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Learn to apply best practices and optimize your operations.

• What are RDS CALs and how should IT use them?

  IT teams rely on CALs to ensure that RDS users are properly licensed for their sessions, so they should know how to work with them and what different options they present. Continue Reading

• VMware vs. Citrix: Which is better for your organization?

  VMware and Citrix both offer useful virtualization tools, but each one has its pros and cons. Explore the features and other factors that can help you decide between them. Continue Reading

• Enabling and supporting webcam use on remote desktops

  When IT teams manage employees using remote desktops, they should make sure they can set up and troubleshoot peripheral devices, such as webcams. Continue Reading

• Automating testing and delivery for virtual apps and desktops

  One of the many tasks that come with maintaining a virtual environment is the testing and delivery of virtual apps and desktops. Learn how automation can help these processes. Continue Reading

• Using native and third-party Citrix troubleshooting tools

  End-user issues will come up in any virtual desktop environment, so administrators must be prepared. For a Citrix environment, there are various tools at IT's disposal. Continue Reading

• How to address roaming profiles with GPOs

  Organizations with virtual desktops should plan out their profile management strategy, and one key component is profile management. GPOs can help.Continue Reading

• Fixing VMware Horizon disk latency and other resource issues

  When users in a VMware Horizon environment run into performance issues, IT should look into the resource consumption, including disk CPU, to find the root cause and address it.Continue Reading

• Azure Virtual Desktop requirements, customizations and more

  Azure Virtual Desktop has some simple requirements, but organizations must look at their needs for a virtual desktop environment compared to the capabilities of AVD.Continue Reading

• Why and when to use Windows Virtual Desktop

  Organizations considering Windows Virtual Desktop should take a step back and evaluate when it makes sense to use WVD, and when to consider alternative options.Continue Reading

• Choose a Windows Virtual Desktop managed service provider

  Windows Virtual Desktop can present numerous management and deployment challenges for IT admins, so organizations may want to outsource these processes to a WVD MSP.Continue Reading

• How to configure Remote Desktop in Windows Server 2008 R2 step by step

  Learn how to install and configure Remote Desktop Services on Windows Server 2008 R2 to use Terminal Services and Remote Desktop Gateway Manager.Continue Reading

• How to troubleshoot an RDP remote session stuck at configuring

  Admins forced to troubleshoot a Microsoft RDP session getting stuck at configuration must understand these key steps to fix their issue and be able to adapt these steps to their environment.Continue Reading

• Why COVID-19 fuels desktop virtualization trends

  VDI products provide organizations with a foundation for remote employees, but they aren't a cure-all.Continue Reading

• How to troubleshoot a VMware Horizon black screen

  One of the most common issues with VMware Horizon virtual desktops is a black screen displaying and crashing the desktop, so IT admins should learn how to troubleshoot this issue.Continue Reading

• Running GPU passthrough for a virtual desktop with Hyper-V

  Any IT admin knows that desktop performance must be high quality to provide quality UX, and in some cases, admins may need to configure GPU passthrough for power user virtual desktops.Continue Reading

• 5 reasons printer redirection causes Windows printing problems in RDS

  Windows printing problems are a pain. If you have printer redirection issues with the Remote Desktop Protocol in RDS, check user permissions, client requirements and more.Continue Reading

• 8 key VDI deployment best practices

  When IT plans for its VDI deployment, it must factor in best practices for the setup process, such as considering client options and designing the VDI to have high availability.Continue Reading

• How to calculate VDI costs and keep them to a minimum

  When the true cost of VDI is hazy, it's a good idea to make a comprehensive calculation. Determine how to factor in costs related to hardware, infrastructure, licensing and more.Continue Reading

• How to perform WVD monitoring with Azure Log Analytics

  Like any DaaS offering, Windows Virtual Desktop's success depends on user experience. Learn how to set up the Azure Log Analytics tool and how it can help virtual desktop administrators.Continue Reading

