VMware Horizon version 7.5 was releases at the few months back and now VMware released the new version VMware Horizon 7.6 with has several improvements and enhancements. Addition to Horizon View VMware announced VMware User Environment Manager 9.5 and VMware App Volumes 2.14.2 also. VMware View Composer Separate installable component to provision linked clone desktops in View Manager from a central master image. Install View Agent on all virtual machines that you use as templates for automated desktop pools, parents for linked-clone desktop pools, and desktop sources in manual desktop pools. You can install View Agent silently. See Install View Agent Silently. See the VMware Horizon View Architecture Planning document for more information.
- Vmware Horizon View Agent 6.2.1 Download
- What Is Vmware Horizon View
- Vmware Horizon View Agent Download Pc
Under Desktop & End-User Computing, select the VMware Horizon 7 download, which includes the Horizon Agent for Linux installer. The installer filename is VMware-viewagent-linux-x86_64- y.y.y - xxxxxxx.tar.gz for 64-bit Linux or VMware-viewagent-linux- y.y.y - xxxxxxx.tar.gz for 32-bit Linux, where y.y.y is the version number and xxxxxxx is. This post will cover VMware View Agent download and install on virtual machines that are managed by vCenter Server so that View Connection Server can communicate with them. Install View Agent on all virtual machines that you use as templates for automated desktop pools, parents for linked-clone desktop pools, and machines in manual desktop pools.
You must install View Agent on virtual machines that are managed by vCenter Server so that View Connection Server can communicate with them. Install View Agent on all virtual machines that you use as templates for automated desktop pools, parents for linked-clone desktop pools, and desktop sources in manual desktop pools.
To install View Agent on multiple Windows virtual machines without having to respond to wizard prompts, you can install View Agent silently. See Install View Agent Silently.
The View Agent software cannot coexist on the same virtual or physical machine with any other View Manager software component, including a security server, replica server, View Connection Server, View Composer, View Client, or View Transfer Server.
■ | Download the View Agent installer file from the VMware product page at http://www.vmware.com/products/. |
Verify that you have administrative rights on the virtual machine. | |
■ | Familiarize yourself with the View Agent custom setup options. See View Agent Custom Setup Options. |
Familiarize yourself with the TCP ports that the View Agent installation program opens on the firewall. See the VMware Horizon View Architecture Planning document for more information. | |
■ | If you select the View Composer Agent custom setup option, verify that you have a license to use View Composer. |
2 | Accept the VMware license terms. |
Select your custom setup options. To deploy linked-clone desktops, select the View Composer Agent option. | |
4 | Accept or change the destination folder. |
Follow the prompts in the View Agent installation program and finish the installation. If you did not enable Remote Desktop support during guest operating system preparation, the View Agent installation program prompts you to enable it. If you do not enable Remote Desktop support during View Agent installation, you must enable it manually after the installation is finished. | |
6 | If you selected the USB redirection option, restart the virtual machine to enable USB support. In addition, the Found New Hardware wizard might start. Follow the prompts in the wizard to configure the hardware before you restart the virtual machine. |
The VMware View Agent service is started on the virtual machine.
If you selected the View Composer Agent option, the VMware View Composer Guest Agent Server service is started on the virtual machine.
If Windows Media Player is not installed, the View Agent installation program does not install the multimedia redirection (MMR) feature. If you install Windows Media Player after installing View Agent, you can install the MMR feature by running the View Agent installation program again and selecting the Repair option.
If the virtual machine has multiple NICs, configure the subnet that View Agent uses. See Configure a Virtual Machine with Multiple NICs for View Agent.
Navigation
Use this post to build a virtual desktop that will be used as the parent image or source image for additional virtual desktops. There’s a separate article for RDS Session Host.
This post applies to all VMware Horizon versions 7.0 and newer, including 7.5.2 (ESB) and 7.8.
