On the 16th of September, a KB article was published by VMware, which contains statements of Removal of SD card/USB as a standalone boot device option.
USB/SD is not the right choice going forward! Why? The volume of reads/writes to and from the OS-DATA partition continues to increase with every release, which means that the lower grade devices will simply wear out faster.
Many new items have been introduced, such as HTML5 video redirection support for the Chrome browser and the ability to configure Windows Start menu shortcuts for desktop and application pools using the Horizon Administrator console. As always, you can count on increased operating system support for virtual desktops and clients.
Here is an overview of the new features:
VMware Horizon 7.3 Server Enhancements
Horizon Help Desk Tool
Displays application process resources with reset control
Role-based access control for help desk staff
Activity logging for help desk staff
Displays Horizon Client information
Granular logon time metrics
Blast Extreme display protocol metrics
Instant Clone Technology
Instant-clone desktops can now use dedicated assignment to preserve the hostname, IP address and MAC address of a user’s desktop
Windows Server OS is now supported for desktop use
Instant clones are now compatible with Storage DRS (sDRS)
If there are no internal VMs in all four internal folders created in vSphere Web Client, these folders are unprotected, and you can delete them
IcUnprotect.cmd utility can now unprotect or delete template, replica or parent VMs or folders from vSphere hosts
Windows Start Menu Shortcuts Created Using the Admin Console
Create shortcuts to Horizon 7 resources:
Published applications
Desktops
Global entitlements
Cloud Pod Architecture Scale
Total session limit is increased to 140,000
The site limit is now seven
VMware Horizon Apps
This update makes Horizon Apps easier to use and allows the administrator to restrict entitlements
Restrict access to desktop and application pools from specific client machines
Resiliency for Monitoring
If the event database shuts down, Horizon administrator maintains an audit trail of the events that occur before and after the event database shutdown
Database Support
Always-On Availability Groups feature for Microsoft SQL Server 2014
ADMX Templates
Additional GPO settings for ThinPrint printer filtering, HTML5 redirection and enforcement of desktop wallpaper settings
Remote Experience
Horizon Virtualization Pack for Skype for Business
Multiparty audio and video conferencing
Horizon 7 RDSH support
Windows Server 2008 R2
Windows Server 2012 R2
Forward Error Correction (FEC)
Quality of Experience (QOE) metrics
Customized ringtones
Call park and pickup
E911 (Enhanced 911) support, to allow the location of the mobile caller to be known to the call receiver
USB desktop-tethering support
Horizon Client for Linux support for the following Linux distributions:
Ubuntu 12.04 (32-bit)
Ubuntu 14.04 (32 & 64-bit)
Ubuntu 16.04 (64-bit)
RHEL 6.9/CentOS 6.x (64-bit)
RHEL 7.3 (64-bit)
SLED12 SP2 (64-bit)
Additional NVIDIA GRID vGPU Support
Support for the Tesla P40 graphics card from NVIDIA
HTML5 Video Redirection
View HTML 5 video from a Chrome browser and have video redirected to the client endpoint for smoother and more efficient video playback
Performance Counter Improvements
Windows agent PerfMon counters improvements for Blast Extreme sessions: imaging, audio, client-drive redirection (CDR), USB and virtual printing
Linux Virtual Desktops
KDE support: Besides RHEL/CentOS 6.x, the KDE GUI is now supported on RHEL/CentOS 7.x, Ubuntu 14.04/16.04 and SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 11 SP4
MATE interface is now supported on Ubuntu 14.04 and Ubuntu 16.04
Blast Extreme Adaptive Transport is now supported for Linux desktops
vGPU hardware H.264 encoder support has been added
USB Redirection
USB redirection is supported in nested mode
ThinPrint Filtering
Administrators can filter out printers that should not be redirected
Horizon Client 4.6 Updates
Security Update
All clients have been updated to use SHA-2 to prevent SHA-1 collision attacks
Session Pre-launch
Session pre-launch is now extended to both Horizon Client for macOS and Horizon Client for Windows
Apteligent
Integration of Apteligent crash log
Blast Extreme
Improvements in Blast Extreme Adaptive Transport mode for iOS and macOS
User can change Blast Extreme settings without having to disconnect
Horizon Client 4.6 for Windows
Support for UNC path with CDR
Horizon Client 4.6 for macOS
Support for macOS Sierra and macOS High Sierra
Selective monitor support
Norwegian keyboard support
Horizon Client 4.6 for iOS
CDR support with drag and drop of files in split view
iOS split keyboard enhancement
iOS UI updates
Horizon Client 4.6 for Android
Android Oreo support
Manage the Horizon server list with VMware AirWatch
Simple shortcuts
External mouse enhancements
Real-Time Audio-Video (RTAV) support for Android and Chrome OS
Horizon Client 4.6 for Linux
Blast Extreme Adaptive Transport support
Horizon Client 4.6 for Windows 10 UWP
Network recovery improvements
Horizon HTML Access 4.6
HTML Access for Android with a revised UI
Customization of HTML Access page
Horizon Help Desk Tool
The Horizon Help Desk Tool provides a troubleshooting interface for the help desk that is installed by default on Connection Servers. To access the Horizon Help Desk Tool, navigate to https://<CS_FQDN>/helpdesk, where <CS_FQDN> is the fully qualified domain name of the Connection Server, or click the Help Desk button in the Horizon Administrator console.
