One very popular use case for VDI is for kiosk or lab machines. Uses for these types of desktops include classroom labs, library access and general computing in schools and corporations. Architects and Administrators of these types of use cases generally want to be able to define default configurations for applications and make the logons as fast as possible.

Working in tandem with our healthcare and education sector customers, we have developed two ways
to significantly speed up non persistent logons and at the same time deploy a set of predefined profile
settings. These benefits can be achieved by configuring two separate desktop elements:

1. By creating pre-configured profile to use as the systems default profile (see the separate
Mandatory Profile Recipe that covers this topic)

2. By having a network user log on to the desktop during the build process which is covered in this
document.

3. By Removing All “Modern Apps” for Windows 8 and 10

4. If necessary by disabling the reset of desktops on logout. This can be important for lab machines used for classrooms where many users log out and many other users log in right after that.

The benefit of using a preconfigured profile is twofold. First, it allows the administrator to pre-configure
application settings as long as they don’t include user specific information like a license or certificate.
Secondly logon times are significantly shortened because many of the setup functions windows runs
when the user first logs on are skipped because they have already been run and their results added to
the shared profile. The more applications installed on the desktops that run setup code the more this
optimization will help speed up logon times.

The reason logging on as a network user during the setup process helps is that during the first user logon windows creates several directories and opens a set of files for write that Unidesk must copy up to the desktops UEP. If we can perform these creates and copies during the setup process the files will be included in the frozen UEP and therefore will not have to be created on every logon.

At the customers we have worked with on this, these two fixes changed the NP logon for windows 7
from taking 90-100 seconds down to 12-20 seconds for . About 50-60 seconds of benefit were from the pre-configured profile and about 10-40 seconds were form the network user Autologon.
In Windows 8 and 10 the results are much more drastic. Removing “ModernApps” can save between 2 and 4 minutes of logon time. The network user autologon will save another 80-90 seconds and the
mandatory profile will save about a minute.

Note: For some reason autologon does not currently work in Win10 LTSB. It does work in Win10-
1511. If this situation is fixed when Microsoft releases an update to LTSB we will modify the
documentation. 

In this recipe we will show you how to set up the network Autologon and remove the Modern Apps. See the separate Mandatory Profile Recipe that creating and managing Mandatory Profiles for NP desktops.

Note: these optimizations make sense for use cases where persona management is not used. It may
also make sense used in conjunction with products like Immidio or Microsoft UEV where APPDAT is not redirected in its entirety.

Instructions

The new startups scripts and Optimization Builder 2.2 or later offer several possible NP optimizations. These include:

1. Force GPO Updates during the build process – this will ensure that GPO’s are applied for the
UEP disks are converted to Non-persistent disks.

2. Create an Autologon user – if selected this will have a network user log on during the build
process before UEP disks are converted to Non-persistent disks. When the first user logs on to a
desktop there are a number of windows files that are opened for write. By performing this logon
before the disks are covered these files do not have to be copied during later logons thereby
substantially speeding up the logon process.

3. Disable Reset on Logoff – by default a Unidesk Non-Persistent desktop will be shut down and
reset every logoff. For some use cases this is not desirable. If you have large numbers of
desktop turner over all at the same time like a classroom setting then it is beneficial to disable the
reset on logout functionality. If using a mandatory profile this is a great option because nothing
within the profile is saved when a user logs off. If the desktop is not reset then it is available
immediately for the next user logon.

4. Create a scheduled task to shut down desktops nightly. This is normally used in conjunction with
item 3. This will reset the desktop back to the original state once per night by adding a scheduled
task to perform a shutdown randomly within the chosen hour.

To implement some or all of these optimizations go to the windows\setup\scripts folder and run the
OptimizeV2.2 or later. If using UAC run as Administrator. You will see the following screen. Choose the
desired optimization in section 0 and press Save NP Settings. You can also choose a different set of
system optimizations from the rest of the utility if desired. 


If you select to add the AutoLogon user you will have to enter logon information for that user.


This user must have an account in Active Directory. It needs no special privilege and should just be a
regular user. The password will appear in clear text in files on the Installation Machines when editing this
layer but not on deployed desktops, the files are removed by the setup process.

For Windows 8 and 10 also select the following to disable the App Readiness Service and Bundles
Windows Store Apps.



When you complete these settings and Save File at the bottom of the utility. Note if you are not doing this
in your OS layer you will first want to load settings to load all your existing optimizer settings before saving
these new settings or you will lose your original settings.

You can then finalize the layer.