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Windows Virtual Desktop technical walkthrough, including other (un)known secrets you did not know about the new Microsoft-Managed Azure Service
This article is last updated at 01.12.19
A lot of you know that Windows Virtual Desktop is now Generally Available (GA). Lots of people wrote articles about it, and so did I. Most articles are covering information that is available everywhere, or just a subset of the service…
"If You Never Try, You'll Never Know" – Ben Francia
With this article, I'd like to cover the things you might not have caught. Some are deep(er) technical points, while some are just not part of the public message but still way too important not to share. It'll hopefully help you as consultant or architect to bring the technical (and functional) message around Windows Virtual Desktop to your customers 😊!
Continue reading…
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Table of Contents
Click on the title to jump to that spot in this article:
- The Desktop-As-a-Service market is growing
- What are the differences between traditional VDI and DaaS?
- Once more – What is Windows Virtual Desktop?
- RemoteApp (On Azure) is back
- The architecture behind it all
- WVD User connection Traffic Flow
- Migrate existing machines to Windows Virtual Desktop
- Windows 10 Multi User – Sizing templates
- Update management – update existing host pool
- Up and Downscale host pools – Breadth and Depth-first mode
- Microsoft Teams (and OneDrive) per-Machine now available
- Why using OneDrive Known Folder Move with WVD?
- New Azure Portal – Management Console
- Future Application Management – MSIX app attach
- Maintain your WVD images with Azure Update Management
- Windows Virtual Desktop and Azure Log Analytics
- Walkthrough Guidance: How to enroll Windows Virtual Desktop on Azure
- Pre-requisites for Windows Virtual Desktop
- Assign privileges to create the Tenant
- Create the Windows Virtual Desktop tenant
- Request the registration information token
- Assign Desktops to your users
- Enroll the Windows 10 Multi-User + Office 365 ProPlus master image
- Finalize the Windows 10 image
- Enroll your Windows Virtual Desktop Host Pool
- Assign RemoteApps to your users
- Install the Windows Virtual Desktop Agent
- Use the HTML5 WebAccess portal
The Desktop-As-a-Service market is growing
Garner and IDC expect a potential growth of 50% in the year 2019 of new DaaS customer choosing it over traditional VDI, pushing DaaS over 3 billion in revenue by the end of this year.
The EUC/VDI community acknowledged this number. During our relatively small Byte-Sized Community survey, we asked almost 200 independent people if they already use Desktop-As-a-Service solutions and if they expect that Windows Virtual Desktop will have a major impact on DaaS going forward.
"Q1 – Are you considering Desktop-As-a-Service (DaaS) anytime soon?"
"Q2 – Once released, the Microsoft Windows Virtual Desktop #WVD will have a major impact on DaaS going forward"
What are the differences between traditional VDI and DaaS?
To help you understand how Desktop-As-a-Service (DaaS) and traditional VDI are different from each other, I've had made this comparison matrix:
Once more – What is Windows Virtual Desktop?
People that follow my blogs know that I explained the services and benefits earlier in this article. However, for the people who didn't catch that yet, here is a short run-over.
"Windows Virtual Desktop, or WVD in short – is a born in the cloud Desktop-As-a-Service platform service offering on top of the Microsoft Azure Cloud. All the infrastructure services, such as brokering, web access, load-balancing, management and monitoring is all setup for you as part of the control plane offering. It also gives you access to the new Windows 10 Multi-User (EVD) Operating System – which is completely optimized for the sake of Office 365 ProPlus services, such as Outlook, OneDrive Files on Demand (per-machine), Teams etc."
The only responsibility in terms of management effort is the golden images on top of Azure Infrastructure-As-a-Service (IaaS). The rest is all managed for you through the Azure service SLAs. Sounds pretty cool, right?
Let's first start with the things you might not know about it
For the people who lived offline the past 2 months, here are some things you must know before you start reading this article!
- Windows Virtual Desktop gives you the only multi-user Windows 10 experience, including compatibility with Microsoft Store and existing Windows line-of-business apps, while delivering cost advantages.
- Allows you to virtualize both Full desktops and RemoteApps.
- You can also use to for persistent Windows 10 – single user virtual desktops.
- WVD will support Windows 7 virtual desktops and is the only way you can safely run Windows 7 after its End of Life on 14 January 2020. Windows 7 desktops on WVD will be the ONLY systems that receive free extended security updates.
- Customers with the following license SKUs are entitled to use WVD with no additional charge apart from Azure compute, storage, and network usage billing:
- To run Windows 10 multi-session, Windows 10, or Windows 7
- Microsoft 365 F1, E3, E5, A3, A5, Business
- Windows 10 Enterprise E3, E5
- Windows 10 Education A3, A5
- Windows 10 VDA per user
- To run Windows Server 2012 R2, 2016, 2019
- Remote Desktop Services (RDS) Client Access License (CAL) with active Software Assurance (SA)
- To run Windows 10 multi-session, Windows 10, or Windows 7
- Windows Virtual Desktop session host VMs are not exposed to the internet directly. They can run using a private IP address and run isolated from other workloads or even the internet. The reverse connect technology allows the VMs to be accessed
- When a user connects to the WVD service, the use of Azure Active Directory (AAD) as the identity provider allows you to leverage additional security controls like multifactor authentication (MFA) or conditional access;
- Deeply integrated with the security and management of Microsoft 365, such as Intune Modern Management
- From a best practices point of view; Make sure all Azure resources are in the same region
- All the Nvidia vGPU graphical enhanced n-series virtual machines on Azure are supported with Windows Virtual Desktop as well!
- Citrix is adding their own Citrix Cloud stack as well to Windows Virtual Desktop, think about the Workspace experience and other services.
- Expect updates around this during Synergy later this month!
RemoteApp (On Azure) is back
Azure RemoteApp was a great technology, but due to some problems it never took off and Microsoft decided to deprecate the service. Citrix Essentials was the replacement for certain use-cases in Azure IaaS as part of the Microsoft + Citrix increased partnership to emphasize the digital transformation to the Cloud.
Now, RemoteApp will be back in terms of functionality. The code is rewritten, and lessons learned from the past are used to improve the product. In case you were wondering about Windows 10 Multi-User, the answer is yes – you can use it with a RemoteApp solution.
One of the most interesting use-cases is consolidating your Win32 apps in Azure and place icons on the endpoint's desktop – start menu and/or tiles in the start screen! The user doesn't see/know whether the app is locally installed or is running a RemoteApp in Azure. I personally think that this use-case will be very important for future Windows Virtual Desktop customers!
See below how fast and easy it works in conjunction with FSLogix/Microsoft Profile Containers as Profile Management solution!
The architecture behind it all
The first step that you must do is the create the master image, or golden image in Citrix terms. Most often, this will be based on the new Windows 10 Enterprise for Virtual Desktops (Multi-User) Operating System, which is now available from the Azure Marketplace. After enrolling the server, you can start installing the application on the machine. When you're done, you must capture the machine as an image to use as a base for your Windows Virtual Desktop deployment.
The Microsoft-managed control-plane is a completely redesigned infrastructure which leverages native Azure platform services to scale automatically. Think about Azure traffic manager for managing the RDP connection, Azure App Services in Azure for hosting the infrastructure services, and Azure SQL DB for hosting the RDS Brokering databases. Leveraging these services is the main reasons why this service is so cost-effective, which is the purpose of the Cloud and what it's built for!
WVD User connection Traffic Flow
To give you a better understanding of how Windows Virtual Desktop connections work, I'm sharing the traffic flow. This is also useful for troubleshooting purposes.
Connecting from your endpoint to your Host Pool (session hosts in Azure Infrastructure-As-a-Service) works differently with Windows Virtual Desktop. It uses Reverse Connect, which means that no inbound ports need to be opened on the VM to setup the RDP connection.
Once the connection flow proceeds, bidirectional communication between your session hosts/host pool will go over port https (443). This port is almost always open from the inside to the outside, so it's perfect for a remote connection to Windows Virtual Desktop!
See below in more depth how the traffic flow works.
- User launches RD client which connects to Azure AD, user signs in, and Azure AD returns token
- RD client presents token to Web Access, Broker queries DB to determine resources authorized for user
- User selects resource, RD client connects to Gateway
- Broker orchestrates connection from host agent to Gateway
RDP traffic now flows between RD client and session host VM over connections 3 and 4
Note: Windows Virtual Desktop can be used as worldwide service depending on your location and the location of the VMs. The control-plane persists currently in the US – east US 2 to be specific, however, your host pool can exist everywhere. Just remember your performance using a host pool outside of the US might vary until the control plane is added to other regions. If you set up a host pool in a non-US location with the US control plane, you will automatically switch to the local control plane when it's rolled out for your region.
Migrate existing machines to Windows Virtual Desktop
Migrating from your current Remote Desktop Solution – RDS environment to Windows Virtual Desktop is relatively easy. You could use Azure Site recovery to migrate your server infrastructure to Azure. Follow the next 5 steps after that and sessions can be launched via Windows Virtual Desktop.
Note: There are also ARM Templates available to automate the creation of the RDS Infrastructure components.
- Register / create host pool within Windows Virtual Desktop
- Install RD Agent on session host
- Agent registers with Windows Virtual Desktop
- Decommission your old environment
- Ready to launch your session!
As part of this article, I'm showing al the manual steps of deploying a custom Windows 10 Multi-User (EVD) image in Azure and connect them to the Broker. This is the same procedure that you've to follow when you are using an existing image prior to preparation for the usage as part of Windows Virtual Desktop. The steps are starting here.
Windows 10 Multi-User – Sizing templates
Having the best end-user experience for your users is probably one of the most important goals when using Desktop-As-a-Service. Though the cloud takes over a lot of management tasks after migration, you'll still need to handle image management. The following matrix gives a good baseline on how your Windows 10 Enterprise for Virtual Desktops (CVAD) must be sized for 4 types of users. The amount of data in your profile is depending on your settings, think about Outlook retention slider settings for example. Due to the support of OneDrive Files On-Demand, the storage allocation for files sync should be minimal.
The Windows Virtual Desktop Host Pool enrollment of the Azure Marketplace also advises your which Virtual Machine SKU in Azure fits best for the number of users you need/going to use.
See all the information on Virtual Machine sizing here.
Knowledge user
Knowledge users use lightweight productivity applications like Microsoft Word, Excel, Outlook, and the Microsoft Edge browser.
For knowledge users, we recommend no more than four users per virtual CPU (vCPU).
Professional user
Professional users use internet browsers and productivity applications in addition to supporting more intensive workloads like developing software and creating multimedia content.
For professional users, we recommend no more than two users per vCPU.
Power user
Power users use engineering and graphics applications like computer-aided design (CAD) and Adobe Photoshop. GPUs are often a good choice for users who regularly use graphics-intensive programs for video rendering, 3D design, and simulations.
For power users, we recommend no more than one user per vCPU.
To learn more about graphics acceleration, check out Choose your graphics rendering technology.
Azure has other graphics acceleration deployment options and multiple available GPU VM sizes. Learn about these at GPU optimized virtual machines sizes.
Update management – update existing host pool
The Microsoft WVD team created Azure ARM templates that remove or stop the old (drain mode) instance of WVD Hostpool session hosts and creates new virtual machines and registers them as session hosts to WVD host pool.
