Prediction #1: The iPhone goes Enterprise

- The iPhone will gain rapid adoption in the Enterprise driven by user demands including executives, road warriors, and knowledge workers asking for access to the apps they need ( including windows apps ) from anywhere. IT will increasingly support the effort based on new improved security capabilities and productivity gains ( including for themselves ).

..	Choose
I am in IT and we will support the iPhone in 2009 ! ( I need the Citrix Receiver now... )
Blackberry reigns in the Enterprise, no change for '09 ...

Prediction #2: Corporate issued laptop model will be challenged
- Companies looking to provide access to day extenders without the full expense and maintenance of a company laptop will increasingly adopt application delivery infrastructure like XenApp that can provide safe IT hosted application access from un-trusted personal PC's. In addition, companies will begin to pilot the BYOC ( Bring Your Own Computer ) model for knowledge workers seeking personal choice while reducing IT expense and support costs.

..	Choose
We already are saving significant $$ by enabling safe access from home PC's
We are planning to allow controlled access ( via Citrix ) from home PC's in 2009
Status quo, corporate laptop access or none at all.

Prediction #3: Virtual Desktops grow beyond a niche

- Improvements in user experience capabilities of VDI solutions combined with the reduced support cost model will drive increased adoption of VDI beyond the initial niche deployments.

..	Choose
We are moving from VDI pilots and special use cases to broader deployment
VDI is not ready for the masses, we will wait and see

Prediction #4: IaaS Cloud Providers are no longer just for web startups

- The recent Windows offering by Amazon will validate the IaaS ( Infrastructure as a Service ) model as a viable platform for companies small and large looking to add test and targeted production capacity without capital and facility costs.

..	Choose
We have started to use Cloud VM's or Storage for test and plan broader use in '09
What is IaaS ? No way are we putting anything in the cloud...
Not sure, need to try it first

Prediction #5: Netbooks drive Servers, Clouds and Linux clients

- The rapid adoption of Netbooks based on low cost and light weight convenience will increase the desire to run server hosted apps ( Web and Windows ). A significant number of the new mini laptops will be used for occasional use vs a primary PC which makes maintaining local apps and synchronizing data problematic. This in turn will help break the traditional model of running Windows apps installed on PCs and laptops.

..	Choose
We are getting more and more requests for access from Netbooks, all they need is Citrix and a browser.
Netbooks are just toys for kids ...  ( small & big )

Agree / disagree ? what are your predictions ? 

Also seen at Sys-Con Cloud Computing Computing Journal

As the New Year quickly approaches, we're all thinking of our New Year's resolutions, and I'm sure that on the top of each of your lists is "Improve the Capabilities of my Corporate Citrix Farm".

OK, maybe it's not at the TOP of your list...

But improving the reliability, scalability, and ease of use of your Citrix installations is an issue that most administrators face constantly. And, as the New Year is upon us, it might be a good time to reflect on that "one thing" that you can do to make your farm more productive, more secure, more reliable, and more manageable.

Along those same lines, I think it's a good time for Citrix to ask... What new products or enhancements would you like to see from us? What can WE do to make your job easier? What can we do to make your farm more secure? What can we do to provide you with the tools you need to make your Citrix installation perform in ways you have not been able to achieve?

Feel free to reply with your #1 ITEM (just one, make it your biggest) that you would like Citrix to focus on in the upcoming year. If it's a direction that we're already working towards, and you'd like us to continue, let us know! If there's an area that you think we should look at, we'd like to know that as well! Although I can't personally promise that your suggestion will work it's way to the top of our list, I think that your feedback, as always, is an integral part of our corporate direction, and helps us to plan for the future as well.

So, let the 2009 wishes begin!...

In this 4-minute video I interview Nitin Desai, team lead for the 3D professional graphics subproject of our Apollo multimedia virtualization initiative, and he demonstrates a high-end CAD application - CATIA V5.19 from Dassault - running on XenDesktop with graphics hardware acceleration. This technology, available as a Tech Preview, enables organizations to deliver DirectX and OpenGL applications and large 3D models over DSL-like network connections while keeping their intellectual property safe within the data center.

