VMWare View 4.6 (4.x) Windows Prep Information for Optimal End User Performance

Overview

With the major migrations going on with Windows 7 and the excellent use case for VMWare View for Windows 7 Migration of legacy Windows Desktops environment it is fast becoming aware to me that just building a Windows 7 image from the .iso requires a little more tweaking. Windows 7 withing a VDI environment can help "right the wrongs" of past desktop OS deployments. Just like the Windows XP guide, VMWare has recently released an updated Windows 7 image prep guide for view. I am not a big fan of the sysrep stuff, but the main point to take out of this is the use of default user profiles that will greatly improve logins for non-persistent desktops and the performance tweaks that are built into default user profiles to ensure the best possible end user experience.

Below are some really good links to documentation and web sites I use to build base images for VMWare View (and XenDesktop using MCS provisioning...I will explain at a later date). Enjoy!!

Also, please refer to the Windows Server 2008 Prep instructions I recently posted for Virtual servers for View connection brokers and/or any Windows 2K8 server you want to virtualize.

References

Win 7
http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/VMware-View-OptimizationGuideWindows7-EN.pdf

Win XP
http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/XP_guide_vdi.pdf

Win 2008 Std
http://dharmgolf.blogspot.com/2010/11/creating-windows-2008-r2-vm-as-template.html

A great Blog to reference
http://blogs.contourds.com/2010/04/30/windows-7-deployment-guide-for-vmware-view/

The steps below show of the tweaks to perform on Windows 7 32 bit OS to prepare it for deployment through VMware View.
1. Uninstall Tablet PC Components
2. In IE8, Remove Suggested Sites, and use Default settings
3. In IE8, Set Google as default search provider
4. In IE8, Delete existing bookmarks
5. Visual Effects set to "Adjust for Best Performance"
6. Turn off System Protection
7. Delete all previous Restore Points
8. Set desktop Background to a solid blue
9. UnPin Windows Media Player from Taskbar
10. Launch Windows Media Player, Set recommended settings
11. Install Adobe Flash Player
12. Install Adobe Reader, launch Adobe Reader and accept license agreement.
13. Remove Adobe icons from desktop
14. Set Taskbar buttons to "Never Combine"
15. Disable "allow files on this drive to have contents indexed in addition to file properties" for C: Drive, do it for all folders and sub folder
16. in msconfig, set "No GUI Boot"
17. in msconfig, uncheck Adobe startup items
18. in a cmd window running as administrator, set: fsutil behavior set disablelastaccess 1
19. turn off defragmentation schedule
20. Disable checking for Automatic Updates
21. Run all Windows updates
22. Delete "Games" start menu folder
23. Delete Start Menu Items shown in screen shot to right ->
24. Remove all Recently Used icons from Start Menu
25. Disable "Windows Search" service
26. Disable "Super Fetch" service
27. Disable "Themes" service
28. Disable "Windows Defender"
29. Install vSphere Client
30. Install VMware View Agent, accept all defaults
31. Install CCleaner (don't install Yahoo toolbar in the install of it)
32. Join Domain
33. Active Windows
34. Run CCleaner.
35. Shut down VM, take SnapShot for VMware View to run from