Your network is hurting your application experience


A few times a year I get addicted to Xbox. Once the kids go to sleep, I can easily spend hours playing Mass Effect, Fallout or Assassin’s Creed. The games are wonderful and immersive, which is why I spent over 100 hours playing Fallout 3 and another 100+ hours in Fallout New Vegas.  Unfortunately, I’ve… Continue reading Your network is hurting your application experience

Your network is hurting your video viewing experience


I just binged watched the first season of “The Expanse”. Awesome! (BTW, the books are even better.) I would say 90% of my TV viewing is done with streaming media either from Netflix, Amazon or my home library. Nothing is better at ruining a good viewing session than the spinning circle of oblivion as the… Continue reading Your network is hurting your video viewing experience

True or False: Citrix Provisioning Services requires PXE


Test your Citrix knowledge… True or False: Citrix Provisioning Services requires PXE Answer: False When using Provisioning Services, which is an optional component of XenDesktop, the target device utilizes a bootstrap file, which initializes the Provisioning Services stream. The target device must be able to obtain that bootstrap file, or else the stream will never… Continue reading True or False: Citrix Provisioning Services requires PXE

RAM Smorgasbord


When I talk about virtual desktop specifications, we often break down our users into a few different categories (Light, Normal, Power, and Heavy). These categories correspond to the resources we allocate to the virtual desktop (assuming we are talking about the hosted VM-Based desktop model). This should be no surprise. This discussion directly relates to… Continue reading RAM Smorgasbord

Fun TechTalk on XenDesktop Enterprise Design


One of the best things about my position is I get to talk to a lot of smart people, do some pretty cool things (like playing around with the iPad), and constantly learn. For example, any idea why you would modify the “Maximum Transition Rate”? Do you even have an idea what it is? I… Continue reading Fun TechTalk on XenDesktop Enterprise Design

Optimize Windows 7 Visual Effects for Virtual Desktops


Some of you might be aware, others might not.  Did you know that the mouse icon in Windows 7 (and earlier versions) has a shadow?  I bet a bunch of you are looking for it now. It is hard to see, but it is there.  Something that most people wouldn’t recognize as being on or… Continue reading Optimize Windows 7 Visual Effects for Virtual Desktops

Optimize your Virtual Desktop Image


Building a virtual desktop is simply a matter of installing the Windows operating system. Right?  Slow down… although this will work, it won’t give you the best performance and scalability.  One of the items that many people mistakenly forget to accomplish is to optimize the base operating system.  This is the 7th mistake out of… Continue reading Optimize your Virtual Desktop Image

A Virtual Desktop Storm Approaches


Rush hour. Something we all can relate to. Way back in time when I used to go to an office daily, I hated rush hour.  If I left home at a certain time, it would take me 45 minutes just to get to the office. But if I left just 15 minutes earlier, that same… Continue reading A Virtual Desktop Storm Approaches

Beware of Improper Resource Allocation


If you ask me what type of desktop I need, I’m going to say, 2+ cores with at least 4+ GB of RAM, 500+GB hard drive, etc. If you look at what I really need, you will see 1 core and maybe 2 GB of RAM. In fact, when I look at my resource consumption,… Continue reading Beware of Improper Resource Allocation

Do you know all that you should know about desktop virtualization


A long time ago, in a blog far, far away, I asked a simple question “What virtual desktop design topics are you interested in?”  Thankfully, I got a few comments from Steven Hunt, Faisal Iqbal, and Tyrone Thomas so I won’t be forced to deliver a standard, glossy marketing presentation. Instead, those of you attending… Continue reading Do you know all that you should know about desktop virtualization