Derek Thorslund
Product Strategist, Multimedia Virtualization

Our Events team is putting together the content for Citrix Synergy 2009 now. The team would like your input on the content. Please answer the poll questions below -

I've been looking at the breakdown of a desktop in a series of blogs.   In the first blog, I talked about how every desktop starts with a base operating system.  The second blog talked about application delivery and integration into the OS. The third layer of a desktop is personalization.  Many people think that personalization is simply a user's profile.  Well, personalization goes well beyond that. 

Think, for a moment, about what you do to your laptop or desktop to personalize it for yourself. Ignore the whole concept of virtual desktops at this point.   I've done the following to my own Citrix laptop:

Settings: I've changed the default settings for, well, just about everything, operating system and applications.

• Desktop background is Homer Simpson.
• My computer icon is Homer and the Recycle Bin is Lisa (because Lisa is the environmental Simpson). 
• I've configured my delivered applications with Citrix Visio stencils, Outlook with my personal signature, Office custom dictionary with terms like  XenApp, XenDesktop, XenServer, NetScaler and WANScaler. 
• I've added numerous favorites into my browser

Local Applications: Even though I receive most of my applications from Citrix IT, I've also installed a few applications on my own.  

• Video recording software: I continue to post video blogs and record configuration videos for Citrix solutions. I need a video recording solution not delivered by the IT department.
• Video Player: I've had to install numerous codecs/video players for different Citrix Videos I've created
• Instant Messenger: I've installed different IM programs so I can talk to coworkers
• Browser: Not everyone uses Internet Explorer.  With Firefox, Chrome, and others different people want to use different browsers. 

Information (Data): The data category is very important for personalization. You want to make sure your data is available where you would normally place it.  When you do a Save in Microsoft Word, the application defaults to Documents. 

Attachments:  What attachments do you use on your desktop? I've connected different digital cameras, webcams, MP3 players, mobile phone and printers.  Although many might not be Corporate Approved, they have been needed from time-to-time. 

By modifying application and system settings, adding your own local applications, attaching different peripherals and creating, storing and access data, you have turned an otherwise standard desktop into your very own, personal desktop.   That was the easy part.  The hard part is how do we virtualize the personalization layer so it can be applied during logon and change an otherwise standard corporate desktop, to one that is completely inline with what the user requires?  I could spend an entire blog on each of these four items, which I might do in the future, but for now I'll summarize.

A major part of the personalization strategy is focused on Profiles.  Most people cringe when they hear profiles because of issues they've encountered with Terminal Services and XenApp.  However, think about why we had profile issues in a XenApp world? Users would log on to many XenApp servers at a time, resulting in their roaming profile being pushed to numerous servers. Then when you logged out, that profile was uploaded, resulting in 1 profile overwriting another profile.  With XenDesktop, how many virtual desktops will most people use at a time? One.  Because of this design consideration, many of the challenges for profiles would be non-existent. 

However, we still must setup profile correctly.  We need to make sure the profile are optimized so they load faster (which is possible with the help of the Citrix User Profile Manager).  Also, we need to make sure the profiles are configured in such a way that the special folders (Desktop, Favorites, etc) are redirected off of the virtual desktop and onto persistent storage (File server). I'm briefly talking about profiles because in order to do it correctly, you need to have a solid profile strategy, something too long to discuss in this blog posting.  Right now, we can't do everything we need in profiles.

For Attachments we have to rely on virtual channels between the user's endpoint and the virtual desktop.  Whenever a USB device is plugged into the endpoint, it should appear on the virtual desktop.  With XenDesktop, this is a work in progress. Some things work and some do not.  But now is a good time to generate your list of what devices are required so you are ready to test with subsequent versions of XenDesktop.

