Create a golden image

- [Instructor] In this video, we'll take a look at how to optimize your virtual desktop and turn it into your golden image. So you've got this Windows virtual machine, what you want to do is make it run as efficiently as possible, And so the document that we're going to be referencing here in this lesson, is this Windows 10 Optimization Test Results document from VMware. And this is really a great document that's going to walk you through some of the critical steps to optimize your guest operating system. The first thing that it recommends which I mentioned in the last video. So I'm not going to go through that. You want to go to VMware's Flings website, you want to download this operating system optimization tool that's going to be your primary tool to optimize the operating system. And you can see here they've listed some of the main optimizations that they've used in their testing methodology here. So basically, you're looking to adjust Windows for best performance, turning off any unnecessary visual effects, turning off any unnecessary startup programs, using the high performance power plan, and speed up the menu show time. So those are the big ones that I'm going to go through with you right now. how to disable some services manually and how to edit the Local Group Policy. So let's start by taking a look at some services. So, I'm just going to click on the Start menu. And I'm going to type in services.msc and that's how I launch the services menu here. Now there's a lot of different services potentially running here that you may want to go in here and disable. Basically, any services that you don't need running, you should go ahead and disable those services here, So, that's a good starting point, is to go in here and disable any services that you don't need enabled. So, for example, Windows Update, Windows Update I can go ahead and change the startup type to disabled and apply that change. And now I don't have to worry about Windows Update running inside of this golden image machine. And that's a good thing. I don't want that running. that I may potentially want to consider disabling here just to make this thing operate as efficiently as it possibly can. that we want to go ahead and modify. is I never want the screen to turn off. And I'm also going to click over here on additional power settings. And I want to look at additional plans here. And I want to choose the high performance power plan. So basically, what I want here is I do not want my virtual machine being throttled back to save power, right? So I want the highest performance power at all times. So I'll go ahead and change this to the high performance power plan. is defragmentation. on my virtual desktops. And so what I'm going to do here is I'm going to go to scheduled optimization here So that's my goal here, is to say, hey, I don't want disk defragmentation running on a recurring schedule. So I'll just type in restore here, I'll go to recovery. And I want to configure System Restore. So I'm just going to continue to leave protection off I'm going to go to my Windows Defender settings and I'm going to open Defender Security Center. And basically what I want to do here is if I am using some other sort of virus and threat protection I'm going to go ahead and turn off Windows Defender, right? So that's my goal here is if I'm using some kind of other protection, then I'll go ahead and turn off Windows Defender, So I'll just basically go in here and disable all of the settings. Understanding that now, I really need to use something else to protect this machine from viruses. The last thing that I'm going to show you how to change here is how to change the Customer Experience Improvement Program. What you want to basically do is say, no, What you want to basically do is say, no, I do not want to participate in this program here. I do not want to participate in this program here. So we'll go ahead and disable that, as well. So we'll go ahead and disable that, as well. And those are some of the critical tasks to optimizing an operating system for my golden image. to optimizing an operating system for my golden image. Again, you want to look for ways Again, you want to look for ways to disable services here rather than Group Policy. to disable services here rather than Group Policy. And by the way, one more command here, we can type in gpedit.msc, we can type in gpedit.msc, and I can now start and I can now start to modify the Local Group Policy of this machine. to modify the Local Group Policy of this machine. So, if there are Group Policy settings So, if there are Group Policy settings that I know that I want to enforce, that I know that I want to enforce, I can start enforcing those settings here. I can start enforcing those settings here. And this is the ideal place, right? rather than enforcing Group Policy rather than enforcing Group Policy through a domain controller. through a domain controller. If I can enforce group policies here, the benefit of that is they're not going to slow my login process down as much. to slow my login process down as much. So, that's a great option, is to come into here, So, that's a great option, is to come into here, work through some of these group policies, work through some of these group policies, change some of the settings here, change some of the settings here, things like security settings, things like security settings, things like Administrative Templates things like Administrative Templates that you can potentially import here as well. There's all sorts of settings that you can modify There's all sorts of settings that you can modify in Group Policy, and the Local Group Policy is less costly in Group Policy, and the Local Group Policy is less costly than having the Group Policy enforced than having the Group Policy enforced by a domain controller. by a domain controller.