Extra information around the Azure ARM .json template can be found here. Or click on the Deploy to Azure button below to directly inject the .json ARM template in your Azure environment.
Note: All these features will later be integrated into the Azure Portal, as part of the new Windows Virtual Desktop management console. Get a sneak preview here.
There are different sets of parameters you must enter to successfully deploy the template:
- ActionOnPreviousVirtualMachines
- VM image Type
- RDSH VM Configuration in Azure
- Domain and Network Properties
- Authentication to Windows Virtual Desktop
Up and downscale host pool resources – Breadth and Depth-first mode
For many Windows Virtual Desktop deployments in Azure, the virtual machine costs of the Windows Virtual Desktop session host VM represent the most significant portion of the total deployment cost. To reduce cost, the WVD Depth-first mode automatically fills up the first session host server maximum amount of users before spinning up a next one, and so on. The other option is to use it to shuts down and de-allocates RDSH server VMs during off-peak usage hours and then restarts them during peak usage hours. This can be a huge cost saver!
Breadth mode is the standard – default mode, which is based on Reserved Azure instances (IaaS). With Breadth mode, the users will spread across host pool collection.
Read more about this feature, and download the scripts/templates here.
Note: All these features will later be integrated into the Azure Portal, as part of the new Windows Virtual Desktop management console. Get a sneak preview here.
Some other recommendation and limitations:
- This scaling script is written to handle one host pool per instance of the scheduled task that is running the script.
- The scheduled tasks that runs scaling scripts must to be on a VM that is always on.
- Create a separate folder for each instance of the scaling script and its configuration.
- Accounts with MFA are not supported. It is recommended to use service principals to query access the Windows Virtual Desktop service and Azure.
- Azure's SLA guarantee apply only to VMs in an availability set. Current document describes environment with single VM that is doing the scaling, this may not meet availability requirements.
You can find the rest of the document / implementation guidance here.
Microsoft Teams (and OneDrive) per-Machine is available for VDI!
Microsoft just released a new Per-Machine (Machine-Wide) version of Teams and will place the Teams application back to the Program Files directory. Currently, this per-machine version is only available for RDS, Citrix or VMware VDI machines – it basically detects the VDA software and RDS roles and fails to install otherwise. The Windows Virtual Desktop – Windows 10 Multi-User OS will follow soon as well as the video and audio offloading agent. Though it's too important not to share, so that's why I included the release in this article. Follow up here.
OneDrive Per-Machine is currently working as of today on Windows 10 Multi-User – the steps for doing this are listed here.
New Per-Machine installation locations are:
Teams installation folder location – %ProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft\Teams\
OneDrive installation folder location – %ProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft OneDrive\
OneDrive per-Machine is (also) available
By default, the OneDrive sync client installs per user on Windows, meaning OneDrive.exe needs to be installed for each user account on the PC under the %localappdata% folder. With the new per-machine installation option, you can install OneDrive under the "Program Files (x86)" directory, meaning all profiles on the computer will use the same OneDrive.exe binary.
See here how to install OneDrive Per-Machine on Windows 10 Multi-User.
(Why using) OneDrive Known Folder Move together with WVD?
Recently, the OneDrive team added Known Folder Move functionality support to OneDrive, which is very useful to create the same end-user experience for our users on Windows Virtual Desktop as they would have on a Modern Desktop with all profile folders, such as My Documents, Pictures, Favorites, Desktop, etc. redirected to OneDrive. Also, with the use of OneDrive Files On-Demand, you'll be able to save storage space from your profile folders due to the possibility to work with tiering for your hot and cold data.
While using Known Folder Move on different devices or VDI environments in conjunction with the same OneDrive account. You ensure to always have your Office 365 documents on the same location, everywhere you go! Even on your mobile device, without any notice 😊
Activating Kown Folder Move is relatively easy. You can use the manual approach by opening the OneDrive client from the Start menu and click on Update Folders.
You can also use the automated approach
Enabling this policy sets the following registry keys:
(where "1111-2222-3333-4444" is the AzureAD Directory – tenant ID, which you can find in the Azure Portal – under the properties menu of your Azure AD tenant)
In the end, your profile folders will look like this, and are completely in sync with your OneDrive account.
New Azure Portal – Management Console
Windows Virtual Desktop (WVD) is just released GA. Currently, there is a separate management UX portal available to use as management GUI instead of using the designated PowerShell commands. This is a separate HTML portal that runs on Azure App Service using Azure AD as auth. mechanism.
Future looking. Both tasks will be simplified, and to give you a sneak preview – the following Azure Portal integration console will be part of the new native solution offering. It gives you the ability to manage and maintain desktop and RemoteApp assignments, assign groups to check and change virtual machine status more.
Note: The new WVD management Portal below will be available soon.
(Now Available as Preview!) Future WVD Application Management – MSIX app attach
MSIX app attach is a newly announced sub-feature of MSIX, however now more efficient and optimized for virtual desktop technology due to the fact we use app streaming via MSIX, take a closer look at the bullet points below.
- Native format is MSIX (no re-packaging)
- Minimal performance impact
- MSIX Apps can be stored off the windows disk
- Remotely mount the apps to the VM on-demand
- Apps groups are assigned to users, and they're available instantly on login
- Looks and feels local to the user and to windows
- For both Azure and On-Premises workloads (not specific to WVD only)
UPDATE 01.12.19: You can now kick the tires on this new MSX app attach! Learn here how to use it in your environment!
Learn more about app attach at this Microsoft Ignite breakout session here.
Maintain your WVD images with Azure Update Management
Your Windows Virtual Desktop master image can be managed by any already existing process, including Azure Update Management and System Center Configuration Manager. Azure Update management identifies missing system updates and orchestrates the installation of these updates across your Windows Virtual Desktop session hosts (and other infrastructure servers). You can sort of see it as the improved new Cloud platform service of Windows Update Services (WSUS).
Systems that are missing security updates can become targets of intrusions in your network and data. With simple out-of-the-box dashboards, you can quickly assess which servers need your immediate attention. With our update orchestration capabilities, you can manage the installation of updates across computer groups.
Windows Virtual Desktop and Azure Log Analytics
The main purpose of leveraging Public Cloud is not saving money. It's around leveraging platform services to adopt as much as services to create the digital workspace for your business.
One of those platform services in Azure is LogAnalytics, the service to gather metric in your environment and bring them down to one single pane of glass dashboard. LogAnalytics gives you all information about sessions. This includes e.g. bandwidth and latency for every single user and session on your site. This can be relevant for troubleshooting or just monitoring purposes, and it doesn't require any additional investments.
Note: This solution is offered as–is for community purpose and for testing. To get the full stack – including Power BI templates – and professional support contact firstname.lastname@example.com
Search for Azure Monitor for RDS and Windows Virtual Desktop in the Marketplace
Walkthrough Guidance: How to enroll Windows Virtual Desktop on Azure
In the next steps, I'll explain how you enroll Windows Virtual Desktop from scratch with a customer created Windows 10 Enterprise for Virtual Desktop (Multi-User) image among tips and tricks.
Pre-requisites for Windows Virtual Desktop
The following requirements are needed for the use of Windows Virtual Desktop on Azure.
- Entitled for licensing
- Azure Subscription
- Azure Active Directory setup
- Global Administrator rights
- Granting consent to the WVD service / Azure AD Enterprise Applications
- Azure AD Connect
- ADFS (optional for the best SSO end-user experience)
- Domain controller
- This AD must be in sync with Azure AD so users can be associated between the two
- VMs must domain-join this AD
- Optional: Azure AD Domain Services (in replacement for domain controller)
- Profile Containers network share (See here our recommended Azure Managed options)
- Network must route to a Windows Server Active…Directory (AD)
- Optional: Networking/on-prem connectivity – express route, VPN, etc.
Pre-steps: Give Consent to your Azure AD tenant
Before you can create a WVD tenant, you must consent to have the WVD services access your Azure AD. The way WVD is designed requires explicit Azure AD consent. The process is much like how Azure requires you to enable non-standard resource providers before being able to use them.
Go to your Azure AD Properties in the Azure Portal, and copy your Directory ID.
After that, go to https://rdweb.wvd.microsoft.com/
Paste your Azure AD Directory ID in the text field and click on Submit
Logon with your Azure Global Administrator credentials of your Azure AD tenant
Accept the permissions request for your organization to finalize the principal creation process
And the application is created successfully
Repeat the same steps for the client app
Assign privileges to create the Tenant
These steps are required to perform the next "create the WVD tenant" steps through PowerShell. Grant permissions for a user to create a Windows Virtual Desktop tenant.
Open Azure Active Directory
Click on Enterprise applications
Search for and then select Windows Virtual Desktop
Select Users and Groups
Select Add User, select Users and Groups and search for a user that you want to give permissions to perform WVD tenant creation
Click onassign
Make sure that the TenantCreator role is assigned
Create the Windows Virtual Desktop tenant
First, we need to prepare your client to run the Windows Virtual Desktop PowerShell module.
To do so, please run the following PowerShellcommand
Note: don't forget to start your PowerShell console with administrator privileges
Install-Module -Name Microsoft.RDInfra.RDPowerShell
Also, make sure to import the module as well
Import-Module -Name Microsoft.RDInfra.RDPowerShell
Run the following command.
Add-RdsAccount -DeploymentUrl "https://rdbroker.wvd.microsoft.com"
Login with your TenantCreator administrator account
If everything goes as expected, you must see the following info in return
Now, run the following command below.
Name is your tenantname.
You can randomly create a tenant name, suggest using your organization name.
Use your AzureAD Directory ID in the AadTenantID section.
Where to find? Go to your Azure Portal > Azure Active Directory > Properties > Directory ID.
Secondly, use the Azure subscription ID of your Azure tenant where you need to deploy your virtual machines in for the AzureSubscriptionId section.
Where to find?
Azure Portal > search for Subscriptions, copy the subscription ID
New-RdsTenant -Name tenantname -AadTenantId 00000000-1111-2222-3333-444444444444 -AzureSubscriptionId 55555555-6666-7777-8888-999999999999
Make sure your tenant name returns successfully, like picture below.
Note: The name must be unique, make up a new name when it's already in use!
Run the following command to create a host pool
Note: Create your own random hostpool name, such as WVD-Host-Pool01
New-RdsHostPool -TenantName TenantName -Name HostPoolName
Request the registration information token
Run the following command to request the registrationinformation to register our session host brokering agents to the broker.
New-RdsRegistrationInfo -TenantName TenantName -HostPoolName HostPoolName Select-Object -ExpandProperty Token c:\wvd.txt
Note: Copy the string to somewhere save – don't lost the string, because we need them to register our master image / sessions to the broker.
Note: You can repeat the steps above for every host pool you want to create per Operating System. You can assign it later to the right host collection.
Assign WVD Desktop Application group
We can now assignusers to the host pool – to provide for instance the Windows 10 Multi User desktop.
Note: You can either assign Desktops or RemoteApps to one host pool, not both.
To assign a Desktop Group to a user, please run
Note: A Desktop Application Group stands for a full blown desktop.
Add-RdsAppGroupUser -TenantName TenantName -HostPoolName HostPoolName -AppGroupName "Desktop Application Group" -UserPrincipalName UPNuserAccount