The final item, applications, is an interesting topic.  Applications  are a layer in the desktop but it is also part of personalization because users add their own apps to personalize the desktop.  Before we go to potential solutions, we need to determine if this is needed.  Do you want users to be installing untested, untrusted, nonstandard applications into your protected data center? Or should you require the users to install these types of applications on their own end point device, outside of the data center? This is the first decision. As part of the virtual desktop analysis, you will hopefully identify the non-IT applications. If certain applications are used by a number of employees, maybe IT needs to add these into the application layer and start delivering them as a corporate resource.  If not, users will install the applications on their own. If using pooled desktops in XenDesktop, those changes will be destroyed upon logout. This will cause frustration and disapproval of the solution.  You can either

1. Grant certain users assigned virtual desktops instead of pooled.  With assigned virtual desktops, the desktop is never destroyed and only belongs to a single user, but this brings about a whole slew of issues around maintenance and management
2. Train users to install the applications on their local end point device
3. Use a some other solution that is not released yet that virtualizes any installed application and delivers to the user on future virtual desktops. I haven't seen anything like this yet.  Who knows what the future will hold.

Hopefully, this blog has shed some light onto the complexities of personalization.  I wish I could say Citrix has all of the solutions in XenDesktop right now, but I doubt many of you would believe me.  I can tell you that Citrix is working on this as this is the personalization discussion is a major piece of the virtual desktop puzzle. BTW, if you want to remember the the four areas of Virtual Desktop Personalization, just remember the LISA Areas for Personalization: Local applications, Information (data), Settings, and Attachments.  This goes hand-in-hand with the BART Principles of application integration for virtual desktops.

Daniel

This document is intended for administrators interested in evaluating Citrix's XenDesktop with Microsoft's Hyper-V.  Step-by-step procedures for creating an evaluation environment are provided.
Download Guide Here

To learn about the many benefits of Citrix's XenDesktop, please visit here

Microsoft's Deployment Guys wrote a blog regarding how XenDesktop is an important component in Microsoft's VDI solution.
Read about it here

Download the latest version of XenDesktop to conduct your evaluation here

Download Microsoft Windows Server 2008 to conduct your evaluation here

Download Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager to conduct your evaluation here

The figure shows the XenDesktop evaluation environment with Microsoft's Hyper-V providing the VM infrastructure.

We are always looking for idea's to improve our Citrix events. Some of the past feedback we have received is to step-up the technical content and include more unscripted and unfiltered opinions and dialog. At Synergy 2008 we introduced GeekSpeak which was very well received as indicated by the feedback and standing room only crowds. At Synergy 2009 you can expect even more technical content plus more GeekSpeak sessions. In addition as many iForum/Summit/Synergy attendees know. Citrix usually includes a concluding session that could be a brand name comedian ( Dana Carvey - Synergy 2008) or an Athlete with a story ( Lance Armstrong - Summit 2008 ) or other memorable entertainer.
 
In keeping with listening to the community and even better engaging with some of the innovators of social media we thought it might be interesting to have Kevin Rose and Alex Albright host an episode of Diggnation at Synergy 2009. As you may know Kevin is the founder of Digg and an expert at developing a community. If you're not familiar with the show check it out at Diggnation.com ( it's about as unscripted and unfiltered you can get ...  ). If you are a fan of Digg this might be your chance to watch an episode first hand and maybe hang out with Kevin and Alex afterwards with some beers at our closing party. If you're not a fan of Diggnation and would rather we look for other entertainment we would like to hear that as well. As always, suggestions and comments welcome.
 

Do you Digg the idea of Diggnation at Synergy ?	Choose
2 Thumbs up, I want to see Kevin and Alex at Synergy in Vegas !
Keep looking ...

This has come up a few times now, most often on Brian's blog (for instance here and here): XenDesktop uses ICA to deliver virtual desktops to endpoint devices, so why doesn't it have the same capabilities as XenApp?

Before I go into details on the differences in capabilities of XenApp and XenDesktop, just a few words on the technical background: "ICA" is a rather wide-ranging concept. If you look at the details, it includes of a fairly low level "core" that deals with concepts such as capability negotation and security of the data stream. Most of the "interesting stuff", such as graphics, drive mapping, etc is handled through virtual channels built on top of this core protocol. You can envisage a virtual channel as a direct connection between a piece of software on the client and on the server, and the data sent between these components is tunneled through the ICA connection. So ICA both provides a backbone, and on top of that many of the "ICA" features are in fact fairly independent pieces that use the core ICA protocol as a communication pipe.

