Windows Custom OS Template
Organisation administrators can create customised OS templates to streamline the provisioning of remote desktops. This approach is also ideal for managing the activation of your own operating system licenses.
Please follow these steps carefully to ensure the image is created successfully.
Important:
Disk Partitioning Requirements
1. Custom templates must have a single disk partition, or two partitions: one for EFI/Boot and one for the system and data.
2. LVM partitions are not supported and should be avoided.
3. Incorrect partition schemes may result in failures for disk auto-resize and machine naming features.
Windows
1. Install "Red Hat VirtIO SCSI pass-through controller"
During installation, when prompted with "Where do you want to install Windows?", select "Load drivers" and choose the appropriate driver. The storage drive will then become visible.
2. Initial Setup
When asked to connect to a network, select I don't have internet.
If presented with "There's more to discover...", choose Continue with limited setup.
Set a username without a password.
3. Install Virtio-win drivers and guest agents
After the machine boots and you have logged in, navigate to the CD Drive E and run Virtio-win-guest-tools to install the virtio drivers, spice vdagent, and qemu guest agent. Click next and OK to complete the installation.
4. Disable Hibernate
Right-click the Start menu to open "Command Prompt" as administrator, then type "powercfg.exe /hibernate off" and press Enter.
5. Enable Shutdown/Restart Windows 10 without Any Prompts
Open the registry editor and navigate to the key HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop.
Create a new String Value named AutoEndTasks and set its value to 1.
6. Verify required services exist and are set to "Automatic Start"
- Spice-Vdagent : Enables qemu vnc clipboard support
- BalloonSerivce: Provides guest memory usage stats
7. Install and configure Tightvnc to allow proper VNC connection
Download the TightVNC for Windows installer from https://www.tightvnc.com/download/.
Install the software and disable authentication upon completion.
Open the "TightVNC service configuration" window to apply the settings.
8. Enable Shared-drive
Shared-drive facilitates file sharing between cloud desktops in training scenarios or between a user's local PC and their cloud environment. This feature relies on WebDAV file sharing technology. You must map the hard drive before use. Refer to the screenshot below for instructions.
9. Shutdown your Windows properly
Click the Windows icon in the bottom left corner, select Power, and then choose Shutdown.
Please Note
To include additional optional features such as
- DDWebdav for synchronizing Trainer's content folders to participant machines,
- or DDUpload for easily uploading files within a DaDesktop machine;
Please reach out to DaDesktop Tech Support.