Outlook on the otder side?

Anyway.. Alex Danilichev at Teknica developed a great tool for display management called Virtual Display Manager(VDM).

VDM allows you to slice and control your monitor or monitors in any way you like. To list some of the features:

• Works with any number of physical monitors and is configurable per physical monitor.

• Can split each physical monitor into up to 16 individual Virtual Displays.

• Virtual Displays can be evenly sized or individually scaled to fit user’s requirements, i.e. evenly spaced layouts and asymmetrical configurations are supported. This is important when monitors of different sizes and aspect ratios are involved.

• Supports local logins and remote connections – Microsoft RDP and Citrix ICA sessions, VNC and Radmin, are just a few examples.

• Allows for switching between local and remote logins without loss in system window configuration and placement, which is independent from the monitor count or size.

• Provides for icon placement control when changing to different monitor geometry or configuration.

To see how the product actually works have a look at this video, this video also shows how the tool supports more than one resolution, maybe docked and undocked scenario?:

http://www.ishadow.com/dload/Paul/09.28.08/DynamicVDM/

For more information on the product please visit the product homepage: http://www.ishadow.com/Downloads/VirtualDisplayManager/tabid/115/Default.aspx

Just to clearify, this tool works both with any kind of desktop, so it also does a great deal to help with the management of multiple monitors in citrix environments. Teknica offers a trial so do check it out.

/Rene Vester

Virtualization is perhaps not ready to become the new platform for your entire SBC infrastructure but i preparation for disaster recovery getting the best performance from the needed virtualized

infrastructure is important.

You can view the article here: http://www.brianmadden.com/content/article/A-short-guide-to-virtualizing-Presentation-and-Terminal-servers-on-VMware-ESX-3

/LamerSmurf