- Windows
- Horizon 7 Agent
- VMware OS Optimization Tool
? = Recently Updated
Change Log
- 2019 Mar 16 – updated Install Horizon Agent for Horizon Agent 7.8
- Updated Install UEM Engine section for UEM 9.7
- 2019 Mar 8 – updated Install Horizon Agent section for Horizon Agent 7.5.2
- Updated Install UEM Engine section for UEM 9.4.1
- 2018 Dec 15 – updated Install Horizon Agent for Horizon Agent 7.7
- Updated Install UEM Engine section for UEM 9.6
- 2018 Nov 6 – Install Horizon Agent – added link to VMware Product Interoperability Matrices for supported versions of VMware Tools with different versions of Horizon Agent.
- 2018 Sep 9 – updated Install Horizon Agent section for Horizon Agent 7.6
- 2018 July 30 – added link to VMware TechZone Creating an Optimized Windows Image for a VMware Horizon Virtual Desktop
- 2018 July 21 – updated Install Horizon Agent section for Horizon Agent 7.5.1
- 2018 July 7 – UEM Agent – added info from VMware 2151440 Smart card SSO fails when you use User Environment Manager with a zero client
- 2018 May 29 – updated Install Horizon Agent section for Horizon Agent 7.5
- 2018 May 27 – Direct Connection Plug-in – added link to 2144475 Manually enabling screen DMA in a virtual machine
- 2018 Mar 31 – updated OS Optimization Tool section for version b1097.
- 2018 Mar 8 – in Install Horizon Agent section, added link to Terence Luk Add features to an existing VMware Horizon View 7.x Agent install.
- 2018 Mar 4 – in Install Horizon Agent section, added link to VMware 51518 Production Support for VMware Horizon 7.4, 7.3.2, and 7.2 with Win 10 1709 Semi-Annual Channel (SAC) Guest OS
- 2018 Jan 21 – in Install Horizon Agent section, added info from Paul Grevink View Agent, what is installed?
- In Virtual Hardware section, added link to Lieven D’hoore’s desktop VM build checklist at VMware Horizon View – Windows 10 Golden Image Creation
- 2018 Jan 6 – updated Install Horizon Agent section for Horizon Agent 7.4
- Updated Install UEM Engine section for UEM 9.3
- 2017 Dec 15 – in the Windows Preparation section, added link to VMware 51663 Windows 10 Guest OS support FAQ for Horizon 7.x and 6.x.
Virtual Hardware
Lieven D’hoore has a desktop VM build checklist at VMware Horizon View – Windows 10 Golden Image Creation
- The virtual desktop pools will use the same hardware specs (e.g. vCPUs, memory size, network label) specified on the master virtual desktop. Adjust accordingly.
- Set Memory as desired.
- For New Hard disk, consider setting Thin provision.
- Make sure the virtual desktop is using a SCSI controller.
- The master virtual desktop should be configured with a VMXNET 3 network adapter.
- When building the master virtual desktop, you will probably boot from an ISO.
- Before using View Administrator to create a pool, ensure the CD/DVD drive points to Client Device and is not Connected. The important part is to make sure ISO file is not configured.
- There’s no need for the Floppy drive so remove it.
- If you have any Serial ports, remove them.
- In Device Manager, after installing VMware Tools, make sure the video driver is VMware SVGA 3D.
- If not, you can use the driver at C:Program FilesCommon FilesVMwareDriversvideo_wddm.
Windows
VMware TechZone Creating an Optimized Windows Image for a VMware Horizon Virtual Desktop – includes how to create a mandatory profile for Windows 10.
Preparation
- Windows 10 Channels/Versions
- At the release of a new Horizon 7.x release, tech preview support for the most recent Semi-Annual Channel Targeted (formerly known as Current Branch) will be available.
- At the release of the new Horizon version, production support for 2 most recently released versions of Windows 10 LTSC and Semi-Annual Channel Broad (formerly known as Current Branch for Business) will be available. See VMware 51663 Windows 10 Guest OS support FAQ for Horizon 7.x and 6.x.
- Visual Studio 2017 is not supported on LTSC. See Visual Studio 2017 Product Family System Requirements.
- Only Enterprise Edition and Professional Edition are supported.
