Abstract: An adaptive virtual desktop architecture is provided. Application install or assignment is evaluated, such as by using heuristics to identify applications that may present compatibility problems. Upon determining that a newly installed application may have compatibility problems when associated with a non-persistent virtual desktop, a promotion to a persistent virtual desktop occurs.

Abstract: Aspects of the disclosure allocate shares of processing resources or other physical resources among virtual machines (VMs) operating as, for example, virtual desktops on a plurality of host computing devices. Allocations of resources are adjusted based on the user activity, VM activity, and/or application activity detected by an agent executing on each VM. Allocated shares may be boosted, unboosted, or normalized, depending on the type and duration of detected activity, by a resource allocation manager executing on a management server.

Abstract: Embodiments perform automatic document handling by retrieving icons from local document handlers or from an application volumes manager, without installing the application locally. Embodiments further perform on-demand application mounting by intercepting and suspending requests to launch applications until the appropriate virtual disk, corresponding to the application, is mounted to the disk subsystem by the application volumes manager. The application launch is then resumed.

Abstract: An adaptive virtual desktop architecture is provided. Application install or assignment is evaluated, such as by using heuristics to identify applications that may present compatibility problems. Upon determining that a newly installed application may have compatibility problems when associated with a non-persistent virtual desktop, a promotion to a persistent virtual desktop occurs.

Abstract: A method of enabling “fast” suspend and “rapid” resume of virtual machines (VMs) employs a cache that is able to perform input/output operations at a faster rate than a storage device provisioned for the VMs. The cache may be local to a computer system that is hosting the VMs or may be shared cache commonly accessible to VMs hosted by different computer systems. The method includes the steps of saving the state of the VM to a checkpoint file stored in the cache and locking the checkpoint file so that data blocks of the checkpoint file are maintained in the cache and are not evicted, and resuming execution of the VM by reading into memory the data blocks of the checkpoint file stored in the cache.

Abstract: Embodiments described herein rapidly pre-migrate child virtual machines (VMs) by leveraging shared memory resources between parent and child VMs. In a first, proactive phase, at least a portion of the memory of a parent VM is migrated to a plurality of potential target hosts. In a second, reactive phase, after a request is detected to migrate a child VM to a selected target host, differences in memory are transferred to the selected target host. Aspects of the disclosure offer a high performance, resource efficient solution that outperforms traditional approaches in areas of software compatibility, stability, quality of service control, resource utilization, and more.

Abstract: Examples quickly suspend and resume virtual desktops on demand or on schedule. Virtual desktops, or desktops as a service, are provided to users, where the virtual desktop is a forked VM, cloned VM, or otherwise at least a partial duplicate of an existing VM. The virtual desktop points to existing memory maintained by the existing VM, and the virtual desktop only writes to memory the pages that the virtual desktop creates or modifies.

Abstract: Examples described herein enable memory state sharing among a plurality of virtual machines (VM) including a parent VM and a child VM. A request for memory state sharing between the parent VM and the child VM is received, and the parent VM is suspended. The child VM resumes execution of one or more suspended applications. In one example, the child FM is forked with pre-loaded, suspended applications from the parent VM. Aspects of the disclosure offer a high performance, resource efficient solution that outperforms traditional approaches in areas of software compatibility, stability, quality of service control, re-source utilization, and more.

Abstract: Embodiments described herein rapidly migrate child virtual machines (VM) by leveraging shared memory resources between parent and child VMs. In a first, proactive phase, parent VMs are migrated to a plurality of potential target hosts. In a second, reactive phase, after a request is received to migrate a child VM to a selected target host, memory blocks that are unique to the child VM are migrated to the selected target host. In some examples, memory blocks are compressed and decompressed as needed. In other examples, the operation environment is modified. Aspects of the disclosure offer a high performance, resource efficient solution that outperforms traditional approaches in areas of software compatibility, stability, quality of service control, resource utilization, and more.

Abstract: User profiles of remote desktops are managed in a crash-consistent manner. When a user logs into a remote desktop, metadata of the user profile is loaded from persistent storage while registry settings and files of the user profile are loaded asynchronously with respect to the login. During the remote desktop session, snapshots of the remote desktop image in persistent storage are generated periodically, and a change log that indicates changes to the user profile is created therefrom. The user profile stored in persistent storage is updated lazily using the change log at opportunistic times after snapshot generation. When the user logs out of the remote desktop, the user profile stored in the persistent storage is updated with any additional changes to the user profile by extracting the changes from the copy-on-write cache associated with the most recent snapshot.

