Recently, there has been considerable interest in the field of image optimization. One of the most commonly used tools is the Citrix Optimizer (CTXO). CTXO is a free to use image optimization tool from Citrix for VDI and SBC environment. CTXO uses various templates for instructions of what to do. Right now, all templates are provided by Citrix themselves and are focused solely on OS optimizations. At the moment of writing version, 1.2.0.67 is the latest available version and can be downloaded from the Citrix
CTXO Version 2 is currently in closed beta and will be released shortly. One of the major improvements is that version 2 will add a GUI for creating custom templates called ‘template builder’. CTXO version 2 will also feature a marketplace from where you can obtain and use custom and third party templates besides the ones that Citrix supplies themselves. Along with the new template builder and it’s ability to easily create custom templates this will greatly enhance the functionality of CTXO and will broaden the userbase even further.
We had the opportunity to test the beta version of CTXO on our ICT-R platform. For the beta test we ran two scenarios:
- Windows 10 version 1809 without any optimizations as the baseline
- Windows 10 version 1809 with the beta version of CTXO with the 1809 template from Citrix
Infrastructure and configuration
The ICT-R platform used for conducting this research which is described in the following post. We applied the same testing methodology as the previous researches, where all results are average numbers of multiple runs. More information about the testing methodology can be found in the following post. The default desktop delivery solution used is Citrix Virtual Desktops version 1808.2.
The Machine Catalog for the VDI’s is created using MCS with a stateless configuration using local profiles. At user logoff, the virtual machine is restored to the original state.
To get consistent results Windows Defender is disabled in all scenarios and the environment contains the latest Windows Updates for both Office and Windows itself.
Conclusion
Without any optimization Windows 10 1809 has 276 running services, as shown in Ryan’s post about the Windows 10 1809 Performance Impact:https://www.ict-r.com/windows-10-1809-performance-impact/. After optimizing the number of running services is reduced significantly. Aside from disabling unneeded services CTXO also significantly trims the amount of enabled scheduled tasks on the system based on the recommendations from the selected template. All these optimizations have resulted in a better performing VDI and in a substantial increase in overall server scalability.
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