ThinkVirt

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Several times a week I'm working with customers on designing, implementing, tweaking or customizing their particular VDI solution.

I've been a part of some very cool projects and have had to address some very specific needs.

One of the customer requirements I recently had to work with was:

• The existing Windows XP workstations must boot and force the VMware View Client to launch immediately.

This guide covers how to setup Auto-Login in Windows XP. I have a laptop set with a generic user account and an over-riding admin account; the laptop now logs in automatically with the user account.

I then used then Repurposing a PC to a Thin Desktop Using VMware View.

The main points of the doc are as follows:
"

1. Log in to Windows as the user whose shell you want to change.
2. Start the Windows Registry Editor by entering regedit at a command prompt.
3. Locate the following subkey:
   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon
4. Select Edit --> New --> String Value and give the new value the name Shell
5. With the new value selected, select Edit --> Modify.
6. Set the value data to the path of the new shell— for example
   C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware VDM\client\bin\wswc.exe
   Note: No quotations.
7. Click OK, and then exit Registry Editor, log out of the user’s account, and log back in.

"

Once I tested this out, I applied it to a group of computers via a GPO to their computer account. Works like a charm.

Now, when a user fires up his workstation they are simply greeted with this:



I have my VMware View client pre-configured with my VMware Connection Server so it's a pretty easy setup for any end user to access the magical world of VDI.