Windows MultiPoint Server Team Blog

Updating PCs and Virtual Desktops for Update Rollup 1 of Windows Multipoint Server 2012

2013-03-27T22:33:00Z

Now that Update Rollup 1 is available on the Download Center and via Windows Update we’ve heard from a few customers who missed that if you are using the MultiPoint Connector to manage Windows 7 PCs, Windows 8 PCs or Virtual Desktops running in virtual machines then you need to update the Connector in those clients to the UR1 version. No action is required if you are running classic, out-of-box WMS sessions, which is the great majority of our users today.

If you are using WMS 2012 to orchestrate Windows 7 or Windows 8 PCs:

1) Once you have installed UR1 on the WMS host navigate to C:\Program Files\Windows MultiPoint Server and grab a copy of the Connector folder.

2) Uninstall the MultiPoint Connector from the client machines or your golden client image: Start Screen -> type “add remove” -> find Add or Remove Programs under Settings -> select Windows MultiPoint Server 2012 Connector and click Uninstall.

3) Put the Connector folder anywhere in your master client image, or add it to each machine. Open the folder and double click on the WmsConnector application at the bottom. You will need administrator privileges.

See Managing PCs and Tablets for a refresher on MultiPoint Connector setup.

If you are using WMS 2012 with Virtual Desktop templates (VDI):

1) Install UR1 on the host

2) Import your template to copy it to a new name from the Virtual Desktops tab

3) Customize your template:

uninstall MultiPoint Connector:

Start Screen -> type “add remove” -> find Add or Remove Programs under Settings -> select Windows MultiPoint Server 2012 Connector and click Uninstall.

navigate to the \\<your WMS host PC name>\Connector\ folder and run WmsConnector.exe to install the new connector

(Update April 12, 2013) reboot the template. We explain why this may be important over on the forum: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/windowsmultipointserver/thread/35514304-ca37-4e1f-af24-5994cb75efa7

4) complete customization

5) recreate stations from the new template

See Virtual Desktop Templates Part 2 for a refresher on customizing Virtual Desktop Templates.

Roundup of Online Resources for Windows Multipoint Server 2012

2013-03-07T19:45:00Z

There has been a lot of activity and questions around WMS 2012, so now seems like a good time to do a summary of the many online resources available.

Website - www.microsoft.com/multipoint has been refreshed for WMS 2012, highlighting new scenarios such as orchestrating Windows 7 and Windows 8 PCs.

Download – aka.ms/WMS2012Eval has a 180 day trial version of WMS 2012 Premium that can be converted to perpetual product with a purchased Volume Licensing key.

Update Rollup 1 – is available for download at aka.ms/WMS2012UR1.

Zero Client drivers – evaluation drivers for USB and USB-over-Ethernet connected devices are at aka.ms/WMS2012Drivers .

Videos – www.youtube.com/msmultipoint has been updated with 5 new feature demos:

MultiPoint Manager
MultiPoint Dashboard
Disk Protection
Virtual Desktops
Deployment Options

Or play all five as a playlist!

For a deeper dive there is a 60-minute presentation by our own Clark Nicholson at http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/TechEd/NorthAmerica/2012/WSV202

This blog – www.aka.ms/WMSBlog has a number of how-to WMS 2012 feature posts:

Teacher / Student Instant Messaging with MultiPoint Server 2012
Managing PCs and Tablets with MultiPoint Server 2012
What’s New in the MultiPoint Server 2012 Dashboard
Disk Protection
Virtual Desktop Templates – Part 1 & Part 2

The WMS 2012 Planning Guide has been published here (now updated with all WMS languages) and the 2012 Deployment Guide will be published in March 2013 at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=278910

Our product support site does not yet reference WMS 2012 explicitly, but all the information there is equally relevant to WMS 2012.

You can find answers to most questions in the 400+ threads on the WMS Forum

Also, follow us on Facebook and Twitter

Enjoy!

Teacher / Student Instant Messaging in Windows MultiPoint Server 2012

2013-02-28T23:21:00Z

Today's post comes to you courtesy of Spandana Battula of the WMS team:

This is one of the biggest feature additions in WMS 2012 over WMS2011. Through the Instant Messaging (IM) feature, students will now be able to privately send a message to the teacher. We thought that this feature could help situations where a student has a question to ask but might be embarrassed to raise his hand and ask it in front of the whole class. Or in cases where a teacher wants to answer students’ questions without needing to walk all the way to their desks. IM enables interaction and better classroom orchestration through MultiPoint Dashboard. IM messages are meant to be short-lived and no chat history is stored on the computer. This feature is for one-to-one conversations between teacher and student, student-to-student messaging is not supported.

