Creating the VDI Template
One of the most important decisions when using VDI is which operating system you
will use in the image. Where possible, a consistent operating system between your
physical desktops and the virtual desktops is advantageous because it will avoid
additional application testing and different OS configuration and validation exercises.
This may not be practical, however. One reason VDI may be attractive is that the
physical desktops are all running Windows XP, and you need a more modern
operating system for some users or applications.
A Windows Server 2016 VDI deployment has various client operating system options:
Windows 7 Enterprise
Windows 8/8.1 Pro
Windows 8/8.1 Enterprise
Windows 10 Pro
Windows 10 EnterpriseWhere possible, Windows 10 Enterprise is the best option because it gives the richest
client experience and highest set of functionality. Also, while the Pro versions may
work, Enterprise is the supported SKU by Microsoft. Compared to Windows 10 Pro,
the Enterprise edition has the following additional capabilities:
RemoteApp This offers application publishing and enables specific applications
running on the operating system to be published and used by users instead of a
complete desktop. RemoteApp provides a far more seamless experience in addition
to being more accessible and usable on smaller form-factor devices where a full
desktop is not optimal. The Pro edition does not enable RemoteApp.
RemoteFX Device Redirection RemoteFX has several technologies, one of
which enables the redirection of almost any USB device at a port level. Only
Enterprise has this feature.
RemoteFX vGPU The feature of RemoteFX most people think of is the virtual
GPU capability, which enables a physical GPU in a server to be virtualized and
made available to virtual machines. Even if a server does not have a GPU or a
certain level of graphical capability, it can still be exposed to the virtual machine
through a software rasterizer. This enables the virtual machine to see a vGPU and
perform local graphics rendering, such as with DirectX, enabling advanced graphics
applications to be executed in the VDI environment. This is enabled only on the
Enterprise edition.
User Profile Disk This enables a VHD to be attached to the virtual machine and
used for profile and data storage so that a user’s experience is consistent even
when connecting to different VDI VM instances. This is available only on the