MD2015 64-bit available to SHU

The 2014/15 64-bit Windows 7 Managed Desktop has been released to the University.

MD2015 includes the following updates from the MD2014 image:

  • Microsoft OS Security updates
  • .NET Framework .4.5.2
  • Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 SP1 Re-distributable Setup for x86
  • Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 SP1 Redistributable Setup for x64
  • Microsoft Visual C++ 2012 Update 4 Re-distributable Setup for x86
  • Microsoft Visual C++ 2012 Update 4 Re-distributable Setup for x64
  • Microsoft Visual C++ 2013 Re-distributable Setup for x86
  • Microsoft Visual C++ 2013 Re-distributable Setup for x64
  • Microsoft Visual C++ Re-distributable Security Updates
  • RDP 8.1
  • Scheduled Task to update the menus at night on workstations left logged in
  • Scheduled Task to update the icons at night on workstations left logged in
  • Symantic Enterprise Vault Outlook Add-In 11.0.1
  • Apple QuickTime 7.7.6
  • Updated default File Associations and MIME types
  • Copied Audio & ScrnRes Powershell files to C:\SHU\Scripts
  • 12noon Display Changer 2
  • Application Jukebox Player 8.8.1
  • Adobe Reader Document Cloud
  • Extended Asian Language font pack  for Adobe Acrobat Reader DC
  • FileOpen Client B958
  • Cisco Jabber 10.6.2.59142
  • Google Chrome 43.0.2357.124
  • Adobe Flash Player 18.0.0.160
  • Adobe Shockwave Player 12.1.8.158
  • Java 1.8 Update 45 x86 JRE
  • Java 1.8 Update 45 x64 JRE
  • _MENUVER to MD2015
  • _PATCH to 30
  • _VERSION to MD2015

Java 1.8

The major software update for 2015/16 is Java 1.8. There are known issues with E5 and CORE that Corporate Systems are investigating.

Foreign Languages

It has been decided that by default machines imaged with the MD2015 image will not have additional keyboards and languages available in the language bar that resides in the system tray.

Instead, users will be able to select any additional languages and keyboards from a folder on the start menu.

This will allow a greater variety of languages and keyboards to be available and can be updated as required.

We intend to investigate if it will be possible to use UE-V to transfer users preferences between sessions.

Software available with MD2015

For information regarding all the software included with MD2015 see:
https://confluence.hallam.shu.ac.uk/display/ITSEXTRA/Software+Installed+within+the+MD7+image

Google Chrome, Adobe Flash, Reader and Shockwave Player updates being distributed to MD7 Workstations – June 2015

After successful MD UAT Testing we have released Google Chrome 43.0.2357.124, Adobe Reader 11.0.11,  Adobe Flash Player 18.0.0.160 and Adobe Shockwave Player 12.1.8.158 to MD7 workstations. These updates have been released in order to resolve critical flaws with the previous versions. They are being distributed in a phased roll out so it will take a few days to be applied to MD7 Lab and Office workstations and will only install when the workstation is at the ctrl+alt+del screen.
 
In order to check which version of Google Chrome is installed on your workstation, start Chrome and check the version number.
 
To check the version of Adobe Reader, launch Adobe Reader and go to Help – About Adobe Reader XI.
 
You can check what version of Adobe Flash Player is installed by opening Internet Explorer and visiting http://www.adobe.com/software/flash/about
 
To test the version of Shockwave that is installed on a workstation, within IE visit: http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/welcome
 
NPAPI support disabled within Google Chrome
Google Chrome 43.0.2357.124 is the first Chrome update that we have distributed that has NPAPI support disabled. Java and Shockwave are NPAPI plugins, so they will be disabled in Chrome, as will any other NPAPI plugins. Information on NPAPI deprecation in Google Chrome can be found here

MD2015 Beta 02

MD2015 Beta 02 is available for testing by all staff and this is available for testing either on a physical workstation or via VDI.

Testing MD2015 Beta 02 with VDI

For the first time IS&T have made the Beta available to all staff via vWorkspace which means that is available to any PC or Mac that has the vWorkspace client installed. This is the same service that is used for accessing the Staff Remote Desktop.

The VDI desktop can be accessed by opening the ‘MD Beta Testing’ folder within vWorkspace and selecting the ‘MD2015 Beta 02’ desktop.

BetaDesktop01

BetaDesktop02

Due to licensing restrictions, the Beta 02 VDI desktop is only available for Windows and Mac users.

