Technical Note – Optimize Windows 10 Citrix.com 1 Table of Contents Removing Unnecessary Windows 10 Applications 3 Scheduled Task Considerations 4 Microsoft Customer Experience Program 4 Safety 5 Maintenance \ Optimization \ Protection 6 HDX Optimizations 13 OS and User Optimization 13 User Experience Optimizations 14 Optimized for WAN 15 Printing from non-Windows end points (Mac and Linux) 17 www.citrix.com | Technical Note | Windows 10 Optimizations 2 This technical note a collection of Windows 10 optimizations best practices used by Citrix architects in the field. It is not official recommendation from either Citrix or Microsoft, and is only intended as a starting point for administrators to evaluate in their own staging environment. If deployed correctly, these optimizations can significantly improve the scalability and user-response of Windows 10 virtual desktops delivered using Citrix XenDesktop. Disclaimer This White paper is intended for administrators deploying Windows 10 in a XenDesktop 7.x environment. Many of the examples reference non-persistent environments, but the modifications also apply to persistent desktops. The materials in this document are provided “as is” and Citrix hereby disclaims all express or implied representations. Removing Unnecessary Windows 10 Applications Windows 10 contains many applications after a fresh installation. After installation, Windows 10 Enterprise contains over 50 applications already in my start menu, many of these are the system apps that we want to keep like PowerShell and Command Prompt, but there are many others that are unneeded, and will consume unneeded resources. Look at the Windows 10 list of default apps by running the following PowerShell command: Get-ProvisionedAppXPackage -Online|Select DisplayName www.citrix.com | Technical Note | Windows 10 Optimizations 3 Before creating a master image, the following PowerShell command can be run to cleanup all unnecessary applications. Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers | Remove-AppxPackage Scheduled Task Considerations Many of the scheduled tasks listed below were designed to enhance a persistent Operating System. Many Windows 10 instances in XenDesktop are provisioned on-the-fly and discarded upon log-off, using MCS or PVS. The scheduled tasks below may be removed. Below is a sample PowerShell script that removes all task not named Outlook or GoToMeeting. #Remove all scheduled tasks except task to pin outlook to taskbar #if -notmatch -or does not work here $schedule = New-Object -com Schedule.Service $schedule.connect() $tasks = $schedule.getfolder("\").gettasks(0) foreach ($task in ($tasks | select Name)) { if ($task -notmatch "G2MUpdateTask"){ $task2 = $task if ($task2 -notmatch "outlook"){ SchTasks /Delete /TN $($task2.name) /f } } } Microsoft Customer Experience Program Tasks Description Aggregates and uploads Application Application Telemetry information if opted-in to the Experience \ Appraiser Microsoft Customer Experience www.citrix.com | Technical Note | Windows 10 Optimizations 4 Improvement Program. Application Collects program telemetry information if Experience \ opted-in to the Microsoft Customer ProgramDataUpdater Experience Improvement Program This task collects and uploads autochk SQM data if opted-in to the Microsoft Customer AutoCHK \ Proxy Experience Improvement Program. If the user has consented to participate in Customer Experience the Windows Customer Experience Improvement Program Improvement Program, this job collects and \Consolidator sends usage data to Microsoft. The Kernel CEIP (Customer Experience Improvement Program) task collects additional information about the system and Customer Experience sends this data to Microsoft. If the user has Improvement Program not consented to participate in Windows \KernelCeipTask CEIP, this task does nothing. Customer Experience This job sends data about windows based on Improvement Program user participation in the Windows Customer \Uploader Experience Improvement Program The USB CEIP (Customer Experience Improvement Program) task collects Universal Serial Bus related statistics and information about your machine and sends to the Windows Device Connectivity engineering group at Microsoft. The information received is used to help improve the reliability, stability, and overall Customer Experience functionality of USB in Windows. If the user Improvement Program has not consented to participate in Windows \UsbCeip CEIP, this task does not do anything. Safety Tasks Description www.citrix.com | Technical Note | Windows 10 Optimizations 5 Initializes Family Safety monitoring and Shell \ FamilySafetyMonitor enforcement. Synchronizes the latest settings with Shell \ FamilySafetyRefresh the Family Safety website. Can be disabled in case an alternative