What does this mean for XenDesktop? Well, of course the ICA stack in XenDesktop inherits heavily from XenApp (Jeff has blogged on this extensively, and Brian has a more detailed analysis too). But the underlying infrastructure is very different: XenApp builds on top of Terminal Services, while XenDesktop uses basic OS APIs. This means that some XenApp features that are intricately linked to the Terminal Services platform, like shadowing, are by no means a straight: "just recompile this for Windows Vista and it'll work". Instead, we had to re-code some features from scratch in a way that's different from, but compatible with XenApp. All this takes time, and that's the main reason we had to prioritize which features were shipped in the first version of XenDesktop. In addition, since we were re-working some aspects, it also meant that we had the opportunity to incorporate some innovations and enhancements, such as extended support for multiple monitors and - coming soon - support for USB devices.

Now looking through the limitations listed in the technical FAQ, here is a bit more background:

• Kerberos SSPI: For this feature to be really useful you will typically have to mark the computer that your end users connect to as "trusted for delegation". While that may be ok for a relatively small number of well managed XenApp server, it's less clear that you'd want to do this for thousands of virtual desktops, where your users may have full admin rights. Moreover, Windows XP doesn't support constrained delegation, which makes this a less attractive solution. Lastly, from a technical point of view this feature integrates deeply with the logon process, and this is one area where XenApp and XenDesktop differ considerably. As a result of all of these reasons, we did not prioritize this for the initial release.
• SmartCards: this is a very important feature for a relatively small, but vocal target market. Again, from a technical point of view it is far from a straight port from XenApp. There are some unique considerations for virtual desktops, the applications that reside on them, and the apps that might be hosted on XenApp. Having said that, it is a very high priority item and we are working on delivering it as soon as possible.
• SpeedScreen: SpeedScreen is a term that refers to a large array of technologies that optimize the end user experience. The first version of XenDesktop shipped with support for the majority of SS features, including SS Browser Acceleration, SS Image Acceleration, SS Progressive Display. Now for the features that didn't make the cut: SS Multimedia Acceleration and the ability to change the quality of Flash based on bandwidth were unfortunately too late to make it into the first release, but we are well under way with it now. The situation is less clear with SS Zero Latency - XenDesktop already supports mouse click feedback, but keyboard type-ahead is a technology that is not terribly easy to set up, and can be tricky to get working with more recent applications that you would typically find on a virtual desktop; furthermore the bulk of the other SpeedScreen features already provide a highly optimized end user experience in high-latency environments. As a result, for now we are assessing how we can best make additional functionality available on XenDesktop.
• PDA Sync and Twain: again, these are fairly tied to the Terminal Services infrastructure on XenApp and we made the decision to take a little more time to do handle these devices (and others beside them) in a more compatible and user-friendly manner through our upcoming USB remoting technology in XenDesktop - look for this soon. This is one of those areas where it just didn't make sense to simply replicate what we had done in the past, and instead make an overall improvement.
• Shadowing: as I mentioned before, on XenApp this is based off Terminal Services capabilities that just aren't available to us in XenDesktop. Subscription advantage for XenDesktop Platinum comes with Citrix GotoAssist, which is a more complete replacement for shadowing, or you can also use the built-in Remote Assistance feature built into Windows for a premise-based solution. We also have plans to support shadowing functionality in future, but with the available alternatives, customers are still able to achieve the same capability.
• SmartAuditor: SmartAuditor is used by a relatively small customer segment, and thus wasn't among the highest priority items for a first XenDesktop release. There has been quite a lot of prep work for this already, and I am confident that we'll include this in one of the future XenDesktop releases.
• Audio on Vista: this is a rather complex area technically - Vista's audio architecture differs fundamentally from that used in Windows XP, and we need to completely re-implement the audio framework in PortICA to support Vista. This effort is nearing completion now. The good news is that we will be able to take advantage of this rework to integrate much better audio codecs in future and improve user experience with audio significantly.
• Perfmon Counters and User Experience Metrics: again lack of support for these metrics was due to resource constraints, and there are only minor technical difficulties to make them available on XenDesktop.