Go to https://rdweb.wvd.microsoft.com/webclient/index.html and logon with your user account that your applied the desktop group to – to see if the Session Desktop icon is applied.
Note: The desktop does (obviously) not work yet. We first must create the master image and host pool!
Enroll the Windows 10 Multi-User + Office 365 ProPlus master image
There are different approaches to configure Windows Virtual Desktop. This can be either by Azure Virtual Machines or by using custom ARM scripts in conjunction with your own images, which can also be previous on-premises images that you can lift-and-shift with Azure Site Recovery to Azure.
Note: As part of the steps below, I'm showing al the manual steps of deploying a custom Windows 10 Multi-User (EVD) image in Azure and connect them to the Broker. This is the same procedure that you've to follow when you are using an existing image prior to preparation for the usage as part of Windows Virtual Desktop.
This is also to give you a complete and better technical understanding of the enrollment process. You could also use different ARM templates, or the pre-created images in the Windows Virtual Desktop Azure Marketplace – host pool deployment. Those are already enrolled with the RD Broker agent.
See here where you could select a prepared image. When you prefer that, please skip these steps and start directly here.
Go to Virtual Machine
Click on + Add
Click on Browse all images
Select Windows 10 Enterprise for Virtual Desktop + Office 365 ProPlus
Also, make sure to enroll the master VM with a standard disk when you want to use the VHD – URI as base image during the Host Pool enrollment.
Finish the setup – and start the enrollment of the VM
Note: Managed images are also supported. Use the following docs article as follow up.
Once the virtual machine is enrolled and up and running:
Connect through RDP to the machine – this can be internally or externally.
Note: If you haven't got an ExpressRoute or Site2Site VPN – please use just in time access for an secure approach to open 3389 from the outside.
Once you are logged on to your master image.
Download the Windows Virtual Desktop Agent – and install the WVD agent on the master VM
Note: Right-click the downloaded installer, select Properties, select Unblock, then select OK. This will allow your system to trust the installer.
Click on Next
Paste the token you received earlier while creating the host pool through PowerShell with command below.
Click Next
New-RdsRegistrationInfo -TenantName TenantName -HostPoolName WVD-Host-Pool01 | Select-Object -ExpandProperty Token c:\wvd.reg
Install the application – click install
The installation finished successfully
After this step, download the Windows Virtual Desktop Agent Bootloader and run the installer.
Note: Again – right-click the downloaded installer, select Properties, select Unblock, then select OK. This will allow your system to trust the installer
Click on Next
Click on Install
The installation finished successfully.
Download the Windows Virtual Desktop side-by-side stack and run the installer.
Note: Again – right-click the downloaded installer, select Properties, select Unblock, then select OK. This will allow your system to trust the installer
Click Next
Click Install
The setup will run some commands in a sperate DOS prompt. This can take up a while – 3 minutes…
The installation is finished.
Final Step – Download thisscript to activate the side-by-side stack.You can paste the script into a PowerShell window and run it. The outcome after running it most look similar like the exhibit below.
Now we can add our agents to the image, such as the FSLogix Apps Agent, plus your own agents and Win32 applications.
Install OneDrive Per-Machine
You can download the new per-machine version of OneDrive below:
Make sure to re-install the application by using the following command.
OneDriveSetup.exe /allusers
Also, when running this on a Multi-User environment, this means that on that same session host, all the different user-profile – OneDrive versions will update simultaneously – which can get messy in terms of network throughput. This is also solved with the per-machine version.
The per-machine version will update itself by a service/account which injects itself during the installation. Therefore, you always need to run the installation as local administrator with UAC privileges.
Extra: Optimize the WVD VDI image for the best user density in Azure + Github PowerShell optimization script
This article helps you choose and prepare settings for Windows 10 Enterprise for Virtual Desktop (Multi-User) that should result in the best performance in a Virtualized Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) environment. All settings in this guide are recommendations to be considered and are in no way requirements.
As follow up to the official optimization for Window Virtual Desktop, you could use the latest new official Microsoft article around optimizing Windows 10, version 1803 (build 17134) VDIs that should result in the best performance in a Virtualized Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) environment. Most of the settings also apply for Windows 10 Enterprise for Virtual Desktops to gain in performance and user density!
Note: An automated optimization script that implements the optimizations discussed in this topic–as well as a GPO export file that you can import with LGPO.exe–is available at TheVDIGuys on GitHub.
Add FSLogix Profile Container for profile management
The article below will cover the complete installation of the Microsoft/FSLogix Profile Container—including all the steps that are needed, for the sake of the Windows Virtual Desktop environment – the process is the same.
The future of Roaming Profiles – Add fast logon performance and Office 365 support to your virtual desktop (VDI) – DaaS environment with Microsoft/FSLogix Profile Container, including existing UEM solutions
If you are interested in the different options to store your Profile Container on Azure-Managed storage as well as the differences-make sure to check out the matrix below out of this Microsoft Docs article I wrote earlier.
If you're ready to create your own FSLogix profile containers, get started with one of these tutorials:
- Getting started with FSLogix profile containers on Azure Files in Windows Virtual Desktop
- Create an FSLogix profile container for a host pool using Azure NetApp files
- The instructions in Deploy a two-node Storage Spaces Direct scale-out file server for UPD storage in Azure also apply when you use an FSLogix profile container instead of a user profile disk
Finalize the Windows 10 image
Note: Make sure to sysprep (shutdown) the image before you start with these steps below.
To wrap the Windows 10 Multi User (Windows 10 Enterprise for Virtual Desktops) image up and start the host pool enrollment process from the Azure Marketplace, we must delete the virtual machine to release the image. After that, we can use the URI file from our Azure storage blob environment to use as master image.
Note: As shared earlier. you could use Azure Managed Images as well as alternative. See here how to do that.
Before you delete the image – go to your Disks menu of the virtual machine and open on the name of the disk.
Save the location to your clipboard, we need this VHD URI path later.
Delete the Virtual Machine.
Note: The disk will stay behind in your storage account.
Enroll your Windows Virtual Desktop Host Pool
Now we come to the point where we can use our master image as baseline of our deployment. A host pool is a collection of session hosts (right now based on Windows 10 – Multi User, however Windows 7 and Server 2012 R2 and higher is supported as well). We can use them later to assign our Desktops and Published Apps to.
First, go to the Azure Marketplace
Search for Windows Virtual Desktop
Click on Create
Start the deployment with entering the your WVD tenant name.
We go for pooled, because we use a multi user environment, which is shared. Use personal when you want to assign a dedicated (persistent) virtual machine, such as Windows 10 single user to one specific user.
Note: Your tenant name is the one you entered in the command below, from the previous steps. Do not run this command again.
New-RdsTenant -Name cbrinkhoff -AadTenantId <DirectoryID> -AzureSubscriptionId <SubscriptionID>
Note: Enter a comma-separated list of users to be automatically assigned to the desktop app group for the host pool. For example, 'email@example.com,email@example.com,etc.'.
Note: You can deploy your host pool in every Azure datacenter location, which supports Virtual Machines. For the best user experience, consider creating your environment near an Azure region containing a Windows Virtual Desktop cluster. Currently, the WVD control-plane is only available in Azure east US 2. After GA, more locations will be added. Also, see the traffic flow in the beginning of this article as follow up.
Click on Next
This prefix will be used in combination with the VM number to create the VM name. If using 'WVD' as the prefix, VMs would be named 'WVD-0′, 'WVD-1′, etc. You should use a unique prefix to reduce name collisions in Active Directory and in Windows Virtual Desktop.
Click on Next
Now we come to the point where we define our master image, which we create earlier.
Paste the VHD – URI path
Note: You can use a pre-configured image as well, based on the Azure gallery.
Select your disk type – preferably SSD
Enter your normal (classic) Active Directory credentials for the computer account domain join
Select your Azure Virtual Network.
Note: You must select an existing virtual network that has access to the Active Directory. If you do not see it listed, you must re-start the deployment with the correct Azure location selected.
Click on Ok
Note: As shared earlier. you could use Azure Managed Images as well. See here how to do that.
Now we switch to the Azure AD – principal requirements.
First enter the name of the tenant group name associated with your Windows Virtual Desktop tenant. If you were not given one, leave it as 'Default Tenant Group'.
Enter the name of your Windows Virtual Desktop tenant.
Select the type of account you would like to use to authenticate to Windows Virtual Desktop. This user must have 'RDS Owner' or 'RDS Contributor' permissions on the Windows Virtual Desktop tenant.
Note: You cannot enter a user account that requires MFA. If you intend to use MFA, consider creating a service principal for this purpose.
Check the summary, and click on Ok
Click on Create to start the host pool enrollment
When the enrollment is done – your machines will automatically
Assign Windows Virtual Desktop Remote Application group – RemoteApps
Optional steps: To assign a Remote AppGroup to a user, please run the command below.
Note: You cannot create a Remote Application Group on the same host pool when you already use it for your desktops. If you want to run RemoteApps and Desktops, you need to create 2 different host pools first and assign.
When you need another host pool for RemoteApps, please run all the previous command again, however, now with a different hostpool name.
Run the command below, with the new HostPoolName for RemoteApps
Add-RdsAppGroupUser -TenantName TenantName -HostPoolName "HostPool2" -AppGroupName "Remote Application Group" -UserPrincipalName UPNuserAccount
Also, save the registration token. You need them for the other host pool as well.
Note: Keep in mind that you must enroll 2 master images while using 2 host pools. You also need to enroll the host pool twice, one for the desktop host pool and one for the RemoteApps host pool
Please follow up for the other command here:
Install the Windows Virtual Desktop Agent
To run your Windows Virtual Desktop – Full Desktops or RemoteApps directly from the client and/or start menu, you must install the WVD Client.
Download the WVD client below
Start the WVD Client – Desktop app
Subscribe to the feed using the URL
Click subscribe
Enter a user that has a desktop or apps applied.
Click on Next
And password.
Your RemoteApps and Desktops are ready to use!
And also, part of your Windows StartMenu!!
Use the HTML5 WebAccess portal
WVD can be accessed without a client or agent from a web browser, which can be beneficial when you need to do some work without having your own device with you.
To access the RDWeb portal, please go to.
Logon with your credentials.
Azure MFA can be added to this as well. Azure AD Conditional Access features are supported!
If you get access, you'll see all your Desktops and RemoteApps
Accessing my Windows 10 Multi User…
We are inside our Windows 10 Multi User – Enterprise for Virtual Desktop session host, including OneDrive, Teams and Outlook – everything just works 😊!
Some extra information regarding client supports; Windows Virtual Desktop supports the following clients as of today.
This URL goes directly to the official Microsoft download page to download the WVD client.
- Windows 10
- Windows 7
- Android
- Chromebook*
- Samsung DeX
- HTML5 Web client on Windows, macOS and Linux
- Which basically means every device is supported with a HTML5 browser installed.
See here a comprehensive troubleshooting overview and what to do when for feedback and support!
Also, I wrote a previous article on Office 365 ProPlus and Office 2019 challenges. I encourage you to use that article in advance to this one.
Hope to see you back soon – and feel free to leave a comment if you've any questions.
Thank you,
Christiaan Brinkhoff