I have tried to explain how the feature works in two parts below, student initiating a chat with teacher and vice-versa. In these examples the teacher is Sara and the student is Ray.

1. Student initiating IM with teacher

1.1 Student logged in after teacher is logged in

Sara is already logged in and has the MultiPoint Dashboard running. When Ray logs in, the chat window will already be available and minimized on his task bar.

For Ray to initiate a chat, he clicks on this icon on the task bar to open the chat window. The title of the window will have the name of the teacher that he is conversing with.

At this point, Ray can get the teacher’s attention by typing any (or no) message and clicking the “Send” button. These messages will be received by Sara:

1. On the dashboard: The new or latest message will be highlighted and shown beneath Ray’s thumbnail as shown below:

2. On Ray’s chat window, if already open on Sara’s session, in addition to the highlighted message beneath the thumbnail, the chat window will show the full message from Ray

If this chat window was minimized on Sara’s session, the chat window icon on windows taskbar will be highlighted and blinking with any new incoming message from Ray.

1.1.1 Teacher replying to a student’s message

For (1) above, Sara sees the indication from Ray’s thumbnail that she has received a new message from him. Since the chat window with Ray is not already opened, Sara selects Ray’s thumbnail, and right clicks to select “IM Selected Desktop User”. Alternatively once Sara has selected Ray’s thumbnail she could click the Send button in the ribbon IM group.

A new chat window will open, whose title will indicate who she is conversing with. She can then continue messaging from that window.

For scenario (2) above, Sara sees the chat window on the task blinking with Ray’s new message. She simply clicks on it to bring the window to the front and responds.

1.2 Student logged in before the teacher is

Since there is no teacher logged in yet, the student will not see any chat windows on their (Windows) taskbar. However, once the teacher logs in and starts running MPD, a chat window pertaining to that teacher will be automatically opened (but minimized) and seen on the taskbar.

1.3 Teacher unavailable for chat while student is logged in

If Sara closes MPD or logs off while Ray is still logged in, Ray will see an error when attempting to send a message.

However when Sara re-opens her MPD or logs in back, IM is now possible again and thus, Ray is notified of this on his IM window

Note:

Students won’t be able to close the chat window. Clicking on its red X button will result in the window being minimized, but not closed. This was a conscious decision to enable them getting back to the chat history in cases where teacher could have a solution to an issue and students can quickly refer back to this conversation in case they encounter the issue again
Chat history will not be available for the student after they log off
Students can continue to message the teacher even when the teacher’s session is disconnected or suspended.

2. Teacher initiating IM with student

Just as explained in Section 1.1.1, the teacher can also initiate a chat conversation with a student in the same way. It’s as simple as Sara clicking on Ray’s thumbnail, then on Send (IM) button, type in a message and hit Send. If the chat window on the student is minimized or not in the foreground, in order to bring the student’s attention to the teacher’s message, the chat window is automatically brought to the foreground. This way the student can respond/reply without having to constantly monitor their chat windows.

2.1 If student logs off

When a student logs off, the chat window on the teacher’s desktop pertaining to that student shows a message that the student has logged off. The Send button and the message box are also grayed out

Note: This window is now orphaned. When Ray logs back in and a chat is initiated, it will always open a new chat window on the teacher’s desktop. To avoid any confusion, it is always suggested to close any such orphaned windows, if present, once students log off.

Note:

Teachers can continue to message students who are disconnected or suspended.
Once the teacher closes a chat window, the history is gone. Re-opening the window by clicking on Send (IM) button to continue messaging will open a fresh window (no previous messages will be available on this)

3. Notifications

This feature has been added to make sure teachers and students pay attention to incoming messages as and when they arrive.

Whenever a new message is received:

On a WMS session Start screen or on Windows 8 running the MultiPoint Connector, there is a toast notification on the top-right corner of the desktop with the message.

On Windows 7, the same appears as a balloon notification on the windows taskbar

Windows MultiPoint Server 2012 Update Rollup 1 and Zero Client Drivers now available

2013-02-15T23:55:00Z

We’re happy to announce that WMS 2012 UR1 has been signed off. We recommend that all customers apply this as it has some changes that increase general system stability. But most importantly it adds support for USB-Over-Ethernet Zero clients.

