XenDesktop 7.6 Feature Pack 1 (Platinum Edition Below) Released

 

Features:

1. Session Recording - Session Recording enhances the ability for admins to actively monitor and record user sessions to simplify troubleshooting, accelerate issue resolution, evaluate personnel for training guidance, and monitor user behavior for compliance purposes.
   
2. Director 7.6.200 - This release includes controls to start and stop session recording (Session Recording is a feature in the Platinum Edition), as well as bug fixes.
   
3. HDX RealTime Optimization Pack 1.7 for Microsoft Lync - offers clear, crisp high-definition video calls in conjunction with Microsoft Lync®. This release adds support for Lync 2013 on Windows and Linux devices, plus new calling features.
   
4. License Server 11.12.1 for Windows - An optional component in Feature Pack 1. This release introduces the opportunity to participate in the Customer Experience Improvement Program.

• Note: that the components listed above are only the new items in Feature Pack 1. Even if you have already deployed 7.6, there are five components (beyond the items listed above) that have been updated or added since the initial 7.6 release.

Removing the Windows update cache

 

If your Windows update is stuck, errors on install or does not download, you can install manually or remove the Windows Update cache and let Windows learn again.

Run ‘cmd’ as Administrator

Either from the command line run ‘net stop wuauserv’ or stop the service in services.msc.

Go to the %windir% folder

run the commad ‘rd /s SoftwareDistribution’ to delete the contents

Restart the wuauserv (Windows update) service.

Microsoft detail this here.

Hat tip to…

Need to run Windows XP? do it safely

 

There are still plenty of Windows XP machines needed, so pull them out of virtualisation platforms, rip them off hardware and put them somewhere safe, on a VDI environment with read only, stateless disks !

If you try install the current version of the Virtual Desktop Agent (VDA) v7.6 on a machine running Windows XP or Windows Vista; however, you can install an earlier VDA version on these.

Setup your XenDesktop VDA environment, your PVS servers and once ready.

Downloading the older VDA for your VDI platform:

• XenDesktop Platinum: https://www.citrix.com/downloads/xendesktop/product-software/xendesktop-56-feature-pack-1-platinum.html 
• XenDesktop Enterprise: https://www.citrix.com/downloads/xendesktop/product-software/xendesktop-56-feature-pack-1-enterprise.html
• XenDesktop VDI: https://www.citrix.com/downloads/xendesktop/product-software/xendesktop-56-feature-pack-1-vdi.html

Install VDA as described in Installing and Upgrading the Virtual Desktop Agent.

Installing the latest VDA Hotfix Rollup, the latest rollup is available at:

• For x86-bit: Hotfix Rollup XD560VDAWX86400 (Version 5.6.400)
• For 64-bit: Hotfix Rollup XD560VDAWX64400 (Version 5.6.400)

 

Link to article http://support.citrix.com/article/ctx140941

Why you should move to Office 365

 

If you have an email administrator and you have less then 1000 users, what are you thinking?

• You could move just the contractors to Office 365, and keep your staff internal or any mix you like?
• You dont need to worry what device people want email delivered to, Office 365 is everywhere and on every device
• When you get Office 365 each users gets a minimum of 1TB of cloud storage so you can kill off the DropBox accounts
• It has a 99.9% uptime guarantee
• Lync is already setup for you are ready to go. If you have never setup lync you wont know why that is great
• SharePoint and applications on top like WIKIs etc are already built in
• The data can now be hosted in Sydney and Melbourne so the latency issues with Singapore are largely gone
• You could sack that lazy good for nothing email administrator, of get them doing something more interesting
• It is updated in the background for you
• Web access, mobile phones, outlook client are all ready to go
• Unless you have thousands of high security users, it will be cheaper then on-prem Exchange
• Archiving is built in – oh and it works

Now if you want help call me and I will setup some time with you….

 

Dave@Colv.in or call me 0411 COLVIN