The Staff Remote Desktop is the supported Remote Desktop service and the MD2015 Beta 02 VDI service will be removed once Beta testing is complete.

Testing MD2015 Beta 02 with physical workstations

If you require this installing please contact the N&I Desktop Team with the name of a test workstation where the image can be installed.

Please do not use this image on production workstations.

Java 8 testing

The Beta 02 desktop is to allow staff to test the new and updated applications within MD2015.

This is specifically a requirement for testing Java, which has been upgraded to version 1.8.

If users use web pages or web applications that require Java then these should be tested within this desktop, and any issues reported via the Helpdesk, ensuring that is is clear that this testing refers to the MD2015 Beta.

Java 1.7 is out of support from April 2015 so we do intend to use Java 1.8 for 2015/16.

Chrome 42

Chrome 42 is the first version of Chrome where Google have removed support for plugins built using NPAPI.

This means that some plugins no longer work within Chrome, including Java JRE. The web pages will still work with Internet Explorer.

New and updated applications within MD2015 Beta 02

The software below is the new and updated software that is installed within the Managed Desktop Beta 02 image before it is installed on workstations.

This is not all the software that is installed within the Managed Desktop image, or the software that is distributed for Teaching and Learning.

The requirements for new and updated software for Teaching and Learning for 2015/16 is a separate project within IS&T that all teaching staff should be aware of.

  • .NET Framework .4.5.2
  • Java 1.8 Update 40 x86 JRE
  • Java 1.8 Update 40 x64 JRE
  • Symantic Enterprise Vault Outlook Add-In 11.0.1
  • Apple QuickTime 7.7.6
  • Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 SP1 Re-distributable Setup for x86
  • Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 SP1 Redistributable Setup for x64
  • Microsoft Visual C++ 2012 Update 4 Re-distributable Setup for x86
  • Microsoft Visual C++ 2012 Update 4 Re-distributable Setup for x64
  • Microsoft Visual C++ 2013 Re-distributable Setup for x86
  • Microsoft Visual C++ 2013 Re-distributable Setup for x64
  • Application Jukebox Player 8.8.1
  • Adobe Reader Document Cloud version 1500720033
  • FileOpen Client B954
  • Cisco Jabber 10.6.2.59142
  • Adobe Shockwave Player 12.1.7.157
  • Adobe Flash Player 17.0.0.169
  • Chrome 42

Feb 2015 updates to Chrome and Adobe Flash Player

After successful MD UAT Testing IS&T have released:

  • Google Chrome 40.0.2214.111
  • Adobe Flash Player 16.0.0.305

These updates have been released in order to resolve critical flaws with the previous versions.

They are being distributed in a phased roll out to all Managed Desktop workstations and will take a few days to be applied to MD7 Lab and Office workstations as the updates will only install when the workstation is at the ctrl+alt+del login screen.

Checking the current version installed on the workstation

In order to test the version of Chrome that is installed on your workstation, start Chrome and check the version number.

You can check what version of Adobe Flash Player is installed by opening Internet Explorer and visiting
http://www.adobe.com/software/flash/about/

Evaluating a new technology for distributing software

We are currently evaluating a new technology to distribute software to SHU workstations.

The technology is known as ‘application virtualization’ and the product we are using to deliver this is Application Jukebox. This technology does not install applications to the workstation as traditional software installation does, but provides a package that is launched within it’s own environment and separated from the operating system but interacts with the OS such that whilst running the software application users will be unaware that the application is not actually installed on the workstation.

If the evaluation is successful we hope that this may provide a number of benefits for the University, including:

  • Faster times to re-image labs and deploy all the required software
  • Rapidly deploy updated versions of applications
  • Enhanced testing procedures
  • Wider availability of applications within SHU
  • Improved workstation performance

Testing in Norfolk

The testing of this new application delivery and launching method is currently occurring within Norfolk 605. The applications currently using this new technology are:

  • Adobe Reader
  • Anvil Studio
  • Autograph 3.3
  • Cabri 3D
  • CES Edupack
  • Dreamweaver CS6
  • Firefox
  • Fireworks CS6
  • Flash CS6
  • FX Math Pack
  • Google Chrome
  • Mathematica 10
  • Matlab 2014a
  • Mindview
  • Minitab 16
  • Modeler 15
  • Netbeans 8
  • Orcad Lite
  • Paint Shop Pro X6
  • Photoshop CS6
  • Promethean ActivInspire
  • Power Pivot for Excel
  • SAP GUI
  • SAS
  • SPSS 22

Further information

For further information regarding Application Jukebox please see http://www.software2.co.uk/

Jan 2015 updates to Chrome, Adobe Reader, Flash and Shockwave

After successful MD UAT Testing IS&T have released:

  • Google Chrome 39.0.2171.99
  • Adobe Reader 11.0.10
  • Adobe Flash Player 16.0.0.257
  • Adobe Shockwave Player 12.1.6.156

These updates have been released in order to resolve critical flaws with the previous versions.

