Windows Virtual Desktop learning and readiness resources
Would you like to learn more about Windows Virtual Desktop? Consider watching these Ignite sessions: Scott Manchester's https://youtu.be/_7G37PFYVe4 (20 minutes) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4-ZFzC9GKE (43 minutes) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SW2BTZMaRMo (56 minutes) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ua9P4VsICFM (20 minutes) https://youtu.be/0Uli_gQjh1M (53 minutes) https://youtu.be/UsHq8ZkwPe8 (32 minutes) Register via http://aka.ms/wvdpreview to be notified for the public preview which will launch later this year.(Azure) Virtual Desktop Optimization Tool now available
Optimizing images has always been an important component of preparing images as part of a traditional Remote Desktop Services (RDS) infrastructure or virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI). Optimizing session hosts, in particular, can increase user density and eventually lower costs. With the Virtual Desktop Optimization Tool, you can optimize your Windows 10, version 2004 multi- and single-session deployments in Windows Virtual Desktop. Note: The information in this post is community-driven; nothing has yet been officially launched by the Windows Virtual Desktop product team. Credit goes to Robert M. Smith and Tim Muessig from Microsoft, previously known as the VDIGuys, for creating this tool and make it available for free for the community. Windows 10 multi-session image name change As noted in recent announcements, Office 365 ProPlus is now Microsoft 365 apps for Enterprise. With this name change, we have updated the Windows Virtual Desktop image names in Azure Marketplace. As a result, when you are looking for an image in the Azure Marketplace image gallery, you should begin by selecting Windows 10 Enterprise multi-session, version 2004 + Microsoft 365 Apps – Gen1 as your baseline image. How the Virtual Desktop Optimization Tool works The (Windows) Virtual Desktop Optimization Tool disables services in the operating system that you most likely won’t need for your Windows Virtual Desktop session host. To make sure that your line-of-business (LOB) applications continue running as they should, there are some preliminary steps that should first performed. Note: There are settings default disabled when you run the scrip out of the box such as AppX Packages for the Windows Calculator. We strongly suggest analyzing the tool via the JSON files that include the default settings. This also gives you the opportunity to enable them before running the tool so they remain untouched. I'll explain more about this later on in the article. The full list of enhancements for native Windows services will be available soon. Bookmark Run and tune your Remote Desktop Services environment for the latest updates. Expected performance gains Windows Virtual Desktop value-added services provider and Microsoft partner LoginVSI performed early tests with the Virtual Desktop Optimization Too and gained over 100 users in their internal benchmarking lab environment with a Windows 10, version 2004 single session. We, therefore, assume that this gain will also be possible with Windows 10 Enterprise multi-session. VSImax asserts a maximum number of users that are able to log on to the virtual desktop hosts pool as part of the underlying infrastructure. That number is the "sweet spot" as going over that number will decrease performance for all users. (Thanks to LoginVSI for sharing these results with us.) Note: We recommend you use simulation tools to test your deployment using both stress tests and real-life usage simulations to ensure that your system is responsive and resilient enough to meet user needs Remember to vary the load size to avoid surprises. Desktops in the Cloud on Performance Optimizations for Windows Virtual Desktop with Robert and Tim (aka VDI Guys) We recently had the creators of the Virtual Desktop Optimization tool as guests on our Desktops in the Cloud video-podcast. Robert and Tim explained everything you should know, as well as best practices and lessons learned. A must watch in extension to this article. Watch it below. How to use the Virtual Desktop Optimization Tool The Virtual Desktop Optimization Tool makes it possible to disable uncommon services for virtual desktop environments, such as Windows Virtual Desktop. Note: We recommend that you run the script after the Sysprep (System Preparation) process, most likely as startup script w with a large set of virtual machines. This is due to the AppX Packages that conflict and most likely the sysprep will fail. Download all scripts from the Virtual-Desktop-Optimization-Tool GitHub repository. Select Clone or download, followed by Download ZIP. Unzip the folder to your Windows Virtual Desktop session host(s) to a specified folder (e.g. C:\Optimize or C:\Temp). Note: You could also run the scripts as part of your image management procedure e.g. Azure image Builder (AIB) or Azure DevOps. Important information before running the tool There are settings default disabled when you run the scrip out of the box such as AppX Packages for the Windows Calculator. We strongly suggest analyzing the tool via the JSON files that include the default settings. This also gives you the opportunity to enable them before running the tool so they remain untouched. You can find the JSON file in the Windows built number folder, under ConfigurationFiles - e.g. C:\Optimize\2004\ConfigurationFiles. You've to put the settings to Enabled - that you want to keep as default. Below is the example file for AppX Packages, there are JSON files for Services and