News

Windows MultiPoint Server 2011 Due This Week

Release of new Windows MultiPoint Server 2011 to TechNet and MSDN subscribers expected this week.

• By Kurt Mackie
• 02/22/2011

Yesterday, a Microsoft blog revealed that the MultiPoint server 2011 at the Microsoft Download Center will be available "a bit later this week" for its subscribers; an exact date was not provided.  The Download Center links in Microsoft's blog did not work when tried on Tuesday.

Windows MultiPoint Server 2011 is a shared computing solution for classrooms, labratories, and libraries. The server connects to dumb terminals that have a screen, keyboard, and mouse but not to individual PC so to save organizational costs. Applications running on teh system -- such as Microsoft Office -- must pay for such licensing separately.

Microsoft already released Windows MultiPoint Server 2011 to original equipment manufacturing (OEM) partners earlier this month. The company expects that the public will start to see server hardware products from those OEMs in mid-April of this year.

Meanwhile, Microsoft's volume licensing customers will be able to download Windows MultiPoint Server 2011 on March 1.

Microsoft's blog says a trial version of Windows MultiPoint Server 2011 is currently available at the Microsoft Download Center, but only downloads of the Planning Guide and Deployment Guide were available at press time. The evaluation version can be upgraded to the full product by purchasing volume licensing, so testers don't have to reinstall it the blogger claimed.

Windows MultiPoint Server 2011 will be available from Microsoft and its partners via open commercial, academic, and OEM academic licensing. The server is offered in two editions: the "standard" edition supports up to 10 connected sessions, and the "premium" edition works with up to 20 connected sessions. There appears to be no academic licensing option available for the standard edition.

The actual number of connections available to a Windows MultiPoint Server 2011 deployment is limited based on the constraints of the hardware, Microsoft's blog suggests. Microsoft's Planning Guide suggests three 64-bit hardware scenarios, based on the types of applications deployed: "productivity," "mixed," and "video intensive." The optimal server configuration for video-intensive apps appears to be a quad-core or eight-core CPU with 8 GB of RAM. Microsoft recommends using RemoteFX or equivalent Remote Desktop Protocol technology when running 15 to 20 remotely connected thin clients with full-motion video.

Premium edition users will get domain-join and Hyper-V virtualization capabilities, which aren't available in the standard edition. Only the premium edition can "be a Hyper-V host used to run virtual machines," according to the Deployment Guide. However, both editions "can be deployed as a guest operating system running on a Hyper-V host server," the guide explains.

Microsoft provides a list of the new server features here. The one feature favored most by teachers is "block all stations." It freezes all student screens to get their attention, according to a blog post by James Duffus, group program manager for Windows MultiPoint.