• VDI testing checklist: Key steps to test a VDI deployment

  Whether IT is running VDI for the first time or simply tweaking the back-end hardware, admins should follow a VDI testing checklist to ensure positive UX and sufficient desktop resources.Continue Reading

• Compare Nutanix Frame vs. Citrix Managed Desktops

  While Nutanix isn't as invested in the end-user market as Citrix, both desktop-as-a-service vendors offer benefits for business use cases. IT must evaluate which is the better fit.Continue Reading

• How to evaluate VDI storage requirements

  There are a variety of factors that affect VDI storage, including system requirements and supported workloads. Evaluate these factors to ease the VDI planning process.Continue Reading

• Three VDI challenges that can derail any project

  IT shops need to look out for complexity, cost and performance problems when they put a VDI implementation plan in place.Continue Reading

• How does ControlUp monitoring fix Citrix performance issues?

  There are few more important aspects of managing virtual desktops than monitoring them for performance issues. This video tutorial explains how to use ControlUp for UX monitoring.Continue Reading

• What is a roaming profile and how does it work?

  Although several newer tools are available, Microsoft roaming profiles is a simple and time-tested way to manage a user's profile across physical and virtual desktop environments.Continue Reading

• 5 tips to optimize CAD application performance for VDI

  CAD applications that run on VDI require special treatment on the back end by admins, and this video explains how IT can optimize CAD performance for remote and local users.Continue Reading

• For VDI, coronavirus pandemic could require a new approach

  Organizations may need to set up VDI deployments or alter existing infrastructure to support the influx of demand for remote work support due to the COVID-19 pandemic.Continue Reading

• 4 VDI automation use cases that lower IT's management burden

  IT pros should understand the role of automation in VDI because automating certain tasks such as virtual desktop creation and monitoring can free up IT to focus on other issues.Continue Reading

• 5 common Citrix printing issues and how to troubleshoot them

  Printing is one of the most frustrating areas of IT management, especially as a VDI admin. Troubleshoot five common Citrix printing issues with these tips and tricks.Continue Reading

• How VDI can extend Windows 7 end of life

  As Microsoft stops supporting Windows 7, IT admins must plan to adapt. Run through the options, including transitioning to VDI with Windows 7 on Windows Virtual Desktop.Continue Reading

• Can IT use VMware Horizon View without vCenter?

  Running VMware Horizon View without vCenter is possible but impractical. Understand why an organization would want to use this setup and what the implications are.Continue Reading

• How to automate software installation for Windows VDI

  Software installation can be mind-numbingly tedious. Here's how to use Chocolatey, a package manager, to automate the process for virtual desktops running Windows.Continue Reading

• 3 steps to lock down VDI security

  Despite a popular myth, virtual desktops are susceptible to security breaches just like traditional desktops. IT admins can improve VDI security by following these best practices.Continue Reading

• 4 ways to handle Windows Virtual Desktop management

  IT admins who deploy Windows Virtual Desktop should know how to use and manage the service first. Here are four ways to use Windows Virtual Desktop effectively.Continue Reading

• Follow Citrix VDI best practices for a successful deployment

  Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops is a complicated product with a lot of different facets. Dig into these best practices to ensure a smooth deployment and management.Continue Reading

• Best practices to prevent RDP security issues

  IT can prevent RDP security issues in a few ways. Learn how to use Group Policy and other best practices to protect against an RDP-based attack, and learn about BlueKeep.Continue Reading

• How to optimize Citrix and Microsoft deployments for VDI

  Citrix and Microsoft offer a variety of integrations to enhance their products. Find out what they are, and how organizations running VDI can take advantage of them.Continue Reading

• How to properly set user expectations about VDI performance

  VDI performance can be a problem for end users, leading to a tense relationship between them and IT staff. Here's how to set expectations to prevent these issues among others.Continue Reading

• What does IT need to know about VDI web browsers?