They are being distributed in a phased roll out to all Managed Desktop workstations and will take a few days to be applied to MD7 Lab and Office workstations as the updates will only install when the workstation is at the ctrl+alt+del login screen.

Checking the current version installed on the workstation

In order to test the version of Chrome that is installed on your workstation, start Chrome and check the version number.

To test the version of Adobe Reader, launch Adobe Reader and go to Help – About Adobe Reader XI.

You can check what version of Adobe Flash Player is installed by opening Internet Explorer and visiting
http://www.adobe.com/software/flash/about/

To test the version of Shockwave that is installed on a workstation, within IE visit: http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/welcome

Allowing students to lock workstations for a short period of time

At present users are not able to lock Lab workstations, and haven’t been because in the past we found users would lock a machine and then leave it locked indefinitely. This is not acceptable as it means machines were unavailable for use which at busy periods generated complaints from other students.

Not being able to lock workstations has generated complaints regarding security, inappropriate use of computers and potential loss of data if the user leaves a machine unattended whilst they go elsewhere for a brief period of time.

In order to resolve this, IS&T have produced a utility that will allow the workstation to be locked for a certain amount of time, after which the user is logged out of the machine is not unlocked. The default timeout is set to 15 minutes, but it is possible to set a different value for individual workstations.

Before locking the workstation the user must agree to these conditions and are reminded to save all work just in case the user is logged out.

WorkstationLock will only be available on machines specified by IS&T, not all Lab workstations and will be launched by a desktop shortcut.

Desktop Shortcut

The workstation will be locked when running the desktop shortcut. This can take a couple of seconds to launch.

WorkstationLock shortcut

The initial launch screen. Requires the users to select the terms and conditions box before being able to lock the workstation

WorkstationLock-01

User has selected the box and is able to lock the workstation

WorkstationLock-02

The same screen, but with the timeout set to 1800 seconds (30 minutes) rather than the default of 15 minutes

WorkstationLock-03

 Trying to run the WorkstationLock tool on a workstation where this is not enabled

WorkstationLock-CantLock

Improving login times and launching applications

IS&T are constantly monitoring login times and the time taken to launch applications in order to improve the user experience.

Managed Desktop workstations have to perform a huge number of actions to allow a successful login including network authentication, mapping drives, starting services, running scripts and applications in order set the environment for the user. Most lab workstations have a large number of applications, some of which require significant resources in order to run and start services, including SQL Server Express.

All Managed Desktop workstations should have a minimum of 4Gb RAM and a decent processor but it’s recognised that a device that can have a big influence on the performance of a workstation is the hard disk.

Types of hard disk

Traditionally, workstations have used standard SATA disk drives running at a speed of 5400 or 7200.

In recent years new drive technology has been developed which is SSD and SSHD.

SSD disks are ‘Solid State Drives’ that use NAND Flash for storage. These disks are extremely fast for access and transfer speeds,but expensive for large capacity disks.

SSHD disks (Solid State Hybrid Drives) are drives that use a combination of traditional solid disks and a small amount of NAND Flash storage. The latest drives have 8Gb NAND Flash and 1Tb of traditional disk technology. These use caching technology to cache files most used, so commonly provide much improved startup and login times, but using a large variety of different applications might not see a large improvement in performance.

Here is a Segate PDF explaining the technologies and different benefits of SSD, SSHD and HHD.

Testing within SHU – Owen 331

As a test, in April 2014 for a couple of weeks we installed a SSD and a SSHD drive into two workstations within Owen 331 in order to compare the performance against the machines with traditional disk drives.

Workstations in Owen 331 have a lot of software installed, including large memory, disk and processor intensive applications.

Login times

1st refers to 1st logins, which are logins after a machine has restarted.
2nd refers to logins after another user has logged in and out and the machine hasn’t been restarted, which we know are faster logins.

Logins where a user profile already exists are faster than if a user profile has to be created. For this reason, we now retain all user profiles on Lab workstations for 8 days before being removed. This accounts for the particularly quick logins occasionally achieved.

