Anything about IT

Last week I had a Windows 7 planning meeting with one of our clients and like in any other Windows 7 related meeting that i have had in the past months with other customers, the topic about XP Mode was brought up. It appears that when speaking about application compatibility, first thing people think of is XP Mode. To be honest I don’t blame them, because when XP Mode was first introduced in April 2009 during the Windows 7 Beta phase it was promoted as a possible workaround for Application Compatibility issues and therefore got a lot of attention. The message almost sounded like “There is no barrier to move to Windows 7 because if you run into an application compatibility issue, you can always use XP Mode”. So what’s your point? Well, while the statement as such is absolutely true, there are a few things to consider when we speak about computers that run in an enterprise environment.

What is XP Mode? Windows Virtual PC is the latest Microsoft virtualization technology for Windows 7. It is the runtime engine for Windows XP Mode to provide a virtual Windows environment for Windows 7. With Windows Virtual PC, Windows XP Mode applications can be seen and accessed from a Windows 7 desktop. So in simple words, with XP Mode one can run the Windows XP operating system in a virtualized environment on top of Windows 7

System Requirements

The first version of XP mode required that the hardware supported hardware assisted virtualization (HAV), but that requirement was removed in March 2010 allowing more users to use Windows XP Mode. The hardware therefore should at least meet the Windows 7 system requirements plus an additional 512 MB – 1 GB of memory and 5-15 GB disk space for the Virtual OS.

Installation – Deployment

If only needed on a handful of clients Windows XP mode can be installed manually by a systems administrator through the following website http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/download.aspx which will install Windows Virtual PC and then the XP Mode Virtual Machine. But if more than just a few installations are needed, companies should consider preparing an automated process for which Microsoft has provided a guide and sample scripts that can be downloaded from here. When deploying XP mode either the standard Windows XP Service Pack 3 image provided by Microsoft or a customized Windows XP Service Pack 3 image can be used.

Applications that run in XP Mode

Applications that need to run in XP Mode can be made available either by having them pre-installed within a customized image or by installing them through Software Distribution. Of course it would also be possible to install applications manually on a per VM basis, but this is a time consuming task. When using Software Distribution, companies must take into account that also the virtual OS will consume a license.

Antivirus and Security Updates

Because the virtual OS has also access to a companies IT infrastructure (users will want to print and access data from their applications running in XP Mode), Antivirus protection and security updates must be taken into account as well. Companies will have to carefully look at the licensing aspects because usually most products are licensed on a per installed operating system basis. However some vendors offer special agreements for the use of XP Mode. McAfee allows the use of VirusScan Enterprise on both Windows 7 and XP Mode on one computer and counts this as one license, however for the use of the McAfee Host Intrusion Protection software a single license can only be used either for Windows 7 or Windows XP Mode. If both clients need HIPS, two licenses are needed. (McAfee source).

To keep the Windows XP VM up to date with operating system security patches, companies should consider to either patch these clients through their Software Distribution Patch Management infrastructure or configure these clients to directly access Windows update or an internal WSUS server and automatically install patches as they become available respectively become approved by the system administrator. Again the number of deployed clients with XP Mode enabled will dictate the best dictate the best and most efficient strategy.

Will this work out?

If the use of XP Mode is only considered for a small number of clients, the effort of manually installing XP mode or preparing an automated deployment process is acceptable, however if a company plans to deploy XP Mode on several hundreds of clients and in addition plans to use it for a longer period of time they should look at more scalable solutions such as Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization (MED-V). MED-V provides a more centralized approach for deploying and managing virtual images. However only companies that have access to MDOP which is available through the Software Assurance program can use MED-V.

Running a virtualized Windows XP on top of Windows 7 is probably the easiest way to solve compatibility issues, however companies should not consider the use of XP Mode as a way to get around the effort of testing and remediating their applications for the use with Windows 7. XP Mode should be seen as a short term temporary solution removing potential road blocks for the deployment of Windows 7. In the long run remote desktop virtualization or application virtualization might be a better option.

Seeing is believing – watch this 20 minute recorded demonstration of the AppTitude application testing and application remediation platform to learn how to accelerate your Windows 7, Microsoft App-V, Citrix XenApp, 64x, Windows Server and IE8 projects. . Video here (one-time registration required).

BranchCache is a new feature available in Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 that reduces WAN bandwidth usage and improves application responsiveness when workstations in a remote location access content from the head office or data center by downloading and caching content on the local network as it is requested, making it immediately available to other clients that subsequently request the same content.

This paper examines the BrachCache functionality specifically in the context of software distribution using System Center Configuration Manager 2007 to determine if it is an optimal solution for the deployment of software, patches and operating systems to remote, serverless branches.

Source: 1E

Download the Whitepaper from here

Just came across the Windows 7 Compatibility Search provider, allowing you to do a quick Windows 7 compatibility check for an application or hardware. Download and install the Windows 7 Compatibility Search Provider from here

Just found these two blog posts that describe some Registry and Services optimizations when running Windows 7 as a virtual client.