The Help Desk Tool was introduced in Horizon 7.2 and has been greatly expanded upon in the Horizon 7.3 release.
Help Desktop Tool features with Horizon 7.2:
Virtual machine metrics
Remote assistance
Session control (restart, logoff, reset, and disconnect)
Sending messages
Additional features with Horizon 7.3:
Display application process resources with reset control
Role-based access control for help desk staff
Activity logging for help desk staff
Granular login time metrics
Display Horizon Client information
User Session Details
The user session details appear on the Details tab when you click a user name in the Computer Name option on the Sessions tab. You can view details for Horizon Client, the VDI desktop or RDSH-published desktop, CPU and memory stats, and many other details.
Client version
Unified Access Gateway name and IP address
Logon breakdown (client to broker):
Brokering
GPO load
Profile load
Interactive
Authentication
Blast Extreme Metrics
Blast extreme metrics that have been added include estimated bandwidth (uplink), packet loss, and transmitted and received traffic counters for imaging, audio, and CDR.
Note the following behavior:
The text-based counters do not auto-update in the dashboard. Close and reopen the session details to refresh the information.
The counters for transmitted and received traffic counters are accumulative from the point the session is queried/polled.
Blast Extreme Metrics for a Windows 10 Virtual Desktop Session
Display and Reset Application Processes and Resources
This new feature provides help desk staff with a granular option to resolve problematic processes without affecting the entire user session, similar to Windows Task Manager. The session processes appear on the Processes tab when you click a user name in the Computer Name option on the Sessions tab. For each user session, you can view additional details about CPU- and memory-related processes to diagnose issues.
Role-based Access Control and Custom Roles
You can assign the following predefined administrator roles to Horizon Help Desk Tool administrators to delegate the troubleshooting tasks between administrator users:
Help Desk Administrator
Help Desk Administrator (Read Only)
You can also create custom roles by assigning the Manage Help Desk (Read Only) privilege along with any other privileges based on the Help Desk Administrator role or Help Desk Administrator (Read Only) role.
Members of the Help Desk Administrators (Read Only) role do not have access to following controls; in fact, functions such as Log Off and Reset are not presented in the user interface.
Watch this brief demonstration video of the Horizon Help Desk Tool to see it in action:
Horizon Virtualization Pack for Skype for Business
You can now make optimized audio and video calls with Skype for Business inside a virtual desktop without negatively affecting the virtual infrastructure and overloading the network.
All media processing takes place on the client machine instead of in the virtual desktop during a Skype audio and video call.
Horizon Virtualization Pack for Skype for Business offers the following supported features:
System Requirements
The following table outlines the system requirements for the new release:
Supported Clients
The following table provides the list of support Horizon clients:
Start Menu Shortcuts Configured Through the Admin Console
This feature improves the user experience by adding desktop and application shortcuts to the Start menu of Windows client devices.
You can use Horizon Administrator to create shortcuts for the following types of Horizon 7 resources:
Published applications
Desktops
Global entitlements
Shortcuts appear in the Windows Start menu and are configured by IT. Shortcuts can be categorized into folders.