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Queensland Coal - the Blackwater System DVD3 of 5 (1)
Click to enlargeNote: Cover image may differ from actual product
Intense, heavy duty coal train action on QR National's Blackwater System in Queensland, Australia. Big trains powered by a pair of head end diesel or electric locomotives, with up to three mid train helpers. In addition, you'll see some passenger trains, including Australia's fastest, the Tilt train and some regular freights.
Award Value: 111 Points Earn points for free DVDs. Signup free.
Queensland Coal - the Blackwater System DVD
Frank Schulze on 2009-10-18 11:33:20.
People who found this review helpful: 2

subset: commoncrawl


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Main Content:
Baby Girl Accessories
Old Navy Baby Girl Accessories
Baby girl accessories from Old Navy make all the difference. With fashionably designed baby girls accessories that really accentuate those outfits, how can you resist? Cute and adorable, Old Navy baby girl accessories come in a variety of styles and colors that add supple appeal and character to any wardrobe. From fringed boots to multicoloured knit hats and baby ballet shoes to tights and socks, you are sure to get an array of baby girls accessories that will complement any outfit. At Old Navy, fashion and function are key, get the looks you want and the comfort you need with our collection of baby girl accessories.


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This movie is all about the popular clothing styles that surfaced in the 80's and Madonna was the first pop icon to make under wear as outer wear in public acceptable with the rise of the boustierre as well as bras paired with see through mesh tops as a bold fashion forward statement!
Hard to believe that was twenty six years ago and that to this day, this style is still in circulation, perhaps in a more modestly muted way, but still out there nonetheless!
Pop Icon Lady Gaga's style has definitely been instrumental in reinspiring this vintage style, but on a whole other level, as her no holds barred over the top fashion taste, or lack there of rather, has one upped Madonna in regards to shock value!
I personally prefer the less brash 80's version (i.e. Madonna's style) of under wear as outer wear because even she attempted to leave a bit to the imagination! Truth is, everyone has the right to 'bare arms' so to speak but the question remains...is less always best?
slsvggashion.blogspot.com , dvdreleasedates.com , dollydust.blogspot.com , urbanglossy.com, refinery29.com, fashionforlunch.com , usahangout.com


