This article was first published on LinkedIn

Do you use a virtual Windows desktop (VDI) in your everyday work? If so, is the perceived user experience (= the quality of the Windows desktop) equally good every day? Or are there moments when you want to bite the desk and feel intense anger at one or more of the VDI manufacturers? Microsoft, Cloud Software Group (Citrix), Omnissa, AWS, Dizzion, Parallels or HP come into question. And what exactly is the reason for your anger? Are there objective and measurable criteria for this? I assume that some readers of this article are either VDI users or VDI administrators.

The CIO of a global sports shoe manufacturer told me an interesting story at a conference where we were both speakers. At the time, the company only conducted short-notice user satisfaction surveys when one of their supported sports teams had just won a major international competition. In previous years, it had been found that the results were significantly better when the survey was timed this way. The perceived quality of the Windows desktop, or "user sentiment," was one of the user satisfaction criteria surveyed. The company's bonus for executives depended on this result, so it was understandable that the survey dates would be "controlled" accordingly. However, it also shows that the subjective perception of desktop quality is clearly strongly dependent on the current mood of the user. Happy users are obviously more generous in their assessment of their workplace - which doesn't make things any easier for IT administrators.

I am on a mission to make VDI quality objectively measurable and comparable from the end user's perspective. That's why I have already published a list of corresponding measurement criteria in the past. My goal, together with VDI experts and IT administrators, is to reduce the number of moments in which VDI users experience the above-described annoyance with their digital workplace.

Here are the links to the EUC Score test methodology and measurement tools: EUC Score landing page, test methodology, and some sample results.