Users can choose at login whether to have shortcuts added to the Start menu on their Windows endpoint device.
Watch this brief demonstration video of the new Desktop and Apps Shortcuts feature to see it in action:
Dedicated Desktop Support for Instant Clones
Upon the initial release of instant clones in Horizon 7, we supported floating desktop pools and assignments only. Further investments have been made to Instant Clone Technology that add support for dedicated desktop pools. Fixed assignments and entitlements of users to instant-clone machines is now provided as part of Horizon 7.3.
Dedicated instant-clone desktop assignment means that there is a 1:1 relationship between users and desktops. Once an end user is assigned to a desktop, they will consistently receive access to the same desktop and corresponding virtual machine. This feature is important for apps that require a consistent hostname, IP address, or MAC address to function properly.
Note: Persistent disks are not supported. Fixed assignments to desktops does not mean persistence for changes. Any changes that the user makes to the desktop while in-session will not be preserved after logoff, which is similar to how a floating desktop pool works. With dedicated assignment, when the user logs out, a resync operation on the master image retains the VM name, IP address, and MAC address.
Support for the Tesla P40 Graphics Card from NVIDIA
VMware has expanded NVIDIA GRID support with Tesla P40 GPU cards in Horizon 7.3.
HTML5 Video Redirection
This feature provides the ability to take the HTML5 video from a Chrome (version 58 or higher) browser inside a Windows VDI or RDSH system and redirect it to Windows clients. This feature uses Blast Extreme or PCoIP side channels along with a Chrome extension.
The redirected video is overlaid on the client and is enabled as well as managed using GPO settings.
Benefits include:
Supports generic sites such as YouTube, without requiring a server-side plugin.
Provides smooth video playback comparable to the native experience of playing video inside a browser on the local client system.
Reduces data center network traffic and CPU utilization on the vSphere infrastructure hosts.
Improved USB Redirection with User Environment Manager
The default User Environment Manager timeout value has been increased. This change ensures that the USB redirection Smart Policy takes effect even when the login process takes longer than expected.
With Horizon Client 4.6, the User Environment Manager timeout value is configured only on the agent and is sent from the agent to the client.
You can now bypass User Environment Manager control of USB redirection by setting a registry key on the agent machine (VDI desktop or RDSH server). This change ensures that smart card SSO works on Teradici zero clients. Note: Requires a restart.
The Windows Agent PerfMon counters for the Blast Extreme protocol have been improved to update at a constant rate and to be even more accurate.
Counters include:
Imaging
Audio
CDR
USB
Virtual printing
Linux Virtual Desktops
Features and functions for Horizon 7 for Linux virtual desktops have been expanded:
KDE support – Besides RHEL/CentOS 6.x, the KDE GUI is now supported on RHEL/CentOS 7.x, Ubuntu 14.04/16.04, SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 11 SP4.
Support for the MATE interface on Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 16.04.
Blast Extreme Adaptive Transport support.
vGPU hardware H.264 encoder support.
USB Redirection Support in Nested Mode
The USB redirection feature is now supported when you use Horizon Client in nested mode. When using nesting–for example, when opening RDSH applications from a VDI desktop–you can now redirect USB devices from the client device to the first virtualization layer and then redirect the same USB device to the second virtualization layer (that is, nested session).
Filtering Redirected Printers
You can now create a filter to specify the printers that should not be redirected with ThinPrint. A new GPO ADMX template (vmd_printing_agent.admx) has been added to enable this functionality.
By default, the rule permits all client printers to be redirected.
Supported attributes:
PrinterName
DriverName
VendorName
Supported operators:
AND
OR
NOT
Supported searching pattern is a regular expression.
Blast Extreme Improvements in CPU Usage
Now even lower CPU usage is achieved with adaptive Forward Error Correction algorithms. This clever mechanism decides how to handle error correction, lowering CPU usage within virtual desktop machines as well as on client endpoint devices.
Blast Extreme Adaptive Transport Side Channel
New support has been added for Blast Extreme Adaptive Transport side channels for USB and CDR communications. Once enabled, TCP port 32111 for USB traffic does not need to be opened, and USB traffic uses a side channel. This feature is supported for both virtual desktops and RDS hosts.
Feature is turned off by default.
