It has been a long while since we talked about DesktopPlayer on the Citrix Blogs. In fact, DesktopPlayer continues to evolve with every release, enabling more and more use cases. As an offline solution in Citrix XenDesktop, we are committed to focusing on the user experience and flexibility in the Citrix Workspace portfolio.
DesktopPlayer 2.5 is available now with new capabilities like Save and Resume VM states and wireless bridging. Let’s learn more about these new capabilities.
Save and Resume VM states
In a typical VDI deployment, when connecting virtual desktop delivered by Citrix XenDesktop, users can disconnect their sessions without logoff and then pick up where they left off, using another device.
In order to provide the user experience and flexibility that’s familiar to DesktopPlayer end-users, this awaited feature now enables users to save the state of their virtual machine (VM) while retaining a snapshot of the exact state of Windows. This new feature permits users to reboot their host machine or reduce power consumption by taking the VM offline when needed without losing any work in progress. The VM will resume in exactly the same state it was in when it was last saved. To place any running VM into the “Saved” state, simply right-click on open the DesktopPlayer preferences and click Save:
Wireless Bridging
As introduction of latest model of Windows notebook and MacBook to BYOD participants, most of them are not equipped with wired network interface as of today.
This new feature enables bridged-mode networking when the host is connected to WiFi, as well. The benefit is: it allows DesktopPlayer to better integrate with enterprise applications that require seeing and communicating with the virtual machine directly on the network. Also from end user’s perspective, by checking if VM has been assigned an IP address from DHCP server in the host network, end user can quickly identify whether there is some network issue or not. In addition, IT admin could better assist end user and track that VM by filtering the IP if needed.
To try out these features and much more, upgrade to DesktopPlayer 2.5 & Synchronizer 5.8.9 today from the Citrix download page. Let us know how it works for you!
