Custom OS Template (Windows)
An organisation administrator can build a custom OS template to spin up remote desktops. This approach also makes it possible to activate your own license on the operating system.
Follow these steps carefully—they are critical for successful image creation. Pay close attention.
Important:
About Disk Partition
1. A custom template requires either a single disk partition, or two: one EFI/Boot partition and a separate system and data partition.
2. LVM partitions are not supported; do not use them.
3. Using the wrong partition scheme will break the disk auto-resize and machine naming features.
Windows
1. Install "Red Hat VirtIO SCSI pass-through controller
When you see “Where do you want to install Windows?”, click “Load drivers” and select the correct driver. The storage drive will then appear.
2. Initial Setup
When you are prompted with “Let’s connect you to a network”, click I don't have internet.
When asked “There’s more to discover...”, click Continue with limited setup.
Provide a username but leave the password field blank.
3. Install Virtio-win drivers and guest agents
After logging in, open the CD drive (E:) and run Virtio-win-guest-tools. This installs the Virtio drivers together with spice vdagent and qemu guest agent; click Next and OK to finish.
4. Disable Hibernate
Launch Command Prompt as an administrator (right-click and choose “Run as administrator”). Type “powercfg.exe /hibernate off” and press Enter.
5. Enable Shutdown/Restart Windows 10 without Any Prompts
Open the Registry Editor and navigate to HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop.
Add a new String Value named AutoEndTasks and set its value to 1.
6. Check if the required service exists and set to “Automatic Start”
- Spice-Vdagent : for support of qemu vnc clipboard
- BalloonSerivce: for guest memory usage stats
7. Install and configure Tightvnc to allow proper VNC connection
Download the TightVNC installer from https://www.tightvnc.com/download.php.
Run the installer. Once finished, disable authentication.
Open the TightVNC service configuration and set it up as shown.
8. Enable Shared-drive
The Shared-drive feature allows cloud desktops to share files with each other during training, or between a user’s local machine and the cloud desktop, using WebDAV technology. You need to map the drive before using it. See the screenshot below for instructions.
9. Shutdown your Windows properly
Click the Windows icon in the bottom-left corner, then select Power > Shutdown.
Please Note
To add extra optional features such as
- DDWebdav – to synchronise trainer content folders to each participant’s machine,
- or DDUpload – for easy file uploads inside a DaDesktop machine;
Please contact DaDesktop Tech Support.