In the summer of 2010 Erik wrote an article about “How to: Optimize guests for VMware View” in which he describes all sorts of changes he makes for a Windows XP or Windows 7 virtual desktop in a VDI environment. The changes that are suggested in the article are still valid, but after reading them I was wondering if there are new additions, specifically with Windows 8 now on the market. During my search I quickly came across a Visual Basic script that was released by Microsoft on their Technet site for optimization of a Windows 8 virtual desktop.

At the beginning of the script there is a disclaimer that you should have knowledge of the vb scripting language and that you should proceed with caution. Since the script is fairly long and a lot of changes are being made I decided to break the script down and put this in a table to give an overview of the services and settings being changed. As the title of the article indicates this is part 1 of the article, in part 2 I will try to explain the different pieces of the script in such a way that more people might understand what is happening inside the script.

While putting everything into a table I also looked if these changes could be made for a Windows 7 desktop too. The table is divided in several parts (and one bullet list) to provide some more overview to the whole.

Services:

Services name Change Win8 Win7
Application Layer Gateway Disable start X X
Background Intelligent Transfer Disable start X X
Bitlocker Drive Encryption Disable start X X
Block Level Backup Engine Disable start X X
Bluetooth Support Disable start X X
BranchCache Disable start X X
Computer Browser Disable start X X
Device Association Disable start X
Device Setup Manager Disable start X
Diagnostic Policy Disable start X X
Distributed Link Tracking Client Disable start X X
Encrypting File System Disable start X X
Family Safety Disable start X
Fax Disable start X
Function Discovery Resource Publication Disable start X X
HomeGroup Listener Disable start X X
HomeGroup Provider Disable start X X
Microsoft iSCSI Initiator Disable start X X
Microsoft Software Shadow Copy Provider Disable start X X
Network List Service Auto start X X
Optimize Drives Disable start X
Secure Socket Tunneling Protocol Disable start X X
Sensor Monitoring Disable start X
Shell Hardware Detection Disable start X X
SNMP Trap Disable start X X
SSDP Discovery Disable start X X
Telephony Disable start X X
Themes Disable start X X
UPnP Device Host Disable start X X
Volume Shadow Copy Disable start X X
Windows Backup Disable start X X
Windows Color System Disable start X X
Windows Connect Now – Config Registrar Disable start X X
Windows Defender Disable start X X
Windows Error Reporting Disable start X X
Windows Media Player Network Sharing Disable start X X
Windows Search Disable start X X
WLAN AutoConfig Disable start X X
WWAN AutoConfig Disable start X X

 

Machine settings:

Setting Change Win8 Win7
Hard disk timeouts Disable X X
TCP/IP / Large Send Offload Disable X X
Hibernate Disable X X
System Restore Disable X X
NTFS Last Access Timestamps Disable X X
Machine Account Password Changes Disable X X
Memory dumps Disable X X
Default system screensaver Disable X X
Service startup Increase timeouts X X
Disk I/O Increase timeout X X
Event logs Log size 1028KB

Retention to “overwrite”

 X X
PopUp Error Mode Set to “Neither” X X
Bootlog Disable X X
Boot animation Disable X X
UAC secure desktop prompt Disable X X
New Network dialog Disable X X
AutoUpdate of drivers from Windows Update Disable X X
Windows SideShow Disable X
NetFX3 Install X
IE First Run Wizard Disable X X
Ability to clear the paging file during
shutdown		 Disable X X
Disk cleanup Run with adjusted settings X X

 

Scheduled tasks to disable:

–    Application Experience\AitAgent

–    Application Experience\ProgramDataUpdater

–    Application Experience\StartupAppTask

–    Autochk\Proxy

–    Bluetooth\UninstallDeviceTask

–    Customer Experience Improvement Program\BthSQM

–    Customer Experience Improvement Program\Consolidator

–    Customer Experience Improvement Program\KernelCeipTask

–    Customer Experience Improvement Program\Uploader

–    Customer Experience Improvement Program\UsbCeip

–    Diagnosis\Scheduled

–    DiskDiagnostic\Microsoft-Windows-DiskDiagnosticDataCollector

–    DiskDiagnostic\Microsoft-Windows-DiskDiagnosticResolver

–    Maintenance\WinSAT

–    MobilePC\HotStart

–    Power Efficiency Diagnostic\AnalyzeSystem

–    RAC\RacTask

–    Ras\MobilityManager

–    Registry\RegIdleBackup

–    Shell\FamilySafetyMonitor

–    Shell\FamilySafetyRefresh

–    SideShow\AutoWake

–    SideShow\GadgetManager

–    SideShow\SessionAgent

–    SideShow\SystemDataProviders

–    UPnP\UPnPHostConfig

–    WDI\ResolutionHost

–    Windows Filtering Platform\BfeOnServiceStartTypeChange

–    Windows Media Sharing\UpdateLibrary

–    WindowsBackup\ConfigNotification

 

User settings:

Setting Change Win8 Win7
Menu show delay Reduced X X
Cursor blink Disable X X
Composition in IE Force off-screen X X
Screensavers Disable X X
Window contents when dragging Don’t show X X
Window minimize/maximize animations Don’t show X X
Font smoothing Disable X X
Show translucent selection rectangle Disable X X
Slide taskbar buttons Disable X X
Use background image for each folder type Disable X X
Use drop shadows for icon labels on the
desktop		 Disable X X
Active window tracking Disable X X
Menu animation Disable X X
Combo box animation Disable X X
List box smooth scrolling Disable X X
Gradient captions Disable X X
Keyboard cues Disable X X
Active windows tracking Z order Enable X X
Menu fade Disable X X
Selection fade Disable X X
Tool tip animation Disable X X
Tool tip fade Disable X X
Cursor shadow Disable X X
Action Center Disable X X
IE Persistent Cache Disable X X

 

Hopefully the tables provide you with an overview that can help determine which settings might be useful for your VDI environment. In the next part I can hopefully explain the script in some more detail so that you can use it yourself.