Windows 7 Registry Optimizations for Virtual Desktops

Windows 7 Optimization – Disable Services

Thanks to Daniel Feller for sharing this

Yesterday I received a pre-release copy of Russel Smith’s book called Least Privilege Security for Windows 7, Vista and XP. The book is entirely dedicated to the subject of running Least Privilege Security (or standard user accounts) on Windows operating systems in the enterprise.

The book has 420 pages and covers the following topics:

• Chapter 1, An Overview of Least Privilege Security in Microsoft Windows
• Chapter 2, Political and Cultural Challenges for Least Privilege Security
• Chapter 3, Solving Least Privilege Problems with the Application Compatibility Toolkit
• Chapter 4, User Account Control
• Chapter 5, Tools and Techniques for Solving Least Privilege Security Problems
• Chapter 6, Software Distribution using Group Policy
• Chapter 7, Managing Internet Explorer Add-ons
• Chapter 8, Supporting Users Running with Least-Privilege
• Chapter 9, Deploying Software Restriction Policies and AppLocker
• Chapter 10, Least Privilege in Windows XP
• Chapter 11, Preparing Vista and Windows 7 for Least Privilege Security
• Chapter 12, Provisioning Applications on Secure Desktops with Remote Desktop
  Services,
• Chapter 13, Balancing Flexibility and Security with Application Virtualization
• Chapter 14, Deploying XP Mode VMs with MED-V

You can download the FREE chapter Solving Least privilege Problems with the Application Compatibility Toolkit  from here

I haven’t read the entire book yet, but from what i have seen thus far, it’s definitely a must have for any IT Pro who working within the Client Desktop management space. I’ll submit further feedback when I have completed the review.

When Microsoft developed Windows 7 a dedicated team was assigned to focus on startup performance. For details, read the Engineering Windows 7 – Boot Performance blog post. So what about your startup performance? . My colleague Rudi vanden Dries has been using a utility called BootRacer since a few months which provides a simple way of measuring system startup performance.

Documentation, Download details and a short demonstration video can be found here

Issues with installing Windows Updates? Then have a look at the following Microsoft Support Articles:

KB971058 How do I reset Windows Update components?

KB947821 Description of the System Update Readiness Tool for Windows Vista, for Windows Server 2008, for Windows 7, and for Windows Server 2008 R2

In this video Oliver Rist, Technical Product Manager at the Windows Server group, talks about BranchCache, the Features, the usage modes and the benefits.

Watch the video here or download the Transcript from here

Well this isn’t really the Part2 I intended to write, but I just stumbled upon some interesting content that relates to Windows 7 Search, and wanted to share this. Part3 will follow in the near future.

TechNet: Windows Browse and Organize Features
A post from Ray: Windows 7 Libraries: This network location can’t be included because it is not indexed

These two BranchCache Step by Step guides provide practical guidance for setting up BranchCache in Distributed or Hosted Cache Mode within a test network. 

Download the BranchCache Hosted Cache Mode Step by Step Guide here
Download BranchCache Distributed Cache Mode Step by Step Guide here

Application Compatibility in these days is a hot topic. Watch this Demo and find out how AppTitude from AppDNA can help you to speed up your Application Compatibility analysis and remediation effort.

Watch the video here Source: BrianMadden.com

Federated Search is one of the new features introduced with Windows 7. A few weeks ago I wrote another post about the Windows 7 Search Provider and demonstrated how to use a search connector that allows searching web content from within the Windows Explorer. Today I want to demonstrate how to extend Windows Search to find content on a remote network location.

To allow users searching content that is stored on a remote File Server, Windows Search must be enabled. On Windows Server 2008 and 2008 R2 Windows Search can be configured through the File Services Role.

Now let’s make sure our Shared folder is included within the Search Index. The Search Index can be configured through the Control Panel Indexing Options. Select Modify to in/exclude content.

On the server side we’re done now, so let’s move over to the Windows 7 client. Open the Windows Explorer and navigate to the Libraries.

Create a new Library called “CorpData”.

Select “Include a Folder”, then navigate to the Remote Server Share

Now let’s start a search for anything about “VDI”.

You see, it’s that easy. In an upcoming post I will focus on the manageability of Windows Search in an Enterprise environment.

Today I was asked whether Windows 7 Ultimate can be activated through KMS, since we’re primarily busy with Windows 7 Enterprise I couldn’t instantly provide an answer (I prefer to first check out things instead of providing an incorrect answer). So unless I have overlooked something…… only Windows 7 Professional and Enterprise can be activated using a KMS Infrastructure.

Source: Windows Partner Activation Guide

A nice FREE Tool to manage Windows 7 Libraries. Download from here

I also recommend reading Administratively Create and Modify Windows 7 Libraries.