- Only Horizon Agent 7.0.2 and newer are supported.
- See VMware 2149393 Supported versions of Windows 10 on Horizon View
- Partition Alignment. For Windows XP, make sure the partition is aligned. You’ll need to create and partition the disk in advance on another virtual machine and set the partition offset. create partition primary align=1024. Windows 7 doesn’t have this problem.
- VMware Tools. Install the latest version of VMware Tools and Guest Introspection (formerly known as vShield Endpoint) Driver prior to installing the Horizon 7 Agent.
- See VMware Product Interoperability Matrices for supported versions of VMware Tools with different versions of Horizon Agent.
- Teradici Audio Driver –https://techsupport.teradici.com/link/portal/15134/15164/Article/1434/Teradici-Virtual-Audio-Driver-1-2-0-Release-Details-15134-1434
- For the AppVolumes Agent and Imprivata OneSign agent (if applicable), don’t install them until Horizon 7 Agent is installed.
![Vmware horizon view agent 6.2.1 download Vmware horizon view agent 6.2.1 download](/uploads/1/2/6/0/126096885/763458988.jpg)
Windows 7 VMXNET 3 Networking Hotfix
For Windows 7 machines:
- Ensure the vSphere network port group allows a sufficient number of connected virtual machines.
- Make sure Windows 7 Service Pack 1 is installed.
- The recommended hotfix for fixing VMXNET 3 is the 3125574 Convenience Rollup.
- Run windows6.1-kb3125574-v4-x64.msi.
- Run windows6.1-kb3125574-v4-x64.msi.
- Or, the minimum hotfix is 2550978 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2550978.
- Run Windows6-1-KB2550978.msu.
- Run Windows6-1-KB2550978.msu.
- Click Yes when asked to install the hotfix.
- Click Restart Now.
- After installing either hotfix, follow http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315539 to delete ghost NICs.
From Microsoft KB article http://support.microsoft.com/kb/235257: For desktop VMs using VMXnet3 NICs, you can significantly improve the peak video playback performance of your View desktop by simply setting the following registry setting to the value recommended by Microsoft:
- HKLMSystemCurrentControlSetServicesAfdParametersFastSendDatagramThreshold to 1500
Windows 7 Black Screen Hotfix
For Windows 7 machines, request and install Microsoft hotfix 2578159: The logon process stops responding in Windows. More info at VMware 2073945 Reconnecting to the VDI desktop with PCoIP displays a black screen.
Windows 7 SHA2 Hotfix
For Windows 7 machines, install Microsoft Security Advisory 3033929, Availability of SHA-2 Code Signing Support for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2.
Windows 7 Hotfix for AppVolumes
For Windows 7 machines, install the Microsoft hotfix for mountmgr.sys. More info at VMware 2126775 Logging in to a virtual machine fails or is slow at the Welcome Screen when using VMware AppVolumes,
Power Options
- Run Power Options. In Windows 8 and newer, right-click the Start Menu to access Power Options.
- Click the arrow to show more plans, and select High performance.
- Next to High performance, click Change plan settings.
- Change the selection for Turn off the display to Never, and click Save changes.
System Settings
- Domain Join. For linked clones, join the machine to the domain.
- In System control panel applet (right-click the Start Menu > System), click Remote settings.
- Enable Remote Desktop.
- Activate Windows with a KMS license if not already activated. Note: only KMS is supported with View Composer.
Windows Profiles v3/v4 Hotfix
Roaming user profiles are tied to the operating system version so profiles on Windows 8.1-based, Windows 10-based, or Windows Server 2012 R2-based computers are incompatible with roaming user profiles in earlier versions of Windows.
Profiles are compatible only between the following client and server operating system pairs:
- v6 = Windows 10 1607, Windows 10 1703, and Windows Server 2016
- v5 = Windows 10 1511 and older
- v4 = Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2
- v3 = Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012
- v2 = Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2
If Windows 8, install hotfix http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2887239.
If Windows 8.1, ensure update rollup 2887595 is installed. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2890783
After you apply this update, you must create a registry key before you restart the computer.
