Introduction

Imagine that you need to migrate all your farm of workstations in a short period of time, making it impossible to adapt all their existing applications to new operating system. This is the dilemma of many network administrators today. Windows 7 by default and the Application Compatibility Toolkit 5.6 can help in the compatibility of applications that run only on Windows XP, but even so it is sometimes impossible to run certain programs on Windows Vista or 7.

About 99% of the programs on the market are approved and designed to run on Windows XP, this is fact. The problem is when they do not give opportunity for them to be used in new operating systems. The design for this adaptation can lead to the development of new software or other resources that are very difficult, expensive and slow to be made.

To help with these dilemmas Microsoft provides the MED-V, a desktop virtualization solution just to run these applications from Windows XP through a Windows virtual machine on Virtual PC. Through MED-V the application looks like is installed locally, but it is extracted from the Virtual Machine and showed in their desktop, start menu, etc., creating an easy way to access and use the application.

The history of Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization (MED-V) began with the purchase of the company Kidaro in 2008. In that time it was already known because it provided virtualization solutions and applications in these compatibility environments.

MED-V is one of six solutions available in the package Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP) for customers using the Software Assurance license and with it you can improve the resources of installation, management and usability of a virtual machine image (VM) for users of your company.

Using the MED-V Workplaces can you create a VM with various settings that help users' experience, making them usability very simple.

To better understand how the MED-V works, in Figure 1 you can understand a little of the structure of a virtualized application for Windows Virtual PC.

Figure 1 - Windows Virtual PC Structure

Using Virtual PC and a Windows virtual machine image of Windows XP or Windows 2000, MED-V enables many features that are impossible using only the standard Windows tools, such as:

• Installation packages creation for virtual machines.
• Web pages redirections that require Internet Explorer 6 for the VM.
• Automation of the configuration of first use of the VM.
• VM memory Adjustment according to the available host.
• Virtual images can be installed according to users and groups from AD.
• Authentication of users before accessing the Virtual PC.
• Centralized control of the settings in Windows Virtual PC.
• Automate the creation of virtual machines and Sysprep settings for end users.
• Integration with PowerShell for automation, configuration and testing.

Version 2.0 offers several new features such as:

• MED-V Workplace - You no longer need a server only for MDOP. With MED-V Workplaces you can create a package of all virtual machine settings for users and install them manually, or with Active Directory by using System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R2.
• SSO using MED-V Workplaces - Users can save their passwords on virtual machines MED-V, thus the single-sign-on.
• Automatic Application Publishing - All applications that are installed on the MED-V is automatically displayed to users in the start menu, including applications based on the APP-V, providing a friendly interface.
• Redirecting the My Documents and Desktop. It is now possible to integrate physical and virtual machine if the application needs to save or access any of these options from the physical machine and vice versa.
• Support for USB devices - Smartcards, removable disks and other removable device series are supported via the USB share.
• New options for Web pages redirection - For applications or web pages that can only be viewed in Internet Explorer 6 or 7.
• Hibernation during the automatic shutdown of the physical machine - the virtual machine MED-V is automatically hibernate when the user logs off or shuts down the physical machine.

More information

For more information on MED-V, visit the team blog MED-V or the site of MDOP on the links below:

• MED-V Blog: http://blogs.technet.com/b/medv/
• MDOP Site Team: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/enterprise/products/mdop/med-v.aspx
• MDOP TechCenter: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/bb899442.aspx