Enable the feature through a registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\VMware, Inc.\VMware Blast\Config\UdpAuxiliaryFlowsEnabled 1
Entitlement Restrictions Based on Machine Name
This feature allows IT administrators to restrict access to published applications and desktops based on both client computer and user. With client restrictions for RDSH, it is now possible to check AD security groups for specific computer names. Users only have access to desktops and apps when both the user and the client machine are entitled. For this release, the feature is supported only for Windows clients and works with global entitlements.
Pre-Launch Improvements
Pre-launch provides the ability to launch an empty (application-less) session when connecting to the Connection Server. The feature is now also available to Windows clients, in addition to macOS.
Also, it is no longer necessary to manually make changes to the client settings. You can configure automatic reconnection.
Blast Extreme Adaptive Transport Mode for iOS and macOS
With prior client releases, users were required to configure their Blast Extreme settings before they connected to the Connection Server. After a connection was established, the options to change the Blast Extreme setting—which included H.264, Poor, Typical, and Excellent—were unavailable.
With this release, users can change the network condition setting from Excellent to Typical or the reverse while inflight to sessions. Doing so also changes the protocol connection type between TCP (for Excellent) and UDP (for Typical).
Note: End users will not be able to change the network condition setting if Poor is selected before establishing a session connection.
Horizon Client for Windows
Horizon Client 4.6 updates include:
Additional command-line options for the new client installer – When silently installing the Windows client, using the /s flag, you can now also set:
REMOVE-SerialPort,Scanner – Removes the serial port, scanner, or both.
DESKTOP_SHORTCUT-0 – Installs without a desktop shortcut.
STARTMENU_SHORTCUT-0 – Installs without a Start menu shortcut.
Support for UNC paths with client drive redirection (CDR):
Allows remote applications to access files from a network location on the client machine. Each location gets its own drive letter inside the remote application or VDI desktop.
Folders residing on UNC paths can now be redirected with CDR, and get their own drive letter inside the session, just as any other shared folder.
Horizon Client for macOS
Horizon Client 4.6 updates include:
Apple macOS High Sierra day 0 support.
Users can select which monitors to use for VDI sessions and which to use for the local system.
Norwegian keyboard support and mappings are now available
Horizon Client for iOS
Horizon Client 4.6 updates include:
iOS 11 support
iOS split keyboard update – Removes the middle area in the split keyboard for a better view of the desktop
New dialog box for easy connection to a Swiftpoint Mouse
Horizon Client for Android
Horizon Client 4.6 updates include:
Android 8.0 Oreo support.
Server URL configuration – Allows administrators to configure a list of Connection Servers and a default Connection Server on Android devices managed by VMware AirWatch.
Android and Chrome OS Client Updates
Horizon Client 4.6 for Android and Horizon Client 4.6 for Chrome OS updates include:
Simple shortcuts – Users can right-click any application or desktop to add a shortcut to the home screen.
Webcam redirection – Integrated webcams on an Android device or a Chromebook are now available for redirection using the Real-Time Audio-Video (RTAV) feature.
HTML Access
HTML Access 4.6 updates include:
HTML Access on Android devices – Though HTML Access has fewer features than the native Horizon Client, it allows you to use remote desktops and published applications without installing software.
HTML Access page customization – Administrators can customize graphics and text and have those customizations persist through future upgrades.
Horizon Client for Linux
Horizon Client 4.6 updates include:
Support for Raspberry Pi 3 Model B devices:
ThinLinx operating system (TLXOS) or Stratodesk NoTouch operating system
Supported Horizon Client features include:
Blast Extreme
USB redirection
264 decoding
8000Hz and 16000Hz audio-in sample rate
RHEL/CentOS 7.4 support
Horizon Client for Windows 10 UWP
Horizon Client 4.6 updates include:
Network recovery improvements – Clients can recover from temporary network loss (up to 2 minutes). This feature was already available for Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, and Android, and is now available for Windows 10 UWP.
Automatically reconnects Blast Extreme sessions
Reduces re-authentication prompts
We are excited about these new features in Horizon 7.3.1 and the Horizon Client 4.6. We hope that you will give them a try.