  End users can easily access their virtual desktops and applications through any supported HTML5 web browser. Learn about the pros and cons of using VDI and web browsers together.Continue Reading

• Manage Windows Virtual Desktop with a PowerShell script

  IT admins can use PowerShell scripting to manage Microsoft Windows Virtual Desktop. In this step-by-step guide, IT can learn the details of this management method.Continue Reading

• Maximize application performance with VDI optimization tools

  IT administrators should look into different VDI optimization tools to reduce the amount of resources used and maximize performance. Learn all about these tools and their benefits.Continue Reading

• What are the benefits of on-premises hosting for virtual desktops?

  IT shouldn't overlook the benefits of on-premises desktop hosting, such as more choices for virtualization software. Cloud-hosted desktops also fall short in areas such as infrastructure control.Continue Reading

• Improve VDI load balancing for Hyper-V deployments

  Managing virtual machine workloads is one of the crucial aspects of VDI management on Hyper-V hosts. The preferred method is Microsoft's dynamic load balancing.Continue Reading

• Top 4 challenges of hyper-converged infrastructure for VDI

  HCI and VDI often go well together, providing simpler scalability and flexibility for virtual desktops. But what happens when a VDI deployment has requirements outside the norm?Continue Reading

• Secure VDI environments with these 3 tips

  Virtual desktops present unique security concerns. Take these three steps to better secure VDI environments from the start.Continue Reading

• Avoid disastrous bottlenecks, scale storage for VDI with HCI

  HCI offers many benefits for VDI deployments, particularly when it comes to scaling resources. There are a few caveats to watch out for when planning storage for VDI, however.Continue Reading

• How to accommodate mobile VDI users' application access

  IT faces an uphill battle when deploying virtual desktops to mobile devices due to compatibility issues. Virtualization platforms help IT address these problems.Continue Reading

• VDI trends toward DaaS, mobility in 2019

  With the new year approaching, the time is right to reset the VDI table and look at the rise of desktop as a service and mobile devices as VDI endpoints.Continue Reading

• 3 VDI management New Year's resolutions for 2019

  IT professionals making New Year's resolutions should take a look at their VDI management approach and find ways to improve it with technology such as AIOps.Continue Reading

• How AI for IT operations improves VDI management

  Enterprise AI tools help IT pros improve VDI management by providing accurate estimates of resource requirements, root cause analysis of issues and more.Continue Reading

• How VDI performance monitoring tools help IT

  When deciding on a VDI monitoring tool, IT must understand the unique functions and limitations of each tool. IT should find a tool that matches the exact needs of its organization.Continue Reading

• Get to know virtual desktop image optimization tools

  Desktop image optimization tools can help IT run a more efficient VDI deployment by overriding certain native OS functions and utilities.Continue Reading

• How VDI provisioning can help IT effectively manage resources

  VDI management requires more than simply monitoring desktops. IT must understand users' resource needs and provision its back-end infrastructure to reflect them.Continue Reading

• Can you handle application and desktop virtualization?

  Virtual app and desktop deployments offer many benefits to IT, such as ease of management and improved security. Test yourself on the benefits of desktop virtualization.Continue Reading

• 4 non-Windows applications VDI shops must account for

  VDI shops must manage more than just traditional Windows apps in today's enterprise. They must also address Apple-specific apps, as well as mobile-first apps and more.Continue Reading

• Can you manage virtual desktop user profile settings?

  IT can control virtual desktops more directly with user profile management. Take this quiz to find out if you know about the different profile types and more.Continue Reading

• How desktop and app virtualization vendors handle mobile devices

  If IT pros want to provide their users with access to virtual desktops and apps on mobile devices, they should know which vendors offer which virtualization services.Continue Reading

• Four questions for virtual app and desktop deployment

  Choosing a virtual desktop delivery method and determining how to host desktops and applications are just two enterprise workstation decisions IT must make.Continue Reading

• How should IT approach VDI provisioning?

