After the imported virtual machine (VM) is created and you have paired it to Horizon Cloud, but before you convert it into a published image, you customize the VM's guest Windows operating system (OS) to install and configure the things you want and need in the image. After the VM has gone through this customization, it is sometimes called a golden image, to indicate the image is configured with all of the items that meet your business needs for the end-user desktops and remote applications that will be based on that image.

Use the links listed further below for the steps to further customize the VM. For additional tuning of the image VM to provide an improved configuration for using VMware Blast Extreme, a best practice is to follow the guidance in Five Key Steps to Take with Your Golden Images to Get Optimal Remote Experience Performance from Horizon Cloud Farms and Desktops. Also read the VMware Blast Extreme Optimization Guide and perform additional tuning for codec options in the image according to that guide's recommendations for codec options.

About Ways to Avoid Sysprep Issues If You Did Not Use The Following Options in the Import VM Wizard or When You Manually Created the Base Image VM

If you created the base image using the Import Virtual Machine wizard and you enabled the following listed options in the wizard, the system configured the VM to avoid some typical issues that have been observed during the Microsoft Windows System Preparation (Sysprep) process that runs when the imported VM is converted to a sealed image.

If you did not use those options in the Import Virtual Machine wizard, or if you manually created the imported VM, sometimes issues have been observed to occur during the sealing process, especially those related to the Microsoft Windows System Preparation (Sysprep) process. In addition to following the steps in the topics linked further below, you might try follow some of the methods listed below before converting the imported VM to a published, sealed image.

  • Manually configure the base image VM's services and registry keys according to the same settings the system uses when the Optimize Windows Image and Remove Windows Store Apps toggles are set to Yes. Use the links in the preceding list to read about those settings.
  • Remove the Microsoft Windows appx packages as described in Microsoft KB 2769827 and Microsoft MVP article 615. For Windows 10 or 11, run the appx package removal steps under all accounts, removing the same apps from each and every account. Do not delete accounts or profiles from the image until you have run the appx removal steps for every account. For details about the package removal commands that the image creation process runs when you use the Import Virtual Machine wizard's Remove Windows Store Apps toggle, see Using the Remove Windows Store Apps Option When Using the Import Desktop Wizard.
  • Try following the advice described in the VMware Windows Operating System Optimization Tool Guide. Even though that guide is written in the context of other VMware virtual desktop products and includes mention of Windows operating system other than those supported in your Horizon Cloud environment, it provides details on how to use the VMware OS Optimization Tool (OSOT) on a VM.
    Important: Please keep in mind that, although widely used, the VMware OS Optimization Tool (OSOT) is what is called a VMware fling and therefore its support processes are governed by the VMware Flings Terms of Use. Flings are offered as-is and they are not covered by the VMware Support Request process or the VMware Horizon Service Agreement. As of this writing, the avenue to get help when using the VMware OS Optimization Tool is to use the Comments area at its location in VMware Flings site.