Citrix has released version 5.1 of its client hypervisor XenClient. XenClient consists of two technologies, the XenClient, which is a type-1 client hypervisor running on selected hardware and the XenClient Enterprise Synchronizer, which allows XenClients to download centrally managed virtual desktops and run the locally. Syncrhronzier provides backup and restore, security policies and more. The update contains fixes for both the XenClient Engine and the XenClient Synchronizer.
For the XenClient Engine the following features are added as detailed in the release notes:
- Extension of the Hardware Compatibility List
- Improved interoperability with USB redirection
- USB pass-through via Citrix Receiver into XenDesktop/XenApp
- Support for Hot-pluggable USB Ethernet/WiFi dongles
For XenClient Synchronizer the following features were added:
- XenClient can now communicate with any Syncrhonizer when roaming
- Support for Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2
- Support for Windows SQL Authentication, allowing to leverage a AD service account
- Policies can now reboot the platform if VM guests are powered off, or power off the VMs before rebooting.
This version doesn’t support Windows Vista anymore, fixes can also be found in the release notes.