Building a Custom Windows OS Template

As an organization admin, you can build a custom OS template to provision remote desktops whenever needed. It also comes in handy for activating your own license on that operating system.

The steps below are essential to create the image correctly. Proceed with care. 

Important

About Disk Partition
1. The custom template should have a single disk partition, or at most two: an EFI/Boot partition and a separate system/data partition.
2. LVM partitions are not supported—please avoid them.
3. An incorrect partition layout will break the disk auto-resize and machine naming features.

 

Windows Setup

1. Install "Red Hat VirtIO SCSI pass-through controller

When you see "Where do you want to install Windows?", click "Load drivers" and select the correct driver. Afterwards, the storage drive should be visible.

2. Initial Setup

When the network prompt appears with "Let's connect you to a network", click I don't have internet.

At the "There's more to discover..." screen, choose Continue with limited setup.

Pick any username, and leave the password field empty.

3. Install Virtio-win drivers and guest agents

After the machine starts and you log in, go to CD Drive E and run Virtio-win-guest-tools. This installs the virtio drivers plus spice vdagent and qemu guest agent. Follow the prompts by clicking Next and OK.

4. Disable Hibernate 

Launch Command Prompt as an administrator (right-click and select "Run as administrator"), then type powercfg.exe /hibernate off and press Enter.

5. Enable Shutdown/Restart Windows 10 without Any Prompts

Open the Registry Editor and navigate to the key: HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop.

Create a new String Value called AutoEndTasks and set it to 1.

      

 

6. Make sure the required services exist and are set to "Automatic Start"

• Spice-Vdagent — for support of qemu vnc clipboard
• BalloonSerivce — for guest memory usage stats

    

        

7. Install and configure Tightvnc for proper VNC connection

Download the TightVNC installer for Windows from https://www.tightvnc.com/download.php.

Run the installer and, when it finishes, disable authentication.

Open "TightVNC service configuration" and adjust the settings as needed.

 

8. Enable Shared-drive

    Shared-drive enables file sharing between cloud desktops — great for training courses — or between your local PC and the cloud desktop. It uses WebDAV technology. You must map the drive before using it; see the screenshot below for steps.

 

 

9. Shut down Windows correctly

Click the Windows icon in the bottom-left corner, then Power > Shutdown.

 

 

A Quick Note

To add extra optional features such as 

• DDWebdav to sync trainer content folders across participant machines,
• or DDUpload for easy file uploads into a DaDesktop machine;

Reach out to DaDesktop Tech Support for assistance.