With WVD, you get an environment that is more like a lab, with various software available. For example, you could make a VCL reservation for ArcGIS, and when you connected, you saw a basic Windows installation with just ArcGIS installed.

In VCL, users would usually access one program at a time.

How is WVD different from traditional VCL? Though we would have been ready to start a more gradual rollout this fall, the MS licensing change and the distance learning challenges brought on by covid-19 factored into the timing of this transition.

IT groups across campus have been testing this technology for a couple of years.

Cloud technology has developed rapidly in recent years, and is now at the point where it can provide the performance required for teaching and research.

However, this extra cost does not apply to resources hosted in MS Azure, as the WVD environment is.

(See the Microsoft VDI FAQ for more info.) Traditional VCL resources are run on NCSU-owned servers. A change in Microsoft licensing has made it prohibitively expensive to properly license Windows such that students are allowed to connect to NCSU-owned computers from their personal computers.How is WVD different from traditional VCL?.This use of Windows Virtual Desktop (WVD) technology provides a new method which students can access software that they need for teaching and research. Starting in the Fall 2020 semester, NC State University is providing Virtual Lab Environments for Windows-based applications.

How to access vcl expandrive ncsu