vSphere vs XenServer vs Hyper-V

For those of you trying to compare the different hypervisors, this is one good link to help you.

http://www.projectvrc.com/ Project VRC released an interesting whitepaper analyzing Terminal Services workloads running on the latest generation hardware and hypervisors in the market.

Happy reading!!

Windows XP Mode no longer requires Hardware Virtualization Technology

This must be a great piece of news for users who’s computer does not supports Hardware Virtualization Technology. This is also good news for small and medium enterprise. Now you can migrate to Windows 7 and still able to support Windows XP-based applications in Windows XP Mode.

You have to install this update package KB977206 to enable Windows XP mode on non HAV machines.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/977206

Adding Trusted Sites to Internet Explorer using GPO

For those of you whom wanted to customize the Internet Explorer settings for your clients, you should check out IEAK – Internet Explorer Administration Kit.

In this post, I will illustrate a simple scenario where an organization with Active Directory wants to add Trusted Sites to users’ Internet Explorer settings using GPO.

Before we start doing anything, please note that on Windows Server 2003 and 2008, we have Internet Explorer Enhanced Security Configuration turned on. This will not work with Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7 clients. So to begin, we have to turn off Enhanced Security Configuration to create a GPO for computers that do not have Enhanced Security Configurations.

To disable IE ESC, open Server Manager, Security Information, click on Configure IE ESC.

Turn off Internet Explorer Enhanced Security Configurations.

Now we are ready to configure a GPO to add Trusted sites to IE settings. You can find IE configuration settings on User Configuration –> Policies –> Windows Settings –> Internet Explorer Maintenance –> Security. Open Security Zones and Content Ratings.

Under Security Zones and Privacy, select Import the current security zones and privacy settings.

You will see a pop-up that warn you that you are configuring settings for computers that don’t have IE Enhanced Security Configuration enabled.

Add your Trusted sites and you are ready to test out your new GPO.

App-V 4.6 RTM and MED-V v1 SP1 RC now available

Microsoft released App-V 4.6 and MED-V v1 SP1 RC on the 23 Feb 2010 as part of MDOP 2010. You can download App-V 4.6 from TechNet and MSDN. You can download MED-V v1 SP1 RC from Connect while we awaits the final release which is expected to come in April 2010.

Please read about it on The Official MDOP Blog here.