Guide Update: Creating an Optimized Windows Image for a VMware Horizon Virtual Desktop (VMware.com)

[JohnTwilley]

VMware has quietly updated the TechZone official guide for optimizing Windows images...and guess what's missing?!

     No more Mandatory Profiles.  Dropped due to changes in 1809.(more details here in the Horizon forum)

Check it out.  The DEM agent even get a cameo.

Creating an Optimized Windows Image for a VMware Horizon Virtual Desktop | VMware

Let's get those login times tested!  I guess it's time to dust off a fresh ISO and see what VMware has cooked up for us. 

Feel free to share you experiences!

[MaxStr]

Any idea why Mandatory profiles was removed?

[sjesse]

They can break things, and I think the newer versions made them harder to use, and they didn't give enough of a boost to warrant all the trouble.

[cbaptiste]

I agree 100% with that statement. I created a mandatory profile with Windows 7 about 3 years ago and never once needed to touch it again. I created many mandatory profiles with Windows 10 and each time something(s) did not work. Mostly start menu and appx applications issues. Truth of the matter is, I did not see the gain so I ditched it and went back to local profile. My login time which was the main concern is between 11 - 30 seconds with local profile. I am not really missing out on anything.

[JohnTwilley]

Ref: https://techzone.vmware.com/blog/announcing-update-creating-optimized-windows-image-vmware-horizon-v...

With this updated version of the OSOT, you no longer have to perform some of the tasks that were spelled out in the previous version of Creating an Optimized Windows Image for a VMware Horizon Virtual Desktop. Indeed, this doc is 25 percent shorter than the previous version—for the PDF, that’s 30 pages shorter!

Another change that accounts for the page count reduction is the removal of instructions for using Windows mandatory user profiles. In our testing, we found that this feature does not work reliably when used with Windows 10 version 1809 and later. We decided that, for consistency’s sake, we would remove the recommendation for all versions. We found that login times are nearly equivalent if you use default user profiles instead of mandatory user profiles.

Creating an Optimized Windows Image for a VMware Horizon Virtual Desktop provides step-by-step procedures for creating optimized images. These procedures include creating a VM, installing and configuring a Windows operating system, optimizing the OS, and installing the various VMware agents required for desktop pool deployment.

We also want to thank readers of the previous version for all their helpful comments and suggestions. Keep the feedback coming!