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Things are looking up for elevators
Jane Jacobs wrote that new ideas need old buildings; perhaps that's why the Fraunhofer Center for Sustainable Energy Systems is housed in a top-to-bottom renovation of a 101 year old warehouse building in Boston's Fort Point Channel district, a really interesting collection of old warehouse buildings being rehabbed into an innovation center. I recently visited the building as a guest of ThyssenKrupp, which donated the elevator. And a very interesting elevator it is.
Conventional elevators use up between 5% and 8% of a building's energy. Installing them is slow and tedious, especially in a old building. Normally the rails are fastened to the existing walls, which require extensive engineering checks and possible expensive reinforcement. Surprisingly, an elevator can use more power just sitting there than it actually does while moving, thanks to all the fans and lights and electronics that run even when the elevator doesn't.As an architect, I worked on a couple of building renovations where the elevator was the most difficult part of the job, often holding up occupancy of the building. Historic machine rooms often didn't meet modern code and had to be rebuilt.
The Synergy elevator at the Fraunhofer CSE isn't attached to the walls; it is a freestanding independent structure inside the shaft that doesn't rely on the building. It has gearless motors that don't need an independent machine room.
In conventional elevators the motor spins as the elevator goes down, generating electricity. However this energy was too dirty to actually be used, and would be bled off into giant resistors and released as heat. Not any more; the energy generated is filtered and cleaned to the point that it can be fed back into the building. Net energy consumption is significantly reduced and so is the cooling load for the building.
Finally, the elevator is smart enough to nap when not needed, shutting off the LED lights and fans when nobody is in the cab.
The elevator is part of the Building Technology Showcase, described as "a venue where everyone—from seasoned architects and construction executives to students still deciding their future career paths—can visualize the performance and potential of the technologies incorporated into the building." Unfortunately, you really can't visualize what's going on in this elevator. It's like this Economist article on elevators where they wrote:
From the customer's perspective, lifts have evolved little since they first appeared 150 years ago. You walk in. You press a button. You avoid talking to the people standing next to you. You get off.
Really, they should have built this cab out of glass, there is a lot going on behind the button these days.


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Why I am waiting:Title: Love and Other WordsAuthor: Christina LaurenRelease Date: April 10th, 2018The story of the heart can never be unwritten.
Macy Sorensen is settling into an ambitious if emotionally tepid routine: work hard as a new pediatrics resident, plan her wedding to an older, financially secure man, keep her head down and heart tucked away.
But when she runs into Elliot Petropoulos—the first and only love of her life—the careful bubble she's constructed begins to dissolve. Once upon a time, Elliot was Macy's entire world—growing from her gangly bookish friend into the man who coaxed her heart open again after the loss of her mother...only to break it on the very night he declared his love for her.
Told in alternating timelines between Then and Now, teenage Elliot and Macy grow from friends to much more—spending weekends and lazy summers together in a house outside of San Francisco devouring books, sharing favorite words, and talking through their growing pains and triumphs. As adults, they have become strangers to one another until their chance reunion. Although their memories are obscured by the agony of what happened that night so many years ago, Elliot will come to understand the truth behind Macy's decade-long silence, and will have to overcome the past and himself to revive her faith in the possibility of an all-consuming love.
I've loved almost all the books this duo has written that I've tried, so I think this will be a must read. I'm hoping some of yall have read it already and can tell me your thoughts! I haven't read all that many women's fiction books or the then and now alternating time lines. Sounds interesting!
What book are you waiting on this week?


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Hi everyone!
I recently ordered some workout clothes from AliExpress because I wanted some new workout gear and didn't want to spend a fortune. So today I'm sharing with you what I bought and whether they were worth it or not. I'll also share my tips for buying on the site as you have to be careful.
Here are my tips for shopping on AliExpress:
- Only buy items with LOTS of reviews.
- Only buy items with LOTS of picture reviews.
- Take the time to read reviews and look at the pictures – I just read the reviews that have pictures (you can filter the reviews to only see the ones with pictures).
The reason why I say to only buy items that have lots of reviews with pictures is because you can see what it actually looks like on people (if you're buying clothes). A lot of times a shirt will look long on the model, but once you start looking at the picture reviews you can see that the shirt is not as long as it seems to be. Also, a lot of these items are reproductions so it's not always the same material and pattern as in the advertised picture. Make sure you do your research before you decide on anything. And that's it! Simple enough, right? 🙂
And now for the clothes. Let's start with the sports bra which is, get ready for it, the Hot New Women New Bra For Padded Wirefree Shakeproof Push Up Seamless Fitness Top Bras For Woman Summer Style. Did you get all that? Lol! This one retails for $6.99 USD which came to $8.79 CAD at the time of purchase.
This one has 1500+ reviews, but for some odd reason right now I only see 61 reviews and 5 with pictures. There must be some glitch because I looked at lots of pictures and they all looked great, from small breasts to big breasts.
I ordered a size medium and chose design #4 which is this one (picture taken from AliExpress):
What I received looks just like the advertised picture.
I do have to talk about the padding though because, well, take a look…!
Bahahahaha! 😀 So I obviously cannot leave the pads in, but that's ok. I absolutely love this bra and strongly recommend it! I'll definitely be grabbing more designs.
Now onto the shirt which is the Hot Women See Through Tank Top 2016 Summer Fashion Sleeveless O Neck Loose Tops Plus Size Black White Casual Loose Shirt Blusa at $4.60 USD, but was on sale at time of purchase and came to $4.55 CAD.
These are the pictures on AliExpress:
This one didn't have that many reviews overall and even less with pictures so I took a bit of a gamble, but I figured at that price, why not. I liked the look of it and how it would let you breathe during a workout. I grabbed the black one in a medium since I wasn't sure if they were made small or not.
It's a bit big so a small probably would have been better. Also it's not quite the same as the advertised pictures. It's very similar, but you can see at the shoulders and the back that it's different. I'm just not feeling this one.
Last but not least are the S-XL 4 Colors Women's Leggings For Adventure Time Bodybuilding Workout Clothing Quick Drying Elastic Leggings Women 5A at $8.50 USD. These were also on sale when I purchased them and came to $6.72 CAD.
These pants have 1300+ reviews and 160+ with pictures and they all rave about the pants. I read lots of reviews where the person indicated their height and weight to get an idea of the size I needed. Seems like the XL would be perfect, so I grabbed a pair in grey.
These are definitely made on the small side since the XL fit perfectly on me; I'm usually a size 8 in pants. But they're really comfortable and the length is perfect. I highly recommend these pants if you're looking for a new pair. I'll most than likely order another pair in another colour.
And there you have it, a full workout ensemble from AliExpress for a total of $20.06 CAD. How awesome is that?!? Granted, I'm not a big fan of the shirt so I probably won't wear it for now (I'll keep it though in case I change my mind), but the bra and pants I absolutely love and highly recommend!
Did you know that AliExpress is on ebates? That's right, you can get 3.5% cash back! Unfortunately I only discovered this after I put in my order, but you can be sure I won't forget it in the future!
Have you bought anything from AliExpress? Any items you recommend?
– Chantal 🙂
Computer geek by day and super mom by night, Chantal loves to try products of any kind and share her thoughts with the world.


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Duplicate content is a common problem, as seen in many shopping carts, Magento included. You have to be aware that this issue is very complex and there are at least a few potential sources of duplicate content. In this article we will discuss the major problems with duplicate content and suggest possible solutions.
What is duplicate content and how it can affect your eCommerce?
Duplicate content is any type of content, which is repeated on more than one page of your website. For example, if you copy descriptions of your products and publish them on more than one page, you are creating duplicate content. In Magento the problem can be caused by the platform itself: the shopping cart can automatically create different URLs, which refer to the same content. In result Google sees these pages as repetitions. This can severely damage your search engine optimization efforts and decrease your position in Google ranking. How come? Google gives priority and higher rates to unique, informative content. Multiple repetitions and duplicate content result in lower ratings.
Duplicate content on product pages
As stated above, repeated product descriptions are one of the most common sources of duplicate content. Product pages are responsible for as much as 80-90% of the Google website index, therefore it is extremely important that your product pages contain unique, original content. Avoid repeating product descriptions on more than one product page.
Layered navigation
Layered navigation is also a common source of problems with duplicate content. Whenever a customer searches for a product in your online store or uses filters to display search results, Magento creates dynamic pages with the query string parameter featured as a part of the URL. This new URL does not contain any new content, nor does it refer to new content, so it is a repetition of content already published somewhere else on your website. The more customers visit your online store and use filters to browse through your products, the more new URLs are generated by Magento and indexed by Google, resulting in a lower rating of your website. What can you do to prevent or solve this problem? If you can afford it, order Magento services in UK. This is the best way to ensure that your website index is not affected by duplicate content. Unfortunately, without the professional help of Magento certified programmers, it might be difficult to remove all sources of the problem. If you want to solve the issue by yourself, try adding the Meta Robots Tag to the head of any URL, which contains a parameter. Remember to set it to noindex, follow. This is the most effective solution to the problem, but if you want to experiment a bit and look for alternative ways of dealing with the duplicate content issue, you can also try adding a canonical to the header in order to tell Google which page is the original one. This solution is usually less effective than the one presented above, so we recommend using it in combination with other techniques.
Featured images:
- License: Creative Commons image source
Marta Gromadzka is a writer and editor with a wide variety of experience, including writing for websites internationally and editing books on many different subjects and in a variety of formats.


