Microsoft delivers powerful desktop tools for Windows admins

App-V, UE-V, MED-V, MBAM, AGPM, DaRT — if these acronyms don’t mean anything to you, it’s high time you became acquainted with the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP), an amazing suite of six tools for easing virtualization, management, and system restoration on Windows environments.

The toolset is available via Microsoft Software Assurance, which is part of Microsoft’s Volume Licensing program. If you have an MSDN or TechNet subscription, you can evaluate MDOP as well. Anyone looking to virtualize applications, desktops, or user experiences across devices should become acquainted with the MDOP toolset.

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Here’s a rundown of what to expect from each tool and how they might fit in your Windows environment.

Application Virtualization (App-V) 5.0 As the name implies, App-V is all about virtualizing applications. By tapping App-V for application virtualization, your users will be able to work with programs as if they’re traditionally installed. App-V also makes application provisioning and patch management that much easier. App-V is best used in VDI environments; doing so reduces disk requirements for VDI desktops because the apps stream from a Shared Content Store.

App-V 5.0 comes with a new Web-based admin console — which I’m not usually a fan of — and App-V integrates with System Center Configuration Manager, allowing you to manage physical and virtual applications from one place.

User Experience Virtualization (UE-V) UE-V helps you provide a consistent, personal experience across devices, enabling your users to switch from one device (Windows 7 or 8) to another and, after logging in, have their personal settings carry over. This includes the user’s taskbar configuration, desktop background, Explorer options, and application settings, regardless of whether the app is installed or virtualized.

In the past, Windows admins might have used roaming profiles, but that doesn’t cut it these days, especially with virtualized desktops and applications. Thankfully, UE-V goes beyond the simple roaming desktop background.

Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization (MED-V) 2.0 MED-V is a great tool for handling compatibility issues that you may not even know exist before you perform an upgrade to your desktops. As you’re well aware, some applications don’t carry over nicely from Windows XP to Windows 7 or 8; this may force you to delay an upgrade until your application vendor provides a migration path or enhancement or you find a viable work-around or alternative program. MED-V delivers apps in a Windows XP-based compatibility workspace so that users can access their software from systems running Windows 7 or 8. Through MED-V, the legacy app runs in a virtualized environment, and access to printers, USB devices, and so on is seamless, as if the app is local.

Advanced Group Policy Management (AGPM) In any large organization, Group Policies can spin out of control quickly. Every change you make to a Group Policy can affect huge chunks of users and/or computers.

With AGPM, there’s a controlled workflow model for making Group Policy changes, and it includes advanced audit logging. You check out a GPO (Group Policy Object), make changes, test those changes, and approve or reject them before going live with the new GPO. Given that the traditional workflow for Group Policies is to make a change and that’s it, AGPM gives you much better control over Group Policy management.

Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset (DaRT) 8 DaRT helps you be more proactive with system failures. There are 14 different tools in the DaRT toolset to help you to repair a system even if it won’t boot normally.

With DaRT, you can recover deleted files, analyze crash dumps, and remove malware while the system is offline (thereby protecting other systems on the network). A Solution Wizard will help guide you through system problems and point you toward the tool you need.

Tools include Computer Management, Crash Analyzer Wizard, Defender, Disk Commander, Disk Wipe, Explorer, File Restore, File Search, Hotfix Uninstall, Locksmith, Registry Editor, SFC Scan, and TCP/IP. The Locksmith Wizard lets you change a password for local accounts — always handy to have in your arsenal.

Microsoft BitLocker Adminsitration and Monitoring (MBAM) MBAM helps with enterprise use of BitLocker and BitLocker to Go encryption. It simplifies deployment and the key recovery process. Through MBAM you can determine whether you want to use BitLocker as part of a Windows 7 upgrade process or if you want to wait until after the upgrade is complete to provision with BitLocker. Additional Group Policy controls are provided to help deploy BitLocker properly, and compliance reporting is built in to MBAM, as is audit logging for recovery key access.

It should be easy to see how powerful the MDOP toolset is for organizations that have Microsoft Software Assurance as part of Volume Licensing. Each stands well on its own in terms of the functionality it delivers, but what they do collectively in providing greater virtualization, management, and restoration to your Windows environment is where the real power of MDOP comes to bear. Plus, they work with existing Microsoft tools or extended tools such as System Center to provide a holistic solution set for your desktop environments.

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