- Run regedit.
- Locate and then tap or click the following registry subkey:HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESystemCurrentControlsetServicesProfSvcParameters
- On the Edit menu, point to New, and then tap or click DWORDValue.
- Type UseProfilePathExtensionVersion.
- Press and hold or right-click UseProfilePathExtensionVersion, and then tap or click Modify.
- In the Value data box, type 1, and then tap or click OK.
- Exit Registry Editor.
After you configure the UseProfilePathExtensionVersion registry entry, you have to restart the computer. Then, Windows 8.1 creates a user profile and appends the suffix “.v4” to the profile folder name to differentiate it from version 2 of the profile in Windows 7 and version 3 of the profile in Windows 8. Then, Windows 8.1-based computers that have update rollup 2887595 installed and the UseProfilePathExtensionVersion registry entry configured use version 4 of the profile.
Windows 8 creates a new copy of the user profile and appends the suffix “.v3” in the profile folder name to differentiate it from the original version 2 profile for Windows 7. After that, Windows 8-based computers that have this hotfix installed and the UseProfilePathExtensionVersion registry entry configured use the version 3 profile for users.
Install Applications
Install applications locally if you want them to be available on all virtual desktops created based on this master virtual desktop.
Or you can use a Layering product (e.g. VMware App Volumes, Unidesk) or App Streaming (e.g. ThinApp, Microsoft App-V).
Antivirus
VMware Tech Paper Antivirus Considerations for VMware Horizon 7 contains exclusions for Horizon View, App Volumes, User Environment Manager, ThinApp, etc.
Microsoft’s virus scanning recommendations (e.g. exclude group policy files) – http://support.microsoft.com/kb/822158.
Sophos
Symantec
Non-persistent desktops:
After you have installed the Symantec Endpoint Protection client and disabled Tamper Protection, open the registry editor on the base image.
- Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWARESymantecSymantec Endpoint ProtectionSMC.
- Create a new key named Virtualization.
- Under Virtualization, create a key of type DWORD named IsNPVDIClient and set it to a value of 1.
To configure the purge interval for offline non-persistent VDI clients:
- In the Symantec Endpoint Protection Manager console, on the Admin page, click Domains.
- In the Domains tree, click the desired domain.
- Under Tasks, click Edit Domain Properties.
- On the Edit Domain Properties > General tab, check the Delete non-persistent VDI clients that have not connected for specified time checkbox and change the days value to the desired number. The Delete clients that have not connected for specified time option must be checked to access the option for offline non-persistent VDI clients.
- Click OK.
Make the following changes to the Communications Settings policy:
- Configure clients to download policies and content in Pull mode
- Disable the option to Learn applications that run on the client computers
- Set the Heartbeat Interval to no less than one hour
- Enable Download Randomization, set the Randomization window for 4 hours
Make the following changes to the Virus and Spyware Protection policy:
- Disable all scheduled scans
- Disable the option to “Allow startup scans to run when users log on” (This is disabled by default)
- Disable the option to “Run an ActiveScan when new definitions Arrive”
Avoid using features like application learning which send information to the SEPM and rely on client state to optimize traffic flow
Linked clones:
To configure Symantec Endpoint Protection to use Virtual Image Exception to bypass the scanning of base image files
- On the console, open the appropriate Virus and Spyware Protection policy.
- Under Advanced Options, click Miscellaneous.
- On the Virtual Images tab, check the options that you want to enable.
- Click OK
Trend Micro
Horizon Agent
Horizon Agent Installation/Upgrade
Install Horizon Agent on the master virtual desktop. Upgrades are performed in-place.
- Only install Horizon Agent after VMware Tools. If you need to update VMware Tools, uninstall Horizon Agent first, upgrade VMware Tools, and then reinstall Horizon Agent.
- See VMware Product Interoperability Matrices for supported versions of VMware Tools with different versions of Horizon Agent.
- Check the video driver to make it is VMware SVGA 3D.