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In honor of Mother's Day, A Plus will feature personal essays by the editorial team. These essays will reflect on both the beautiful and the tragic aspects of the women who gave us life and the love and loss that comes with it. In doing so, we hope moms, past, present and future, will know how much they're appreciated.
Nothing will convince you more of an impossibility than seeing the impossible happen in front of you. In my case, the impossibility was my mother's death from cancer at 65. I did not really become convinced that her death was possible until I spent some time with her lifeless body.
Before she died, I had an intellectual understanding of death. I had been to plenty of funerals. I had lost close friends. I knew that people are born and that they die. But for some childish reason — perhaps a trick of faith in the impossible that protects us from the primal fear of being left alone when we are young — I never pictured a world without my mother. While she shuffled around the house before my stepfather and I took her to the hospital where she would be treated, I tried to imagine life without her. It is difficult to look at someone, to be in the same room as them talking to them, and realize that what you are experiencing is about to be no longer possible.
It is even more difficult when that person is your mother, who despite having cancer, is trying to make sure that you get something to eat.
On September 15, 2004, my mother died. A few days later, I walked into a room where her body lay on a steel table, covered by a sheet up to her shoulders. I sat next to it, searching for signs of the woman that raised me, but aside from a passing resemblance, the corpse was just that: a gray thing whose deathly modesty was protected by a sheet. Nothing familiar about my mother was there. Her hair had thinned from chemotherapy. Her face had grown thin. Her eyes were closed. I could not see her hands, nor hear her voice in the stillness of the room. I say "her," but none of those things seemed to belong to anyone, least of all my mother. They seemed anonymous to me. The corpse seemed to me a stranger.
But just eight weeks earlier, I had eaten pound cake with this body and its occupant. Just eight weeks earlier, that body was capable of answering the phone and saying "hi sweetie" when it heard my voice. Just eight weeks earlier, that body had been a maker of spaghetti, comforter of the distressed, Agatha Christie lover, writer of books, and baker of cakes.
Just eight weeks earlier, that body was my mother. Mom.
A lot can happen in eight weeks. Unsuccessful surgery. Metastasis. Intubation. Sepsis. Hard, ugly words that taste like rust and hospital coffee and helplessness. Eight weeks leaves no time to grieve or process. Eight weeks from my mother telling me that there was coffee ice cream in the freezer to that moment of feeling completely alone in a still room.
But eight weeks can also free a beautiful woman from suffering. It can mean no more tubes and no more indignities. It can mean no more nausea and no more chewing on ice chips. It can mean no more bedsores and no more morphine. It can mean all of those things, but sometimes the price of that is leaving your body. Sometimes the price of that is no longer being able to bake a cake or hug your grieving sons and husband. The price of that is paid in pain and grief. It is paid in the empty foreverness that is death and the receipt is a body on a table. All sales are final.
I've gone 11 years now without so much as a phone call or a card, without an email or a letter. Those are the things I miss the most. Even now, there are nights where I wish that I could call her, wish that I could ask her advice, wish that I could tell her what's going on in my life, wish that I could let her know that I did something with myself; that I managed to find a way to be happy. It seems that phone calls and notes and advice are all things that we require a body for. And while I am still fortunate enough to be living in mine, my mother has long since left hers. Eleven years later and I am still learning to live with my mother's death. There will be no more notes. There will never be another phone call from her.
And eventually, someone will say the same thing about me. And you. Cherish the living while they are living. Take no moment for granted.
As for me, I have no interest in Heaven or in life after death. Despite the desperate grasping to fairy tales or cheap theological promises, the dead cannot comfort the living, except, perhaps, in memory. I am interested in what is here and now — what is alive. Clichés about my mother living on in my heart do not interest me except in the stillness of the nights when I lie awake wondering when my own heart will stop beating and where she might live then.
"Death is nothing at all.
I have only slipped away to the next room.
I am I and you are you.
Whatever we were to each other,
That, we still are."


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Wearable technology is still pretty new for most people. The idea that a watch or band could perform various functions does still, indeed, sometimes feel like it belongs in the future and not in today's world. But no matter how you feel about it, wearable technology—mostly, smartwatches—are here; and even though the technology and the industry are still very young, big improvements continue to be made.
Today, for example, Android Wear smartwatches will receive an update (v 1.4) that allows the device to use its built in speaker so user can listen to voice mails and maybe even make calls. Of course, the depth of the update will depend on each device's particular specs. Obviously, there is no way to know, at least, for now, if the speaker functionality will be able to work with all available apps or just those which Google has approved of so far.
Other voice features available with this update include new commands to send messages via apps like Google Hangouts, Viber, WhatsApp, Telegram, WeChat, and Nextplus.
But in addition to the voice features, the Android Wear 1.4 update will also add more gesture actions to the device. Currently, a flick of the wrist will now allow you to scroll through the card stream but with the update you will be able to open the first action of the card in view with a quick downward thrust of the arm. A second thrust will select the action and open the command. Lifting your arm, on the other hand (no pun intended) acts as a "back button" and will return you to the previous screen. Finally, a shake of the wrist will exit any open app and return you to the device's home screen.
For now, the fully suite of functions which comes with this update are only available on the Huawei Watch and the Asus ZenWatch 2, but that is only because these are the only two devices on the market right now which possess the speakers utilized in the update. Of course, Google expects that more watches will be able to utilize the full functionality of this update as they come to market.


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The Insider Picks team writes about stuff we think you'll like. Business Insider has affiliate partnerships so we may get a share of the revenue from your purchase.
Part of my job involves testing lots of laptops. MacBooks, Chromebooks, netbooks, and other Windows...books make their way to my desk with some regularity, yet actually working with them can often be a pain.
I mean that literally; the simple ergonomics of having a laptop on your desk is a recipe for discomfort. Laptops are meant for laps. so plopping their (relatively) little screens in front of you usually results in hunched shoulders, craned necks, and a desk chair set way too low to the ground.
You can always connect your laptop to an external monitor, but if you'd rather not jump down that rabbit hole, the simple fix here is to invest in a laptop stand. Any old stack of books can easily do the trick, but if you're willing to pay for something a little more refined, the Rain Design mStand should serve you well.
The mStand's been a popular choice for several years now. It's made from a single piece of rigid, MacBook-esque aluminum, capable of holding (and helping cool down) more or less any laptop, at any size. It raises your screen a hair under six inches, which should be high enough to put it close to eye level for many people, and tilts it forward, pushing it a bit closer to your face. There's an opening for slotting through cables around the back, and a little area for stashing an external keyboard underneath.
So it does what it's supposed to do. The only notable hangup — aside from that fact that $40 might be a bit much — is that it's not adjustable, so you'll have to do some DIY handywork if you're too tall for it to be totally beneficial. (And to be clear, it's probably not the most ideal stand for standing desks.) If you need a more flexible stand, Rain Design sells another model called the mStand 360 that swivels from side to side.
For such a simple thing, the mStand's received plenty of positive feedback over the years. Write-ups from MacWorld, Gizmag, The Sweethome, and Lifehacker have been good, and the device has a 4.8 rating after nearly 2,500 user reviews on Amazon. If you're looking around here, it should be dependable. And even if you're not, taking any steps along these lines should make working in your home office more comfortable.
Rain Design mStand Laptop Stand, $42.95, available at Amazon.
Disclosure: This post is brought to you by Business Insider's Insider Picks team. We aim to highlight products and services you might find interesting, and if you buy them, we get a small share of the revenue from the sale from our commerce partners, including Amazon. Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon, is an investor in Business Insider through his personal investment company Bezos Expeditions. We frequently receive products free of charge from manufacturers to test. This does not drive our decision as to whether or not a product is featured or recommended. We operate independently from our advertising sales team. We welcome your feedback. Have something you think we should know about? Email us at email@example.com.


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2020 Addison Street / Berkeley, CA 94704
(510) 644-2020 / email@example.com
The Box Office window is open 12:30pm-7pm and during all performances.
2020 Addison Street / Berkeley, CA 94704
The Box Office window is open 12:30pm-7pm and during all performances.
Red Wine plus Laurie Lewis & Tom RozumPurchase tickets online
February 21 8:00 pm
Following triumphant appearances at the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival, Italy's premier bluegrass band makes its Freight debut! Berkeley's own Laurie Lewis and Tom Rozum are on hand to round out what promises to be a memorable evening of bluegrass and beyond.
Representing the "high lonesome" in Italy since 1978, Red Wine is one of the oldest (not to mention most charming) bluegrass bands in Europe. With an eclectic, contemporary flavor, their infectious sound embraces traditional and contemporary bluegrass, country, and gospel, with a little swing thrown in for good measure. The foursome–Martino Coppo, (mandolin, guitar), Silvio Ferretti, (vocals, banjo, dobro, guitar), Stefano Cavallo (vocals, bass), and Marco Ferretti (vocals, guitar)–arrives with a new CD under its belt, Winter's Come and Gone.
Through her many band and solo outings, Laurie has become a key figure in bluegrass, traditional, and folk music circles. Tom, a native New Englander, regularly collaborates with Laurie, blending his mandolin, mandola, guitar, vocal talent, and wry humor with her violin, guitar, and crystal-clear vocals. Laurie and Tom open tonight's show, and join Red Wine for part of their set.
Listen to a track from Red Wine:
Listen to sample tracks from upcoming artists.


