6.2

Table Of Contents
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To deploy Windows machines, configure a volume license key and activate the parent virtual machine's
operating system with volume activation. See “Activating Windows on Linked-Clone Virtual
Machines,” on page 48.
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Verify that you followed the best practices for optimizing the operating system. See “Optimizing
Windows for Linked-Clone Virtual Machines,” on page 39.
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Familiarize yourself with the procedure for disabling searching Windows Update for device drivers.
See the Microsoft Technet article, "Disable Searching Windows Update for Device Drivers" at
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc730606(v=ws.10).aspx.
Procedure
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Remove the DHCP lease on the parent virtual machine to avoid copying a leased IP address to the
linked clones in the pool.
a On the parent virtual machine, open a command prompt.
b Type the ipconfig /release command.
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Verify that the system disk contains a single volume.
You cannot deploy linked clones from a parent virtual machine that contains more than one volume.
The View Composer service does not support multiple disk partitions. Multiple virtual disks are
supported.
NOTE If the parent virtual machine contains multiple virtual disks, when you create a desktop pool, do
not select a drive letter for the View Composer persistent disk or disposable data disk that already
exists on the parent virtual machine or that conflicts with a drive letter that is used for a network-
mounted drive.
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Verify that the virtual machine does not contain an independent disk.
An independent disk is excluded when you take a snapshot of the virtual machine. Linked clones that
are created or recomposed from the virtual machine will not contain the independent disk.
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If you plan to configure disposable data disks when you create linked-clone machines, remove default
user TEMP and TMP variables from the parent virtual machine.
You can also remove the pagefile.sys file to avoid duplicating the file on all the linked clones. If you
leave the pagefile.sys file on the parent virtual machine, a read-only version of the file is inherited by
the linked clones, while a second version of the file is used on the disposable data disk.
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Disable the hibernation option to reduce the size of linked-clone OS disks that are created from the
parent virtual machine.
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Before you take a snapshot of the parent virtual machine, disable searching Windows Update for device
drivers.
This Windows feature can interfere with the customization of linked-clone machines. As each linked
clone is customized, Windows might search for the best drivers on the Internet for that clone, resulting
in repeated searches and customization delays.
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In vSphere Client, disable the vApp Options setting on the parent virtual machine.
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On Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2008 R2, and Windows Server 2012 R2 machines, disable the
scheduled maintenance task that recovers disk space by removing unused features.
For example: Schtasks.exe /change /disable /tn "\Microsoft\Windows\AppxDeploymentClient\Pre-
staged app cleanup"
Chapter 3 Creating and Preparing Virtual Machines
VMware, Inc. 47