I am a big fan of Windows Virtual Desktop, there are pro’s and con’s about this Platform-as-a-Service solution hosted by Microsoft but during one of the WVD Proof of Concept implementations I found out that there was no support yet for Thin Clients running on Linux out of the box. With WVD you cannot simple publish an RDP shortcut to the gateway farm, you need some more integrations to make this working.
In a blog
from November 2019, Brad Anderson announced they were working on supporting Linux and Microsoft has chosen IGEL to be their hardware partner. The support for WVD has been developed with the use of the Microsoft RD Core Software Development Kit (SDK) preview.
On the 28th of January during the IGEL Disrupt 2020 event in Nashville IGEL announced the General Availability (GA) of the first Linux client for Microsoft Windows Virtual Desktop.
As you can see in the video on the right the connection experience for users is Single Sign On, an user needs to provide his/her credentials one time and the resources will be presented. After the user clicks on their resource the connecting will be made!
Update: 16-02-2020
If you don’t use a Gen 2 VM within Hyper-V you won’t be able to install IGEL OS. If you use a Gen 1 VM you will see the boot menu or if you choose the verbose installation you will see all the logging and eventually your screen will turn black.
> [@SDingemanse](https://twitter.com/SDingemanse?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw) Ik probeer IGEL OS 11 te installeren in Hyper-V, Gen 1 VM met wat specs, maar na een seconde of 15 blijf ik een zwart beeld houden. Enig idee? [pic.twitter.com/UKnw1s3ZI5](https://t.co/UKnw1s3ZI5)
>
> — Jeroen Burgerhout ☁️ (@BurgerhoutJ) [February 16, 2021](https://twitter.com/BurgerhoutJ/status/1361677354226057219?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)
#### Part 1: Installing IGEL OS 11 on a VM
In this part I will explain how to install and configure the IGEL OS on a Virtual Machine running in Hyper-V. The next part about configuring the WVD support on IGEL OS will be online soon.
For testing and demo purposes I wanted to install the new IGEL OS 11 version on a Hyper-V Virtual Machine. For this test setup I used Hyper-V running on Windows 10.
You can download the latest version of the IGEL OS with support for Windows Virtual Desktop from https://www.igel.com/software-downloads/software-downloads-wvd
. The ZIP file contains the ISO and all the stuff you need to prepare and create an USB stick to install the OS on a supported Thin Client.
Create a new Gen 2 VM with the minimum specification. My test VM has 4 GB of memory, 2 CPU’s and 16 GB of storage. Mount the ISO (located in the ‘preparestick’ folder) and start the Virtual Machine.
Select your language for the installer and click **Next**Accept the End User License Agreement by clicking **I agree**To start the installation of IGEL OS 11.03.252 click **Install firmware**The installer will now install the IGEL OSOnce the installation has finished you can unmount the ISO file and reboot the VM.#### IGEL Setup Assistant
Now it’s time to configure the newly installed OS. After a reboot the device will automatic login and start the setup wizard. Via this wizard you can configure the default settings and acquire and IGEL Demo License.
Select the correct language for the user interface. Default is English, click next to proceed.
Select your Keyboard Layout and click **next**Choose the correct timezone and click **Next**Make sure the correct time and date is set and click **Next** to proceed.Since I don’t have any Management Suite or Cloud Gateway running for this test I have selected the option to register for a demo license.Read the complete EULA ? and click on **I agree**.You will now be redirected to a landing page to acquire an evaluation license for IGEL OS 11.After you have completed the form the license will be automatically fetched for your device.For this test you can skip the Cloud Gateway Agent Setup since we don’t have any, click **Skip** and let’s finish the configuration.Okay, now we need one reboot to finish the installation, make sure you unmount the ISO and click **Restart**. The VM should now reboot and the IGEL OS will start.That’s it! You now have a Virtual IGEL Thin client running and you are now ready to be surprised by the power and the options of the IGEL OS with Windows Virtual Desktop support!In my next post I will explain how to configure the WVD Session configuration and explain the different options.