Store User and Application Settings
Applies To: Windows 8.1
For a Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) deployment in education, you can store user and application settings using App-V, UE-V, Windows Folder Redirection, or Windows Roaming User Profiles.
When users connect to VDI, they need to have the same user experience they would if they were using a physical device. Users also require access to Windows Store apps and desktop applications that they use for administration or curriculum.
One challenge is that in many instances, users have a physical device running Windows in addition to their VDI session. This means they need their user experience and apps to follow them between their physical devices running Windows and their VDI sessions.
Note
User and application settings cannot follow physical devices that are not domain joined, that run a Windows operating system prior to Windows 7, or that run another operating system (such as iOS or Android).
After a user ends their VDI session, by default, user and application settings in their VDI session are:
Saved for personal collections in VM-based desktop deployment. Although user and application settings are saved for this type of VDI session, they are saved only on the VHDs associated with the VDI session. This can create problems if the user also uses a physical device or a separate VDI infrastructure within the educational institution (for example, a student accesses one VDI infrastructure for a physics class and another, separate VDI infrastructure for a computer graphics class).
Saved for pooled collections in VM-based desktop deployment with a User Profile Disk. This type of VDI session has the same problems as personal collection sessions. User and application settings are saved on the User Profile Disk, which is unique to a specific VDI infrastructure and will not be available to other VDI infrastructures or physical devices.
Saved for session-based deployment with a User Profile Disk. This type of VDI session has the same problems as personal and pooled collection sessions. User and application settings are saved on the User Profile Disk, which is unique to a specific VDI infrastructure and will not be available to other VDI infrastructures or physical devices.
Lost for all other types of VDI sessions. These types of VDI sessions include session-based VDI without a User Profile Disk, personal collections in VM-based desktop deployment without a User Profile Disk, and Windows MultiPoint Server 2012 sessions. When the user ends the VDI session, all the changes they made to their user profile and applications are discarded.
You can use any combination of the following technologies to help ensure that user experience and apps follow users between their VDI sessions and physical devices (if the devices are domain joined and the user logs on by using their institution-issued credentials):
Windows Folder Redirection. The Folder Redirection feature in Windows 8.1 redirects the path of a known folder (such as the Documents, Pictures, or Video folder in a user profile) to a new location manually or by using Group Policy. The new location can be a folder on the local device or a directory on a file share. Users interact with files in the redirected folder as if they still existed on the local drive.
Windows Roaming User Profiles. The Roaming User Profiles feature in Windows 8.1 redirects user profiles to a file share so that users receive the same operating system and application settings on multiple computers. When a user logs on to a computer by using an account that is set up with a file share as the profile path, the user’s profile is downloaded to the local computer and merged with the local profile (if present). When the user logs out of the computer, the local copy of their profile, including any changes, is merged with the server copy of the profile.
UE-V. UE-V is an enterprise-scale user state virtualization solution that keeps users’ experience with them. UE-V provides users the choice of changing their device and keeping their experience so that they do not have to reconfigure applications each time they log on to different Windows 8.1 VDI sessions. UE-V integrates with the Folder Redirection feature in Windows 8.1 to help make user folders accessible from multiple physical or virtual devices. UE-V supports desktop applications that are deployed using different methods (such as locally installed apps, App-V sequenced applications, or Remote Desktop applications).
App-V. App-V virtualizes desktop applications so that they become centrally managed services deployed to a virtualized desktop application environment on devices without using traditional installation methods (known as application sequencing). The sequenced desktop applications run in their own self-contained virtual environment and are isolated from each other, which eliminates application conflicts but allows desktop applications to interact with the VM.
Remember that user experience and apps follow users for VDI sessions and not to their institution-owned or personally owned devices (unless an institution-owned device is domain joined and the user logs on by using their institution-issued credentials).