Owen331-LogintimesThe figures above show the improvement in login times for the workstations with SSD and SSHD drives.

The graph below shows the login times for the two workstations that had the SATA drive replaced with the SSD and SSHD drives for a few weeks. This timespan when the machines were using the new drives is shown between the two black lines, where there is a noticeable improvement in login times until the drives were replaced with the original SATA drives again.

Sample Owen PCs MD2013

Application Launch times (seconds)

This is a timing of the time taken to launch an application from running the menu shortcut until the application is available for use.

Owen331-AppLaunches

It is noticeable that the workstations using SSD and SSHD drives launched applications much quicker than workstations using the standard SATA drive.

Testing within SHU – Adsetts

The testing in Adsetts was slightly different to Owen in that three disks were used, one SSD and two hybrid disks.

Rather than just doing a straight comparison between other existing machines, the testing compared login times before the disks were installed and after to determine if there is any noticeable difference. Exactly the same software was re-installed after the new disks were installed.

AC03-016D204534

This machine had a 1Tb SSHD hybrid disk installed to replace the existing SATA disk.

AC03-016D204534

AC03-022D204540

This machine had a 256Gb SSD disk installed to replace the existing SATA disk.

AC03-022D204540

AC04-SP7-159928

Software installed: Adsetts Level 4, Specialist Software. This machine had a 1Tb hybrid SSHD disk installed to replace the existing SATA disk.

AC04-SP7-159928

 Conclusion

Replacing the existing SATA disk with both the Hybrid SSHD and SSD has made a consistent improvement to both login times and application launch times.

The SSD drive was consistently the fastest disk for both login times and launching applications, but the Hybrid SSHD drive wasn’t much slower and both were considerably faster that the standard SATA drives. Considering the difference in capacity and price, the Hybrids gave a much better return for the investment, especially as they aren’t much more expensive than the equivalent standard SATA disk.

SSD disks might be appropriate for highly specialist workstations where performance is critical, but not where a large number or applications or disk space is required, but for general machines with the amount of software we install, Hybrids would certainly improve the teaching and learning experience for users.

Transferring Personal Settings between Managed Desktop workstations

IS&T have implemented a service that will allow staff and students to transfer personal settings between workstations for certain applications.

This will improve teaching and learning due to the fact that application settings will be retained between sessions so not requiring students and staff to re-configure their settings each time. For some applications such as Visual Studio this has improved the time taken to launch the application and means that users don’t have to configure the application to their own requirements before they can use it.

Personal settings for common Microsoft software such as Microsoft Office and Internet Explorer will be retained as will any shortcut placed on the computer desktop of an Managed Desktop Office workstation, allowing staff users to create shortcuts to their favourite applications and documents. Desktop shortcuts will not copy between Lab workstations.

Common settings that this could be used for include Microsoft Office configuration settings, Outlook signature files and Internet Explorer settings such as setting the home page to something different.

This achieved by using a new technology from Microsoft called ‘User Experience Virtualization’, or UE-V for short.

Staff using an MD7 Office workstation retain their profiles indefinitely, so any additional settings that are set will remain, using UE-V will aid the movement of users between  workstations, transferring settings for the common applications.

How are settings transferred?

Desktop settings, such as desktop shortcuts and Windows Explorer settings are applied during the login process and updated during the logout process.

Applications settings are applied when the application is launched and saved when the application is closed.

This is a very efficient way of transferring settings as only settings required by a specific application are applied.

Where are the application settings saved?

The settings files are stored within the user’s Homespace folder, specifically within folders within the directory ‘F:\SettingsPackages’ with names that relate to the application. These settings files are very small in size and should not affect the users’ usage of Homespace.

Can these settings files be deleted?

If there are space issues for Homespace or the user does not require the settings that are saved then these files can be deleted without any issues. The user will lose all of their settings and so revert to the standard Managed Desktop settings for the application.

The application ‘MD Help’ which can be launched from the Start Menu has an option within the ‘Extra Reports’ tab for users to analyse their Homespace drive to show the amount of space in use by each folder and to also show the largest and the oldest files within their Homespace. A good location to look for files that could be deleted to free up space is the F:\Download folder.

Which settings are currently transferred?

