Drive Mappings

Having an issue where a client launchs a Citrix session and then within that session launches another one to another 3rd party Citrix environment.

No policies block client drive mappings it would appear but whenever you launch the session you get an error as below.

So after messing around for some time I found the fix, we are running the latest version of the online plug-in.

Locate the following registry key..

HKLM\Software\Wow6432Node\Citrix\ICA Client\Engine\Configuration\Advanced\Modules\ClientDrive

Change the value of NativeDriveMapping to TRUE and it will suddenly start working, no reboot required.

Virtual CAG Serial Port

Just for my memory to create a serial port I can connect to via my local machine to a VMware workstation machine….

Set the VM serial port as below.

Then within Putty connect to the named pipe value as shown below.

Works a treat

Colour Depth Windows 2003

So weird problem, colour depth on a Windows 2003 TS server suddenly drop to 8 Bit for no reason.

I applied the MS private hotfix which did not solve the issue so had a dig in the registry at the following location.

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server\WinStations\RDP-Tcp

The setttings below had random values so I set back to 0 and the problem went away.

fInheritColorDepth

And the setting

ColorDepth I set back to 4

I also had to set these for the ICA connection as well, weird as no-one confesses to changing anything on the boxes??

Drive Letters or Mappings

I have been working on a Windows 2008 R2 XenApp 6 environment and the client does not like the way the drive mappings are shown.

So Windows will now show it like this as a default.

But when you open Excel etc you cannot see the drive letter as the window shows it at the end.

To change this behaviour you can set a registry key to show it in 4 different ways.

Key is HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer

Reg DWORD – ShowDriveLettersFirst

Value 0

Sets it as above

Value of 1 sets drive letters to show first for NETWORK drives only as below

Value of 2 sets the machine to only show mappings and no drive letters as below.

A value of 4 sets it to show drive letters before for both local and network drives.

As always back up registry first if you are not sure

Citrix Access Gateway 4.5 – 4.6 migration

 

I am always fairly careful when upgrading products, as I am sure people are aware the CAG 4.5 software has no upgrade option for the v4.6 version.

So the only way to get certs (without the IIS original!) is to backup and restore the configuration using the CAG itself. for reference the following config is saved and restored during this process.

• IP information
• Admin Password
• Name Service Providers
• SSL Certificates
• Date Settings (but sometimes time zone does not come out again correct?)

I have successfully used this method but have always installed the CAG software first onto a laptop to confirm config restores properly!

It does not add the advanced access control server details back in so you have to add that again manually, then restart the gateway again.

I have noticed it takes about 15 minutes for the advanced access control sites to be displayed but if you deploy a new logon point it seems to speed things along!

Hide Applications from XenApp via PN/WI

 

A lot of customers like the ability to create start menus from published applications within a XenApp desktop which is great if you install PN Agent within the server. 

Only issue is that can look messy if a user then launches the web interface or PN Agent locally and they see lists of applications.

Two CTX articles talk about this and have an option of hiding all apps if you specify say a folder name within the published app. Nice solution and when combined with a hide all Common group programs in a GPO give a nice tidy application list on the start menu.

Articles are below….

http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX123969

http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX122133

iGels and XenApp 6

 

So at a client who needs to connect their existing iGels to a new XenApp 6 farm, no problems connects fine to XenApp 5 so not a problem at all………

So connecting via HTTP does not work, nor TCP/IP, despite being able to launch the application fine via the WI or PN Agent site.

After (a lot) of fiddling around I finally stumbled on the solution, XML port configured during installation YEP. XML port servicing WI and PN Agent YEP.

XML port allowing connections via iGel … Nope! Even though I set a policy to trust requests to the XML port…..

So I download the utility called CitrixQuickLaunch from http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX122536 and try to connect to published application. I get an error saying unable to connect to XML broker.

So I then configure the CTX policy XML Service Port – and configure the port number the same as the one during installation and it suddenly works!!!!

Now the iGel connects and I can get some sleep, configure the iGel to point to a published application using TCP/IP + HTTP.

Loovvveee Citrix!

Citrix Web Interface Double Click

 

Sometimes when users are impatient (So that’s always then!) they double click the icons in Citrix Web Interface over and over…

Stop the app launching twice with the following procedure.

To use this feature you must modify the Citrix Web Interface configuration file (WebInterface.conf) manually. This feature can not be set up using the Citrix Web Interface Management Console.

Note: Prior making any modifications to the WebInterface.conf file manually, make sure to have the Citrix Web Interface Management Console closed.

1. Locate the WebInteface.conf file in this directory \Inetpub\wwwroot\Citrix\SiteName\conf
2. Open file with Notepad and search for the following entry:
   #MultiLaunchTimeout=[Number of Seconds (2)]
3. Remove (#) sign and [Number of Seconds (2)]
4. Enter the number of seconds desired.
5. The entry should look like this:
   For example: MultiLaunchTimeout=2
6. Save the file and test.

The value specifies the time for which resource icons are inactive following the initial click by the user to start the resource.

Outlook Express Icon

To remove the Outlook  Express icon from Windows Server 2003 do the following

Open ‘C:\Windows\Inf\sysoc.inf’ in notepad.

1. Find the line ‘OEAccess=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,oeaccess.inf,hide,7′ and change it to read ‘OEAccess=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,oeaccess.inf,,7′ Save and close the file. (Remove the word ‘hide’)

Open ‘Add / Remove Programs’ and then ‘Windows Components’ Uncheck ‘Outlook Express’ to uninstall.

XenApp Farms same subnet

I have been working on a client who has XenApp on two farms on the same subnet. Some minor issues have been experienced and bizarrely in my testing launching an app from one farm got me a session on the other one… WEIRD!!

Anyway it all came down to an application on the farm (s) called the same thing. The old ICA browser was sending me to the wrong place.

Worth mentioning, not sure what other problems were solved by renaming the application but we shall see.