scheduled tasks as well. Another option is to remove the while entry out of the JSON file. AppxPackages.json - Example Windows Calculator App { "AppxPackage": "Microsoft.WindowsCalculator", "VDIState": "Enabled", "URL": "https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/windows-calculator/9wzdncrfhvn5", "Description": "Microsoft Calculator app" }, Services.json - example Windows Update Service { "Name": "UsoSvc", "VDIState": "Enabled", "Description": "Update Orchestrator service, manages Windows Updates. If stopped, your devices will not be able to download and install the latest updates." }, Prepare to launch Windows PowerShell and select Run as Administrator. In PowerShell, change the directory to the folder to which you downloaded the scripts, e.g. C:\Optimize or your own specific folder. Run the following command: Set-ExecutionPolicy -ExecutionPolicy Bypass Run the Virtual Desktop Optimization Tool using the following command: .\Win10_VirtualDesktop_Optimize.ps1 -WindowsVersion 2004 -Verbose Note: When you use a different version of Windows 10, you must change the WindowsVersion parameter. Version 1803 and later are supported for Windows 10 Enterprise. Windows 10 multi-session support is only available with Windows 10, version 2004 and later. Select Yes when prompted to reboot the session hosts(s). Start your Windows Virtual Desktop session. As you can see in the Task Manager comparison below, the number of threads and handles has decreased noticeably after running the Virtual Desktop Optimization Tool. Do you have any problems with orphaned Start Menu shortcuts after running the tool? Have the user open Task Manager, then end the following two processes: ShellExperienceHost.exe StartMenuExperienceHost.exe Have them check the Start Menu and they should be gone. Happy optimizing! 🙂 Let us know your feedback on the tool in the comment section below. Prefer to watch and learn? There’s also a video on Azure Academy available later this week by Dean Cefola. You can find it here.Announcing new management, security, and monitoring capabilities in Windows Virtual Desktop
With the global pandemic, we are seeing increasing demand for technologies that enable remote work. We’ve seen significant growth in the use of Windows Virtual Desktop, as organizations use it to ensure that their employees have access to the desktops and tools they need to stay productive. To help customers continue to accelerate this move to secure remote work with Windows Virtual Desktop, we are announcing several new capabilities that make it even easier to deploy, secure, and scale your virtual desktop deployments. These new capabilities will be available in public preview by the end of the calendar year 2020. Before we dive into the new capabilities, we want to take a moment to share some of the experiences of our customers. Sebastian Meyer, the Global Service Owner for Modern Client Technologies at Beiersdorf Shared Services, shared his thoughts in moving to Windows Virtual Desktop to modernize his virtual desktop infrastructure. "What Microsoft has developed here is simply phenomenal! Windows Virtual Desktop serves so many use cases and is very close to the end user. We were able to achieve maximum success with the project." You can read the full story https://customers.microsoft.com/story/830713-beiersdorf-shared-services-sepago-azure-en Internally here at Microsoft, we are of course facing the same challenges as many of you. For example, getting a corporate laptop in the hands of new employees and interns takes time and impacts productivity. Windows Virtual Desktop is helping our new hires by providing a secure and productive remote work experience with access to the apps they need to get working immediately: “Windows Virtual Desktop allows you to create virtual desktops that work just like a physical Windows PC would,” says Mark Lawrence, a senior program manager on Microsoft’s digital security team. “That means the people who use one—new hires, interns, and so on—get access to the Windows Start menu, with Microsoft’s productivity applications, the Microsoft Edge browser, and everything else they would need to work at any location. No more waiting for a physical device delivery.” You can read the full story https://www.microsoft.com/itshowcase/blog/turning-to-windows-virtual-desktop-to-save-600-microsoft-internships-in-india/. Simplified Management With Windows Virtual Desktop, you can move from a simple proof-of-concept (PoC) to a fully operational environment faster than ever before. As you start to scale your deployment, here are some new capabilities that will help you manage and operate your deployment efficiently. Microsoft Endpoint Manager integration Microsoft Endpoint Manager allows you to manage policies and distribute applications across devices. You can now enroll Windows Virtual Desktop virtual machines that are https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/devices/concept-azure-ad-join-hybrid (joined to your on-premises Active Directory and registered with your Azure Active Directory) with Microsoft Intune and manage them in the Microsoft Endpoint Manager admin center the same way as physical devices. This simplifies management, provides a centralized view across both physical devices and virtual desktops, and creates new areas of collaboration. The Microsoft Endpoint Manager integration is generally available for Windows 10 Enterprise desktops - you can learn more in the https://aka.ms/MEMWVDFAQ. The public preview for Windows 10 Enterprise multi-session will be available in the coming months and will initially support policies at the device level. MSIX app attach