Optimize VDI: Windows 10 Default Apps


This is a multi-part blog series focused on optimizing Windows 10 VDI Part 1: Optimizing default apps Part 2: Optimizing Windows services Part 3: Optimizing scheduled tasks Roughly every 6 months, Microsoft releases a new major update to Windows 10. Microsoft continues to add new capabilities into the base operating system that will have an… Continue reading Optimize VDI: Windows 10 Default Apps

XenServer PVS Accelerator Sizing – Part 2


As you might have read, I recently ran a few XenServer PVS Accelerator tests to determine a starting point for the cache size.  This initial investigation looked at Windows 10 and Windows 2012R2 for boot and logon operations. Looking back, I determined that I want to include three additional items Impact of a larger cache… Continue reading XenServer PVS Accelerator Sizing – Part 2

Sizing Windows 10 and Windows 7 Virtual Machines


After reviewing all of the scalability tests we conducted over the past few months, I thought it was time to revisit the recommendations for sizing Windows 10 virtual machines.  I also reached out to Nick Rintalan to see if this is in line with what is currently being recommended for production environments (if you disagree,… Continue reading Sizing Windows 10 and Windows 7 Virtual Machines

Microsoft Office 2016 Impact on XenDesktop Scalability


A day doesn’t go by when I don’t open up at least one Microsoft Office application.  Even on weekends, when I’m not working, I usually open at least one application. It should be of little surprise that Microsoft Office is one of the most used set of applications in many RDS/VDI deployments. But what impact… Continue reading Microsoft Office 2016 Impact on XenDesktop Scalability

Microsoft Windows 10, Citrix XenDesktop and Logon Time


How long does your Windows 10 logon take? Logging into my lab, my logons felt long. True I’m not using server-level hardware that you would see in production, but my logon times felt too long because I don’t have logon scripts, complex group policy preferences, or even massive profiles. After reading the Rule of 30… Continue reading Microsoft Windows 10, Citrix XenDesktop and Logon Time

Provisioning Services Read Cache


As you can see, I’ve spoken numerous time about the Provisioning Services RAM Cache with Disk Overflow capability. Windows 10 IOPS Video Proof Reducing IOPS to 1 Read/Write Ratios XenDesktop 7.5 IOPS Digging deeper into IOPS ESG Spotlight on IOPS So yes, I like talking about this topic.  But now, I’m going to talk about… Continue reading Provisioning Services Read Cache

XenDesktop 7.7: Windows 7 vs Windows 10


Everyone loves a good battle The Simpsons vs Family Guy Kirk vs Picard Star Wars vs Star Trek Microsoft vs Apple And now, we have one more, which will be a big debate for 2016… Windows 7 vs Windows 10 Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been sharing some of our single server scalability… Continue reading XenDesktop 7.7: Windows 7 vs Windows 10

XenDesktop 7.7 and Windows 10


The other day, I was able to share the latest single server density results when running Windows 7 on XenDesktop 7.7. We looked at a range of parameters like: PVS vs MCS PVS Disk Cache vs RAM Cache Citrix Policies: Very High Definition vs High Server Scalability vs Optimized for WAN Windows 7 optimizations Once… Continue reading XenDesktop 7.7 and Windows 10

Windows 10 Optimization: The untold story


For a few weeks, people in my house kept bugging me to fix our Internet problem. From time-to-time, devices were not able to connect. No eMail. No NetFlix. No Minecraft (this last one was devastating). I tracked the issue down to my wireless router. The 4-5 year old device was extremely hot. There were 50+… Continue reading Windows 10 Optimization: The untold story