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Table Of Contents
Table 39. Impact of Windows 7 and Windows 8 Services and Tasks on OS Disk Growth and IOPS When OS Is Left
Idle (Continued)
Service or Task Description
Default
Occurrence or
Startup
Impact on
Linked-Clone OS
Disks Impact on IOPS
Turn Off This
Service or Task?
Windows Defender Provides anti-
spyware features.
When Windows
starts up. Performs
a quick scan once a
day. Checks for
updates before
each scan.
Medium to high.
Performs
definition updates,
scheduled scans,
and scans that are
started on
demand.
Medium to high. Yes, if other anti-
spyware software is
installed.
Microsoft Feeds
Synchronization
task
(msfeedssync.exe)
Periodically
updates RSS feeds
in Windows
Internet Explorer
Web browsers.
This task updates
RSS feeds that
have automatic
RSS feeds
synchronization
turned on. The
process appears in
Windows Task
Manager only
when Internet
Explorer is
running.
Once a day. Medium.
Affects OS-disk
growth if
persistent disks
are not configured.
If persistent disks
are configured, the
impact is diverted
to the persistent
disks.
Medium Yes, if your users do
not require
automatic RSS feed
updates on their
desktops.
Disable Scheduled Disk Defragmentation on Windows 7 and Windows 8 Parent
Virtual Machines
Before you create linked clones, you must disable scheduled defragmentations on Windows 7 and Windows
8 parent virtual machines. Windows 7 and Windows 8 schedule weekly disk defragmentations by default.
Repeated defragmentation operations significantly increase the size of linked-clone OS disks and do not
make disk access more efficient on linked clones.
When you create a linked-clone pool from the parent virtual machine, the linked clones share the replica's
disk. Subsequent defragmentation operations do not affect the replica's disk, which is read-only. Instead,
defragmentations expand each clone's OS disk.
As a best practice, defragment the parent virtual machine one time, before you take a snapshot and create
the pool. The linked clones benefit from the defragmentation because they share the replica's optimized,
read-only disk.
Prerequisites
n
Verify that the applications that you intend to deploy to the linked clones are installed on the virtual
machine.
n
Verify that View Agent with View Composer Agent is installed on the virtual machine.
Procedure
1 In vSphere Client, select the parent virtual machine and select Open Console.
2 Log in to the Windows 7 or Windows 8 guest operating system as an administrator.
3 Click Start and type defrag in the Search programs and files box.
4 In the Programs pane, click Disk Defragmenter.
Chapter 3 Creating and Preparing Virtual Machines
VMware, Inc. 39