XenClient gets key new features before GA release

As Citrix announced a couple of weeks ago, the first version of its client hypervisor XenClient (read virtualization.info report about it) will be available at the end of September.

In the Release Candidate 2 published at the end of August the company added a boatload of additional features:

  • support for Microsoft Windows 7 64bit virtual machines
  • USB support for Apple iPod/iPhone/iPad, Google Android phones, Microsoft Windows Mobile phones, fingerprint readers, webcams, smart card readers, 3G data modems, etc
  • support for Bluetooh devices
  • support for mouse pointer trails
  • automatic slipstream of Intel Graphics drivers in Windows virtual machines
  • support for Intel MT KVM Remote Control (a VNC server embedded in the vPro chipset in Core i5 and i7 CPUs)
  • support for Intel Extended Page Tables (EPT)
  • support for manual and automatic locking of the environment
  • new alerting system

On top of that Citrix has also included in the Hardware Compatibility List (HCL) three new laptops: the HP EliteBook 2540p, the Dell Latitude E4310 and the Latitude E4200.

The Synchronizer component has a couple of key new features too:

  • (Experimental) Dynamic Image Mode
    Virtual machine composition through three different layers: Base OS, Applications, User Profile.
    The Base OS layer can be updated or rolled back without touching installed applications and the user environment.
  • Support for VM image streaming over HTTPS