Abstract: Examples quickly suspend and resume virtual desktops on demand or on schedule. Virtual desktops, or desktops as a service, are provided to users, where the virtual desktop is a forked VM, cloned VM, or otherwise at least a partial duplicate of an existing VM. The virtual desktop points to existing memory maintained by the existing VM, and the virtual desktop only writes to memory the pages that the virtual desktop creates or modifies.

Abstract: Aspects of the disclosure allocate shares of processing resources or other physical resources among virtual machines (VMs) operating as, for example, virtual desktops on a plurality of host computing devices. Allocations of resources are adjusted based on the user activity, VM activity, and/or application activity detected by an agent executing on each VM. Allocated shares may be boosted, unboosted, or normalized, depending on the type and duration of detected activity, by a resource allocation manager executing on a management server.

Abstract: Examples perform creation of a non-persistent virtual machine with a persistent machine identity associated with the user of the virtual machine, to provide consistent virtual desktop sessions to the user. Some examples contemplate that the machine identity is inserted into a virtual machine created through cloning, forking, or from a virtual machine pool.

Abstract: Embodiments provide for application-specific provisioning of files or registry keys. As applications are installed or launched, data is recorded by an application virtualization engine, and an index is created linking the recorded data to both the application and the underlying files or registry keys. As applications are requested (e.g., launched, updated, or the like), the application virtualization engine reveals various copies of file or registry keys to the application on demand or in accordance with a policy.

Abstract: Disclosed are various examples for downloading data objects by enforcing a threshold amount of allocated data. A file sync application determines which data objects to download to the client device such that the total amount of downloaded data meets or falls below the threshold amount of allocated data. File system entries for undownloaded data objects are also downloaded and stored in a file system of the client device. If a process attempts to access an undownloaded data object, the file sync application downloads the data object and evicts another data object, if necessary, according to the threshold amount of allocated data.

Abstract: Examples described herein enable memory state sharing among a plurality of virtual machines (VM) including a parent VM and a child VM. A request for memory state sharing between the parent VM and the child VM is received, and the parent VM is suspended. The child VM resumes execution of one or more suspended applications. In one example, the child FM is forked with pre-loaded, suspended applications from the parent VM. Aspects of the disclosure offer a high performance, resource efficient solution that outperforms traditional approaches in areas of software compatibility, stability, quality of service control, re-source utilization, and more.

Abstract: A method of enabling “fast” suspend and “rapid” resume of virtual machines (VMs) employs a cache that is able to perform input/output operations at a faster rate than a storage device provisioned for the VMs. The cache may be local to a computer system that is hosting the VMs or may be shared cache commonly accessible to VMs hosted by different computer systems. The method includes the steps of saving the state of the VM to a checkpoint file stored in the cache and locking the checkpoint file so that data blocks of the checkpoint file are maintained in the cache and are not evicted, and resuming execution of the VM by reading into memory the data blocks of the checkpoint file stored in the cache.

Abstract: User interface virtualization describes a technique for providing a user with access to one computing device from another computing device, while translating the ergonomics of one computer's user interface style into the ergonomics of the other's. An agent running on a remote desktop may use an interface interaction API or software framework to programmatically open and manipulate a context menu on the remote desktop, and act as a proxy for a corresponding client running on a client device that accepts a “touch and swipe” style input. The client constructs and displays a native graphical user interface element at the client device that is a virtual representation of the context menu at the remote desktop.

Abstract: A selected screen, such as a monitoring tool, operating on a remote desktop is exported to a mobile client device, such as a smart phone, tablet, smart watch, etc. The client device polls the remote desktop for images, pointers, commands, etc. relating to the selected screen. The remote desktop provides the requested data to the client device through a command queue maintained by the remote desktop.

Abstract: Files are mirrored between a desktop device and a mobile device in a seamless manner so that a user may work on the mirrored files on either device without having to save or send files beforehand. The user may interact with a mirrored file on a desktop, physically leave the desktop, and take a mobile device that has the mirrored file with him or her and continue interacting with the file.