It is time to start taking votes for the best XenDesktop Video Tip. The creators of the top three video tips will receive prizes including an Apple iPod Touch 16 G, an Apple iPod Touch 8 GB, and a Apple iPod Nano.

Here are the XenDesktop Video Tips -

XenDesktop User Experience Comparison

VDI Made as Easy as Pie

XenDesktop User Personalization with AppSense

20 Desktops Delivered in 2 Minutes

XenDesktop with SC VMM and Hyper V

XenDesktop from Germany

Voting Now Closed

Voting will remain open until next Friday, May 16th.

This is an in-depth look on Virtual Desktop provisioning and lifecycle management using XenDesktop technologies.



cheers,

Gus Pinto
Twitter/GusPinto

I have not checked UTipU.com in a while for XenDesktop Tips. A couple of the recent tips from YouTube have been cross posted to UTipU.com in higher resolution versions.

XenDesktop with SC VMM and Hyper V 

 XenDesktop personalization with AppSense

See this live and in person in the XenDesktop technical sessions and live demos at Citrix Synergy. You can click here to register for Citrix Synergy.

I was just sent this XenDesktop video posted on YouTube from Germany. Much of the text on the video in in German (though Mark Templeton's comments are in English).

See this live and in person in the XenDesktop technical sessions and live demos at Citrix Synergy. You can click here to register for Citrix Synergy.

In this chat with the XenDesktop program team, we chat more about VDI and what it represents as well as some of the core functionalies of XenDesktop. I didn't forget to ask some hard questions around princing and why users should choose XenDesktop over other VDI solutions.

Cheers,

Gus Pinto
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Brian Ehlerthas put together a XenDesktop video that shows XenDesktop with SC VMM and Hyper-V.

Brian wrote a brief blog entry regarding this desktop virtualization video, and has quite a few more covering Hyper-V server virtualization.

See this live and in person in the XenDesktop technical sessions and live demos at Citrix Synergy. You can click here to register for Citrix Synergy.

Suddenly alot of XenDesktop videos are appearing on Youtube. This is another video for theXenDesktop Video Tips Contest
.

See this live and in person in the XenDesktop technical sessions and live demos at Citrix Synergy. You can click here to register for Citrix Synergy.

Someone from Appsense has created a video for XenDesktop Video Tips Contest
.

There will be numerous XenDesktop technical sessions and live demos at Citrix Synergy. You can click here to register for Citrix Synergy. I will see you in Houston.

Gareth James has created a new XenDesktop Tip video for the XenDesktop Video Tips Contest.

Gareth blogged about this video on Dabcc.com. Gareth created an online XenDesktop beta test site when the first beta was released, and has blogged about it numerous times. He likely knows as much or more about the producty than anyone outside of Citrix. Check out his post and his great blog.

I have received a few links to more Tip video, so I will post them later.

There will be numerous XenDesktop technical sessions and live demos at Citrix Synergy. You can click here to register for Citrix Synergy. I will see you in Houston.

This whitepaper discusses Desktop Virtualization and the impact on desktop management challenges.

1. The challenges for desktop management in a pre-Desktop Virtualization world.
2. How these challenges are addressed by Desktop Virtualization
3. Issues that are not well addressed by Desktop Virtualization
4. Our view of how to best address these remaining issues.

Download the whitepaper

Enjoy the reading!
Gus Pinto

You still have until this Friday by midnight to get in your video tech tip for the first leg of the XenDesktop Beta Video Tips Contest.
You have to place in the top 10 of one of the four bi-weekly votes to be entered to win the top prize - a 16 GB iPod Touch.

Your video could be as short as a minute or two, so it will not take you long to get it done. Follow this link to get the contest rules.

The first entry in the Citrix XenDesktop Video Tip contest has been cross posted to both UTipu.com and YouTube.

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The poster added several notes to explain each step of the video. Unfortunately, notes do not display for embedded videos from UTip.com, so go to this link to watch it with the notes that explain each step.

Here is the YouTube version -

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As you can see, UTipU has a higher screen resolution so you can certainly see more on the UTipU version.

The race for the 16 GB iPod Touch is on now! You can post as many videos as you like, and there are no limits on eligibility. I look forward to seeing more great videos like this one.

XenDesktop Beta Video Tips Contest

Are you taking the plunge into the XenDesktop Beta? Record your experiences as video tips for the Citrix Community and you could win an iPod Touch.

Announcing the XenDesktop Beta Video Tips Contest

The XenDesktop beta has been an an extremely popular download on MyCitrix.com (currently #1 in most popular downloads). Many people are pulling down the code and getting it installed in their labs. A few videos of user experiecnes have already appeared on YouTube.

Here is one video I just came across on YouTube  -

Citrix XenDesktop Performance Comparison

We would like to see even more videos, so we are creating a XenDesktop Video Tip Contest. Record a technical tip of XenDesktop and you could win an iPod Touch!

How to Win

Every other week, we will post what we judge to be the Top 10 videos posted for the past two weeks. We will take a vote on the best videos here on the blog until Wednesday of the following week. The top two video creators as voted by the blog readers will receive an iPod Shuffle. There will be four bi-weekly reviews and EIGHT bi-weekly winners.