I hope this post has helped to give you an idea of the differences between XenDesktop and XenApp - and that we're not standing still here, but working as fast as we can to deliver an ICA stack that has full parity - and in some cases additional improvements - when compared with XenApp. Keep in mind that it took many, many years to add all these capabilities on top of the core ICA protocol, and we've accomplished quite a bit already and are closing in on several more. Most importantly, hopefully this dispels the myth that there is anything  fundamental that would prohibit us from making it the equal of XenApp ICA.

(Note: I updated this post to clarify and extend on a few of these items and to highlight where XenDesktop's ICA capabilities exceed that of XenApp, including support for higher multi-monitor resolutions. And as was pointed out: perhaps this article should instead be titled "Why ICA is ICA after all ".)

 

I've been using the Sprint HTC Touch Pro for a few months now, and I feel that it is a very compelling mobile device for use with Citrix XenApp and XenDesktop, maybe even for few of the folks I've been hearing from that are looking to move away from the iPhone.  So what I've done in this blog is to video what I feel are some of the compelling use cases for mobile devices with Citrix and let the Sprint HTC Touch Pro take top billing in this post.  I'm sure you can find a few posts about Citrix and the iPhone if you try, and we'll have it out "Sooner than later"!

HTC Touch Pro w/Web Interface

HTC Touch Flo interface does a good job of bringing most of the tasks I want on my mobile device right to my finger tips.  One of the areas that HTC's Touch Flo interface comes into play with Citrix is when connected to Web Interface via the Opera browser.  The Opera browser allows the user to quickly zoom in and out on the Web interface, and move the viewable portion of the page using your finger to quickly find the application you want to launch (no stylus required).  The built in accelerometer will also automatically change the view from portrait to landscape when you tilt the Touch Pro.  If the keyboard is pulled out, the orientation will also switch to landscape mode.  The below video shows the new Web Interface, which has a mobile device mode built in, easily navigated with HTC's Touch Flo integration into Opera.

Mobile Access to Corporate Documents

Being able to quickly and securely access documents on corporate file shares from your mobile device can be a real advantage.  Imaging a lawyer or sales person not having to boot up their laptop to get quick access to a document when they simply want to look up some data in a document or quickly review a file.  Using their mobile device instead they can just launch File Explorer via XenApp from their mobile phone to gain secure access to that any file they have access to in the data center, regardless of its size or type.  They can find the data they were looking for and be done quicker than it takes to boot most laptops.  The HTC Touch Pro's full VGA resolution really shines here, you are able to view a lot more data on its VGA screen than most devices with lesser resolution.  The screen is small (2.7"), but its clarity helps to overcome its size. 

NOTE: in order to make the following videos more viewable, the Touch Pro was controlled from my PC using Soti's Pocket Controller Pro so my fingers weren't in the way!  Like the keyboard is when typing on an iPhone

Mobile Access to ERP, CRM and Other Database Applications

Being able to access to ERP, CRM and other corporate database data while mobile is another key use case.  While I wouldn't recommend that users do a ton of data entry into these systems from any mobile device, there are a lot of cases where a user in the field needs quick access to customer information, sales and program data, payment or purchase approvals, and inventory information for example.  The general use case when using mobile devices is about quick consumption of data, and they can securely gain access to such data from their mobile device using XenApp.

The below video shows the HTC Touch Pro accessing the Citrix corporate SAP system to quickly approve an event, and look up some travel expense report data.

Mobile Access to Technical Documents

Citrix has optimized its ICA protocol for over a decade to deliver some of the most demanding types of data to remote users.  Imagine the technical field worker that needs to look up the proper connectivity of electrical wiring on an expensive piece of equipment.  They could try and carry every possible paper manual in their truck, OR all of the technical drawings could be kept online in the data center for the worker to access via their mobile device, and again, having a device with a full VGA resolution like the HTC Touch Pro makes a big difference.

The below video shows the HTC Touch Pro accessing a 3D AutoDesk drawing, allowing the worker to rotate the drawing on the Touch Pro and zoom in and get whatever level of detail they require to get the job done.

So you wanna full desktop to?

Are you standardizing your desktop deployments on XenDesktop?  Not a problem for mobile users.  The HTC Touch Pro's full VGA screen is one of the few devices I've seen that can easily fit a full desktop on the screen without requiring panning and scaling. 

