Amazon WorkSpaces Update – Support for Audio-In, High DPI Devices, and Saved Registrations

Regular readers of this blog will know that I am a huge fan of Amazon WorkSpaces. In fact, after checking my calendar, I verified that every blog post I have written in the last 10 months has been done from within my WorkSpace. Regardless of my location—office, home, or hotel room—performance, availability, and functionality have all been excellent. Until you have experienced a persistent, cloud-based desktop for yourself you won’t know what you are missing!

Today, I am pleased to be able to tell you about three new features for WorkSpaces, each designed to make the service even more useful:

• Audio-In – You can now make and receive calls from your WorkSpace using popular communication tools such as Lync, Skype, and WebEx.
• High DPI Device Support – You can now take advantage of High DPI displays found on devices like the Surface Pro 4 tablet and the Lenovo Yoga laptop.
• Saved Registration Codes – You can now save multiple registration codes in the same client application.

Audio-In
Being able to make and to receive calls from your desktop can boost your productivity. Using the newest WorkSpaces clients for Windows and Mac, you can make and receive calls using popular communication tools like Lync, Skype, and WebEx. Simply connect an analog or USB audio headset to your local client device and start making calls! This functionality is enabled for all newly launched WorkSpaces; existing WorkSpaces may need a restart. With the launch of this feature, voice communication with headsets is available to you at no additional charge in all regions where WorkSpaces are available today.

When a WorkSpace is created using a custom image, the audio-in updates are applied during the provisioning process and will take some time. To avoid this, you (or your WorkSpaces administrator) can create a new custom image after the updates have been applied to an existing WorkSpace.

High DPI Devices
To support the increasing popularity of high DPI (Full HD, Ultra HD, and QHD+) displays, we added the ability to automatically scale the in-session experience of WorkSpaces to match your local DPI settings. This means that fonts and icon sizes will match your preferred settings on high DPI devices making the WorkSpaces experience more natural. Simply use the newest WorkSpaces clients for Windows and Mac and enjoy this enhancement immediately.

Saved Registration Codes
Many customers access multiple WorkSpaces spread across several directories and/or regions and would prefer not to have to copy and paste registration codes to make the switch. You can now save up to 10 registration codes within the client application, and switch between them with a couple of clicks. You can control all of this through the new Manage Registrations screen:

To learn more about Amazon WorkSpaces, visit the Amazon WorkSpaces page.

— Jeff;