The flexibility of VDI can be enhanced when using virtualized applications on the virtual desktops. With VMware ThinApp you can install or stream virtual applications to the virtual desktop when the user needs them. Installing the application means that the ThinApp container will be deployed to the machine in a MSI package. When installing the MSI the application will be registered in the Add/Remove software dialog in the control panel and when configured in the package.ini before, the shortcuts on desktop and start menu will be created and also the …

Yesterday a customer asked me how to use Windows roaming profiles just on the virtual desktops and not on the local desktops from which the user is connecting. Those local desktops are also a member of the Active Directory and the connecting user has a profile path configured in his user setting within the Active Directory.

Since VMware View does only support Microsoft Active Directory Service as directory service, Novell eDirectory users need another way to get their environment working with the VMware virtual desktop infrastructure. First of all you will definitely need an Active Directory to integrate the View Manager with so that the users can logon and get authenticated. To get the users from the eDirectory in sync with the Active Directory you should use the standard Novell tools.

Running Novell eDirectory with view is problematic and not supported. However here is how you do it if you feel so inclined. I would like to thank a very good customer of mine, Carl Hooker for helping me solve this riddle in his environment.

Recently I wrote an article about the handling of client mapped drives when using VMware View. RDP supports the redirection of the clients drives which will be forwarded to the virtual client and shown as network drives. With an GPO template which is included in View or the default Active Directory policy you can control this mapping. But what if the drive is a local drive like the OS disk in a automated linked clone pool?

The hostname naming conventions in companies are very different and mostly the come from the early days of IT. In banks for example often they are using a prefix or suffix with an increasing number. With VMware View it’s possible to use naming patterns to customize the hostname. By default the prefix can be up to 13 characters in length and some numeric suffix is appended to that in order to distinguish each desktop from others in the pool.

When browsing the file system on the View connection server you’ll find four ADM files in the server’s program files directory: C:\Program Files\VMware View\Server\Extras\GroupPolicyFiles. With those files you can easily manage the View Server, View Client and View agent configuration settings.

With VMware View 3 and the View Composer it is possible to create automated desktop pools using the linked clone technology and saving storage through that. Within the configuration you can directly set an organizational unit in the Active Directory for the desktops in the automated desktop pool.

Since Virtual Desktop Manager 2.1 the VMware Virtual Desktop Infrastructure got a default setting which blocks direct RDP connections to the virtual desktops. When a user tries to connect to the desktop with a standard Microsoft RDP client he will get a message stating: Access denied. In case that there was a requirement for connections from non-View/VDM clients the administartor needed to change a registry parameter to enable the access.

With VMware View and RDP the administrator can redirect the client drives to the virtual desktop through a standard RDP function. The client drives are connected as network drives. Without any additional configuration all local client drives will be redirected to the virtual desktop.