- Download Horizon 7.8.0 View Agent or Horizon 7.5.2 View Agent (ESB).
- Run the downloaded VMware-Horizon-Agent-x86_64-7.8.0.exe or VMware-viewagent-x86_64-7.5.2.exe (ESB).
- If you want the URL Content Redirection feature, then you must run the Agent installer with the the following switches:
/v URL_FILTERING_ENABLED=1
- In the Welcome to the Installation Wizard for VMware Horizon Agent page, click Next.
- In the License Agreement page, select I accept the terms, and click Next.
- In the Network protocol configuration page, select IPv4, and click Next.
- In the Custom Setup page, there are several features not enabled by default. Feel free to enable them.
- If you want USB Redirection, then enable that feature.
- Horizon 7.2 and newer have VMware Virtualization Pack for Skype for Business. See Configure Skype for Business at VMware Docs for details.
- You can install Instant Clone Agent, or View Composer Agent, but not both.
- According to Instant-Clone Desktop Pools at VMware Docs, Persona is not supported with Instant Clones.
- If you want Scanner Redirection, then enable that feature. Note: Scanner Redirection will impact host density.
- Horizon 7.3 adds HTML5 Multimedia Redirection. This feature only works in Google Chrome, by force installing a Chrome plug-in. And it requires a whitelist specified in a group policy. See Configuring HTML5 Multimedia Redirection at VMware Docs.
- If the feature is working, then the Chrome extension will show REDR.
- And you’ll see HTML5VideoPlayer.exe on the client side.
- If the feature is working, then the Chrome extension will show REDR.
- Horizon 7.4 adds a Device Bridge BAS Plugin for redirection of fingerprint scanners. See Install the Device Bridge BAS Plugin at VMware Docs.
- Horizon 7.6 and newer have an option for Geolocation Redirection. The feature requires a plugin for Internet Explorer 11 and Horizon Client 4.9. No other browsers are supported. See Configuring Geolocation Redirection at VMware Docs.
- Horizon 7.5 and newer have Horizon Performance Tracker, which adds a program to the Agent that can show the user performance of the remote session. You can publish the Tracker.
- Horizon 7.7 and newer have a VMware Integrated Printing or VMware Advanced Printing option, which replaces the older ThinPrint technology. VMware Integrated Printing requires Horizon Client 4.10 or newer.
- If you enable VMware Integrated Printing, then you must disable Virtual Printing, which is higher in the list.
- If you want USB Redirection, then enable that feature.
- Click Next when done making selections.
- In the Ready to Install the Program page, click Install.
- In the Installer Completed page, click Finish.
- Click Yes when asked to restart.
- If you want to know what features were selected, look in C:ProgramDataVMwarelogs for the latest vmmsi.log_<date>.log file. Search for
Feature :
to find the list. The ones with Request: Local were installed. More info at Paul Grevink View Agent, what is installed?- To add features to an existing Horizon Agent installation, use the command line as detailed by Terence Luk at Add features to an existing VMware Horizon View 7.x Agent install.
- To add features to an existing Horizon Agent installation, use the command line as detailed by Terence Luk at Add features to an existing VMware Horizon View 7.x Agent install.
- For Horizon Persona (not with Instant Clones), enable the Microsoft Software Shadow Copy Provider service. See Windows 10 with Persona management not syncing at VMware Communities.
- If Windows 10 1709 with View Composer, you might have to set delete
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesBFESecurity
. See VMware 51518 Production Support for VMware Horizon 7.4, 7.3.2, and 7.2 with Win 10 1709 Semi-Annual Channel (SAC) Guest OS - To verify installation of the URL Content Redirection feature, check for the presence of C:Program FilesVMwareVMware ViewAgentbinUrlRedirection.
- There’s also a new IE add-on.
- URL Content Redirection is configured using group policy.
Install/Upgrade User Environment Manager Engine
If you are licensed for User Environment Manager (Horizon Enterprise Edition), install the User Environment Manager Engine.
- Note: UEM 9.1 and newer can also work without Active Directory (Group Policy); see VMware 2148324 Configuring advanced UEM settings in NoAD mode for details.