The below video shows use of the Touch Pro with XenDesktop.  It also shows the ability of the solution to detect a change from landscape to portrait mode and have the application or desktop being run on XenApp/XenDesktop automatically adapt to this change. 

So is a 2.7" screen a bit small to run a full desktop on, probably.  But I find the Touch Pro very usable for quick access to applications and data, even with XenDesktop. I can only hope for HTC to come out with an HTC HD Pro version with an external keyboard which would really make this solution pop.  Give it full SVGA output via a VGA connector (Sprint HTC Touch Pro has VGA output today) and you may just have the first real Nirvana Device along with my Celio Redfly to complete the package.

I know there are a lot of other differences between the Touch Pro and the iPhone, iPhone pinch .vs. Touch Flo swirl, Opera browser .vs. Safari, iPhone has a cool Star Wars light saber application and Touch Pro does not   Overall, the Touch Pro has been an excellent device, very stable, phone works great, Touch Flo interface makes it very easy to get to the most common features I use on a phone, and it works with XenApp today!   So what's the "right" business device for you and your employees, that's for you to decide.  But hopefully this post helps you look at some of the use cases that can add value to your mobile workforce, and another great device for you to consider.

Sprint HTC Touch Pro Keyboard TIP!!!!! 

I did initially have an issue with the external keyboard with XenApp applications and have seen a number of posts on the web about this.  I quickly found a few settings in the ICA Client that quickly resolved this issue.  To make these changes, open the "ICA Client" from the Programs folder and navigate to the "Edit Preferences" page:

"Edit Global Settings" -> "Edit Preferences" then make the changes highlighted below:

 

You may also be interested in Full Screen Mode for Your Nirvana Device 

It is always exciting when the first emails start to come in with feedback on a new software release. A few weeks ago, the Apollo team put out a second Tech Preview release of our accelerated bitmap remoting technology for 3D graphics acceleration on XenDesktop. This release introduced support for delivering 3D professional graphics applications -- both OpenGL and DirectX based -- over a DSL-like WAN/Internet connection (1.5 - 6 Mbps). With this new technology, companies can keep their intellectual property safe in the delivery center while enabling workers to access 3D applications remotely, even from another continent. Here are some of the early comments:

• "We have been extremely impressed by early results while testing the Apollo Tech Preview with [Autodesk] Revit Architecture." -- Global architectural firm, testing over high latency trans-Atlantic WAN links.
• "The [test subjects'] reactions are positive so far. At 1.5 Mbps it is still very usable." -- Major software vendor.
• "So far this is the only product to have anywhere near acceptable performance." -- Top tier system integrator.
• "[We're] doing user testing and so far everyone is loving it." -- Diversified manufacturer of commercial and defense products.

Based on the positive response, we are now accepting additional organizations into our Tech Preview Program. So if you'd like to "kick the tires", please complete the application form at www.citrix.com/apollo3Dgraphics.

Derek Thorslund
Product Strategist, Multimedia Virtualization

In a previous post, I talked about the 3 layers of a virtual desktop (OS, Apps and Personalization) and spent some time discussing the must haves and might need items that should be part of the base OS build.  This time I want to talk about the second layer, application delivery. 

As you are probably aware, application delivery in a XenDesktop environment is done with XenApp.  Now, I'm not going to tell you about how cool XenApp is (I leave that to the product marketing people). What I do want to spend time talking about is how we choose the best application delivery technique for a virtual desktop, because XenApp gives us three options:

Installed

• Applications part of the virtual desktop OS build
• Processing occurs on the virtual desktop
• Impacts processor and more storage required for deployment as base OS image also includes applications
  

Streamed

• Applications streamed to the virtual desktop upon request
• Processing occurs on the virtual desktop
• Slightly higher utilization when compared to installed applications due to the streaming client
• Base Operating System images and applications remain separate entities
  

Hosted

• Applications run remotely on a XenApp server
• Application processing occurs on XenApp server
• Running multiple applications has little impact on virtual desktop utilization due to the hosted application client

So, how do you choose the best option? Simple, close your eyes and point to one.     This might work, but it probably won't give you the best results.  If I was designing a solution, I would want to base these decisions on the following criteria:

The Primary and Secondary options are general recommendations.  For base applications like Microsoft Office, it will be a decsion by the business whether streaming or installing makes the most sense. But remember, installing applications into the virtual desktop means that everyone assigned that OS will receive those applications.  Streaming and Hosting allows fewer base OS images while still allowing for dynamic application sets based on user credentials.  

