5.2

Activating Windows on Linked-Clone Desktops
To
make sure that View Composer properly activates Windows 8, Windows 7, and Windows Vista operating
systems on linked-clone desktops, you must use Microsoft volume activation on the parent virtual machine.
The volume-activation technology requires a volume license key.
To activate Windows 8, Windows 7 or Windows Vista with volume activation, you use Key Management
Service (KMS), which requires a KMS license key. See your Microsoft dealer to acquire a volume license key
and configure volume activation.
NOTE View Composer does not support Multiple Activation Key (MAK) licensing.
Before you create linked-clone desktops with View Composer, you must use volume activation to activate the
operating system on the parent virtual machine.
NOTE Windows XP desktops with volume licenses do not require an activation.
When a linked-clone desktop is created, and each time the linked clone is recomposed, the View Composer
agent uses the parent virtual machine's KMS server to activate the operating system on the linked clone.
The View Composer QuickPrep tool implements the activation through these steps:
1
Invokes a script to remove the existing license status on the linked-clone virtual machine
2 Restarts the guest operating system
3 Invokes a script that uses KMS licensing to activate the operating system on the clone.
Each time QuickPrep runs on a linked clone, the activation takes place.
For KMS licensing, View Composer uses the KMS server that is configured to activate the parent virtual
machine. The KMS server treats an activated linked clone as a computer with a newly issued license.
Disable Windows Hibernation in the Parent Virtual Machine
The Windows hibernation option creates a large system file that can increase the size of the linked-clone OS
disks that are created from the parent virtual machine. Disabling the hibernation option reduces the size of
linked-clones.
The Windows hibernation option creates a hidden system file, Hiberfil.sys. Windows uses this file to store a
copy of system memory on the hard disk when the hybrid sleep setting is turned on. When you create a linked-
clone pool, the file is created on each linked clone's OS disk.
On Windows 7 or Windows 8 virtual machines, this file can be 10GB.
CAUTION
When you make hibernation unavailable, the hybrid sleep setting does not work. Users can lose data
if the hybrid sleep setting is turned on and a power loss occurs.
Prerequisites
Familiarize yourself with the Windows hibernation feature. See the Microsoft Support Web site. For
information about disabling hibernation on Windows 8, Windows 7 or Windows Vista, see the Microsoft
Support Web site and search for how to disable and re-enable hibernation on a computer that is running
Windows.
Procedure
1
In vSphere Client, select the parent virtual machine and select Open Console.
2 Log in to the Windows guest operating system as an administrator.
VMware Horizon View Administration
82 VMware, Inc.