This security update resolves a security feature bypass in Microsoft Windows. An attacker could bypass Kerberos authentication on a target machine and decrypt drives protected by BitLocker. The bypass can be exploited only if the target system has BitLocker enabled without a PIN or USB key, the computer is domain-joined, and the attacker has physical access to the computer.
This security update is rated Important for all supported editions of Windows. For more information, see the Affected Software section.
The update addresses the bypass by adding an additional authentication check that will run prior to a password change. For more information about the vulnerability, see theVulnerability Information section.
The following table lists a number of user settings across each of the Office 2013 applications that I recommend you take a look at. This is just a small subset of the total number of settings, but includes some of the most important ones.
The status of each setting will vary dependant on the environment. Use at your own risk.
PRODUCT PATH SETTING RECOMMENDED VALUES
Microsoft Access 2013 Miscellaneous Disable the Office Start Screen for Access Enabled | Not Configured
Microsoft Excel 2013 Excel Options – Save Default file format Enabled, Excel Workbook (*.xlsx)
Microsoft Excel 2013 Miscellaneous Disable the Office Start Screen for Excel Enabled | Not Configured
Microsoft Office 2013 Global Options – Customize Allow roaming of all user customizations Enabled
Microsoft Office 2013 Privacy – Trust Center Disable Opt-in Wizard on first run Enabled
Microsoft Office 2013 Privacy – Trust Center Enable Customer Experirnce Improvement Program Disabled | Not Configured
Microsoft Office 2013 Privacy – Trust Center Automatically receive small updates to improve reliability Disabled | Not Configured
Microsoft Office 2013 Privacy – Trust Center Send Office Feedback Disabled | Not Configured
Microsoft Office 2013 Privacy – Trust Center Allow including screenshot with Office Feedback Disabled | Not Configured
Microsoft Office 2013 Subscription Activation Do not show ‘Manage Account’ link for subscription licenses Enabled | Not Configured
Microsoft Office 2013 Subscription Activation Automatically activate Office with federated organization credentials Disabled | Not Configured
Microsoft Office 2013 Services Disable Roaming Office User Settings Enabled | Not Configured
Microsoft Office 2013 Services – Fax Disable Internet Fax feature Enabled
Microsoft Office 2013 Microsoft Office Picture Manager Disable File Types association dialog box on first launch Enabled
Microsoft Office 2013 Miscellaneous Show SkyDrive Sign In Disabled | Not Configured
Microsoft Office 2013 Miscellaneous Block signing into Office Enabled | Not Configured
Microsoft Office 2013 Miscellaneous Disable the Office Start screen for all Office applications Enabled | Not Configured
Microsoft Office 2013 Miscellaneous Disable Office Backgrounds Enabled | Not Configured
Microsoft Office 2013 Miscellaneous Suppress recommended settings dialog Enabled
Microsoft Office 2013 First Run Disable First Run Movie Enabled | Not Configured
Microsoft Office 2013 First Run Disable First Run on application boot Enabled | Not Configured
Microsoft OneNote 2013 OneNote Options – Other Add OneNote icon to the notification area Disabled | Not Configured
Microsoft Outlook 2013 Outlook Social Connector Turn off Outlook Social Connector Enabled | Not Configured
Microsoft Outlook 2013 Outlook Social Connector Do not show social network info-bars Enabled | Not Configured
Microsoft Outlook 2013 Outlook Options – Preferences – Calendar Options – Office.com Sharing Service Prevent publishing to Office.com Enabled | Not Configured
Microsoft Outlook 2013 Outlook Options – Other – AutoArchive AutoArchive Settings Disabled
Microsoft PowerPoint 2013 PowerPoint Options – Save Default file format Enabled, PowerPoint Presentation (*.pptx)
Microsoft PowerPoint 2013 Miscellaneous Disable the Office Start Screen for PowerPoint Enabled | Not Configured
Microsoft Project 2013 Miscellaneous Disable the Office Start Screen for Project Enabled | Not Configured
Microsoft Publisher 2013 Miscellaneous Disable the Office Start Screen for Publisher Enabled | Not Configured
Microsoft Visio 2013 Visio Options – Save – Save Documents Save Visio files as Enabled, Visio Document
Microsoft Visio 2013 Visio Options – Advanced – General Options Put all settings in Windows registry Enabled
Microsoft Word 2013 Word Options – Save Default file format Enabled, Word Document (*.docx)
Microsoft Word 2013 Miscellaneous Disable the Office Start Screen for Word Enabled | Not Configured
Support for the latest Guest OS’es like Microsoft Windows 8.1 and various Linux distributions.