You can post videos up until May 9th. Starting on May 15th, we will be taking votes here on the Official Citrix Blog on the eight winners from the bi-weekly voting.  The Top video winner receives a 16 Gb iPod Touch, second place receives an 8 Gb iPod Touch, and Third Place receives a 4 GB iPod Nano.

Contest Setup

Create a screen recording video of one of the following -

- XenDesktop Components Install

- Desktop Setup and Configuration

- Provisioning Server Configuration and Administration

- XenServer Configuration and Administration

- Application Delivery to Virtual Desktops - (Published apps on XenApp, application streaming, etc...)

- Performance Testing and Load Simulation  

- User Experience

- Third Party Integrations (Profile solutions, Microsoft Application Virtualization, Altiris SVS, etc...)

The XenDesktop Beta Getting Started Guide is full of different processes that need to be completed to install and configure XenDesktop. You could record one of these processes and add in some audio narration and notes that detail the steps and your thoughts on the process.

Videos that include notes (also called call outs) and/or narration are preferred and will have a better chance of winning.

Tools

In order to make these videos tips viewable here on the Citrix blog, we are requiring the videos be posted at either UTipU.com or YouTube.com

About UTipU.com

UTipU.com is a website that provides a free Tool (TipCam) that you can download and use to record your screen. TipCam gives you the ability to Zoom, Annotate (draw), or add a voiceover ( or redo a voiceover without redoing the video). You can then upload the video to the UTipU.com website.

Here are a few Tip videos on how to use UTipU.com

Intro to UTipU
http://utipu.com/app/tip/id/405/

How to Install TipCam
http://utipu.com/app/tip/id/1250/

How to Record Using TipCam
http://utipu.com/app/tip/id/1251/

How to add Notes to Your Videos
http://utipu.com/app/tip/id/1274/

How to Use Zooming in TipCam
http://utipu.com/app/tip/id/329/

Here is a very brief sample video of the Setup Tool for Citrix XenDesktop that I quickly put together as an example.

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If you choose to use an existing tool you already have (Camtasia or ScreenCast from TechSmith for example) you can upload the video to YouTube. Click below for help on Uploading videos to YouTube -

http://www.google.com/support/youtube/bin/topic.py?topic=10524

Tags

For both YouTube and UTipU, please use these tags -
Citrix XenDesktop Video Contest VDI

Please add a tag for the type of video (Install, Desktop Setup, Provisioning Server, XenServer, App Delivery, Performance, User Experience, Third Party).

A few times a week we will highlight new videos that are posted by linking to them from the Official Citrix blog.

We are looking forward to seeing your tips and examples of the creativity, expertise and innovation that is out there in the Citrix Community.

Good luck!

The views expressed here are mine alone and have not been authorized by, and do not necessarily reflect the views of, Citrix.

When implementing a "VDI" solution, most admins focus on the "Desktop".  What should the desktop look like, how many will be the same, who can access them, where do I run the desktop from and store my images.  Moving forward, the admins think about items like how they need to update the desktops with OS updates and or security patches.

I find that many times, applications are not thought about in the whole solutions from the admin point of view.  How are the applications going to be delivered to the end-user, how are the applications going to be managed.  Typically when this question arises, the answer is to install the applications on the desktop images just as they would be at the user's desk.  So let's look at the benefits of this so far........   Centralizing the desktop in the data center give you full control and security over of the desktops.  By installing the applications on the desktop images, you are also centralizing the application installs to the data center.  The downside to both of these would be when it comes to managing and maintaining the implementation(updating the desktop and the applications).

XenDesktop gives the admin a great way to reduce the headache and time associated with updating both the desktop and the applications.  XenDesktop can be fully integrated with Presentation Server.  This means that you can deliver a desktop from the data center to an end user, wherever they may be, and then deliver their applications to that desktop from Presentation Server in that same data center.  For companies currently running Presentation Server most application may already be setup and ready to be accessed from that centrally deliver desktop.   So now the applications are dynamically delivered to the desktop that is presented to the end user.  This allows the desktops images to be more flexible since the applications are not installed locally and no matter which desktop from a pool is presented to the user, the user can get the applications they have access to via Presentation Server and the ICA client residing on the delivered desktop.  These applications can be updated in the datacenter via a package that is being streamed to the Presentation Server or installed on the Presentation server.  Either way, the updates are done only on the package or the installed application on the Presentation Server.......not on every desktop image.

In addition to the applications, the desktop can be created as a single image or a few images based on your needs.  This image or images can then be streamed to the hypervisor on-demand when needed for a requesting user, via the Provisioning Server.  This way, you would only need to make updates to the "gold" image and then have it stream the updated desktop image to the user.  This method allows the admin to save space, time and pain of maintaining a desktop image for each user.

I hope that after reading this, you will have a good understanding of how much XenDesktop and Presentation Server can work together to provide an entire Desktop and Application Delivery system.  To allow users access to this system via a Secure Remote connection........ Implement Citrix Access Gateway Enterprise Edition.