in Azure portal MSIX app attach is an application layering solution that allows you to dynamically attach an application (that is an MSIX package) to a user session. Separating out the application from the operating system makes it easier to create a golden virtual machine image, and you get more control with providing the right application for the right user. Previously, you had to use PowerShell scripts to enable MSIX app attach. We will be integrating the app attach capability in the Azure portal and Azure Resource Manager. This will eliminate the need for custom scripts and makes it possible to publish your packaged applications to application groups with a few clicks. Proactive Monitoring Proactively monitoring your deployment is important to ensure your deployment is always up and running and your employees have an optimal experience using virtual desktops. Azure Monitor workbook Azure Monitor workbook for Windows Virtual Desktop aims to provide you all the monitoring telemetry and visualizations you need to debug and troubleshoot issues. You can configure alerts to proactively identify issues before they impact your employees. You can look at connection and host level performance and also drill down to specific user session to see if there are any issues. You can also look at usage across host pools and make sure you are optimizing for cost and performance. Improved Security With Windows Virtual Desktop, you can use security capabilities such as Azure encryption, Azure Firewall, Azure Security Center, and Microsoft Defender to secure your entire VDI infrastructure and ensure that your corporate and customer data is protected and stored securely. We continue to add additional security capabilities: Screen capture protection One common attack vector with remote sessions is screen capture. To protect your sensitive information, we are adding the option to disable screen capture for your remote apps and desktop on all the supported Windows Virtual Desktop clients. Direct RDP to session host We are introducing a new capability that can be set at a host pool level and will take into account the type of network you are connecting from, and when possible, establish a direct peer-to-peer UDP connection to the session host rather than over the internal Windows Virtual Desktop gateways. By eliminating the intermediate hops and using a more efficient connection over a trusted network, you get a secure optimized experience with lesser connection latency and better performance. Thank you again for the amazing feedback that you have provided to us. You can track the progress of these upcoming public previews in our http://aka.ms/wvdroadmap. If you are attending Microsoft Ignite conference, you can learn more about these features and get your questions answered in https://myignite.microsoft.com/sessions/519f0c27-af4f-40d3-af38-1cd44a83bbd5 and you can always reach us anytime at the Windows Virtual Desktop Tech Community page. You can also register https://aka.ms/wvdlivewebinars to attend our upcoming webinars.Accelerate your RDS and VDI migration to Windows Virtual Desktop
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-desktop/virtual-desktop-fall-2019/create-host-pools-powershell-2019 Learn about Azure tools to help migrate Remote Desktop Services (RDS) and Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) environments.Azure Virtual Desktop: The flexible cloud VDI platform for the hybrid workplace
When we launched Windows Virtual Desktop nearly two years ago, no one predicted a global pandemic would force millions of workers to leave the office and work from home. Organizations around the world migrated important apps and data to the cloud to gain business resilience and agility. And to support the newly remote workforce, many of you turned to Windows Virtual Desktop to give remote users a secure, easy to manage, productive personal computing experience with Windows 10 from the cloud. It has been humbling to work alongside you as you pivoted your operations to meet new challenges – from supporting frontline https://customers.microsoft.com/en-us/story/843297-ashford-and-st-peters-hospitals-nhs-health-provider-windows-virtual-desktop at NHS to https://customers.microsoft.com/en-us/story/837970-petrofac-energy-windows-virtual-desktop at Petrofac to https://customers.microsoft.com/en-us/story/840994-university-of-nottingham-higher-education-azure-teams. Going forward, organizations will need to support an https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/resilience/hybrid-work-solutions?rtc=1 scenarios. To help our customers and partners meet these new hybrid work demands, we are expanding our vision to become a flexible cloud VDI platform for nearly any use case – accessible from virtually anywhere. A modern VDI platform needs to be secure, scalable, and easy to manage, while delivering a seamless, high-performance experience to end users. It should also empower organizations with the flexibility to customize and build solutions with its core technology. To support this broader vision and the changing needs of our customers, today we are announcing new capabilities, new pricing for app streaming, and changing the name of the Windows Virtual Desktop service to Azure Virtual Desktop. New platform capabilities for security and management We are continually https://docs.microsoft.com/azure/virtual-desktop/whats-new to the core Azure Virtual Desktop platform. Today we are also pleased to announce the public preview of new features that will help you onboard and better manage your Azure Virtual Desktop deployment. Enhanced support for Azure Active Directory (coming soon