UR1 will soon appear as Windows Update but, it is available now from the Download Center.

Evaluation WMS 2012 Zero Client drivers are available for download from the MultiPoint Server Connect Site.

Please see our blog post for an overview of WMS 2012 Zero Client Solutions and which drivers are appropriate for your zero client device.

Windows Multipoint Server 2012 General Availability - good to go

2013-02-11T02:06:00Z

As we announce broad availability of WMS 2012 you can hear a few thoughts from Anthony Salcito, our VP of Worldwide Education, on how this changes the game in delivering, managing and benefiting from technology in education.

http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_in_education/archive/2013/02/08/windows-multipoint-server-in-the-classroom.aspx

Zero Clients for Windows MultiPoint Server 2012

2013-01-31T19:59:00Z

Zero clients are an inexpensive and convenient way to easily expand the number of stations of your Windows Multipoint Server.

One of the exciting changes of Windows MultiPoint Server 2012 is a new zero client plug-in architecture that can greatly improve the user experience.

Compared to the video graphics extension model of WMS 2011 this:

provides a more responsive and fluid user experience
increases system stability and compatibility
removes 14 zero client station limit

Note: Even with the 14 zero client limit removed, other factors such as client load, server size and number of USB ports still affect the number of zero client stations a WMS server can support. Refer here for sizing guidelines.

There are two kinds of zero clients:

USB attached
Network attached (also known as USB over Ethernet, since to the WMS server they appear as a virtual network USB hub)

WMS 2012 Update Rollup 1 (KB2791647) should be installed prior to installing these drivers. It is available now from the Download Center and will eventually be distributed as part of Windows Update.

Three main chip-set manufacturers provide chips for WMS zero clients. You will need different WMS 2012 zero client drivers based on the type of zero client device you have.

Here is an overview of some of the zero client solutions available for WMS 2012:

DisplayLink chip-set devices

Drivers are now available for these common devices from OSBASE:

Atrust m200 series
HP MultiSeat T100 and T150 Thin Clients
LG N195WU and N225WU Monitors

Plugable technology makes DisplayLink based zero clients bundled with the OSBASE technology easily orderable through Amazon.

Magic Control Technology (MCT) chip-set devices

MCT produces a variety of USB and Network attached WMS zero client devices under their name and a variety of OEMs such as Dell Wyse.

Drivers for the following devices are available from the Connect Download Center.

MWS8840
MWS8820
MWS400UL
Dell Wyse E00
Dell Wyse E01
Dell Wyse E02

Standard Microsystems Corp (SMSC a wholly owned subsidiary of Microchip Inc.) chip-set devices

SMSC provides their chip set to a variety of OEMs who produce zero clients such as Atrust and HP.

SMSC USB Zero Client Drivers for the following devices are available from the Connect Download Center.

Atrust m300
Atrust m302
Atrust m320 (When USB attached, otherwise requires Atrust USB-Over-Ethernet driver)
HP T200 (When USB attached, otherwise requires HP USB-Over-Ethernet driver)
Acer zero clients
ViewSonic VMA25

SMSC Atrust USB-Over-Ethernet Zero Client Drivers for the following devices are available from the Connect Download Center.

Atrust m320

SMSC HP USB-Over-Ethernet Zero Client Drivers for the following devices are available from the Connect Download Center.

HP T200

Managing PCs and Tablets with Windows Multipoint Server 2012

2013-01-26T21:15:00Z

Hi, James here. Another new feature that has been generating a lot of excitement is using the MultiPoint Connector to orchestrate traditional client computers in the same way that we treat MultiPoint stations. So a teacher has the same visibility and control over both low cost WMS stations and / or full PCs running Windows 7 or Windows 8. We make discovery of these PCs simple in the same way it is simple to discover and orchestrate multiple WMS setups via MultiPoint Manager. By including the Multipoint Connector in your master client image or installing it on each PC you will be able see each of those PCs on the same network and add them for viewing in the MultiPoint Dashboard. You’ll just need to know an administrator username and password for the client PC. Here’s a view of MultiPoint Manager orchestrating a mix of traditional WMS sessions, two Windows 8 virtual desktops running on the same box, and a Windows 8 laptop.