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God loves a man that smells of trout water and mountain meadows, cheap whiskey and branch water. Which way's heaven? Follow the trail and keep close to the stream. – Arby Mulligan, Hymn No. 1 (the only hymn) of the Owl Creek Gap Church of Universal Harmony, in On The Spine of Time by Harry Middleton.
This year was among the worst I have lived as a fly fisherman.
I have struggled with my addiction now for seven years. There is no support group for me, except sand and stone and clear, wild water running in the jagged ravines between low, smooth-browed hills. Thankfully I need no other.
Now, in the frigid grip of winter, I look back on the waning year. Very, very little of my angling this year was done in the swamps and bayous surrounding us. Every fish I caught in 2011 came as punctuation to a sentence like Arby Mulligan's, its nouns rooted in ancient earth and sandstone fractures, its verbs set into motion by sweeping winds through pines . . . → Read More: Wish Me Rivers, Again


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Piece By Piece (1986)
Piece By Piece was released in April 1986.
To celebrate John's 20th Anniversary as a performer and in the hope of securing elusive radio air play time, Island released Classic John Martyn at the same time. This was the first commercially available CD single and featured the tracks Angeline, May You Never, Solid Air, Glistening Glyndebourne and a cover of Dylan's Tight Connection To My Heart.
A 12 inch single of Classic John Martyn was also released but with different tracks Angeline, Tight Connection To My Heart, May You Never, Certain Surprise and One Day Without You.
Island also released Angeline/Tight Connection To My Heart as a single.
The album itself featured the powerful John Wayne, complete with typically ambiguous lyrics and what John describes as his 'strangled duck' vocal. To achieve the effect John indulged large quantities of liquid refreshment and did the vocal track in a single take. The track pushed his vocal style to new limits and is a song that he likes to perform live. John has said that the track was written for an ex-manager who he was rather unhappy with at the time!
The album was mainly the product of a liaison with Foster Patterson who wrote the title track. This was another stab at gaining the commercial success and popular recognition, which had so far escaped John's grasp. Other musicians included Alan Thomson (bass), Danny Cummings (percussion) and Colin Tully (saxophone).
"Martyn endows the music with all the benefits of a crystalline production technique and Piece By Piece showcases Martyn's ability to blend his personality and voice with the rigours of jazz instrumentation." – New Hifi Sounds
The early cd's of Piece By Piece included four extra tracks: Tight Connection to my Heart, Solid Air, One World and May You Never. This 13-track cd has now been replaced by a standard 9-track version and is hard to find.
In March 1986 Island released Lonely Love, described by John as "the album's little pop song", as a single in 7 inch with Sweet Little Mystery (live) on the b-side. The 12 inch version featured a live recording of Fisherman's Dream and Sweet Little Mystery on the b side.
Island produced a Piece By Piece promotional boxed set which included 2 interview discs, a copy of the 12 inch Classic John Martyn single and a promotional booklet. John is in conversation with Trevor Dann and talks about his life, his views and the background to many of his songs. This is a rare item and was only produced in a very small number. In many years as a fan I've only ever seen one copy and that one now resides in my collection!
John on Piece By Piece, "..it's a bit more mature and sophisticated, what do you expect from a 37 year old man? It's not going to be raucous and punkish, hardly going to have the U2 feel about it."
"What I've tried to do is sing more than play, and have fun with some new sounds, like the strangled duck (on John Wayne). I've been trying to sing better for the last few years and push myself in a certain direction. I always find the vocals more difficult to get right in the studio, they're better live, generally. To get the effect I wanted on the track John Wayne I had to go out and get totally rat-arsed, and then I did it on one take. Great effect." John toured extensively with a demanding tour schedule.
John provided the soundtrack to Tyne Tees Televisions major series on the environment, Turning the Tide. Broadcast in Autumn 1986 the moving title song was loosely based on I Don't Want to Know About Evil but with a new musical arrangement and adapted lyrics. The series ran over budget and plans to release a soundtrack were scrapped though there are some tapes in existence.
- Nightline (J. Martyn)
- Lonely Love (J. Martyn)
- Angeline (J. Martyn)
- One Step Too Far (J. Martyn)
- Piece By Piece (F.Patterson)
- Serendipity (J. Martyn)
- Who Believes In Angels (J. Martyn)
- Love Of Mine (J. Martyn)
- John Wayne (J. Martyn)


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Poor Shaq. He has been trying to unload his Star Island mansion for nearly five years with little success. Is there no one out there right now who wants to buy a 200,000 waterfront mega-palace on a 2.5 acre lot?
He's cut his asking price by about 10% to a cool $22.5 million, according to The Wall Street Journal. Which is still a few million more than the $19 million he bought the place for back in 2004. At its peak price, Shaq's shack had a price tag of $35 million in 2007.
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So far, Shaq has not twittered about the decision.


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Well-crafted Yet Alive: Discovering a Cincinnati Lit Mag
Having just finished reading the Summer, 2013 issue of The Cincinnati Review, I'm reliving that sensation. But instead of despair, I'm actually feeling much better about my numerous rejections from this journal. Yes, it's incredibly good, and yes, it's populated largely by well-known or at least well-established writers with numerous prestigious publications to their credit. But there's nothing haughty or inaccessible about the work in this issue. Every story, essay, poem, and review reveals the cut fingers, stiff shoulders, sore butt, penetrating eyes, and writhing heart of its creator. The writing is crafted but alive, superb but still somehow attainable. And Jane Tuckerman's collages and silver gelatin prints gracing the cover and middle section of the journal, are layered, seductive, and absolutely gorgeous.
Aharon Levy's story, "Philomela in Tribeca," opens the issue. With its distracted and distractible characters, both betrayers and betrayed, it sets the longing tone for much of what follows. Then Rebecca Lehmann's extraordinary poem, "Exoskeleton," blares the news: this is a journal of hungry voices. Listen to how it begins:
Because, look, when I said I wanted you I meant
I wanted you like a lizard wants the lawn on a hundred-
degree day. I wanted you like the lice-bitten birds
want the parking lot in front of the gas station
that sells two forties for four dollars. I wanted
four dollars so I could send you an express-mail letter
that detailed how I wanted you like a robot
in an apocalypse movie wants to simultaneously
become human and overthrow humanity.
Lehman grabs us by the throat and never loosens her grip. I'm not a poet. I don't know a cinquain from a sestina, and can't summon the name of the technique that employs a sequence of fricative consonants. But I do know when a verse has such immediacy that it stops me midway through the page and demands that I simply sit and absorb the sensation it's created, as in this stanza from Lissa Miller's "Plainsong:"
The Great Plains are home to the sky
and the sky is home to not much,
Just birds
that light out for nowhere.
From under the grass
from wheel rut and splintered light
They go – they fly,
grouse and flicker,
rail, crane,
and kite.
This is the kind of writing I love most in this issue, and there is plenty to choose from. Wll Schutt's "Ambitions," Erin Belieu's "Olentangy River," Michael Mlekoday's pair, "Forage" and "Drop" – though quite different in their tone and topic, all of these poems sear. I don't know if and how the authors have married form to content. I just know that writing is vivid, emotionally honest, and accessible even to poetry dilettantes like me.
Now prose is something I know more about, and both the fiction and nonfiction pieces in this issue are uniformly solid, if not outstanding. Most stories, like D. J. Thielke's "Frantic Hearts" or Ian Stansel's "Travelling Light," are close, probing examinations of families, those we inherit and those we make.
My favorite, though, is Carey Cameron's "Thursday," winner of the Robert and Adele Schiff Award in Prose. Situated on a family vacation to the Yucatan – a family in which the husband's worsening deafness causes his wife and daughter endless exasperation –Cameron's story is about aging, loss, and what remains. Standing at the top of a steep, ancient pyramid, her protagonist contemplates what so moves her in Mayan art and architecture, observing, "The Maya had style—and what was style if not the creation and dogged inhabiting of one's own world? She loves how there is never one line in any detail, always two, with a raised hackle between them, as if they were extruded from great dueling tubes of Crest." What a wonderful evocation of deafness! And what a comic, poignant juxtaposition of marriage (made in part of raised hackles and shared toothpaste) and pre-Columbian sculpture. Both settle, and both endure.
Julianna Baggott's personal essay, "My Mother in Her Mail-Order Scott Paper Company Dress: A Portrait of Intergenerational Neuroses," is another standout. Baggott uses the brief fashion of paper dresses – which flared with a Mademoiselle cover story in 1967, then quickly crumpled – as a vehicle to explore how germ phobia has plagued three generations of women in her family. Entertaining and informative, this essay does what essays do best. It explores how a highly specific and transitory moment in cultural history can so durably shape us.
Unlike the poetry and prose, which are deliberately and smartly interspersed, all of the reviews are clustered together at the back of the book. And here The Cincinnati Review does something clever and unique. They "publish multiple reviews of the same book in the hope of presenting a rich and disparate commentary on the work."
In this issue, artist Sarah Lightman, modernism scholar, Ariella Freedman, and comics scholar, Marc Singer, offer three divergent takes on graphic novelist, Chris Ware's new collection, Building Stories. Though my ignorance of poetry is exceeded only by my ignorance of graphic novels, reading these reviews was remarkably engaging. Lightman's writing is somewhat amateurish, but her knowledge of the form she is reviewing compensated for the shortcomings of her prose, as exemplified in this passage, "As an art form, comics are unique in that the visual narrative remains on the page even as it progresses (as opposed to a film, in which images continually disappear from view). This allows the viewer to return and make new and different associations, and I was grateful for the opportunity." The prose doesn't exactly sing, but nonetheless makes an interesting point.
In contrast, Singer's essay is far more polished, if a bit cranky. Here is a reviewer who knows his subject's work well, and has earned the right to take him to task for his bad habits. Though equally knowledgeable, Freedman's approach is a little different; she seeks more to educate her readers about the genre and author than to critique this specific book. Her review reads like an introductory lecture or curator's notes on a graphic novel exhibit. I appreciated that, and wished that this review had been the first of the three rather than the last, as it most clearly depicts what Ware's book (which is actually a box of materials) is about.
When I think about Cincinnati, I don't think about much … the abomination known as "Skyline Chili," maybe; the bland, muggy city with the surprisingly large airport that I've occasionally passed through on business trips. But if this issue of The Cincinnati Review is representative (and I believe it is), then I plan to regularly visit this humming, artistically top-notch journal. I may never get to live in its pages, but I think I can be a contented tourist wandering through them, in awe of what I see there.


