Today we will be looking into the improvements that were made in vWorkspace with regard to its audio capabilities. With Quest vWorkspace 7.0 the bi-directional audio capabilities have been enhanced to provide for better sound quality while using less bandwidth.

For a long time now vWorkspace has extended to RDP protocol to provide bi-directional audio. Quest extended the RDP protocol because native RDP just provided downstream audio meaning you could for example have sounds from a Terminal Server / RD Session Host session play on your client device (”the you-have-new-mail-sound”) while Quest vWorkspace provided upstream audio, meaning you could use microphones and other audio input devices in a vWorkspace session.

From the configuration page of a device that has the vWorkspace client installed, it looks like this:

When you enable the new bi-directional capabilities of Quest vWorkspace 7.0 a new audio codec is used for both the upstream and downstream audio. This results in less bandwidth being used while the sound quality increases. This is extremely useful for customers that connect to the datacenter over a shared (WAN) connection. An example of the bandwidth savings: ( for obvious reasons you will just have to take our word for the enhanced audio quality )

This screenshot shows a real-time bandwidth meter that is monitoring two concurrent vWorkspace sessions. The top one ( Process 6516) is utilizing the enhanced bi-directional audio capabilities of vWorkspace where the lower session (Process 3580) is using the native RDP audio redirection. The bandwidth is measure in kilobits per second (kbps) and as you can see, the enhanced bi-directional audio capabilities of vWorkspace use about a third of the bandwidth that native RDP audio redirection while delivering higher sound quality. These tests were done with the “CD Quality” configuration setting (see first screenshot). Most usage cases could do with lower quality settings which would create even more bandwidth savings.

In addition, the enhancements to vWorkspace bi-directional audio allow the audio quality settings to be configured in details to provide the optimal mix between audio quality and bandwidth usage. There’s even the possibility to configure the network buffering to allow for flawless playback of extended audio fragments (like MP3s). Finally the usage of upstream audio (a microphone for example) can be fine-tuned as well by provided the desired quality and complexity details.

All these enhancements to the bi-directional feature of Quest vWorkspace 7.0 allows customers to achieve a rich audio experience in any vWorkspace in using complex device configurations and even when using a bandwidth constraint connection.

This is just another example of the many unique features of Quest EOP that extend RDP into a protocol that delivers a great user experience, regardless if it is LAN or WAN.

Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 have a new version of the Microsoft RDP protocol: RDP7. Because Quest vWorkspace truly embraces and extends the Microsoft platforms, Quest vWorkspace also support and leverages the new features in the RDP7. I want to take this opportunity to emphasize that embracing and extending the Microsoft RDP protocol is a very important and fundamental decision here at Quest. We have decided to truly embrace and extend the RDP protocol instead of creating our own protocol (with all the associated risks for customers that a proprietary protocol brings). This allows Quest to provide customers with an unparalleled user experience yielded from the native Microsoft RDP7 capabilities combined with the Quest EOP enhancements.

This screenshot shows you some of the cool new user experience enhancements in Quest vWorkspace 7.0:

Font Smoothing is a technology for displaying computer fonts so that they appear clear and smooth, especially when you are using an LCD monitor.

Desktop Composition is also known as Aero Remoting. It allows you to have all the cool Aero effects like Aero 3d Flip, Live Preview and Aero Glass in a Remote Desktop Session (to either a Windows Server 2008 R2 RD Session Host or a Windows 7 Desktop)

Microphone Redirection allows you to redirect audio recording devices such as microphones on the client computer. This is ideal for applications like Windows 7 voice recognition and applications that record audio. This technology is available in addition to the Microsoft redirection that already existed in earlier version of Quest vWorkspace 7.0.

Have a look at this video to have a taste of the great user experience that Quest vWorkspace 7.0 enables:

Specifically, it allows customers to:

• Control the amount of bandwidth that the USB devices are permitted to use
• Compress the USB traffic before it goes over the wire.

From the new tab in the USB virtualization configuration page, this is what it looks like:

A typical use case for this advanced management of USB virtualization in vWorkspace 7.0 is PoS (Point of Sale) environments. One common characteristic of these environments is that they typically have a very specific USB device that is used in every single PoS location, like a USB barcode scanner for example. Another characteristic is that they also typically have (very) limited bandwidth to connect back to the data center (where the virtual desktop is located). The new options in USB virtualization management options in vWorkspace 7.0 allow customers like the aforementioned, to manage the USB devices in such a way that less bandwidth is used by the USB devices, both by the new bandwidth control and the new compression options.  This allows them to effectively use their USB devices within their virtual desktops, even when their locations have limited bandwidth. This critical for these kinds of customers because without the unique USB virtualization management options in vWorkspace 7.0 the USB devices would suck up all the network bandwidth with all kinds of problems as a consequence.