Step by step

Go to C:\Program Files\Windows MultiPoint Server and grab a copy of the Connector folder.

Put the Connector folder anywhere in your master client image, or add it to each machine.

Open the folder and double click on the WmsConnector application. You will need administrator privileges.

The WMS Connector Wizard will launch and guide you through the simple installation

Now back on the MultiPoint Server open MultiPoint Manager and click on Add or remove personal computers

MultiPoint Manager will discover all the WMS Connector enabled computers on the same subnet and present them for addition.

You will again be prompted for administrator credentials. Once added, these computers will appear in the MultiPoint Dashboard and can be orchestrated just like MultiPoint stations.

Licensing

People have been asking if these Windows 7 or 8 computers need a WMS CAL, even though they are not consuming a WMS desktop session. The answer is no they don’t. They do still need a Windows Server CAL, but the customers I’ve spoken with so far already have these through their existing agreements with Microsoft.

Other options?

I can think of two examples of other approaches that users should be aware of:

1) We have no Connector for non-x86 devices e.g. iPads, Android tablets, Surface RT devices. For these devices one solution is to get a Remote Desktop client such as is available for free in the Microsoft Store for the Surface RT, and use it to connect to a WMS session on the host. This gives everyone the same, orchestrated Windows 8 experience regardless of their device. I strongly recommend this for BYOD scenarios.

2) WMS 2012 assumes a static classroom or lab in which devices don’t move from lab to lab on an hourly basis. For this we recommend a richer third party classroom management solution that has the notion of changing classes and grades with roaming devices. They also add additional education-specific value such as assessment. Solutions (which also run on WMS) come from, for example, ABTutor, LanSchool and NetSupport.

You can see a 2 minute demo of what's new in Multipoint Manager here.

Thanks,

Update - March 27, 2013

If you are using WMS 2012 to orchestrate Windows 7 or Windows 8 PCs:

1) Once you have installed UR1 on the WMS host navigate to C:\Program Files\Windows MultiPoint Server and grab a copy of the Connector folder.

3) Put the UR1 Connector folder anywhere in your master client image, or add it to each machine. Open the folder and double click on the WmsConnector application at the bottom. You will need administrator privileges.

What’s New in Windows MultiPoint Server 2012 Dashboard

2013-01-24T23:26:00Z

Hi, James here. The most prominent feature in WMS 2012 that gets used day in and day out, real time in the classroom is the Multipoint Dashboard. In a way everything is new because the features that were previously in the MultiPoint Manager Desktops tab are now rolled into a tool specifically for teachers, the Dashboard. We’ve enhanced features, added features and moved to a more user friendly design.

Enhanced features:

Easier to Block All or Block Selected stations to get students’ attention

Added Disallow to web limiting, so students can go to any sites except the ones you know are too distracting

Web Limiting now supports non-Microsoft browsers

Faster projection of your desktop to student desktops. [But note that this is still not a feature for broadcasting videos to everyone! Project does not broadcast your audio, for example. Instead use Launch to
launch an application, a file shortcut or a web location to all desktops.]

Simpler projection by minimizing everything on your desktop so you immediately focus students on a single task. We’ve also made it more obvious when you are and are not projecting.

More intuitive Launch that presents you with the icon and name of every app on your Start screen

New for 2012:

Dashboard Ribbon. A new, more intuitive and touch-friendly design that puts tasks in a ribbon, similar to Office

In-class Instant Messaging. Many teachers have told us they have some students in a typical class who are too shy to raise their hands and show that they need help. We’ve added an icon to the taskbar on their desktop that launches a simple window to ask the teacher privately for help.

The message from each student requesting assistance shows up highlighted under the thumbnail of their desktop.

The teacher can choose to respond by selecting the student’s desktop and clicking the Send button, or dismissing the request. This strictly a private teacher-student tool. Students can’t IM other students or friends on the internet.

Take control of a student’s keyboard and mouse. Imagine you were unsuccessful helping a student with a task in IM. Now you can take control of the students keyboard and mouse and show exactly how to accomplish a task while you are both looking at the student’s desktop. This is a little difficult to illustrate with a simple screenshot, so you may want to check out the 2 minute Dashboard demo video at http://youtu.be/D8OTukMl72s

Orchestrate Windows 7 and Windows 8 PCs. With the new MultiPoint Connector installed on the clients you can now use Multipoint Dashboard to orchestrate Windows 7 and Windows 8 PCs just like WMS sessions.

