Windows MultiPoint Server 2011 released!

Hot off the press, Windows MultiPoint Server 2011 today released and is now live on the Microsoft download center for evaluation. This is an exciting new release that delivers some fantastic new features such as:

• Desktop Thumbnails – Through the Management Console, teachers can orchestrate activities across the classroom including sharing any specific desktop across all stations.
• Split Screen Capabilities – A single monitor can actually serve as 2 stations by splitting the screen. That means 2 students can share a single monitor. This can encourage collaboration between students. It also can be extremely helpful in places where budgets are tight and monitors aren’t easy to come by.
• Station Control – Teachers can lock any one or all stations if needed and can also open and close applications too. Teachers also have the ability to allow only certain websites in a “allowed list” through the Management Console.
• Network-connected Stations – Stations can be directly connected to host PC (directly or via USB with devices from partners such as HP) or through the network (wired or wireless!). This enables stations to be set up in a variety of configurations versus having to be clustered close to a host PC.
• Multiple Windows MultiPoint Servers – Administrators can connect multiple Windows MultiPoint Servers together into “pods” which can then be managed all together through the Management Console. They can make it super easy to manage Windows MultiPoint Servers in a single room or across a building.
• Domain-join – For places with an existing Windows Server infrastructure with Active Directory in place, Windows MultiPoint Server can be joined to a domain and managed through the same tools that are used to manage all the rest of the PCs on the network (and users).

For more information on deployment, please check out the Planning guide and the Deployment guides also recently released.

Further information at:

https://windowsteamblog.com/windows/b/bloggingwindows/archive/2011/02/21/windows-multipoint-server-2011-availability.aspx

https://blogs.technet.com/b/multipointserver/archive/2011/02/21/wms2011rtm.aspx