Of course this is just an example of a usage scenario for the advanced USB virtualization options in Quest vWorkspace 7.0 but many more examples exist ranging from Webcams to VOIP devices.

Happy USBing ! (no search engine fun intended).

Flash is a extremely popular way to provide web pages with multimedia content and its present on almost webpage these days. YouTube (flash video) is a perfect example of this. Take a look at this demonstration to see just how rich the user experience is with the Flash Acceleration feature of EOP:

Like I mentioned earlier, it’s not just the end user that benefits from Flash Acceleration. The Flash Acceleration feature in EOP works by leveraging the CPU of the client device to perform the relatively CPU intensive task of Flash rendering. This significantly reduces the CPU load on virtual desktop hosts (hypervisors) and Terminal Servers. For example: this is the CPU load on a Terminal Server when playing a YouTube movie with the Flash Acceleration feature of Quest vWorkspace 7.0 :

Now have a look at the CPU load for that same YouTube movie without Flash Acceleration.

As you can see, playing a flash content is a very CPU intensive operation.  The difference is dramatic. Multiply this by the number of users on your Terminal Server / RD Session Host or by the number of your virtual desktops and you will know why Flash Acceleration significantly improves the scalability of your deployment!

So there you have it: improving the scalability of your virtual desktop and Terminal Server / RD Session Host environments just improved the user experience dramatically. I am pretty sure that most end users say that this pretty rare ;-).

Want to see it for yourself? Don’t hesitate to try, you can download a fully functional evaluation version of vWorkspace 7.0 here yourself.

The expanded support for all these newer platforms is a perfect example of one of the core values of Quest vWorkspace: provide customer with flexibility and options to allow them to create their own “best of breed” application and desktop delivery infrastructures. Whether customers want to use Windows XP, SCVMM 2008 R2, Windows Server 2008 R2 RD Session Hosts, vSphere or Windows 7, any mix is possible with Quest vWorkspace 7.0.

Introducing support for the latest Microsoft platforms (Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, SCVMM 2008 R2) does not only provide customers with the opportunity to experience the synergy of the newest Microsoft platforms and Quest vWorkspace but it also shows the strong dedication that Quest and Microsoft as partners (check out the details on the relationship) have in creating a synergetic application delivery platform. Delivering support for these newer platforms is well within Quest’s self-imposed deadline to support all the new Microsoft platforms within 90 days of their associated GA dates.

The following clip demonstrates this improved platform support by connecting to a Quest vWorkspace managed Windows Server 2008 R2 RD Session Host  and a Quest vWorkspace managed Windows 7 virtual desktop hosted with Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager R2.

Of course this is just one of the many new features in Quest vWorkspace 7.0. You can download a fully functional evaluation version of vWorkspace 7.0 here yourself.

Prior to Quest vWorkspace 7.0 User Environment Configuration and Lockdown was only available to Terminal Servers / RD Session Hosts. Quest vWorkspace 7.0 now makes it possible to fully configure and secure the user environment for all vWorkspace Managed Desktops as well.  So now customers can centrally perform user environment management and lockdown regardless of platform and from
the single Quest vWorkspace Management Console.

Take a look at this demo movie that shows exactly how easy and powerful this is. The clip demonstrates User Environment Management and Lockdown by connecting to a Quest vWorkspace managed Windows 7 virtual desktop hosted with Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager R2.

Quest vWorkspace 7.0 Feature Spotlight: User Environment Configuration and Lockdown for Desktops

User Environment Configuration and Lockdown for Desktops again shows that Quest vWorkspace goes above and beyond traditional “VDI” or Terminal Server add-on products. The reasoning behind this is that at Quest we feel that we need to deliver a product that helps customers deliver applications and desktops in the most efficient way. One of the big factors in that efficiency equation is management. Simply creating a desktop and brokering a connection to it via protocol X is not enough. It’s (also) the management that counts. Typically, the bulk (about 70%) of all the changes performed in any SBC/VDI deployment are user-based. Think about it: a Terminal Server / RD Session Host or Virtual Desktop is created once and used many. Most of the day-to-day management of these applications and desktop revolve around trivial yet important tasks like:

• Populate the Start Menu dynamically based on the user that logs on (”where’s minesweeper?”)
• Making sure that the user has the correct printers assigned to him regardless of where he logs in ( “PRT07 is my printer ” )
• Always have the proper drive mapping available (”why can’t I access the L: drive?”)
• Making sure that the end user cannot access the system drive either accidentally or consciously (”I thought I’d clean up that Windows folder for you; it was taking so much space”)
• Perform used based registry management (”why do I get this EULA every time I start PDF Reader x?”)
• Set the proper wallpaper for the session (”I thought we were supposed to use the new corporate wallpaper?”)