in public preview): Azure Active Directory is a critical service used by organizations around the world to manage user access to important apps and data and maintain strong security controls. We are pleased to announce that you’ll soon be able to join your Azure Virtual Desktop virtual machines directly to Azure Active Directory (AAD) and connect to the virtual machine from any device with basic credentials. You’ll also be able to automatically enroll the virtual machines with Microsoft Endpoint Manager. For certain scenarios, this will help eliminate the need for a domain controller, help reduce cost, and streamline your deployment. While this is a major milestone, it’s just the beginning of the journey towards full integration with Azure Active Directory. We will continue adding new capabilities such as support for single sign-on, additional credential types like FIDO2, and Azure Files for cloud users. Manage Windows 10 Enterprise multi-session VMs with Microsoft Endpoint Manager (available now in public preview) - Microsoft Endpoint Manager allows you to manage policies and distribute applications across devices. You can now enroll Windows 10 Enterprise multi-session Azure Virtual Desktop virtual machines in Microsoft Endpoint Manager and manage them in the Microsoft Endpoint Manager admin center the same way you manage shared physical devices. This simplifies management and provides a centralized view across both physical devices and virtual desktops. Read the https://docs.microsoft.com/mem/intune/fundamentals/windows-virtual-desktop-multi-session to learn more. Deploy in minutes with new Quickstart experience (coming soon in public preview): We are pleased to offer a streamlined onboarding experience for Azure Virtual Desktop in the Azure portal. This new experience will validate requirements, kick off an automated deployment, and will also implement best practices. With only a few clicks, you can set up a full Azure Virtual Desktop environment in your Azure subscription. You will find this new experience under “Quickstart” in the Azure Virtual Desktop blade in the Azure portal. New pricing option for remote app streaming Many organizations are using Azure Virtual Desktop to stream apps to their own employees who are covered by https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/details/virtual-desktop/. But many organizations also want to use Azure Virtual Desktop to deliver applications “as-a-service” to customers and business partners as well. Today we are pleased to announce a monthly per-user access pricing option for organizations to use Azure Virtual Desktop to deliver apps from the cloud to external (non-employee) users. For example, this would enable software vendors to deliver their app as a SaaS solution that can be accessed by their customers. In addition to the monthly user price for Azure Virtual Desktop, organizations also pay for Azure infrastructure services based on usage. Here's what one ISV had to say about the new pricing option: “Sage is trusted by millions of customers worldwide to deliver innovative business solutions to manage finances, operations and people. Streaming applications with Azure Virtual Desktop makes it easy to streamline user access to our solutions on the Azure cloud for a great online customer experience.” James Westlake, Director of Product Management, Sage Try it during our promotional period The new per-user access pricing option will be effective on January 1, 2022. To help organizations get started now, we are pleased to offer a special promotion with no charge to access Azure Virtual Desktop for streaming first-party or third-party applications to external users. This promotion is effective from July 14, 2021 to December 31, 2021. Pricing for monthly user access rights effective on January 1, 2022 will be: $5.50 per user per month (Apps) $10 per user per month (Apps + Desktops) This promotion only applies to external user access rights. Organizations would continue to pay for the underlying Azure infrastructure. Organizations should continue to use existing Windows license entitlements, such as Microsoft 365 E3 or Windows E3 and higher, for app streaming to their employees. https://aka.ms/wvd for more details. Expanding partner ecosystem As a cloud VDI platform, we work closely with our partners and empower them to build solutions that meet your needs. For example, Citrix and VMware provide desktop and app virtualization solutions that leverage the Azure Virtual Desktop platform capabilities, such as Windows 10 Enterprise multi-session, and allow you to maximize your existing investments and use the tools and solutions with which you are already familiar. We are also proud of our ecosystem of hundreds of partners who build custom solutions and provide technical consulting to help you deploy with confidence. Visit https://azuremarketplace.microsoft.com/en-us/marketplace/apps?search=Windows%20virtual%20desktop&page=1 for more information on partner solutions, and https://www.microsoft.com/azure/partners/advspec?filters=windows-virtual-desktop-advspec for certified deployment partners. Getting started My team and I look forward to partnering with you to take full advantage of our flexible VDI platform in the cloud and unlock new end user computing possibilities. We appreciate your ongoing support and welcome your feedback. Join us on our http://aka.ms/wvdtechcommunity to connect with my team and other customers and partners to share your feedback and suggestions. To learn more about these announcements, please sign up for our https://aka.ms/AVDwebinar.Azure Monitor for Windows Virtual Desktop is generally available!
