Can MED-V take on Terminal Services?

Had a great conversation with an MMS 2010 attendee while I was helping man the Windows Manageability booth at the Expo Pavilion this week. We were discussing his existing applications, moving to Windows 7 and he asked “When is it appropriate to use MED-V, since I already have a legacy application on Terminal Services?”

Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization is a great way to manage the deployment of applications that will not run on Windows 7, but run on Windows XP. By providing a managed, virtual, integrated copy of Windows XP running inside Windows 7, users can still access a legacy application seamlessly from their desktop.

However, MED-V is not the ultimate solution to getting legacy applications to run on Windows 7 indefinitely. Its a way to get Windows 7 onto desktops without being held back by a specific application that is not yet ready to be upgraded, replaced or phased out of use.

But what if you already have the application available through Terminal Services? You may be running Citrix on Server 2003 Terminal Services. Or maybe the application will run on Vista and can be deployed using Server 2008 TS RemoteApp. Both those options are easier to manage than deploying and managing a host of extra virtual Windows XP machines on your network, especially if you already have an appropriate Terminal Services environment available.

MED-V is a tool to consider if you are Software Assurance customer, because access to the MDOP tools cost only about $7-8 per desktop. This can be cheaper than the cost of Terminal Service or Citrix CALs, unless of course, you already own those CALs.

MED-V and Terminal Services aren’t competing solutions for the same problem. But they can help you accomplish the same goal – getting your users working on Windows 7.

The Observer Effect at the Helpdesk

In quantum physics there is the a phenomena known as the Observer effect, aka the Hawthorne effect. It refers to changes that act of observing will make on whatever is being observed. This effect is a regular occurrence when working in system administration, particularly on the help desk.

You don’t have to work in IT very long before someone will tell you that their computer starting working “just fine” when you showed up at their desk. This is the Observer effect in action.

When a support persons appears to troubleshoot an issue and asks an end user to recreated the problem, the problem will not occur. This is most often because the end user is now paying attention to what they are doing and aren’t making the same mistake they were making before.

This effect manifests itself in the opposite way as well. I’ve gotten the occasional call stating that an end user “was doing something all morning, but now it’s not working.” When asked to recreated the problem, it usually becomes apparent that the person has suddenly begun to pay too much attention to the steps they are taking -thinking too much about them and stopping too soon in the chain of mouse clicks or key strokes to finish the action. Instead of being observed by an outside party, the user has suddenly become the observer themselves and changed how they perceive what they are doing on the computer.

Either condition results in a help desk ticket, the observer effect either causes the problem or helps to solve it.

Microsoft Management Summit here I come!

Next week, the Microsoft Management Summit 2010 will be held at the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas. The agenda is packed with break out sessions, instructor-led and self-paced hands on labs, birds-of-a-feather talks and more.

Don’t forget to visit the Microsoft Experts pavilion in the Expo hall. You’ll find me along with other Microsoft staff and MVPs ready to answer your questions about Windows deployment, manageability and virtualization.

See you there!

Are you going to be on the East Coast? Get on the Bus!

Microsoft’s “Get on the Bus” Tour is coming back to North America in late May for a 10-day tour down the east coast from Montreal, Canada ending in New Orleans just in time for TechEd.

Take a deep dive into Windows 7 and Office 2010, plus learn about the path to getting certified on those technologies. Check out some best practices for deploying Windows 7, review the features of Office 2010 and learn how to optimize your desktops for ease of management.

Visit the bus tour crew in the following cities:

• Montreal – May 21st
• Boston – May 24th
• New York – May 25th
• Philadelphia – May 26th
• Washington DC – May 27th and 28th
• Richmond – June 1st
• Raleigh – June 2nd
• Charlotte – June 3rd
• Atlanta – June 4th
• New Orleans – June 6th

Learn more and register, and don’t forget to follow the tour on Twitter @thebustour.

More from MDOP: Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset

Every IT Professional loves a toolkit - you know that special DVD or flash drive with your favorite go-to applications for solving problems. Here’s a little something to add to the mix: DaRT, the Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset, which comes as part of the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack.

Designed to help reduce the time spent repairing damaged Windows system, it includes 14 different tools, a veritable Swiss Army knife for Windows. Use DaRT to help with tasks like:

• Recover an unbootable PC, even when it won’t boot in Safe mode
• Access deleted files
• Reset passwords
• Detect and remove malware when the PC is offline
• Wipe hard drives
• Access files from a unbootable OS
• Uninstall hotfixes

DaRT will run on top the Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) and the DaRT tools and the WinRE tools run side by side so you can use them both together to recover systems. You can also create customized DaRT boot disks that only include a subset of tools for different uses. Overall, DaRT may help reduce the amount of time you need to spend repairing and reimaging systems for end users – getting people back to their regular duties sooner and improving the TCO on your desktops.

To learn more, check out this overview of DaRT on Microsoft Technet. DaRT is part of MDOP, which is available to Software Assurance and volume licensing customers.