Configuration Manager SP1 will come with support for managing Windows Embedded. This will open a new world for managing thin clients.
Dell Wyse has also announced that they will come with a integration possibility with their own device manager to allow for more management possibilities outside Windows on the thin clients.
This will include support for the following Windows Embedded editions.
- Embedded Operating Systems based on Windows XP (32-bit) includes the following:
- Windows XP Embedded
- Windows Embedded for Point of Service
- Windows Embedded Standard 2009
- Windows Embedded POSReady 2009
- Embedded operating systems based on Windows 7 (32-bit) includes the following:
- Windows Embedded Standard 7 (32-bit)
- Windows Embedded POSReady 7 (32-bit)
- Windows ThinPC
- Embedded operating systems based on Windows 7 (64-bit) includes the following:
- Windows Embedded Standard 7 (64-bit)
- Windows Embedded POSReady 7 (64-bit)
And for Wyse’s part there are a lot of different clients to choose from. http://www.wyse.com/products/cloud-clients/firmware/WES
But in a Citrix environment, I’m guessing most are going for thinOS.
Now there are some things you need to remember when deploying an SCCM agent and with Endpoint Protection to an Windows Embedded.
And that is Write filters. These write filters take all writes and redirects it from the disk to ram to a space called “overlay” this way, all changes made to the system will be wiped when rebooted.
So in this case if we installed the agent and the system does a reboot the agent is gone!
With SP1, Configuration Manager can automatically temporarily disable these write filters before installing the agent and then activating them again.
So when you are creating custom policies for a Windows Embedded Computer Collection.
Endpoint Protection:
- Install Endpoint Protection client on client computers
- For Windows Embedded devices with write filters, commit Endpoint Protection client installation (requires restart)
- Allow Endpoint Protection client installation and restart to be performed outside maintenance windows
Microsoft has also created an scenario for deploying ConfigMgr SP1 to Windows Embedded.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj721567.aspx
So what else can be done with this ? users typically use a thin clients and a Citrix connection, use the XenApp connector on ConfigMgr and get full control of the applications that are published out to the users! 