Microsoft releases a new VDI/VDA FAQ document

One of my coworkers just told me that a new FAQ dated April 2012 just came out, and it’s available here.  For this most part, there are no new surprises, but it does do a great job of clarifying things in detail.  There is a whole section on FPP, and you already know my thoughts on that – just stay away from FPP when trying to do hosted virtual desktops.

This document also clarifies using Windows Server licenses as desktops (many have tried to do this) as well as Service Provider options and issues around Client Hypervisors.  Definitely a good read.

Microsoft Windows Software Assurance isn’t the same as VDA

On the cusp of my last blog post, one of my colleagues pointed out another Microsoft document that shed some more light on the virtual desktop subject.  According to the  Licensing Windows 7 for Use with Virtual Machines licensing brief, which actually spells out how Windows can or can’t be licensed for use in a virtual desktop, it also highlights a couple things that you can and can’t do with VDA.

One thing in particular that caught my attention, was that if you plan on using a Client Hypervisor, like Citrix XenClient or the one built into Windows 8, you cannot use VDA.  You pretty much have to buy a device with OEM Windows and then upgrade to SA to run a VM (or 4).  You also can’t dual boot with Windows, or run Windows locally with up to 4 virtual Windows VMs, but I don’t see too many folks looking to do this with VDA anyways.

So for right now, it looks like licensing your endpoint with OEM Windows and upgrading to SA may yield the most amount of benefits if your use case calls for it.

Nathan