  Over or underprovisioning resources for virtual desktops can leave a VDI deployment in rough shape. With a few tips, IT pros can make sure they make the correct calculations.Continue Reading

• Microsoft UE-V (User Experience Virtualization)

  Microsoft UE-V (User Experience Virtualization) is a tool that enables users to move from one Windows device to another and maintain the same operating system (OS) and applications settings.Continue Reading

• Ready to start VDI capacity planning? Prove it

  Planning VDI capacity can be challenging and confusing. See if you have what it takes to plan for factors such as remote access and future changes.Continue Reading

• Monitor VDI performance in these five key areas

  To help maintain a good user experience, IT should turn to VDI monitoring products that look at the performance of deployment automation tools, write cache and more.Continue Reading

• Do you understand all your VDI options?

  IT has important decisions to make when choosing a VDI deployment, including whether to use persistent or nonpersistent desktops, what devices to give end users and more.Continue Reading

• Best practices for setting up Citrix Cloud services

  Citrix Cloud enables organizations to host XenDesktop, XenApp and more in the cloud, but IT should first set up administration and Cloud Connectors and ensure high availability.Continue Reading

• The definitive VDI cost savings guide

  VDI cost is a key consideration in any deployment because the price affects numerous other decisions, including how to manage, maintain and repair the desktops.Continue Reading

• Does deploying VDI affect other systems?

  VDI can affect areas of a company network, such as internet bandwidth. IT can mitigate the effects of VDI users by allocating resources and monitoring system performance.Continue Reading

• The go-to guide for managing VDI users

  VDI shops can help keep their end users happy by using user profile management to enable personalization and by taking advantage of VDI monitoring tools.Continue Reading

• Three key VDI installation decisions IT must make

  Deploying VDI effectively comes down to several key decisions, including whether to run the back-end infrastructure on premises or with a DaaS provider.Continue Reading

• How to deploy GPU-enabled virtual applications

  More apps are graphics-intensive than ever before. As a result, VDI shops must know the steps it takes to deliver said apps to users without too much hassle.Continue Reading

• How does user location affect VDI capacity planning?

  When coming up with a VDI capacity plan, IT must account for exactly where users are located and possibly consider an SD-WAN or edge computing.Continue Reading

• The evolution of the application performance management tool

  As apps evolve, the tools IT uses to manage them have to as well. App virtualization in particular has altered management needs by requiring that IT be able to see into the entire app stack.Continue Reading

• How each remote display protocol handles codecs

  The codecs that remote display protocols use to transfer an image to a virtual desktop have a large effect on the quality of both videos and text.Continue Reading

• How cloud-native application development affects VDI

  As more and more applications become cloud-native, VDI shops should prepare for changes in the way users access their apps and desktops.Continue Reading

• What Citrix VDI monitoring tools are built in?

  XenApp and XenDesktop shops should use any of Citrix's four VDI monitoring tools to get better control over their deployments, user sessions and administrative changes.Continue Reading

• Don't let network latency issues slow your VDI or DaaS roll

  Data can get to users faster if it is closer to them. As a result IT must keep that distance in mind when setting up a VDI or DaaS deployment.Continue Reading

• How to configure Microsoft RDS Personal Session Desktops

  Microsoft has found a balance for virtual desktops in Windows Server 2016. Personal Session Desktops give IT the option to deploy VDI in Microsoft Azure.Continue Reading

• IT gains a secret weapon with VDI monitoring

  IT admins can use VDI monitoring to gain X-ray vision into their VDI deployments. These tools help strengthen the user experience and pinpoint problem areas.Continue Reading

• Understand the principles of data residency

  IT administrators should assess data residency on a case by case basis. That means understanding how the concept has changed and how it works in the cloud.Continue Reading

• Don't let VDI drain the IP address pool

  IP addresses can get gobbled up in VDI deployments because each virtual desktop and each endpoint takes up an address. Admins can fight back with IP address management tools.Continue Reading

• Is VDI susceptible to ransomware threats?