The new hardware version 10 introduces even bigger and better Virtual Machines Up to 16 vCPUs 64GB of vRAM 8TB disks. vSATA support has been added Up to 20 networks can be defined. Various USB improvements (usb3 stream support, among other things) SSD pass through makes for better support of the underlying hardware platform.
New Virtual Appliances created with the Workstation team to quickly run various cloud stacks like Pivotal, Puppet Labs and Vagrant.
The team has included various smaller improvements in the product as well:
Better multi-monitor support for up to 4 screens
Unity mode has been enhanced to seamlessly work with Windows 8.1 UI changes
An updated version of VMware Converter has been built in and adds support for P2V’ing a Windows 8.1 machine
New option to display the VM console using VMware-KVM, a ‘screen-only’ window without any bells or whistles.
Last week i was playing with Samsung ATIV Smart PC.
Samsung ATIV Smart PC is a great device. This is one of many Touch laptops from Samsung. This Laptop is also usable as Tablet PC. Because it run Windows 8 x86 you can run al your applications on this device.
De Samsung ATIV Smart PC does not have fast Ethernet nic onboard only a Wifi NIC.
I would like to deploy our company “image” to this device.
18. Mark the partition als Active 1.Open Command Prompt
2 Type: diskpart
3. At the DISKPART prompt, type: list partition
Make note of the number of the partition that you want to mark as active.
4. At the DISKPART prompt, type:
select partition n
Select the partition, n, you want to mark as active.
5. At the DISKPART prompt, type: active
19. If you’re on Windows 8, double-click your ISO image to mount it. If you’re on earlier versions of Windows, use a 3rd party utility to mount the ISO. Just search the web and you’ll find options. Or, burn the ISO to a DVD and then mount it. Once the ISO is mounted, copy all files and directories over to your newly formatted USB drive by dragging and dropping. You can also do this from the command line using robocopy or xcopy.
20. Delete the install.wim and boot.wim from the sources directory
21. Copy LiteTouchPE_x86.wim from the Boot directory on the MDT server to de Sources Map on the USB Stick
22. Rename LiteTouchPE_x86.wim to boot.wim
23. Disable Secure Boot:
24. Boot From USB
25. You Can deploy now your OS to your Tablet.
Part Two I will write about installing Touch Driver Software/Driver
In this “maintenance” release we can see that few OS support has been added and some bug fixes has been issued as well. This release comes only after two and half months, where VMware Workstation 9 has been released.
What’s new in the Version 9.0.1 – Build Number:894247
Support for Ubuntu 12.10 as a host and guest.
Solaris 11 has been added to guest OS list
Fixes:
When powering on a virtual machine with Binary Translation on a SMEP-capable CPU, Workstation no longer causes the host to reset. If you run Windows 8 hosts on Ivy Bridge processors, VMware strongly recommends that you update your installation of Workstation.
Several security vulnerabilities have been addressed, including updating third party libraries.
The Workstation plug-in for Visual Studio has been updated to work with Visual Studio 2012.
For host systems with more than 4GB of memory, Workstation will use more of the available memory to run virtual machines.
The ability to mount a .vmdk file as a drive by right-clicking the file in File Explorer has been restored.
Streaming a virtual machines has been fixed.
Occasionally, certain elements in the Windows 8 user interface were incorrectly displayed. This has been fixed.
After disconnecting certain USB devices from a virtual machine, Workstation would prevent devices from being reconnected without restarting the virtual machine. A more comprehensive error handling code has been added to prevent this problem from occurring.
To improve application startup performance, the data being collected as part of the optional User Experience Improvement Program will no longer be aggregated on every launch of Workstation.
Remotely retrieving the IP address of an Ubuntu virtual machine with an IPv6 address assigned failed unless an IPv4 address was also assigned to the virtual machine. This no longer occures.
With IPv6 disabled on the host, the Linux version of Workstation is now able to share virtual machines.
When you import an OVA file of a virtual machine running the Datacenter version of Windows Server, the network adapter failed to be configured correctly. This is now fixed.
