Currently, I am working on a best practices guide for building VDI hosted XP desktops. It’s been an interesting exercise. Most the content is stuff I have collected over the years and has been repeated a million times across the Net. In a lot of ways it really is no different than building a solid standardized image for enterprise based PC's. The hardest part has been putting as much useful information in it without letting it creep and it end up being to long.

Last night I was doing some testing, when I should have been spending time with my dogs, for a section that is hands down the most commonly asked question I get. How do I add users to the Remote Desktop Users Group? This is one of the most common VDI stumbling blocks. There are a couple of approaches. Probably more than I am listing below even.

1. You could create a startup script that populates the local Remote Desktop Users group with users or groups. The script can be managed through GPO by adding it to the Computer Configuration\Windows Settings\Scripts\Startup Policy.

When using this approach, I prefer to create a group called VDI users in AD, and populate it with users that will use VDI virtual machines. This group is then added to the local Remote Desktop Group at start-up.

A sample code snip-it is below.

option Explicit

Dim objGroup

Dim strComputer
strComputer = "."

On Error Resume Next

Set objGroup = GetObject("WinNT://" & strComputer & "/Remote Desktop Users,group")

objGroup.add("WinNT://DOMAINNAME/VDI Users,group")

Set objGroup = Nothing

2. Another approach is using a Restricted Group. Under Computer Configuration\Windows Settings\Security Settings\Restricted Groups add
a group.

In this case I use the built-in Remote Desktop Users, once created add the appropriate users from this Restricted Group GPO Each has its pros and cons but this should give you a starting point.