Today, we are thrilled to announce that Azure Monitor for Windows Virtual Desktop is now generally available! Building on top of Azure Monitor, Windows Virtual Desktop Insights provides IT administrators with a 360° view of their environment’s health. With Azure Monitor for Windows Virtual Desktop, you can find and troubleshoot problems in the deployment, view the status and health of host pools, diagnose user feedback and understand resource utilization. General availability comes with many improvements, including the following: Improved data collection and new guidance to help you optimize for cost Updated setup experience with easier UI, expanded support for VM set-up, automated Windows Event Log setup, and more Relocated Windows Virtual Desktop agent warnings and errors at the top of the Host Diagnostics page to help you prioritize issues with the highest impact Accessibility enhancements Workbook versioning: GA release is Version 1.0.0 For our existing users- if you used Azure Monitor for Windows Virtual Desktop in public preview, we have made some updates to our guidance and default configuration to help reduce your Azure Monitor Log Analytics cost in GA. If you haven’t already, you must take action to implement these revised recommendations. See our blog post for instructions. We are incredibly excited about this major milestone and are looking forward to continuing to provide updates and expand scenario support in our monitoring journey. As always, we welcome your comments and feedback below! Best, Logan Silliman Learn more about Azure Monitor for Windows Virtual Desktop: Get started with Using Azure Monitor for Windows Virtual Desktop Estimate and manage your Log Analytics storage costs with Estimate Azure Monitor costs Review terms and concepts in our glossary If you encounter a problem, check out our troubleshooting guide for helpAnnouncements at Windows Virtual Desktop Master Class
http://aka.ms/wvdmasterclass is a virtual event where Windows Virtual Desktop experts from Microsoft as well as members of our community come together to share tips and best practices for deploying and scaling virtual desktops and remote applications on Azure. We are making several exciting announcements at the event: Promotion for new customers through March 31, 2021 - New customers save 30% on Windows Virtual Desktop computing costs for D-series and Bs-series virtual machines for up to 90 days. You can learn more about the offer http://aka.ms/wvdoffer. Skilling - We are announcing a new http://aka.ms/AzureCerts_WindowsVirtualDesktoppecialty certification for professionals planning, delivering, and managing virtual desktop experiences and remote apps on Azure. The related Exam AZ-140: Configuring and operating Windows Virtual Desktop on Microsoft Azure will be available soon in beta version. If you are looking for a certified partner to help with you deployment, you can continue to leverage the https://azure.microsoft.com/partners program which complements the Azure MSP program. Product announcements – The features that we had pre-announced at Microsoft Ignite in September are now in public preview: Azure Monitor for Windows Virtual Desktop -Provides a centralized view with all the monitoring telemetry and visualizations you need to debug and troubleshoot issues. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-desktop/azure-monitor MSIX app attach in the Azure portal - MSIX app attach is an application delivery solution that allows you to dynamically attach an application in MSIX format to a user session. Previously, you had to use PowerShell scripts, but now the MSIX app attach capability is available in public preview in the Azure portal and is integrated with Azure Resource Manager. Learn More. Screen capture protection – Disables screen capture for your remote apps and desktop on all the supported Windows Virtual Desktop clients RDP short path – Establishes a direct peer-to-peer UDP connection to the session host rather than over the internal Windows Virtual Desktop gateways taking into account the type of network from which you are connecting. This provides a secure experience with less connection latency and better performance. https://aka.ms/RDPshortpath Microsoft Defender for Endpoint integration (Generally Available) – With this integration, you get the full investigation experience you have with Windows 10 machines, now for Windows Virtual Desktop VMs. If you are using Windows 10 Enterprise multi-session, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint will support up to 50 concurrent user connections – so you get the cost savings of Windows 10 Enterprise multi-session and the confidence of Microsoft Defender for Endpoint. https://aka.ms/wvd-defenderforendpoint For a deep dive into these announcements and to learn more about security, cost optimization, and other topics, tune into the http://aka.ms/wvdmasterclass!