Dashboard Users Group. For IT Pros administering WMS systems, we’ve had a lot of feedback from you that you wanted a separate UI just for teachers so that not every teacher had to be a local administrator, and potentially get into trouble with low level hardware and software settings. So by default we now create a Dashboard Users Group which we’ve added as a third option in the Create New User wizard and we think this fits the bill.

If this all sounds good to you get started by downloading WMS 2012 180 day Evaluation at: www.aka.ms/WMS2012Eval and follow the instructions after you register for the download.

There are many more MultiPoint demos and case studies at www.youtube.com/msmultipoint

Enjoy!

Bonus Tip: A quick and easy way to return all stations to a clean desktop after class is to logoff all stations.

This is particularly effective when stations are set to auto-logon. Every station back at a clean desktop in under a minute!

You can also do it individually for that "special" student. Just click the blue arrow in the top left corner of the Dashboard.

Windows Multipoint Server 2012 – Customizing Virtual Desktop Template - Part 2

2013-01-22T22:45:00Z

Today's post comes from Ratnesh Yadav from the Windows MultiPoint Server team. (Updated March 27th, 2013 with information on Update Rollup 1. Updated April 2nd, 2013 with details on connecting remote stations to WMS Virtual Desktops, both at the end)

This blog is in continuation of the “WMS 2012 - Creating Virtual Desktop Stations - Part 1” blog, where we talked about creating virtual desktop templates & virtual desktop stations in WMS 2012. In this blog we will walk through the process of customizing the virtual desktop template.

Customization is the process by which administrator can install windows updates, add applications, configure settings, etc. on a master virtual desktop template and then recreate the virtual desktop stations so that all stations inherit all of the changes made to the master. Let’s go through the process.

Tip: We recommend performing the steps of this process from a remote computer connected to the WMS host using the Windows Remote Desktop Connection client.

Step 1: Prepare the System for Virtual Desktop Template Customization

If the virtual desktop template that you want to customize is already in use by virtual desktop stations that have been created from the template, you will need to prepare the WMS system before customization can be completed. We recommend switching the WMS system to console mode and shutting down all virtual desktop stations before starting the process. An administrator can switch to console mode by opening MultiPoint Manager, going to the Home tab and clicking on Switch to console mode. Once WMS is in console mode, the administrator must shut down all the virtual desktop stations by going to the Virtual Desktops tab and, for each running virtual desktop station, select the station and then select Shut down.

Step 2: Start the Customize Template task

After the system is in console mode and all virtual desktop stations are turned off, you are ready to start customizing the template. Open MultiPoint Manager, go to the Virtual Desktops tab, select the virtual desktop template you want to customize and then select the Customize virtual desktop template task as shown below.

Next, you will see following dialog box.

Clicking OK will start the customization process.

Step 3: Read the Customize Template Information Dialog Box

Once the above task is complete will see following information dialog box.

This dialog box explains the process of completing the customization and gives some helpful hints. Here is some important information from the dialog box.

WMS will start the virtual desktop template in a virtual machine and a Virtual Machine Connection window will be launched.
The template will be configured to auto logon using the built in administrator account. Optionally, you can add a domain user to the local administrators group and log in as that user to help when accessing domain resources.
Once done with customization, the administrator should double click on the CompleteCustomization icon on the desktop. This will “sysprep” & shutdown the virtual machine to create a new template for the virtual desktop stations.

Additionally, if the template was created on a domain joined system, we recommend that you always create a local administer account in the template.

Step 4: Customize the Template

Now you will be connected to the running virtual desktop template using a Virtual Machine Connect window. The administrator can now perform customizations on the template like installing Windows updates, adding software applications, configuring Windows settings, etc. The Template can be restarted during the customization process if a reboot is required. IMPORTANT: The administrator should make sure there are no pending Reboots before going to the next step.

The administrator can shutdown, start or reboot the virtual machine by using Virtual Machine Connection menu (Action -> Turn off, Shutdown, Start, Save etc.)

Step 5: Complete Customization

After the administrator has completed all the desired customizations, click on the CompleteCustomization icon on the desktop to complete the process. Again, make sure there are no pending Reboots before clicking the “CompleteCustomization” icon.

Clicking on the CompleteCustomization icon will start the sysprep process on the template. After sysprep is complete the template will shut down.