Windows Defender \ Windows virus and malware protection has been Defender CacheMaintenance implemented. Can be disabled in case an alternative Windows Defender \ Windows virus and malware protection has been Defender CacheMaintenance implemented. Can be disabled in case an alternative Windows Defender \ Windows virus and malware protection has been Defender Cleanup implemented. Can be disabled in case an alternative Windows Defender \ Windows virus and malware protection has been DefenderScheduled Scan implemented. Can be disabled in case an alternative Windows Defender \ Windows virus and malware protection has been DefenderVerification implemented. This task adjusts the start type for firewall-triggered services when the Windows Filtering Platform start type of the Base Filtering Engine \BfeOnServiceStartTypeChange (BFE) is disabled. Maintenance \ Optimization \ Protection Tasks Description Scans startup entries and raises Application Experience \ notification to the user if there are too StartupAppTask many startup entries. CHKDSK \ Proactive Scan NTFS Volume Health Scan The Windows Scheduled Maintenance Diagnosis \ Scheduled Task performs periodic maintenance of www.citrix.com | Technical Note | Windows 10 Optimizations 6 the computer system by fixing problems automatically or reporting them through the Action Center. The Windows Disk Diagnostic reports DiskDiagnostic \ Microsoft- general disk and system information to Windows- Microsoft for users participating in the DiskDiagnosticDataCollector Customer Experience Program. DiskDiagnostic \ Microsoft- This task warns users about faults that Windows- occur on disks that support Self- DiskDiagnosticResolver Monitoring and Reporting Technology Defrag \ ScheduledDefrag This task optimizes local storage drives Protects user files from accidental loss by copying them to a backup location FileHistory \ File History when the system is unattended Measures a system’s performance and Maintenance \ WinSAT capabilities MemoryDiagnostic \ Schedules a memory diagnostic in ProcessMemoryDiagnosticEvents response to system events. MemoryDiagnostic \ Detects and mitigates problems in RunFullMemoryDiagnostic physical memory (RAM). This task analyzes the system looking Power Efficiency Diagnostics \ for conditions that may cause high AnalyzeSystem energy use. RecoveryEnvironment \ Validates the Windows Recovery VerifyWinRE Environment. Registry \ RegIdleBackup Registry Idle Backup Task This task creates regular system SystemRestore \ SR protection points. The Windows Diagnostic Infrastructure Resolution host enables interactive resolutions for system problems detected by the Diagnostic Policy WDI \ ResolutionHost Service. It is triggered when necessary www.citrix.com | Technical Note | Windows 10 Optimizations 7 by the Diagnostic Policy Service in the appropriate user session. If the Diagnostic Policy Service is not running, the task will not run In Windows 10, these services are running, by default, and can be stopped and disabled (Caution: Disabling these services can result in applications not working appropriately and will increase troubleshooting time). Service Name Default State Default Status Notes Set default state to “Manual” as 3rd party Background software might Intelligent Automatic require the Transfer Service (Delayed Start) Running service. Device Association Manual (Trigger Service Start) Running Diagnostic Policy Services Automatic Running Diagnostic Service Host Manual Running Diagnostic System Host Manual Running Diagnostics Tracking Service Automatic Running Function Discovery Provider Host Manual Running Function Discovery Manual Running Resource www.citrix.com | Technical Note | Windows 10 Optimizations 8 Publication Home Group Manual (Trigger Not used in VDI Provider Start) Running environment Automatic Security Center (Delayed Start) Running Supports Shell Hardware AutoPlay, which Detection is not typically Service Automatic Running used in VDI. Not typically used in corporate SSDP Discovery Manual Running environments. Can enable for dedicated SuperFetch Automatic Running desktops This will impact the user Themes Automatic Running experience Windows Connect Now – Config Registrar Not required in Service Manual Running VDI Consider disabling. Will have a high Automatic impact on server Windows Search (Delayed Start) Running density. These services are not running, but they are set to Manual or Manual (Trigger Start). Although they are not running, disabling them will prevent their accidental execution in a VDI environment. (Caution: Disabling these services can result in applications not working appropriately and will increase www.citrix.com | Technical Note | Windows 10 Optimizations 9 troubleshooting time). Service Name Default State Default Status Notes Manual (Trigger