Familiar Windows, familiar apps

When you log in to the ThinkGrid desktop, the Applications tab gives you icons for the Windows desktop and the main Office apps. If you only want to run one application, click the icon to have it streamed to your PC. Otherwise you open the hosted desktop, which starts a virtual copy of Windows XP and then the virtualised app are streamed into the virtual desktop.

Here we’re running the supplied copy of Excel 2007 and editing a spreadsheet from the mapped drive on the Windows 2008 Server in the local office. Apart from slightly slower performance (especially on a slow network), the user will hardly know they’re not using a standard copy of Windows, which means you don’t have to factor in training costs. They can even change the desktop themes and colours as usual.