Step 6: Re-create Virtual Desktop Stations

Once the virtual desktop template is customized, the final step is to re-create the virtual desktop stations using the template. Before creating the virtual desktop stations, switch the WMS system to station mode. Once the WMS system has been restarted in station mode, open MultiPoint Manager, go to the Virtual Desktops tab, select the virtual desktop template and click on Create virtual desktop stations.

Click Ok on the information dialog box, and you will see the following progress bar dialog.

Each local MultiPoint station will be connected to a virtual desktop based on the virtual desktop template that was customized in the proceeding steps. Users will now have a full, customized Windows client experience at their MultiPoint stations.

In Part 3, we will explain how to distribute a customized master template to other MultiPoint systems.

UR 1 Update - March 27, 2013

If you are using WMS 2012 with Virtual Desktop templates (VDI):

1) Install UR1 on the host

2) Import your template to copy it to a new name from the Virtual Desktops tab

3) Customize your template:

uninstall MultiPoint Connector:

Start Screen -> type “add remove” -> find Add or Remove Programs under Settings -> select Windows MultiPoint Server 2012 Connector and click Uninstall.

navigate to the \\<your WMS host PC name>\Connector\ folder and run WmsConnector.exe to install the new connector

4) complete customization

5) recreate stations from the new template

Update April 2nd, 2013 - Courtesy Clark Nicholson of the WMS Team

Can I connect remote stations (e.g. RDP clients) to VMs on WMS?

The answer is yes! After using MultiPoint Manager to create and customize a template, you’ll need to use Server Manager to create a standard VDI deployment using the template.

Here’s an alternate deployment scenario for RDP thin clients:

1) Create and customize your Virtual Desktop Template using MultiPoint Manager, as described above.

2) Launch Server Manager, run the Add Roles and Features Wizard, select the Remote Desktop Services installation type, accept all the default settings, and select the local host for all role services.

3) Once the role services have been installed, close the wizard.

4) In the Server Manager’s navigation pane select Remote Desktop Services and Collections.

5) Under the COLLECTIONS TASKS drop down list select Create Virtual Desktop Collection.

6) Use the Create Collection wizard to create your virtual desktop collection based on the template that was created and customized using MultiPoint Manager.

7) Once the collection has been created, go back to the Server Manager->Remote Desktop Services->Overview page and select the green “+” labeled RD Licensing and configure the RD Licensing server you want to use for this VDI collection. Make sure to add additional CALs as needed.

That’s it! Now, when you can navigate to http://<WMShostname>/RDWeb you’ll see the newly created VDI collection and you can connect to one of the VMs in the collection.

Can I customize the VM settings like virtual hard disk location for my VM template?

The answer is yes again! After using MultiPoint Manager to create and customize a template, you’ll need to use Hyper-V Manager to change VM settings for your template.

Here is an example of the steps to change the virtual hard disk location for the template.

1) Create and customize your Virtual Desktop Template using MultiPoint Manager, as described above.

2) Open File Explorer and move the template from its default location (C:\Users\Public\Documents\Hyper-V\Virtual hard disks) to the new location.

3) Launch Hyper-V Manager.

4) Right click on the virtual machine template you want to customize and select Settings…

5) Select the Hard Drive under IDE Controller 0 and edit the path under Virtual hard disk: to point to the new location.

6) Select OK.

That’s it! Now the template’s virtual hard disk file is stored in a new location.

Windows MultiPoint Server 2012 – Disk Protection

2013-01-04T04:58:00Z

Today's post comes from Ratnesh Yadav from the Windows MultiPoint Server team. (Updated March 8th, 2013 with additional instructions for using alternate disk partitions at the end)

Windows MultiPoint Server (WMS) 2012 has a very cool new feature called Disk Protection. This feature allows an administrator to protect the system volume (that’s the drive where Windows is installed—usually C:) from unwanted changes. Changes made to the system volume are stored in a temporary location so that simply restarting the computer discards them and automatically returns the system to the previous known-good state. The administrator can easily install software or make configuration changes by temporarily disabling disk protection. In order to keep the system current with Windows Updates and anti-malware definitions, Disk Protection schedules a maintenance window to download and install updates. The administrator can also provide a custom script to run during the maintenance window to accommodate any maintenance needs beyond Windows Update. Readers familiar with the earlier Windows SteadyState product will recognize some of its core features here.

