VMware has introduced the Preview of a View Client for Windows Store. The client will run in the tiles view of Windows RT and Windows 8. It comes with features like Touch Pointer, Zoom and Snap (Check the VMware Blog for the details) but the preview has also a few limitation: Only RDP connections in the preview and no PCoIP yet, no smart card authentication support.

Source: http://blogs.vmware.com/euc/files/2013/01/Screenshot-151-1024×575.png

Source: http://blogs.vmware.com/euc/files/2013/01/4-zoomed-1024×575.png

The current VMware View Client in version 5.2 does run in Windows 8 desktop mode. VMware recommends that if you’re using a full Windows 8 client, not Windows RT, you should use the existing View client for maximum functionality.

Link: http://3url.de/cwl

When visiting the VMware View Download page at www.vmware.com today I’ve got a notice about a new knowledge base article which was published back in December 2012. If you’re using the View Agent on a physical desktop computer to get remote access to it you might face some performance issues or will have an decrease in stability. This symptoms can only be seen on physical desktop, NOT virtual desktops in a VDI.

Only the agent version 5.1.2 seems to be affected. 

Link: http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=2041977

Yesterday VMware has published the VMware View Client for Windows Store Tech Preview.

The client is usable on Windows 8 and Windows 8 RT operating systems and they can connect to VMware View Server 4.6.1 or later.

Please download the VMware View Client for Windows Store Installation Guide for further instruction.

To side load this application please visit Microsofts MSDN site with instructions: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/windowsstore/archive/2012/04/25/deploying-metro-style-apps-to-businesses.aspx

Link: Using VMware View Client for Windows Store | Download Tech Preview

My colleague Tim Arenz from our Professional Services Organization has published a short blog posting about running the View Client for MacOS with multiple instances. As there is no built-in way of doing it, he found a quick and dirty workaround. This is very useful if you want to run multiple instances of VDI sessions i.e. as a Software Developer or Administrator.

Image Source: http://www.horizonflux.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/MultiInstancesViewClientDock.png

Link: http://www.horizonflux.com/launching-multiple-instances-of-the-vmware-view-client-for-mac-os-x/

A few month ago we’ve published an article on a free repurposing PC solution for VMware View. Tinycore Builder is a website which helps you to generate a minimal size, bootable ISO image with a built-in VMware View client. (Link)

The solution is now available via a new web address. Please visit the following link.

Link: http://repurpose.vmwarecloud.at/

Great news from the VMware View Client team. They’ve just released a new version of their clients and of course the new Windows Client is compatible with Windows 8 for Desktops and Laptops and has an improved support for Intel based Windows 8 tablets.

Here’s an overview of all enhancements through the different clients:

There has been a VMware View Client for iOS for a while but you had to run it on your iPad as the iPhone was not supported. This has changed recently! VMware has released a iPhone compatible client to the Apple AppStore and you can download it for free. The new iPhone client supports the 3GS, 4 and the brand new iPhone 5 as well as iPod Touch from generation 3 and up.

If you ever wanted to run Adobe Flash on your iPhone, this is your chance.

The new version of the iOS client is universal and does of course support the iPad. The presentation mode is also possible for the iPhone 4.

Link: (iTunes) http://itunes.apple.com/de/app/vmware-view-for-ipad/id417993697?mt=8

Yesterday VMware has published the latest version (5.1.1) of VMware View.

Resolved Issues in View 5.1.1:

View Administrator

• When the number of View entities managed by one group of View Connection Server instances exceeded 10,000, View Administrator had intermittent problems displaying desktop pools, desktops, and user/group references. The intermittent display problems caused many administrative operations to fail. A View entity can be a desktop pool, desktop, or user/group reference.

View Persona Management

• View Persona Management failed to replicate a user profile that contained very large files to the remote profile repository. The incomplete replication could result in data loss or data corruption in the user profile.

User Profile Management in View

The following resolved issues concern desktop session management by View Agent and View Connection Server. In certain situations, View closed sessions prematurely, affecting user profile synchronization. In View 5.1.1, View Agent and View Connection Server wait for user profile replication to be completed before closing desktop sessions.

• When a user logged off soon after adding a large amount of data to the user profile, View shut down the View desktop before the user profile had finished being replicated to the remote profile repository. The incomplete replication could result in data loss or data corruption in the user profile. This issue is resolved when PCoIP or RDP is used.
• If a user logged off from a View desktop and immediately logged in to a new desktop session within the same pool, user profile data that was created in the new session could not be saved. The user could also lose data that was created in the previous session. This issue applied to desktops running Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008, or later Windows operating system releases.

Link: https://www.vmware.com/support/view51/doc/view-511-release-notes.html

Did you ever want to know more about the VMware View Local Mode Technology? VMware’s technical marketing team has published a nice article how it works! Just follow the link to VMware’s EUC blog.

Link: http://blogs.vmware.com/euc/2012/08/vmware-view-client-local-mode-curious-how-works.html