[AccessD] OT: Virtual PC 2007 (MS), CITRIX XenServer, CITRIX HDX...

jwcolby jwcolby at colbyconsulting.com
Mon Sep 21 09:50:52 CDT 2009


Shamil,

 > As far as have read CITRIX HDX allows to work with VPC desktop ...

I use a variant of GoToMyPC for accessing a client PC, where I do Access development / maintenance 
work.  I think that is a variant of Citrix.  It works OK, but this specific variant has one HUGE 
issue for me, which is that the ALT-TAB takes me back to my desktop rather than switching between 
open apps on the remote desktop.  My brain is wired to use ALT-TAB and I am constantly ending up 
back on my own desktop.  ANNOYING!!!  Remote Desktop does not do this.

 >... even through browser and with Internet connection speed starting from 20kbps.

I would not count too heavily on this.  One way or the other, sections of the remote desktop screen 
have to be shipped back to your local machine.  My experience is that below about 200 kbps the 
results become annoyingly slow.  Which is not to say unusable, since the term "unusable" is defined 
by each individual and indeed each circumstance.  If you absolutely MUST get in and do something, 
then taking an hour to do 5 minutes work is "usable".

 > CITRIX XenServer exists in free and commercial versions.

I really should at least look I suppose.  Using Hamachi and RD is also free and has always worked 
for my purposes and is VERY simple to set up.  I am guilty of getting a solution set up and just 
using that rather than going on to explore other solutions.

 > Free Windows XP Images to Download

Definitely useful to play with, see how it all works.

I set up my office to have battery backup and never lose power for more than 30 seconds - a 
generator automatically starts.  It is possible to lose internet during a power outage though.

I must admit that I do not travel for long periods (a week at most) so this is sufficient for my 
needs, and simple enough that it makes further work in this area not profitable for me.  I will be 
interested to see how this plays out for you though.

John W. Colby
www.ColbyConsulting.com


Shamil Salakhetdinov wrote:
> John,
> 
> Thank you for your reply.
> 
> As far as have read CITRIX HDX allows to work with VPC desktop even through
> browser and with Internet connection speed starting from 20kbps.
> CITRIX XenServer exists in free and commercial versions.
> CITRIX XenServer(?) allows to share VPC image between several running VPC
> instances - as far as I have read they somehow manage to keep virtual HDD
> data files created by different VPC instances separately but share VPC image
> - that's a rather useful feature for large VPC images.
> Also AFAIK Microsoft and CITRIX work very closely together on virtualization
> technologies.
> I have got WinXP SP3 VPC running on my Vista notebook under MS Virtual PC
> 2007 - and I have an impression/feeling (that's subjective of course) that
> it runs significantly quicker than under VMWare Player on the same notebook.
> 
> Because of the above reasons I'm currently looking for CITRIX XenServer and
> CITRIX HDX experiences to find out are these technologies suitable for my
> "virtualization plan".
> 
> <<<
> I am just guessing but I would say that the VM disk is empty and thus
> compresses well.  I have to 
> say I find it unbelievable that a VM with XP installed compresses down to
> 1/2 megabytes though. 
> Something is logically wrong there.
> John you can get IE8-XPSP3.exe from here:
> 
> Free Windows XP Images to Download
> http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=21EABB90-958F-4B64-
> B5F1-73D0A413C8EF&displaylang=en 
> 
> it's 575MB - when unRARed it's 2.37GB - this is WinXP SP3 with .NET
> Framework 2/3/3.5 and IE8. And when this VPC started it informs that it has
> its virtual C: drive with 14.9GB in total and 12.5GB free (I have made some
> tunings/installs so it should have even more free space when started fresh
> out of the box).
> 
> Thank you.
> 
> --
> Shamil




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