  VDI environments are in danger of ransomware attacks. They can encrypt personal and professional data that cannot be decoded once the user's session ends.Continue Reading

• How to decide to deliver apps through VDI vs. installing them locally

  Admins have a tough choice in how they deliver new apps to their users. In some situations it's better to do it through VDI while in others its best to install them locally.Continue Reading

• Roaming profiles help deliver a consistent virtual desktop experience

  Nonpersistent VDI strips users of their ability to customize their desktops. With user environment management methods such as roaming profiles, they can take some ownership back.Continue Reading

• How to make your VDI project plan a winner

  VDI can simplify life for IT admins, but they must plan the project out from the pilot phase through implementation. Keeping unexpected cost and complexity in mind is critical.Continue Reading

• Compare virtual apps vs. virtual desktop deployment

  Selecting a desktop virtualization method is a difficult decision for any IT admin. It's important to consider efficiency and user experience to make the best choice.Continue Reading

• Five VDI thin clients worthy of enterprise consideration

  Choosing the right endpoints for VDI is essential. Explore five options for VDI thin clients -- including Raspberry Pi devices and Google Chromebooks -- and what differentiates them from each other.Continue Reading

• Four problem areas to watch for when VDI troubleshooting

  When it comes to VDI, IT must be ready to troubleshoot common problems associated with virtual desktop performance, back-end infrastructure, product platforms and persona management.Continue Reading

• Take control of virtual desktop access with two-factor authentication

  Traditional passwords simply aren't good enough for VDI shops. Instead they need to make users' devices require a second form of authentication or use one-time passwords that change frequently.Continue Reading

• Don't let VDI network latency grind virtual desktops to a halt

  Network latency problems can make even the simplest tasks impossible on a virtual desktop. IT needs to use performance monitoring to identify the source of latency to fix the problem.Continue Reading

• Go for gold with VDI image management

  VDI golden images allow IT to deliver multiple virtual desktops based off a single base image. This setup simplifies desktop management in a lot of ways but also complicates updates.Continue Reading

• When single sign-on technology is a good fit for VDI

  As more VDI shops deliver virtual desktops separately from applications, single sign-on provides a way for IT to reduce users' burdens when it comes to multiple logins and remembering passwords.Continue Reading

• Compare Citrix Provisioning Services and Machine Creation Services

  One of the most important parts of setting up and managing a XenDesktop deployment is choosing which provisioning tool to use. Citrix provides one streaming option and another that creates VM clones.Continue Reading

• Five burning questions about remote desktop USB redirection

  When it comes to USB device redirection, IT administrators must pay close attention to network bandwidth, latency and reliability issues.Continue Reading

• Why VDI is perfect for managing remote employees

  Organizations trying to support remote employees should look to VDI, which puts users in a controlled environment and makes it easier to provide support, manage licenses and ensure security.Continue Reading

• How to set up a Chromebook remote desktop

  It's easier than you think to set up a Google Chromebook remote desktop, thanks to low-cost devices that make for great VDI thin clients.Continue Reading

• How does Citrix StoreFront work with XenApp and XenDesktop?

  Citrix's enterprise app store can help VDI shops transition to a mobile-friendly virtual desktop and application strategy by broadening remote access and providing a simpler user interface for employees.Continue Reading

• How do physical and virtual desktop patch deployment differ?

  Patching virtual desktops and PCs isn't exactly the same. VDI puts more strain on your storage system, and read-only virtual desktop images often erase patches at the end of a user's session.Continue Reading

• Running Windows desktop apps on mobile devices gets easier

  Today, admins can choose from a combination of virtualization, refactoring, secure containers and GPU virtualization to deliver Windows apps on mobile devices with a decent user experience.Continue Reading

• Let their powers combine: Use Intune, RemoteApp combo for virtual app delivery

  Microsoft Intune, App-V and RemoteApp all let you deliver apps to mobile devices, but no one approach is perfect. A combination of Intune and RemoteApp for virtual app delivery can work well.Continue Reading

• Guide to choosing and managing VDI thin clients

  First, decide whether thin clients are right for your environment. Then learn what to look for in VDI hardware and what kind of management capabilities you need.Continue Reading

• Complete guide to RDS management and RDSH

  RDS is the backbone of Windows desktop virtualization from Microsoft. Learn about features -- such as RemoteFX -- problems and more.Continue Reading