These are just some examples but I hope you get our point. User environment management and security is a structural part of any SBC/VDI environment. Quest vWorkspace 7.0 allows customers to centrally perform user environment management and lockdown regardless of platform and from  the single Quest vWorkspace Management Console without the need to buy (and learn) additional products.

One of the most exciting new features in Quest vWorkspace is the ability to provision virtual desktops by utilizing VMware linked clones. Provisioning virtual desktop using this new Quest vWorkspace 7.0 feature has a couple of distinct advantages:

• Virtual desktops require a lot less disk space
• Virtual desktops are deployed much faster (as a result of the latter)
• Changes to the “golden image” can easily be propagated to all virtual desktops

Take a look at this video that demonstrates it all:

How does this work?
It’s really very easy. All you have to do is to create a virtual desktop “golden image”: configure a virtual desktop with all the default settings, applications and updates. When you are done, power off the machine and create a snapshot of the golden image. Now when you go and deploy a new virtual desktop in Quest vWorkspace 7.0 you will be able to deploy virtual desktops based of the snapshot you just created.

What if I want to update my golden image?
If you want to update your golden image, all you have to do is power on the parent machine, apply the desired changes and create a snapshot of this new desired state. Using the new reprovisioning options in Quest vWorkspace 7.0 you can reprovision entire desktop groups to this new snapshot simply by changing the property of a vWorkspace managed computer group. It’s that simple!

How much disk space will I save?
There is no one answer here. The best answer would be: a lot. Savings of up to 90% are possible (source: VMware). This is because of the way the technology works: when virtual desktops are deployed from a linked clone only changes (disk writes) relative to the parent virtual machine (golden image) are stored with the virtual desktop. All other operations (read operations) are done from the parent virtual machine which is only stored once.

It’s important to note that the disk stored with the virtual desktop that is provisioned via linked clones will grow over time. It might be a good idea to reprovision these virtual desktops at certain intervals. Quest vWorkspace 7.0 provides multiple options to do so: you can reprovision a virtual desktop to the same (or a new) snapshot on demand, when users log off or on a (recurring) schedule.

By periodically reprovisioning linked clone virtual desktops, the size of these virtual desktops is kept in check. All user settings will be maintained because they are managed through Quest vWorkspace User Profile Management. Any system level changes to the linked clone virtual desktop will be undone since reprovisioning will effectively delete all system level changes to the parent virtual machine.  Knowing this, customers might find that linked clones virtual desktops are not the best option for users that need to make system level changes to their virtual desktop, like installing applications (application virtualization can help here).  Naturally Quest vWorkspace still fully supports the creation of traditionally provisioned virtual desktops, regardless of the virtual infrastructure used (Virtual Center, vCenter, SCVMM, SCVMM R2 of Parallels Virtuozzo Containers) to serve those usage scenarios as well.

Do I need special VMware View or Composer Licenses to use this feature?
The answer is no. Through years of experience in integrating with the VMware platform, Quest vWorkspace is able to offer to ability to provision virtual desktops using linked clones without requiring special VMware View / Composer licenses. All that is required is VMware Virtual Center 2.x or vCenter 4.x. No changes have to be made to the Virtual Center / vCenter server. VMware linked clones Integration and new the new reprovisioning options are available to all Quest vWorkspace customers on SA.

• Flash Acceleration - Deliver a Flash experience that is indistinguishable from a local experience. Real world usage case example: in YouTube HD audio and video are completely in sync. View (and listen to) a short demo here.
• VMware Linked Clone Support - Create virtual desktops that are provisioned using linked clones. Real world usage case example: create virtual desktops that use up to 90% less storage.
• VMware Reprovision Support -Create and maintain a single desktop image and reprovision virtual desktop automatically based on the changes you make to the image.  Real world usage case example: update the golden desktop image with new updates and patches each month and seamlessly apply them to all your virtual desktops. There’s a brief demonstration here.
• Platform Support - With this release the following support, including Microsoft Windows 64-bit versions, has been added to vWorkspace: Windows 7, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, SCVMM 2008 R2. Real world usage case example: be able to start using Windows Server 2008 R2 as your SBC platform today.
• Powertools for VDI - User Environment Management and Lockdown (what used to be called Manage-IT back in the day) is now available for desktops as well. Real world usage case example: build, manage and secure the user environment for both RD Session hosts and desktops without the need to invest in a third party product to do so.
• New RDP Performance Options - Full RDP7 support. As the only major vendor that truly embraces and extends RDP, Quest fully supports RDP7 including all the exciting new capabilities introduced in RDP7. Real world usage case example: deliver Windows7 virtual desktops to end users or customers with the full Windows7 Aero experience. This is how cool that is.
• New Client CAB File - A new Web Client that can be used without requiring manual installation. Real world usage case example: seamlessly deploy new versions of the vWorkspace client without burdening end users.

