I disable the cursor blink rate (HKCU\Control Panel\Desktop\CursorBlinkRate) for XenApp and XenDesktop users. It’s usually part of the mandatory profile and I would probably consider it a best practice for virtual desktop environments.
I’ve never had a problem with setting the registry value to “–1” until today. continue reading…
I started looking into XenDesktop 5 tonight.
Don’t waste your time with the XD5 eDocs unless you’re looking for system requirements. The XD5 Reference Architecture (Citrix Knowledge Center) document is a better source of information and helps give you a better feel XenDesktop 5.
Machine Creation Services (compares to how VMWare View handles virtual desktops? 
) sounds great! The first couple of figures in the reference architecture are misleading because they show Provisioning Services used solely for blade PCs and XenApp servers. I first thought Citrix was getting rid of Provisioning Server but, they’re not. In fact, it’s still the same game.
The architecture describes 5 conceptual virtual desktop models – existing, physical, pooled, dedicated and streamed. Provisioning Server is still going to handle the streamed desktop model and it will continue to be the preferred method for provisioning XenApp servers.
The pooled desktop model has 2 different pool types, pooled-static and pooled-random. Provisioning Service desktops or Machine Creation Service (MCS) desktops are the best candidates for the desktop pools. The MCS desktops use a differential disk which loses changes after reboot similar to Provisioning Server standard mode vDisks. (I don’t know why Citrix chose to use the name “differential disk” for MCS because it’s going to add confusion when you’re talking about Provisioning Server’s differential disk mode.)
MCS desktops will probably be the best choice for the dedicated desktop model and should replace WF Studio, PoSH or other scripted VM creation method for the “old installed virtual desktops”.
I’m looking forward to setting up the lab environment tomorrow.