Windows MultiPoint Server 2011 Release Candidate is here – check out what’s new!

  • Makale

It’s James Duffus, Group Program Manager for Windows MultiPoint Server again. Back on October 19, 2010, we announced the availability of the MultiPoint Server 2011 Beta. Over the past couple of months, we’ve incorporated your feedback, fixed bugs that you reported, and added the final features. We’re now pleased to say that the Windows MultiPoint Server 2011 Release Candidate is ready for you to download and evaluate!

As a reminder, Windows MultiPoint Server 2011 allows organizations to provide computing access for more users for a lower total cost of acquisition and ownership. Based on the latest Windows technology, it gives organizations all of the functionality and power of Windows Server 2008 R2 and all of the users the latest Windows 7 experience. It was designed to be easy to set up, manage and use for organizations that have limited technical resources.

We’re entering the home stretch, but we need your help once again before we’re ready to bring MultiPoint Server 2011 to market. Check out the new features of the Release Candidate, which include:

More teacher and/or administrator controls over the stations, including:

o Centrally open and close apps for each station

o Project a user, student or teacher station to the entire classroom

o Limit access to certain websites

These join the Desktop Thumbnail and Station Blocking features announced as part of the beta to provide more control for teachers.

Easier and more flexible deployment, including:

o Support for PS/2 keyboard and mouse to allow an additional direct-connected station, installing WMS into a Virtual Machine, etc.

o Auto-create RDP connection files so that you can easily access MultiPoint sessions or management UI from another RDP client on the network

o The introduction of Standard and Premium editions available to all customers, with the Premium edition allowing Domain Join

o Support for RemoteFX capable thin clients to provide richer visual and multimedia experiences to MultiPoint stations connecting over the LAN

Adding these to the beta functionality that allows connecting RDP clients over the LAN, and unified Multipoint “pod” management from one console will provide a robust solution for deploying and managing MultiPoint Server.

As mentioned earlier, we’ve also fixed bugs that you reported and made additional changes to the UI based on your feedback. Again, thanks to all of you that have provided feedback on the beta. It has been extremely helpful in improving MultiPoint Server 2011. We couldn’t do it without you! I hope you’ll take the time to evaluate the Release Candidate and provide me with more feedback so that we have the best possible solution at launch.

Download theWindows MultiPoint Server 2011 Release Candidate and please send us your feedback!

We’re almost there!!

James

Comments

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    To Zen Que's question, see my latest post in this series ... blogs.technet.com/.../windows-174-multipoint-server-2011-is-nearly-here.aspx ... March availability to Academic and Open Volume Licensing customers, OEM offerings in Q2 CY11. Thanks, JD
  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    I need details of the differences between the editions. It would be a good idea to license this per processor as a school may want everything run off a huge enterprise-class server. This amazing technology also should be applied in the home. Multiple monitors per station and more than two (at least four) stations per monitor should be permitted.
  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    I need details of the differences between the editions. It would be a good idea to license this per processor as a school may want everything run off a huge enterprise-class server. This amazing technology also should be applied in the home. Multiple monitors per station and more than two (at least four) stations per monitor should be permitted.
  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    There were a couple of questions about whether WMS 2011 supports the integrated audio, keyboard and mouse on the host PC as a station, and yes, that is a new feature for WMS 2011. There is another question about making USB fobs private to the station they are plugged into - this is also a new feature for WMS 2011. Last, there was a question about the differences between Standard and Premium Editions - the primary differences are that the Standard Edition does not support Domain Join or more than 10 concurrent user sessions. The Premium Edition does offer Domain Join and allows up to 20 concurrent user sessions. These sessions can be active WMS stations, remote connected sessions from a LAN client, or disconnected sessions for users that have stepped away from the system. See the Getting Started post to get to more information about the practical limitations of different hardware configurations in supporting some number of concurrent sessions. If there are questions about the differences between the 2010 and 2011 editions, see my demo video for what's new with 2011 ... linked in the right hand pane of http://www.microsoft.com/windows/multipoint/2011.aspx
  • Anonymous
    December 15, 2010
    Congratulations guys.  Looking forward to the RTM.
  • Anonymous
    December 16, 2010
    The comment has been removed
  • Anonymous
    December 20, 2010
    Does this update address the audio issue where the host machine only recognizes its native audio hardware while in Maintenance mode? As of now, our host machine will not play sound when running in Normal mode.
  • Anonymous
    December 30, 2010
    The comment has been removed
  • Anonymous
    January 13, 2011
    RTM Date?