Suggestions on accessing virtualized windows desktops..

[Rashkae]

On 08/07/2012 11:16 AM, Wipe_Out wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I need to virtualize a few Windows2000 and XP desktops..
>
> Main reason is the systems on them are fine and working and don't need
> to be changed but are not compatible with Vista or Win7.. The hardware
> is ageing now and the concern is that if the hardware fails it will be a
> major problem because of compatibility issues between new hardware and
> the old OS's..
>
> So the plan is to virtualize the desktops onto a server and then access
> the virtual machines over the network from some sort of terminal
> (probably being a very basic PC or even the existing hardware running a
> very minimal Linux install)..
>
> The question is how to access the virtual "console" from the "terminal"??
>

Last time I needed to virtualize a bunch of NT workstations (for the 
same reason), I just run the vm right on the terminal.. I would be hard 
pressed to find a new system that didn't have the spare memory needed to 
run a Windows 2000 app.  Otherwise, I would install VNC.. I would only 
rely on the Virtual Machine Server if I had to support an OS that could 
not run it's own.  (think of the extra software translation here... 
Guest OS is outputing to a VGA driver, which in turn is being fed into 
the VM VNC (or similar) implementation...

For XP, on the other hand, I would use the Windows native RDP. 
Especially if the terminals will be Windows computers, Windows to 
Windows RDP is very efficient.