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Our philosophy starts with the simple belief that kids are capable of incredible things. Our job is to nurture that ability; our goal is to support kids' healthy development. Play is how kids learn--here, it is in both a STEM-rich environment and inviting outdoor experience.
Put your architectural, engineering, planning, design, and construction skills to work! From mirror blocks to KEVA planks, from a large keystone arch to giant interlocking building blocks, builders of all ages and abilities can work collaboratively, solve problems, and think critically while stacking, building and creating.
Bricks, Sticks, & Arches is located in the Middlesex Savings Bank Community Gallery
In this Exhibit
It is a challenge and great fun to build a self-supporting structure--you'll need a partner!
Use these lightweight interlocking blocks to build a house, a chair, or a tower!
Nest, mix, match, and construct mind-boggling structures!
Build bridges, construct castles, tinker with towers...what will you create?
We've got all types of new and recycled materials to spur your creative building ideas!
Beautiful banners co-created with illustrator, graphic designer, and educator Ingrid Hess teach children about basic architectural principles, and inspire their work.


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Concern at police failure to deal with 'criminality and intimidation' in Cullyhanna
There are heightened fears among the community of south Armagh that the PSNI is failing to deal with a small number of people in the Cullyhanna area who are involved in criminality and intimidation, MP Mickey Brady has claimed.
Speaking after meeting with senior PSNI officers in Newry on Thursday, Mr Brady says that despite having "the support of the local community", the gang, which he alleges is involved in "widespread criminality", has gone unchallenged by police.
Commenting on the situation, he said: "This gang shot local man Michael Bellew as part of a campaign of intimidation to force him from his home; attempted to murder Frank McCabe Junior; and are routinely involved in a wide range of criminality, generating huge sums of money. Yet despite all of this, it seems to the local community those involved seem to operate with impunity.
"The failure of the PSNI to tackle this gang is undermining community confidence in their ability to carry out the basic functions of a policing service. It seems the people involved are protected from investigation and prosecution," he further claimed.
Meanwhile his party colleague and local Assembly member Megan Fearon said there is a perception among the wider community that those allegedly involved in criminal practices may be operating with impunity "as they are state agents".
"The vast majority of people in south Armagh are law abiding and reject absolutely the criminality associated with this gang. However people should rightly expect the PSNI to step up to the plate and do the job they are supposed to fulfil. The perception that a number of individuals are being allowed to operate above the law is undermining community confidence," she said.
"The PSNI leadership must move to reassure the local community that individuals involved in criminality are not being allowed to continue to operate with impunity as they are State Agents. This is the perception which currently exists.
"The Fresh Start Agreement promised a new approached to dealing with this sort of criminal gang, yet six months on the ground there seems to be little evidence of the PSNI changing their approach."
Ms Fearon revealed Sinn Fein will be seeking to meet with the Chief Constable George Hamilton to "highlight the community concerns at his force's failure to secure prosecutions and investigate properly the activities of this group".


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- Post author By dpranita583
- Post date February 16, 2019
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By dpranita583
I am the author in Maharashtra. since 10 years.My life is full of adventures and challenges.My father was poor farmer. He.was super spiritual man .I am also simple and spiritual lady.My life is full of drama. In my two books I wrote some life experiences. My every blog post is experience of my life.I learnt lot of from my life. God has given me power to observe small small things and so that I have learnt from surrounding more than books.View Archive →
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Heat and humidity are no excuse for not looking your best. By dressing smarter instead of dressing down, you can keep cool in a suit all summer long. Choose fabrics, styles and accessories to keep the heat away from your body, so you can maintain your professional look even when the temperatures rise.
Step 1
Choose suits in a lightweight material, such as cotton, linen or seersucker. Stylish materials like these are breathable and comfortable, but may also wrinkle. Shop for a lightweight worsted wool blend, which keeps wrinkles at bay while still giving you the high-comfort breathability you need.
Step 2
Avoid lined jackets in favor of half-lined, quarter-lined or completely unlined pieces. Although minimal lining lends to a less-structured style and potentially more wrinkles, it eliminates layers and helps you stay cool.
Step 3
Choose light colors, such as light gray, blue, khaki and pastels, because they absorb less heat. Avoid black and dark gray suits during the warmer months of the year.
Step 4
Slip into laceless loafers, which cover less of your feet than lace-up styles.
Step 5
Lighten up your accessories, especially your necktie. Light-fabric neckties -- or even a bow tie -- are more comfortable than thick and heavy neckware. Unbutton your topmost shirt button until you get to where you're going, so your shirt is more breathable and you're cool on arrival.
- Experiment with undershirts to see whether they keep you cooler or warmer. While a lightweight tee can absorb sweat before it hits your dress shirt, it also adds another layer that can heat you up and retain moisture throughout the day.
- Avoid double-breasted jackets, which are typically warmer than single-breasted styles.
- George Doyle/Stockbyte/Getty Images


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- variety of chorea, marked by peculiar tremors of the fingers and toes. [1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English. 2000.
Look at other dictionaries:
athetosis — 1871, from Gk. athetos not fixed, without position or place, set aside + OSIS (Cf. osis). Coined by U.S. nerve specialist William Alexander Hammond (1828 1900) … Etymology dictionary
athetosis — [ath΄ə tō′sis] n. pl. athetoses [ath′ə tō′sēz] a muscular disorder characterized by continuous, slow, twisting motions of the hands, feet, etc., as in cerebral palsy athetoid [ath΄ətoid΄] adj. athetotic [ath΄ətät′ik] … English World dictionary
Athetosis — Infobox Disease Name = PAGENAME Caption = DiseasesDB = 16662 ICD10 = ICD10|R|25|8|r|25 ICD9 = ICD9|781.0 ICDO = OMIM = MedlinePlus = eMedicineSubj = eMedicineTopic = MeshID = D001264 Athetosis is a continuous stream of slow, sinuous, writhing… … Wikipedia
athetosis — athetosic, athetotic /ath i tot ik/, adj. /ath i toh sis/, n. Pathol. a condition, chiefly in children, of slow, involuntary, wormlike movements of the fingers, toes, hands, and feet, usually resulting from a brain lesion. [1870 75; < Gk… … Universalium
athetosis — noun A series of involuntary writhing movements of the limbs … Wiktionary
Athetosis — Involuntary writhing movements particularly of the arms and hands. * * * A condition in which there is a constant succession of slow, writhing, involuntary movements of flexion, extension, pronation, and supination of the fingers and hands, and… … Medical dictionary
athetosis — n. disease which causes unintentional movement of the fingers and limbs … English contemporary dictionary
athetosis — [ˌaθɪ təʊsɪs] noun Medicine a condition in which abnormal muscle contraction causes involuntary writhing movements. Derivatives athetoid adjective athetotic adjective Origin C19: from Gk athetos without position + osis … English new terms dictionary
athetosis — ath·e·to·sis … English syllables
athetosis — n. a writhing involuntary movement especially affecting the hands, face, and tongue. It is usually a form of cerebral palsy. It impairs the child s ability to speak or use his hands; intelligence is often unaffected. Such movements may also be… … The new mediacal dictionary


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I am homeless and I need somewhere to stay tonight:
Between 9am – 4pm weekdays please visit
Housing Options Centre
Leicester City Council
York House
91 Granby Street
Call: 0116 454 1008
During evenings and weekends:
16 – 25
We will try to assist or advise you directly so please visit us at:
The Y, 7 East Street, Leicester, LE1 6EY or call: 0116 255 6507
Over 25?
Call Leicester City Council: 0116 2212770
Visit The Y Support Project and ask for advice. It is in the Dawn Centre on Conduit Street, close to Leicester train station.