We created a Microsoft Windows 10 Enterprise VM; installed Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2019, Google Chrome™, and Adobe® Reader® DC on it; and prepared the VM for cloning.
Creating the Windows 10 gold VM
- Log into vCenter via the VMware Web client.
- Right-click the Virtual Machines tab, and select New Virtual Machine.
- Select Create a new virtual machine.
- Assign the name view-gold, and click Next.
- Select the Dell EMC PowerEdge R650xs, and click Next.
- Select the infrastructure datastore.
- Choose compatible with ESXi 7.0 U2 and later, and click Next.
- Choose Windows, choose Microsoft Windows 10 (64-bit), and click Next.
- For CPUs, select 2 CPUs, 4 GB RAM, 50 GB Disk, and click Next.
- Click Finish.
- Right-click the VM, select Edit Settings.
- Click the CD/DVD Drive dropdown, and select Datastore ISO file.
- Browse to the Microsoft Windows 10 x64 installation disk ISO.
- Click Connect.
- Click OK.
- Power on the Microsoft Windows 10 VM.
Installing Windows 10 Enterprise (x64) on the gold image VM
- When the installation prompts you, press any key to begin setup.
- Click Install now.
- Select Windows 10 Enterprise, and click Next.
- Accept the license terms, and click Next.
- Select Custom, and select the drive that will contain the OS.
- Click Next.
- Select the keyboard layout, and click Yes.
- Click Skip a second keyboard layout.
- Click Domain join instead.
- For the username, type user, and click Next.
- Enter no password, and click Next.
- At the privacy settings screen, click Accept.
- To decline Cortana, click Not now.
- Install VMware Tools, and select Complete Installation. For more information, visit http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=340.
- Reboot the server.
- Right-click the Start button, and click System.
- Click Rename this PC, and enter a new name for the VM.
- Click Next, and click Restart now.
- Connect the machine to the Internet, and install all available Windows updates. Restart as necessary.
- Join the domain, and shut down the VM.
Enabling host timer access
- Open an SSH session to the ESXi host, and edit the .vmx file of the gold VM in vi.
- Add an entry:
monitor_control.pseudo_perfctr = "1" - Save, and exit the file.
- From vCenter, start the VM
Installing the VMware Horizon 8 agent on the gold Image VM
- Navigate to the VMware Horizon View 8 media, and run the VMware-Horizon-Agent-x86_64-2106-8.3.0-18287218.exe file.
- Click Run.
- At the Welcome screen, click Next.
- Accept the VMware end user license agreement, and click Next.
- Select defaults, and click Next.
- Click Install.
- To reboot, click Yes.
Installing VMware View Planner agent
- Double-click viewplanner-agent-4.6.0.0-16995088.exe.
- Click Next.
- Accept the End user license agreement.
- Click Next.
- Enter the IP address of the View Planner harness, and click Next.
- Wait for the installer to complete, and click Finish.
- Reboot the VM.
Installing Google Chrome on the gold image VM
- Download the newest version of Chrome.
- Double-click the installer executable, and click run.
- Close Chrome.
- Find the Selenium driver that matches your current version of Chrome at chromedriver.chromium.org/downloads.
- Create a folder named [baseVersion_fullVersion] inside C:\viewplanner\lib\chrome_driver.
- Extract chromedriver from downloaded zip, and copy to a new folder.
- To prevent version changes during testing, rename C:\Program: Files\Google\GoogleUpdate.exe to GoogleUpdateDisabled.exe
Installing Adobe Reader DC
- Download and install Adobe Reader from http://acrobat.adobe.com.
- Do not install any McAfee add-ons.
Installing Office Professional Plus 2019 on the gold image VM
- Install Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2019.
- Open Windows Update, and click Advanced options.
- Enable Receive updates for other Microsoft products, and click the back button.
- Click Check for updates, and reboot if necessary.
Disabling Windows Updates
- Click Start, and type Services
- Scroll down to Windows Update, right-click it, and select Properties.
- Under Startup type, select Disabled.
- Under Service status, click Stop, and click OK.
Disabling Windows Firewall
- Click Start, and type Firewall
- Select Firewall & Network Protection.
- Turn off Microsoft Defender Firewall for Domain, Private, and Public networks.
Setting Windows Media Player as default Video Player
- Click Start, and select Settings.
- Click Apps.
- In the left pane, click Default.
- Under Video player, select Windows Media Player.
Configuring Regedit for QuickPrep
To clone the clone the gold image with quick prep we needed to disable activation. To do this, we needed to edit the registry.
- Click Start > Run, and type regedit
- Browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\vmware-viewcomposer-ga.
- Right-click Skip License Activation, and click Modify.
- Change the value from 0 to 1, and click OK.
Configuring Regedit for autologin
- Click Start > Run, and type regedit
- Browse to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Common\General.
- On the Edit menu, click New > DWORD (32-bit) Value.
- Name the value shownfirstrunoptin and click Enter.
- Double-click shownfirstrunoptin.
- In the Edit DWORD dialog box, type 1 and click OK.
- Browse to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\FirstRun.
- On the Edit menu, click New > DWORD (32-bit) Value.
- Name the value BootedRTM, and click Enter.
- Double-click BootedRTM.
- In the Edit DWORD dialog box, type 1 and click OK.
- Browse to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Registration.
- On the Edit menu, click New > DWORD (32-bit) Value.
- Name the value AcceptAllEulas, and click Enter.
- Double-click AcceptAllEulas.
- In the Edit DWORD dialog box, type 1 and click OK.
Configuring Regedit to disable lock screen
- Click StartàRun, and type regedit
- Browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows.
- Right-click Windows.
- Click New > Key.
- Name the new key Personalization, and click Enter.
- In the Personalization folder, right-click the right pane of the Registry Editor, and select New > DWORD (32-bit) Value.
- Name the value NoLockScreen and click Enter.
- Double-click NoLockScreen.
- In the Edit DWORD dialog box, type 1 and click OK.
Configuring Regedit to suppress MS Office 2019 First Things First message
- Click Start > Run, and type regedit
- Browse to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Common\General.
- On the Edit menu, click New > DWORD (32-bit) Value.
- Name the value shownfirstrunoptin, and click Enter.
- Double-click shownfirstrunoptin.
- In the Edit DWORD dialog box, type 1 and click OK.
- Browse to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\FirstRun.
- On the Edit menu, click New > DWORD (32-bit) Value.
- Name the value BootedRTM, and click Enter.
- Double-click BootedRTM.
- In the Edit DWORD dialog box, type 1 and click OK.
- Browse to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Registration.
- On the Edit menu, click New > DWORD (32-bit) Value.
- Name the value AcceptAllEulas, and click Enter.
- Double-click AcceptAllEulas.
- In the Edit DWORD dialog box, type 1 and click OK.
Optimizing the Windows 10 gold image VM
- Download the Windows optimization tool from VMware.
- Extract the zip file, and run VMwareOSOptimizationTool.exe.
- Click Template, and select VMWare\Windows 10.
- Click Analyze.
- Select all suggestions, and click Optimize.
- When settings finish applying, reboot the VM.
Finalizing the Windows 10 gold image VM
- In vCenter, shut down the Windows 10 gold image, and copy it to the other two servers under test.
- Start each clone
- To accept the EULA and activate Office on each clone, run Word.
- Shut down the VMs.
- For all three gold images, right-click, and select Take a snapshot.
- Name each snapshot, and click OK.