A exhaustive listing of all the new features can be found here. Also take a look at this special vWorkspace 7.0 page which provides even more information: http://www.quest.com/vworkspace/new-release.aspx

It is important that customers review the vWorkspace 7.0 documentation and release notes for further information on resolved and known issues.

Quest vWorkspace is available to all existing customers and to anyone that wants to trail vWorkspace. The release and product documentation are available on the vWorkspace web site at http://www.vworkspace.com, as well as the Quest SupportLink web site at http://support.quest.com.

Enabling SSO requires two steps:

• Enable SSO within Web Access
• Configure Clients

Enable SSO within Web Access

• Log into your Web Access admin area
• Select your farm
• Select Credentials Pass-Through from the left hand menu
• Check Enable credentials pass-through
• Select Use Kerberos authentication
• You can enter * in the prefix field, which means you are basically sending all users connecting to Web Access to the SSO page whether they are on the intranet or not. While this is not a big problem, it is additional overhead and will take longer for non-lan users to get to the actual login page. Therefore best practice would be entering the address prefix in into Intranet and click Add. Examples, 192.168.1. / 10.0.100. / 192.168. / 10.0.
• Click Save at the bottom of the screen

Client Configuration

We need to configure Internet Explorer settings to pass the through the user credentials. This can be done in a couple of ways, either manually on the client or by group policy. Group Policy is the most convenient way.

Configuring with Group Policy:

• Log on as a member of the Domain Admins group.
• Open the Active Directory Users and Computers MMC snap-in.
• Right-click the domain or Organizational Unit where you want to create the GPO and press Properties.
• Select the Group Policy tab.
• Press New.
• Type a name for the new GPO and press Enter.
• To prevent the policy from being applied to some users or groups, press Properties. Select the Security tab. Add the user or group that you want to prevent from having this policy and clear the Read and the Apply Group Policy boxes in the Allow column. Press OK.
• Press the Edit button.
• Navigate through User Configuration / Windows Settings / Internet Explorer
• Maintenance /Security.
• Right-click Security Zones and Content Ratings in the right-hand pane and press Properties.
• Select Import the current security zones and privacy settings. If prompted, press Continue.
• Press Modify Settings.
• Select Local Intranet and press the Sites button.
• Type the full URL of the site you wish to add and press Add.
• Press Close (or OK) and OK.
• Press Close (or OK) until all dialog boxes are closed, and close any snap-in windows.
• Allow sufficient time for the policy to propagate throughout the domain.

Note: the same can be done but using the Trusted Sites however you would need to configure the trusted level options and set the Automatic login as shown below

To manually configure per user:

• On client machine Open Internet Explorer
• Select Tools > Internet Options
• Select the Security Tab
• Click Local Intranet and select Sites
• Click Advanced
• Type the full URL of the site you wish to add and press Add
• Press Close (or OK) and OK.
• Press Close (or OK) until all dialog boxes are closed, and close any snap-in windows.

Applying to all users on a XPe thin client without Group Policy:

• Log on as administrator
• Click Start > Rungpedit.msc
• Navigate through User Configuration / Windows Settings / Internet Explorer
• Maintenance /Security.
• Right-click Security Zones and Content Ratings in the right-hand pane and press Properties.
• Select Import the current security zones and privacy settings. If prompted, press Continue.
• Press Modify Settings.
• Select Local Intranet and press the Sites button.
• Type the full URL of the site you wish to add and press Add.
• Press Close (or OK) and OK.
• Press Close (or OK) until all dialog boxes are closed, and close any snap-in windows.

Currently this is program is not an official Quest release and therefore cannot be supported via the normal Quest channels. However due to a number of customer requests we are looking officially release QShell next year (2010). As I get more details I will update the blog but until it is officially released you should use this program at your own risk. If you do have any issues or requests I will endeavor to help where possible.

Download the guide here: QShell Admin Guide
Download QShell here: QShell 1.0.6.17 QShell 1.0.6.17 Updates:

1. Options Menu to provide access to USB, Print-IT and Local Text echo configuration.
2. Task bar - (Move the mouse into the top left corner of the screen, shown in the second screen shot below) Gives you the ability to switch between multiple desktop sessions and any locally running applications such as VoIP clients.
3. Improved error logging - Error event placed into the event viewer.

Screen Shot of QShell’s interface

Screen shot of task bar which is activated by moving your mouse to the top left corner of the screen.

DownloadQShell and AppPortal

DownloadQShell and Internet Explorer