14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft has wrapped up a new flavor of Windows which can help educational institutions with limited resources and tight budgets still provide students with access to Windows 7 experiences.
Windows MultiPoint Server 2011 RTM’d on February 21st, 2011 and trial downloads are already available to customers, according to James Duffus, Group Program Manager for Windows MultiPoint Server.
Customers interested in taking Windows MultiPoint Server 2011 RTM out for a spin need to head over to the Microsoft Download Center as soon as possible.
The promise from Microsoft is that by the end of this week, MSDN and TechNet subscribers will also receive access to the RTM bits, although a specific availability deadline wasn’t provided.
For those not familiar with this version of the software giant’s OS, Windows MultiPoint Server 2011 allows a single server to serve desktop experiences to multiple stations.
Although they’re essentially running on the same machine simultaneously, multiple users can still take advantage of personal desktop experiences, much in the same manner as if they would be running Windows 7 on their very own PC.
With Windows MultiPoint Server 2011 Standard up to 10 stations / sessions can be supported at once. Windows MultiPoint Server 2011 Premium comes with support for as much as 20 stations / sessions, plays nice with Hyper-V, and is also domain-joinable.
Microsoft will give green light to Windows MultiPoint Server 2011 purchases for Windows MultiPoint Server 2011 in March 2011. According to the company’s Brandon LeBlanc, mid-April 2011 will bring with it even broader availability.
Still, next month, Windows MultiPoint Server 2011 will be available through the Academic Volume License, Open Volume License, and OEM channels.
Duffus provided highlights of the features that Windows MultiPoint Server 2011 brings to the table, including:
“- Teachers' hands-down favorite feature was Block All Stations; the ability to get the attention of the entire class with a customizable message by suspending all screens, keyboards and mice.
- Teachers also loved the ability to monitor thumbnail views of all the desktops to be able to see if students are off task or having difficulties.
- In third place came the ability to broadcast teacher or student desktops to one or all of the student desktops, allowing teachers or students to walk the class through an exercise.
- Our multi-machine management approach is a welcome addition, with teachers being able to monitor and manage all the WMS computers in their environment, either from any WMS workstation or even from a teacher laptop.
- Support for LAN-connected clients generated a lot of creative ideas from new locations in the school that could be served, so delivering modern, managed desktop experiences to old PCs or netbooks.
- Everyone was intrigued by our new Split Screen feature, where we take a wide aspect ratio monitor and split the display are in two to create two student workstations.”
Windows MultiPoint Server 2011 RTM is available for download here.