At present, Lab and Office machines will transfer a limited number of application settings between sessions for all users. These applications are:

  • Internet Explorer
  • Google Chrome (bookmarks and history)
  • Microsoft Office 2010
  • Microsoft Visio 2010
  • Microsoft Project 2010
  • Microsoft Publisher 2010
  • Microsoft SharePoint Designer 2010
  • Microsoft SharePoint Workspace 2010
  • Matlab 8
  • NVivo 10
  • Cisco Jabber client
  • Oracle SQL Developer
  • SSH Secure Shell
  • Microsoft Visual Studio 2008
  • Microsoft Visual Studio 2012
  • Microsoft Visual Studio 2013
  • Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio
  • Windows Calculator
  • Windows Notepad
  • Windows Wordpad
  • Windows Desktop shortcuts (LNK and URL files) for Office workstations

We intend to extend the list of applications that will roam user settings.

Desktop shortcuts and Pinned Taskbar items on Office workstations

Desktop shortcuts will roam between Office workstations. This could potentially cause issues because the user might have shortcuts on their desktop that might refer to applications installed locally and so not available on all workstations.

Items pinned to the Taskbar and Start Menu are not roamed at present, though we are investigating this.

Note: Files and documents stored on the desktop will not roam, only shortcuts. As always, files required on other machines should be stored in Homespace or a Shared network folder, not an individual machine.

This is exactly the same configuration as used for the Staff Remote Desktop.

Desktop and OS settings

UE-V can roam Windows Desktop settings and ‘Ease of Access’ settings. These will not be available during the initial rollout, but will be considered for the future.

Outlook signature files do roam, but some Outlook settings not roamed between sessions

UE-V will transfer Outlook signature files, but not the settings to automatically add a signature to an email. This is an know issue with Outlook settings in that they are stored in two locations, one of which is unique to the workstation and created when the Outlook profile is first set up.

Outlook settings that do not roam between sessions on a different computer include:

  • Changes to the location of the viewing pane from the side to another location
  • Adding additional mailboxes to Outlook
  • Outlook signature settings for the signature to apply to new messages and replies
  • Changing the font used within emails

This is a known issue, as documented in this Microsoft KB article:
Migrating MAPI profiles with Microsoft UE-V is not supported

Microsoft are aware that is an issue and are actively working on a solution. The next version of UE-V is supposed to resolve some of the above issues.

To insert a signature into an email on a new workstation the user should select Insert, Signatures and then select the required signature.

Potential issue for staff users when first use UE-V

When UE-V is enabled, the settings first saved will be from the machine where the user first used UE-V, which could mean potentially a staff member could log into another machine, potentially a Lab machine and so get standard settings and then login to their Office machine and have these settings transferred. This isn’t very likely and unless it’s something obvious like the IE Homepage that is set then they might not even notice, but to mitigate this we are doing two things:

  1. Enabling UE-V on Office machines before Lab machines, so hopefully staff members will use their ‘personal’ machine and capture these settings
  2. Backing up the current Office settings so that they can be restored if necessary. To do this, on their ‘own workstation’ within Windows Explorer the user should open the folder:
    1. %userprofile%\AppData\Local\SHU\RegistryBackup, selecting the most recent number available
    2. Run the .reg file for the application(s) they wish to restore and copy the Desktop shortcuts to the user’s Windows Desktop.

Rollout of UE-V

This is currently in the initial phase of the rollout.

  • 30/10/2014 – SLS MD7 Office workstations
  • 04/11/2014 – FDR MD7 Office workstations
  • 11/11/2014 – DS MD7 Office workstations
  • 11/11/2014 – HWB MD7 Office workstations
  • 14/11/2014 – All MD7 Office workstations
  • 14/11/2014 – Owen Lab workstations
  • 16/02/2015 – Norfolk Lab workstations
  • 02/03/2015 – All Lab workstations, but not Lecture workstations

Videos of UE-V being used within SHU (only for SHU users)

See the videos on Confluence

MD2014 Patch 23 being distributed to MD7 Workstations

After successful MD UAT Testing we have released MD2014 workstation Patch 23, which is the first patch for MD2014 workstations.

This update will only be applied to the workstation when it is at the ctrl+alt+del screen, and will be a phased rolled out.

Patch-23 includes the following:

  • Delete the UE-V Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP) scheduled tasks
  • Copy an updated IE UE-V XML file to allow to work with Enterprise Mode
  • Update the WorkstationLock tool to version 4
  • New SHU bibligography files for 2014
  • Update “C:\SHU\PowerSettings\MD7-PowerOff.ps1” file with latest version
  • Uninstall FS Clerkenwell font for lab machines, but not lecture PCs or any machine with lec in the name
  • Disabled the UserLock service
  • Start FileOpen64 service by adding to HKLM\…\Run registry