UEM 9.6 and newer are supported on Windows 10 1809.
To install UEM Engine:
- Make sure Prevent access to registry editing tools is not enabled in any GPO since this setting prevents the FlexEngine from operating properly.
- Download User Environment Manager 9.7.0 or User Environment Manager 9.4.1 (ESB).
- Run the extracted VMware User Environment Manager 9.7 x64.msi or VMware User Environment Manager 9.4.1 x64.msi (ESB).
- In the Welcome to the VMware User Environment Manager Setup Wizard page, click Next.
- In the End-User License Agreement page, check the box next to I accept the terms, and click Next.
- In the Destination Folder page, click Next.
- The Choose Setup Type page appears. By default, the installer only installs the engine. You can click Custom or Complete to also install the console.
- In the Choose License File page, if installing on a View Agent, then no license file is needed.
- Otherwise, Browse to the license file. Then click Next.
- In the Ready to install VMware User Environment Manager page, click Install.
- In the Completed the VMware User Environment Manager Setup Wizard page, click Finish.
- If you have PCoIP Zero Clients that map USB devices (e.g. USB drives), then you might have to set the following registry value. (Source = VMware 2151440 Smart card SSO fails when you use User Environment Manager with a zero client)
- HKLMSoftwareVMware, Inc.VMware VDMAgentUSB
- UemFlags (DWORD) = 1
- HKLMSoftwareVMware, Inc.VMware VDMAgentUSB
Unity Touch
With the Unity Touch feature, tablet and smart phone users can quickly navigate to a Horizon View desktop application or file from a Unity Touch sidebar. Although end users can specify which favorite applications appear in the sidebar, for added convenience, administrators can configure a default list of favorite applications.
In the Unity Touch sidebar, the favorite applications and favorite files that users specify are stored in the user’s profile. For non-persistent pools, enable Roaming Profiles.
To set the default list of favorite applications:
- Navigate to HKLMSoftwareWow6432NodeVMware, Inc.VMware Unity
- Create a string value called FavAppList.
- Specify the default favorite applications using format:
path-to-app-1|path-to-app-2|path-to-app-3|…
. For example:
Unity Touch can be disabled by setting HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESoftwareVMware,Inc.VMware Unityenabled to 0.
For more information, see Configure Favorite Applications Displayed by Unity Touch at VMware Docs.
Direct-Connection Plugin
If you wish to allow direct connections to the Horizon Agent, install the Direct-Connection Plugin. This is not a typical configuration since it allows users to bypass the Horizon Connection Servers, but is useful if you need to restrict a Horizon Agent to only one Horizon Client.
- Set
svga.enableScreenDMA
to TRUE on your virtual machine options configuration. See 2144475 Manually enabling screen DMA in a virtual machine for details. - Download Horizon 7.8.0 View Agent Direct-Connection or Horizon 7.5.2 View Agent Direct-Connection (ESB)
- Run VMware-Horizon-Agent-Direct-Connection-x86_64-7.8.0.exe or VMware-viewagent-direct-connection-x86_64-7.5.2-xxx.exe (ESB).
- In the Welcome to the Installation Wizard for View Agent Direct-Connection Plugin page, click Next.
- In the End-User License Agreement page, select I accept the terms, and click Next.
- In the Configuration Information page, click Next.
- In the Ready to install View Agent Direct-Connection Plugin page, click Install.
- In the Completed the View Agent Direct-Connection Plugin Setup Wizard page, click Finish.
- When running the Horizon Client, enter the FQDN or IP address of the Horizon Agent (virtual desktop).
Composer – Rearm
By default, when View Composer creates linked clones and runs QuikPrep, one of the tasks is to rearm licensing. You can prevent rearm by setting the following registry key:
- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetservicesvmware-viewcomposer-ga
- SkipLicenseActivation (DWORD) = 0x1
Dynamic PCoIP Policies
![Agent Agent](/uploads/1/2/6/0/126096885/310069160.png)
If you wish to change PCoIP Policies (e.g. clipboard redirection, client printers, etc.) based on how the user connects, see VMware Blog Post VMware Horizon View Secret Weapon. The article describes configuring VMware Horizon View Script Host service to run a script to change PCoIP configuration based on the Connection Server that the user connected through. Full script is included in the article.