When Disk Protection is enabled for the first time, it prepares the system by installing a driver and creating a cache file on the system volume. The cache file is used to temporarily store any changes made to the system volume while Disk Protection is active. Because changes are stored in the cache file, they do not alter the “real” contents of the volume outside of the cache file. Each time the system is booted, the cache file is reset which essentially discards any changes stored there from the last boot. Thus, the system always boots up in the same state as when Disk Protection was enabled.

There are a few special files that Windows does need to update and make changes that are not discarded. To accommodate those, Disk Protection creates a new volume named DpReserved when it is enabled for the first time, and then moves the system pagefile, crash dump location, and event logs to this volume. The DpReserved partition is not protected, so writes to these files will persist across restarts, even when Disk Protection is enabled.

Let’s take a look at some of the basic tasks related to Disk Protection.

Enable Disk Protection

Open MultiPoint Manager, go to the Home tab, and click Enable disk protection.

After clicking on Enable Disk Protection, you will see the following warning dialog box:

Clicking OK will install Disk Protection, then automatically reboot the computer to enable protection. From this point on, changes made on the system volume will be discarded each time the system is rebooted. Other volumes will not be affected, so you may want to move user profiles to a new location on another volume.

Schedule Software Updates

If Windows is configured to automatically install Windows Updates, Disk Protection will prepare the system to allow these updates to occur at the configured time without being discarded. For example, if Windows Updates are set for 3:00 AM, then Disk Protection feature will inherit this behavior and each day at 3:00 AM, will check for updates. If any updates are found, WMS will temporarily disable Disk Protection, apply the updates, then re-enable Disk Protection.

Disable Disk Protection

An administrator can temporarily disable the Disk Protection feature to install software, make changes in system settings, or perform other maintenance tasks. Open MultiPoint Manager, go to the Home tab, and click Disable disk protection.

After clicking on Disable Disk Protection, you will see the following warning dialog box:

Clicking OK will reboot the computer. When it boots up, Disk Protection will be disabled, so any changes to the system volume will be permanent.

IMPORTANT: Remember to re-enable Disk Protection once maintenance is complete. The system will not be protected again until the administrator explicitly re-enables Disk Protection.

Uninstall Disk Protection

Uninstalling Disk Protection removes the driver and the cache file, so this should only be done if you want to stop using Disk Protection long-term. If you simply want to perform maintenance or stop protection temporarily, we recommend using the Disable disk protection task instead.

Disk Protection can be uninstalled from either the enabled or disabled states. Open MultiPoint Manager, go to the Home tab and click Uninstall disk protection.

After clicking on Uninstall disk protection, you will see following information dialog box:

Clicking OK will reboot the computer. The uninstallation process will require several reboots, during which the driver and cache file will be removed. The DpReserved partition will remain, and the pagefile, crash dump location, and event log files will remain configured to use the DpReserved partition.

You can watch a 2 minute Disk Protection demo here

UPDATE: March 8th, 2013

How to use an existing partition instead of the DpReserved partition

(This update also courtesy of Ratnesh Yadav of the WMS team) Earlier I explained the Disk Protection feature, how to enable disk protection, schedule software updates, disable disk protection and uninstall disk protection. I also mentioned that a new volume is created as a reserved partition when the disk protection feature is enabled. In this blog we will go through the steps for using an existing disk partition\volume as the reserved partition for the Disk Protection feature for administrators who don't want the additional partition.

Step 1: Make sure disk protection is uninstalled. (And not just disabled)

Step 2: Create a DpReserveDriveLetter registry key by executing the following command:

REG ADD "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows MultiPoint Server" /v DpReserveDriveLetter /t REG_SZ /d [Existing Partition]

Existing Partition à Existing partition drive letter, example “D”, “E” etc.

Example: REG ADD "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows MultiPoint Server" /V DpReserveDriveLetter /T REG_SZ /D E

Step 3: Open MultiPoint Manager (MPM) and click on Enable disk protection:

After clicking on Enable disk protection, the Enable Disk Protection warning dialog will be displayed:

Clicking Ok will restart the computer with disk protection enabled.

Note that if the partition is not large enough to fit the page, dump, and log files an error dialog will be displayed and disk protection will not be installed.

Step 4: After the restart, the partition specified in step 2 will be used as the reserved partition for disk protection. In the example above, partition E will be used for the page, dump, and log files so that these files are not affected by restarts when disk protection is enabled.