Considering a transition to Windows 7 for your organization?  Looking to run a Windows 7 virtual environment for your users?  If so, consider this article below, which also discusses virtual PC's, RDP 7 and VDI.

Windows 7, RDP 7, and VDI: A Step in the Right Direction

From the outset, Windows Vista has been considered a dud by most.  Companies running VDI who migrated to Vista rued the day they changed, and those who stayed with Windows XP breathed great sighs of relief.  However, there’s a new hope for an improved operating system with the introduction of Windows 7, Microsoft’s latest OS. 

On the one hand, businesses that remained with XP may understandably be wary of making the switch to Windows 7 (W7).  Why shell out more money for something that might work nominally better?  On the other hand, system administrators with Vista will likely be wondering how quickly the transition can be made.  So what can Windows 7 offer sys admins in either boat?

•    New Features: In the situation that an RDP 7 client connects to a Windows 7 virtual machine, all the new features in W7 can be accessed.  However, the same RDP 7 client connecting to a XP VM will communicate in the decade old RDP 5.2 protocol.  At some point, updating your system is just prudent.

•    The user experience: A user will encounter a boost in logon speeds, improved multi-monitor sessions, and an enhanced audio chat experience among others.  The results are employees that can work and communicate more efficiently with their Windows 7 virtual PC.

•    Performance: Improvements include better bitmap compression and a byte compression technique that is three times more effective for all content from a VM to an RDP 7 client such as graphics, print, audio, clipboard, media etc.  Sys admins can prioritize interactive traffic (i.e graphics) above non-interactive traffic (i.e print/files/clipboard) by assigning a ration of available bandwidth to these two aforementioned categories.  Only W7 VMs allow admins to control this ratio based on their actual needs. 

•    Security: When connecting to a Windows XP VM, a connection will be created before security handshakes are finished. A XP VM does not support Kerberos for client/server and/or user authentication, Network Layer Authentication, Server Authentication, or Transport Layer Security/Secure Sockets Layer.  W7 VM with RDP 7 does all of the above and more.

The moral of the story is that if you are thinking about implementing a VDI environment, or already have one in place, making the jump to W7 and RDP 7 will provide the improvements much sought after and leave you with some peace of mind. 

Ready to learn more about Windows 7 virtual PC's and how they can help establish an efficient VDI environment for your organization?  If so, click the button below to speak with us.

Related Topics:

• Universal Print Driver
• Remote Printing