VMware OS Optimization Tool
- See VMware Windows Operating System Optimization Tool Guide Technical Paper for details on this tool.
- Download the VMware OS Optimization Tool VMware fling.
- Run the extracted VMwareOSOptimizationTool.exe.
- On the Public Templates tab, update or download templates.
- The My Templates tab lets you edit the templates. Click Copy and Edit first.
- On the Analyze tab, choose a template.
- Then click Analyze on the bottom of the window.
- On the Analyze tab, review the optimizations, and make changes as desired. Then on the bottom left, click Optimize.
- The History tab lets you rollback the optimizations.
Additional Optimizations
Additional Windows 10 Optimizations
Vmware Horizon View Agent 6.2.1 Download
- James Rankin Improving Windows 10 logon time:
- Use Remove-AppXProvisionedPackage to remove Modern apps. See the article for a list of apps to remove. Also see James Rankin Everything you wanted to know about virtualizing, optimizing and managing Windows 10…but were afraid to ask – part #3: MODERN APPS
- Import a Standard Start Tiles layout (Export-StartLayout)
- Create a template user profile
- Citrix’s Windows 8 and 8.1 Virtual Desktop Optimization Guide contains the following:
- A list of services to disable
- A list of computer settings
- A list of scheduled tasks to disable
- A script to do all of the above
- Carl Luberti (Microsoft) Windows 10 VDI Optimization Script
- Microsoft’s Windows 8 VDI optimization script.
- Desktop Virtualization Best Practice Analyzer (BP Analyzer)
Additional Windows 7 Optimizations
Microsoft has compiled a list of links to various optimization guides.
It’s a common practice to optimize a Windows 7 virtual machine (VM) template (or image) specifically for VDI use. Usually such customizations include the following.
- Minimize the footprint, e.g. disable some features and services that are not required when the OS is used in “stateless” or “non-persistent” fashion. This is especially true for disk-intensive workloads since disk I/O is a common bottleneck for VDI deployment. (Especially if there are multiple VMs with the same I/O patterns that are timely aligned).
- Lock down user interface (e.g. optimize for specific task workers).
With that said the certain practices are quite debatable and vary between actual real-world deployments. Exact choices whether to disable this or that particular component depend on customer requirements and VDI usage patterns. E.g. in personalized virtual desktop scenario there’s much less things to disable since the machine is not completely “stateless”. Some customers rely heavily on particular UI functions and other can relatively easily trade them off for the sake of performance or standardization (thus enhance supportability and potentially security). This is one of the primary reasons why Microsoft doesn’t publish any “VDI Tuning” guide officially.
Though there are a number of such papers and even tools published either by the community or third parties. This Wiki page is aimed to serve as a consolidated and comprehensive list of such resources.
Daniel Ruiz XenDesktop Windows 7 Optimization and GPO’s Settings
What Is Vmware Horizon View
Microsoft Whitepaper Performance Optimization Guidelines for Windows 7 Desktop Virtualization
Snapshot
- Make sure the master virtual desktop is configured for DHCP.
- If connected to the console, run ipconfig /release.
- Run antivirus sealing tasks:
- Symantec: Run a full scan and then run the Virtual Image Exception tool – http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH173650
- Symantec: run the ClientSideClonePrepTool –http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=HOWTO54706
- Login Base Image Script Framework (BIS-F) automates many image sealing tasks. The script is configurable using Group Policy.
- Shutdown the master virtual desktop.
- Edit the Settings of the master virtual machine and disconnect the CD-ROM. Make sure no ISO is configured in the virtual machine.
- Take a snapshot of the master virtual desktop. View Composer requires a snapshot.
Related Pages
Vmware Horizon View Agent Download Pc
- Back to VMware Horizon 7