Closing Workstation in the middle of a cut and paste operation no longer causes the Workstation user interface to crash.
After unsharing a virtual machine configured to use client-side devices, you can now reconfigure the device settings to use local devices.
Easy Install on the Linux version of Workstation now recognize all compatible operating systems.
The VMware monitor has been updated to work with Linux kernel 3.5.
On the Linux version of Workstation, entering a permanent license key after using an evaluation key now removes the days remaining evaluation indicator.
The network adapter configuration screen now correctly preserves the Custom network settings.
You can now remove a Network if network settings changes are pending.
The Use physical drive radio button for a floppy device was disabled when connecting to a shared virtual machine or remote virtual machine a on host without a physical floppy device. This is now fixed.
Animated cursors are now displayed correctly in a virtual machine.
Workstation 9 has been designed to run on Windows 8 and run Windows 8 virtual machines. Easy Install has been enhanced to recognize Windows 8. Workstation 9 has been enhanced to support the Windows 8 user interface (formerly known as Metro). Toggling between Metro and the Windows Desktop can be done by simply pressing the Windows key on the keyboard and Unity intelligently handles the Metro interface. Workstation 9 also includes multi-touch support for driving the Windows 8 Metro interface running in Workstation on a Windows 8 tablet.
Graphics Improvements
VMware has made substantial changes to Workstation 9 graphics virtualization infrastructure. The enhancements include a display-only graphics driver that can render 3D in Windows 8 without hardware acceleration, improvements to make graphics applications like AutoCAD and SolidWorks render more quickly and accurately, an improved Windows XP graphics driver and fundamental changes to improve performance and enable more advanced graphics capabilities in the future.
OpenGL for Linux Guests
VMware has developed an OpenGL graphics driver and up-streamed it to X.Org. This allows VMware’s customers to use the new graphics capabilities in current Linux distributions without needing to install VMware Tools. The version of X.Org that includes the driver is being shipped in Ubuntu 12.04 among other Linux new distributions. Workstation 9 includes enhancements to the virtual graphics device to improve the overall speed and accuracy of rendering OpenGL graphics in Linux virtual machines.
Restricted Virtual Machines
This new capability allows the author of an encrypted virtual machine to require users to enter an additional password to change their virtual machine settings. This feature enables IT professionals and educational institutions to create virtual machines to be used by their employees and students that prevent these users from enabling shared folders, dragging and dropping files, attaching USB devices, and overcommitting system resources. Restricted virtual machines can be run in VMware Workstation 9, VMware Player 5, and VMware Fusion 5 on Windows, Linux or Mac PCs.
WSX
WSX is a prototype of a new VMware Workstation web interface that enables users to access their Shared virtual machines via a web browser on a tablet, smart phone or PC without installing any additional applications or browser plug-ins. This service renders an HTML5 web page that can connect to your Workstation hosts, enumerate the available Shared virtual machines and allow you to power them on and interact with the desktop. Both the Windows .msi and Linux .bundle installations are available for download along with VMware Workstation 9.0
WSX is currently not supported for production environments. The number of devices and browsers available on the market make it extremely difficult to test this feature thoroughly to ensure it works well everywhere.
This feature requires a very modern browser that supports HTML5 with WebSockets. VMware recommends using the Google Chrome 17 browser on PCs and the Apple Safari 5 browser on Mac OS hosts and iPads. Currently there are issues using this feature with Microsoft Internet Explorer 10. WSX may work with other browsers and on Android tablets running Ice Cream Sandwich with the latest version of Google Chrome installed, but more testing is required.
Downloading Virtual Machines from vSphere
Workstation 8 enabled customers to upload virtual machines to vSphere. Workstation 9 now enables downloading virtual machines from vSphere by dragging them from the remote host to the My Computer section of the Virtual Machine Library.
USB 3.0
Workstation 9 supports attaching USB 3.0 devices to Windows 8 virtual machines. The latest portable devices use USB 3 (SuperSpeed) to achieve faster transfer rates for data. USB 3.0 devices such as portable storage devices and video equipment can be connected directly to Windows 8 and Linux virtual machines that contain in-box drivers USB 3.0 controllers.