If you think the criteria will be difficult to remembr, look at it this way:

• Base applications
• Anomalous applications
• Resource intensive applications
• Technically challenging applications

This is the BART Principles of Application Integration.  It is really amazing how much you can do in life by basing ideas on The Simpsons. 

Let me know your thoughts on the BART Principles. 

Daniel

Bart Quote: If I do something bad and there's no one there to catch me, does that mean I'm good?

Sean Whetstone, Head of IT Services at Reed Managed Services in the UK, is a big fan of going green. By using a combination of Citrix XenApp, NetScaler and XenDesktop, Reed Managed Services was able to reduce operating expenses by over 20%, centralize and secure data from over 300 offices, and reduce their carbon footprint by 2500 tons. According to the post on Sean's blog, Reed Managed Services was able to cut utility usage by 5,500,000 kilowatt hours to save over 100,000 pounds as a result of this project.

Sean recently posted a video interview he did at a Citrix event in London on his blog.

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You can view Sean's presentation on this topic here.

Part I of the Deep Dive into XenDesktop series reviewed the architecture. Part II covered the install and management tools. Part III reviewed an example XenDesktop Pilot Architecture. Part IV reviewed the Virtual Desktop Delivery of Dan Feller's "XenDesktop Pilot Implementation Guide". Part V reviewed the integration with XenApp for application delivery to the virtual desktops. Part VI covers User Personalization with Citrix User Profile Manager. This is the third section from Dan's Pilot Implementation Guide.

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This embedded presentation covers the "Personalization" section of the Pilot Implementation Guide.

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Click here to view the presentation in full screen at Slide Share.

This presentation does have several slide notes that provide additional detail. You can view the slide notes here.



Frank Anderson on the XenDesktop team has created a few screencasts covering the features of XenDesktop. You can watch his short screencast covering the provisioning and lifecycle management features of XenDesktop here. Frank's screencast on user experience is available here.

Download the free XenDesktop Express Edition here

 Citrix now provides a single place to look for application and 3rd party product compatibility. Beyond the featured Citrix Ready products we are now leveraging the power of the community including; customers, resellers, partners, consultants and Citrite's to identify all 3rd party products known to work with all Citrix products. We have developed a community website that not only collects, consolidates and displays this essential information but it also provides "Digg" like voting functionality to quantify the number of verifications for each product. The site also includes a mash-up with support forums so relevant verification details can be provided as well as threaded discussions and problem resolution.  
We are counting on the community to use AND contribute to make this effort a success. So we made it easy to search, use and add your knowledge of 3rd party apps and products. Your MyCitrix ID will be identified as the original contributor, and if you see an app listed that you know works adding a vote is a simple click to vote. Top contributors of verifications/votes will be highlighted and forum posters can share deeper knowledge on the forums and include links to their own blog or company site. In order to maintain credibility of the program we do not allow a single user to vote more than once for the same verification and we do require that contributors are logged on with My Citrix credentials. 

Please take a look at the site, add your known apps and votes, and let us know any feedback to improve the site.

http://community.citrix.com/citrixready

Introduction

Many environments have already managed to streamline the image building process and already have familiarity with the many Windows XP performance and optimization tips. Both XenDesktop (XD) and Provisioning Server (PVS) support the Windows XP operating system and can benefit from performance enhancements. For those who are familiar with these performance enhancements, this blog may provide little assistance in the way of new information. None of the optimizations below are required, but they are available here for your convenience if they make sense in your environment.

The optimizations are put into three sections: Those that apply to the current user profile, those that apply to all users on the machine, and recommendations before creating the vDisk. The first section deals with the items that can be set in the default user profile. The second section deals with settings that can be set by the administrator for all users that work on the machine. The final section recommends a few things to do before taking the vDisk image. When available, the section will provide links to the URL on Microsoft's website that explains the setting further.

