AppSense - Default printer not being captured at logoff

Hello,

I had the following problem at an environment. When the user changed his default printer into a XenDesktop/XenApp Session it was not being captured correctly from the AppSense Environment Manager. After some research we found that it seems that a Citrix service is changing the default printer at logoff before EM could capture it and after some digging around we found that the following Citrix printer policy have to set to "Do not adjust the user's default printer":

After setting this policy everything worked correctly.

Grettings

michael.obernberger

AppSense - Mouse Lags in a XenApp Environment

Hi,

I have installed a new XenApp 6.5 Farm with Local Profiles and AppSense User Virtualization. So I had the problem that on the first login the mouse movement in a Published Application was very, very sluggish. So after two or three days full of testing I have found that the following key seems to be a problem: HKCU\Control Panel\Desktop\UserPreferencesMask
After some more searching in the Internet I have found the following forum entry which gave me the sollution: http://forums.citrix.com/thread.jspa?threadID=261090
As a short compendium you have to make a AppSense Logon Configuration or a Group Policy Preference which sets the above registry key to hex : 90,12,01,80. I have provided a screenshot how it looks like:

This should solve your problem with the sluggish mouse movements.

Grettings

michael.obernberger

AppSense - CCA on provisioned images

Hi,

I have updated my AppSense Management Server last week to the latest version (8.3.43.0) and had the problem after updating my Golden Images with the new CCA, that there was some weird behavior in the AMC, that some machines disappeared or showed status with 0% rolled out. After a short discussion the AppSense support gave me the solution.
It seems that something has changed in the 8.3.x CCA because at previous CCA updates I have installed the new CCA on the golden image and provisioned it again and it worked ok. With the new CCA you have to delete the group-id and machine-id of the CCA deployment and then provision the machine. So here is the correct process of updating the CCA:

1. Install the latest CCA on the machine in Private image mode.
2. Before provisioning the machine stop the service "AppSense Client Communications Agent"
3. Now change the the following two registry keys to 0:

• [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\AppSense Technologies\Communications Agent] "machine id"="{00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000}"
• [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\AppSense Technologies\Communications Agent] "group id"="{00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000}"

With these steps all machines should show up correctly in your AMC.

Update: This is also applies for vmware linked clones. Thanks to Peter for this information.


Grettings

michael.obernberger

AppSense - Working with Else If Conditions

Hi,

Appsense introduced the Else If condition in version 8.1 or 8.2, I am not sure about that but it is one of the greates new conditions you get in EM. I will post an example where you could see, you powerful it is.

I have a XenApp 6.5 Farm with Office 2007 installed with various languages and I want to make sure, that the users from the various countries getting the correct language displayed. So I have a security group for each lanugange called: All_English, All_French, All_Italian and the default is german.
So the first thing I have made is a Process Started trigger for the different Office applications (Access, Word, Excel, Outlook, Powerpoint), then I am checking with a reusable node if you connect to the Citrix-Server and connecting via ICA so that language isn't changed for Administrators which are connecting via RDP. So here is a screenshot from the configuration right now:

Then I am configuring some Registry Keys which should prevent the users from any manual input on first start and doing some general Group policy actions.

And so the last thing is now to configure the language correctly for the different users with an Else If Condition. I am starting with the first one which is checking if the user is in the group All_English and configuring the group policies with the language for that and then add a new Else If for French and a new one for Italian and the last thing is an Else condition if the user is in none of the above groups to configure Office in German and thats it. I will attach some screenshot for you to better understand. The first one is a picture how I am checking the group membership in the If Condition. the second one is a overview of which GPOs I am setting. The third one, is the whole structure of the Else If condition.

So hopefully you now better understand or see how powerful this condition is to structure you configuration easier and faster.

Grettings

michael.obernberger

AppSense - Set the system language for users on logon

Hello,

some of our new VDI users want to have their system language/program language in English-UK. Our Windows 7 SP1 Masterimage hast German as default installation language and default location. So these are the steps required for making it multilanguage compatible.

1. Install the Windows 7 SP1 Language Pack for English which are listed here: http://www.mydigitallife.info/windows-7-sp1-mui-language-packs-official-direct-download-links/
2. Install the Office Language Pack. You will be able to download it via the licensing portal or you could buy it directly from Microsoft if you do not have an enterprise agreement.
3. Check the other applications you have installed for multilanguage features. Here are some examples of mine:
1. Adobe Reader: You could set Adobe Reader 9/X with a registry key that it takes the language from the user account. See it here:  http://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/kb/controlling-reader-mui-startup-language.html
2. 7-Zip: You could set the language to English with the following registry key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\7-ZIP
   ValueName: Lang
   ValueType: REG_SZ
   Value: en
4. To make the setting of the language silenty on login the first thing you have to do is to make a language XML file where you configure your settings. See some information on this here, here and here. When you are done with this than copy the file to a central location or in your master image.
5. Now I am making a new logon action where I am first checking if the OS is Windows 7 or Windows 2008R2 because this way is only supported from Windows Vista upwards. Then I am checking for a security group where all English Speaking Users are grouped into and then we are doing the "magic" with a custom execute action where we firing up the control panel item for "Regions and language" and do a silent import of our before created XML file. Even more I am setting two group policy objects to restrict this user only to English as language.

The rest of the configuration for Office, Adobe Reader, 7-Zip and so on I am doing with process started triggers for faster logon times.

Best Regards,

michael.obernberger

AppSense - How to delete or add users to a group

Hi,

I want to add a group to the local administrator group on logon dependent on the existence of a specific EXE file. So as you could do this with group policies built in function.

But there is a way to do this with AppSense Environment Manager. So the first thing I am doing is to check for a specific exe-File on x86 or x64 and if this exists I am firing a custom execute to add the group "Testgroup" to the local Administrators group:

The only "problem" with this command is that you have to be connected to the network for this to function correctly.


michael.obernberger

Citrix XenDesktop 5.6 is now available for download

Hello,

since today Citrix XenDesktop 5.6 is available for download from the Citrix website.

The new features are:

• Personal vDisk - This feature is a personalization solution for virtual desktops. Two new types of catalog allow you to preserve the assignment of users to desktops even when the disk is cleaned at restart; the same user is assigned the same desktop for later sessions. The new catalogs arepooled with personal vDisk (for pooled-static virtual desktops) that you manage with Desktop Studio and streamed with personal vDisk that you manage with Provisioning Services. In addition, a dedicated storage disk is created, before logon, so users can store their data on the desktop, including any applications they install. For background information on this feature, see About Personal vDisks.
• System Center support - XenDesktop now supports Microsoft System Center 2012 Configuration Manager and Microsoft System Center 2012 Virtual Machine Manager.
• Virtual Desktop Agent - A new version of the Virtual Desktop Agent fixes issues in the version included with XenDesktop 5.5. These are the issues which are fixed: http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX124164
• Citrix Licensing - Citrix Licensing 11.10 lets you assign access to the License Administration Console using Active Directory Users and Groups.
• Desktop Director - Desktop Director 2.1 supports personal vDisks and contains fixes since the last release. For more information, see the Desktop Director documentation

.

Best Regards,
michael.obernberger