Allow Windows Group policies to manage your virtual desktop

Want to make a group of virtual desktop applications consistent? Windows Group Policy is a good method.

Virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) is composed of a large number of desktops accessible to a group of users. One challenge is how to minimize the number of virtual machines running in a virtual desktop. The IT department must maintain and upgrade each image separately, so the fewer images IT has, the simpler the Administrator's work.

The IT department can use many tools to allow different groups of users to use the same basic image. For example, application virtualization technology can create a standard version for the application, allowing access by a small number of users. The group policy is another method separately set by the application. It is applicable to users who use the desktop group or the desktop.

What is the role of a Windows Group Policy?

A group policy is the basis for a successful desktop management policy. VDI is well compatible with Windows Group Policy Management, because the operating system and application architecture in each desktop differ a little, making the Group Policy of application consistency easy. In addition, the desktop virtual machine is located in the data center and can be connected to the domain controller that saves the Group Policy at high speed, making the Group Policy Application more reliable.

In the VDI environment, the IT department can control many things through the Windows group policy management feature. The most obvious thing is to maintain user directory consistency.

The path of the roaming directory. First, set a roaming directory location. This allows you to synchronize changes on the physical desktop to the desktop virtual machine.

A valid group policy must have different roaming directory paths. When a user logs on to a virtual desktop or the original desktop, especially during the migration process or when the user only uses VDI to complete some work. In this case, the VDI roaming directory does not affect the previous roaming directory, and vice versa. It is also helpful when the original desktop is not applicable to roaming directories. If you do not like to use roaming directories in Windows XP, it may take some time to use them in Windows 7 and VDI.

Directory volume. You can also use Windows Group policies to minimize the size of Windows roaming directories, which can directly affect the desktop logon and logout time. Folder Redirection can also reduce the directory size. Your documents, favorites, and other data files can be stored on a shared network file disk and displayed in common Windows locations.

File redirection can also slow down the growth rate of Virtual Machine disk files because it contains all files copied to the virtual machine. Replication of fewer user data files reduces disk files.

User restrictions. Another common application of Windows Group Policy in VDI is User restrictions to prevent users from doing destructive things that IT does not allow. One restriction is to hide drive C in the Windows file browser to prevent users from storing files on drive C.

The group policy can also hide the start buttons such as shutdown and disconnection, so that the user will not exit the desktop due to misoperations. You can also set other group policies to remove running commands from the Start menu and restrict projects in the control panel that can be accessed by users.

Mark the enterprise ID for the desktop. You can also use Windows Group policies to set the enterprise ID and set the same desktop background and screen saver for each desktop. However, it is necessary to ensure a balance between the enterprise logo and the user's pleasant experience on the virtual desktop. Pay attention to the use of drawn images rather than photos on the desktop background, because they can be better compressed, so they will be more friendly for remote display.

Allocate applications. Group policies can inherit group members from the Active Directory, so you can use group policies to automatically assign applications to users, even if they have changed roles or transferred to another project. Most VDI products allow you to connect users to the nearest printer when they log in. This is helpful for employees who need to work in multiple offices for only one week or one month.

How group policies affect disk usage

You need to know that the policy for a desktop application group is not completely free. When a group policy is updated, disk transactions are affected. The default update interval is 90 minutes.

This will not affect the hard disks that come with the PC. However, in VDI, hundreds of desktops share a set of storage disks, which may affect all the desktops. If some settings need to be applied to all desktops and are hardly changed, they should be applied to the registry of the primary image.

VDI deployment is an ideal way to manage user directories, restrictions, and applications using Windows Group policies, especially for a large number of desktops and users. When maintaining the uniqueness of the user's desktop environment, the Group Policy can make the desktop virtual machine one-time-to achieve "Better Management" of VDI.