Settings for the Default User Profile

This section lists a few of the settings that will improve the user experience but are set at the user profile level.  The recommendation is to create a generic user and then set the applicable settings, when completed, replace the default user profile with the generic user profile, the steps for which are found at the end of this section.

Force Offscreen Compositing for Internet Explorer

Turning this setting off removes any of the flickering that may display when using Internet Explorer through XenDesktop, by telling Internet Explore to fully render the page prior to displaying it. This is especially helpful on Internet Explorer 7.

1. Open Internet Explorer
2. Select Tools >> Internet Options from the menu
3. Select the Advanced tab
4. In the Browsing section, enable the checkbox for "Force offscreen compositing even under Terminal Services"
5. Click OK to save the changes
6. Restart Internet Explorer

More information available at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/271246/en-us

Remove the Menu Delay

The Start menu has a built-in delay of 400 milliseconds. To speed the menu response time, follow these steps to remove the delay:

1. Start the Registry Editor (Regedit.exe)
2. Navigate to  HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\
3. Set the value of MenuShowDelay to 0
4. Exit the Registry Editor

 

Remove Unnecessary Visual Effects

Disabling unnecessary visual effects such as menu animations and shadow effects that generally just slow down the response time of the desktop.

1. Right-click My Computer
2. Click Properties
3. Click Advanced
4. Click the Settings button under the Performance section
5. Click "Adjust for best performance"
6. If you want to keep the XP Visual Style, scroll to the bottom and check the last box titled "Use visual styles on windows and buttons"

 

Disable the desktop cleanup wizard

To stop the wizard from automatically running every 60 days:

1. Right-click a blank spot on the desktop, and then click Properties to open the Display Properties dialog box
2. Click the Desktop tab
3. Click Customize desktop to open the Desktop Items dialog box
4. Disable the "Run Desktop Cleanup Wizard every 60 days" setting
5. Click OK twice to close the dialog boxes

More information available at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/320154

Disable Automatic Searching of Network Printers and Shares

Automatic search periodically polls your network to check for new shared resources and adds relevant icons into My Network Places if anything is found. If you wish to prevent XP from regularly searching your network unnecessarily then follow these steps:

1. Open the Control Panel
2. Select Folder Options.  If you use the Control Panel Category View you'll find Folder Options under Appearance and Themes
3. Click the View tab
4. In the Advanced Settings list, disable the "Automatically Search for Network Folders and Printers" setting
5. Click OK

 

Disable the Windows XP Tour Notifier

If you did not turn this off before you logged in as your base user for the default profile, you can manually disable the prompt on a per-user basis by following these steps:

1. Start Registry Editor (Regedit.exe)
2. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Applets\Tour
3. On the Edit menu, point to New, click Dword Value, type RunCount
4. Set the data value to 0 (zero), and then click OK
5. Quit Registry Editor

More information available at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/311489

Turn off Automatic Updates

Since you are running a read-only image, using automatic updates will cause the operating system to continually download the same updates each time the image is booted. The best course of action is to turn it off. You have three options that can be used to disable the service:

• Use the PVS Optimizer tool and leave the "Disable automatic update service" box checked

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• In the Services Control Panel, change the Startup Type of the Automatic Updates service to "Disabled"

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• Run GPEDIT.MSC and navigate to:  Local Computer Policy > Computer Configuration >  Administrative Templates > Windows Components >  Windows Update. Set the "Configure Automatic Updates" setting to "Disabled"

  

Turn off Language Bar

If there is no need for the language tool bar (the pen icon in the systray) you can disable it using either of these two methods.

• Right-click taskbar > Toolbars and uncheck the "Language Bar" option.

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• Navigate to Control Panel > Regional and Language Options > Languages (tab) > Details (button) > Language Bar (button at bottom). Disable the "Show the Language bar on the desktop" and "show additional Language bar icons in the taskbar".

 

Make the User Profile the Default User Profile

When you are done completing all the User Profile Settings (using a generic user) you can copy the profile over to the default user using the process below.

Login as an administrator (Local Administrator is recommended) not as the base user for the profile because you cannot copy a profile that is in use.

1. Right-click on My Computer
2. Choose Properties
3. Select the Advanced tab
4. Click the Settings button under the "User Profiles" se