windows 8

VMware Horizon View Optimization Guide for Windows 7 and Windows 8 white paper update

VMware released an updated version of the “VMware Horizon with View Optimization Guide for Windows 7 and Windows 8” whitepaper. This white paper discuss the necessary information for optimizing a Windows 7 or Windows 8 virtual desktop image for VMware Horizon View using the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) or use a script-based approach.

The updated (July 15, 2014) “VMware Horizon with View Optimization Guide for Windows 7 and Windows 8” whitepaper can be found here. Link

Changelog scripts:

Removed on 03 June 2014
The following code was removed to fix issues with IE10, IE11, and Adobe Acrobat:
rem reg ADD “HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory
Management” /v MoveImages /t REG_DWORD /d 0x0 /f

Removed on 11 February 2014
Rem Remove recycling bin
reg ADD “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\
policies\Explorer” /v NoRecycleFiles /t REG_DWORD /d 0x1 /f

Updated version of the VMware OS Optimization Tool

The VMware Labs Flings has an updated version of the “VMware OS Optimalization Tool”. The VMware OS Optimization Tool helps optimize Windows 7/8/2008/2012 systems for use with VMware Horizon View. New enhancements are:

  • Updated templates for Windows 7/8 – based on VMware’s OS Optimization Guide
  • New templates for Windows 2008/2012 RDSH servers for use as a desktop
  • Single portal EXE design for ease of deployment and distribution
  • Combination of Remote and Local tools into one tool
  • Better template management, with built in and user-definable templates
  • Results report export feature.

The VMware OS Optimization Tool can be found here, link

Optimize Windows 8 for Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) environments

Optimize and tuning a Windows 8 desktop in a VDI environment is important to reduce for example the CPU, IOPS and the memory footprint. During the Microsoft Management Summit (MMS) 2013 a breakout session about optimizing a Windows 8 desktop for Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) is held. The session has three main subjects: 

  • Microsoft Guidance for Windows 8 Configuration VDI desktop. What version of Windows 8 do I need, how many CPUs, memory, disk partitioning etc.
  • Detailed Review of Component Configuration. What services do I need to enable or disable, do I need to disable SuperFetch?  All the optimization settings are available in VBS script
  • Recommendations for performance testing. This section is about the (third party) tools that can be used to do performance testing.

. The Windows 8 VDI sizing and optimizations  can be used for example on the following VDI solutions:

  • VMware Horizon View
  • Citrix XenDesktop
  • Microsoft VDI

A Windows 8 VDI optimization VBS script is available. This script does all the optimization work for you. Review all the settings before executing if the fits for your environment! There will be a PowerShell version available in the future. The Windows 8 optimization VBS script can be found here.

When you want to use Windows 8 for in your VDI environment this session helps you to size, tune and optimize your Windows 8 VDI desktop. The Optimizing Windows 8 for Virtual Desktop Infrastructure session can found here.

Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 support on VMware ESXi, Workstation and Fusion

The following VMware releases are supported with Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012:

OS Supported versions
Windows 8 32/64 Bits Workstation 9
Fusion 5.0
ESXi 5.0 U1
ESXi 5.1
Windows Server 2012 64 Bits Workstation 9
Fusion 5.0
ESXi 5.0 U1
ESXi 5.1

Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 are supported on ESX 5.0 U1 and 5.1. Here are some things to watch when implementing Windows 8 or Windows Server 2012 on ESXi environment.

vNIC

For Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 the E1000e adapter is the default vNIC. The E1000e feature emulates a newer model of Intel Gigabit NIC (number 82574) in the virtual hardware. This is known as the "e1000e" vNIC. e1000e is available only on hardware version 8 (and newer) virtual machines in vSphere 5! 

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VMXNET 3

The VMXNET 3 is optimized for performance in a virtual machine. Because operating system vendors do not provide built-in drivers for this card, you must install VMware Tools to have a driver for the VMXNET3 network adapter available. The VMXNET3 is available only on hardware version 7 and newer!

SCSI Disk controller

The default SCSI disk controller is the LSI Logic SAS.

PVSCSI

The Paravirtual SCSI (PVSCSI) adapters are high-performance storage adapters that can result in greater throughput and lower CPU utilization.  When browsing through the FLP images there is no Windows Server  2012 driver available for the PVSCSI adapter.

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The KB says nothing on Windows 8 or Server 2012 support (Link). In the computability OS guide it stated the the PVSCSI adapter is supported on Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8.

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Using the 2008 PVSCSI FLP image will install the PVSCSI driver in Windows 8 and Server 2012.

Guest OS Customization support

Guest OS Customization support is only supported on Windows 8 and not on Windows Server 2012!

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Link