Nested Virtualization
Workstation 9 improves the implementation of virtual Intel VT-x/EPT or AMD-V/RVI extensions. This allows users to run ESX as a guest OS and run a 64-bit operating system nested in ESX using less system resources.
Note: If you enabled the virtualization extensions in a virtual machine running on Workstation 8, you might need to disable the extensions, upgrade the virtual machine to the latest virtual hardware version (compatible with Workstation 9), and then re-enable the extensions.
Hyper-V
Hyper-V has been added to the Workstation 9 guest operating system list. This enables customers to run Windows 8 with Hyper-V enabled, or install Hyper-V Server. This can be used for educational purposes or for building prototype Hybrid Clouds. This feature is NOT SUPPORTED and probably never will be. Microsoft does not support nesting of their hypervisor which makes it extremely difficult – if not impossible for VMware to fix issues that may occur in this configuration. For this reason, this capability has been implemented purely to see if we could do it!
CAUTION: DO NOT ATTEMPT TO RUN HYPER-V ON A VIRTUAL MACHINE IN PRODUCTION.
Virtual Performance Counters
VMware virtual processors now include the capability to enable virtual performance counters which will allow developers to run profiling applications, such as Intel’s vTune, in a virtual machine.
Remoting Improvements
The experience when remotely connecting to a virtual machine running in Workstation 9 with a VNC client or interacting with the desktop of a virtual machine running on vSphere from within Workstation has been significantly improved.
Disk Cleanup
Virtual machines consume a large amount of space on your hard drive. Workstation 9 includes a new management option to easily recover disk space.
Quick Switch II
Previous versions of VMware Workstation included a view mode called "Quick Switch" that displayed tabs along the top of the screen to easily switch between running virtual machines. We removed this functionality in Workstation 8. The feedback we received has encouraged us to introduce a similar feature. On Windows, hosts tabs have been included in the full screen toolbar.
Thumbnail Actions
Views of your virtual machine on the task bar now include controls to change the power state.
Saved Filters
Workstation 9 automatically saves recent virtual machine library searches as filters to easily apply them the next time you run Workstation.
Teradici released a new PCoIP zero client and host card firmware and the PCoIP Management Console. The following releases are now available for download on the Teradici support site (techsupport.teradici.com):
Firmware 3.5.0 for PCoIP Zero Clients and PCoIP Host Cards.
PCoIP Management Console 1.7.0
Firmware 3.5.0 update includes key feature enhancements including:
USB2.0 with VMware View sessions
Imprivata OneSign® Virtual Desktop Access via proximity cards with VMware View
IEEE 802.1x network security
IPv6 support.
With this release, Teradici continues to innovate PCoIP zero client technology and accelerate the adoption
Highlights of VMware Workstation 8.0.1 functionality include:
Graphics performance and compatibility enhancements.
Improvements in creating and using shared virtual machines and remote virtual machines.
Ubuntu 11.10 is officially supported as a guest operating system.
Disk and memory management issues have been addressed.
Many customer-reported issues have been resolved.
VMware Workstation 8.0.1 is a free update for all VMware Workstation 8 users.
Resolved Issues
The following sections list the resolved issues in VMware Workstation 8.0.1.
Windows 7 guest installation failed after powering on the virtual machine with the error A required CD/DVD drive device driver is missing. If you have a driver floppy disk, CD, DVD, or USB flash drive, please insert it now.
VMware Tools failed with the message VMware Tools unrecoverable error.
VMware Tools failed to start in Fedora 15 guests.
An Ubuntu 11.10 guest crashed with a signal 11 error if you installed or upgraded VMware Tools.
On hosts with Nvidia GeForce and Quadro video cards, some of the clouds in the Unigine Heaven Benchmark application were drawn solid black.
Easy Install did not properly function on Ubuntu 11.10.
If remote virtual machines were open, you could not shut down the Windows hosts.
When transitioning from Full Screen mode to Exclusive mode, the Full Screen toolbar sometimes failed to hide.
Host memory reservation restrictions on Windows hosts are more relaxed in VMware Workstation 8.0.1 than in previous versions of VMware Workstation.
CD/DVD mount Linux.iso failed while installing VMware Tools in Ubuntu 11.10 guests.
The AltGr key was not working in an Ubuntu guest in Unity mode when the host and guest keyboards were both set to a layout that contained the AltGr key.
