Start Menu Application Population

[cmckenz329 | 46]

Does anyone have a solution for how to control which applications the users can see in the start menu of a published desktop?

In previous versions of XenApp we would remove the common program groups and use the online plug-in to populate application shortcuts in the start menu however with XenDesktop 7 published apps and published desktops cannot share the same session so this is no longer an option

As an alternative solution I setup a common redirected start menu and enabled access based enumeration to control which users could see specific application shortcuts. This seems to work well however we also need the users to be able to launch published applications from backend Citrix servers, in this scenario the users don't have write access to the redirected start menu so when they try to subscribe to applications through the receiver it doesn't work (clicking on the app shows the green tick for a few seconds and then disappears)

Any ideas?

[Carl Stalhood | 12,805]

With Native Receiver? Here are some suggestions:

1) Enable the Group Policy option Remove common program groups from Start Menu and apply it to non-administrators.
2) On the session host, copy the Citrix Receiver icon and paste it into the Startup folder (C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup) on the Start Menu so it launches automatically.
3) On the session host, configure HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Citrix\Dazzle\WSCReconnectMode="0" so Receiver doesn’t try to reconnect to the published desktop you’re already running.
4) On the session host, if desired, configure HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Citrix\Dazzle\StartMenuDir to place subscribed applications in a sub-folder.
5) On the session host, if desired, configure HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Citrix\Dazzle\UseCategoryAsStartMenuPath = true.
6) When configuring Citrix Profile Management, make sure "!ctx_startmenu!" is not excluded. You can do one of the following: edit the Studio policy, edit the GPO, or edit the .ini file.
7) In Studio, create a StoreFront object with a URL similar to https://storefront.corp.local/Citrix/Store/discovery. Replace the FQDN with your load balanced StoreFront FQDN. Also replace the path to the store with your store path. Make sure there is /discovery on the end. By default, Receiver only supports https URLs.
8) In Studio, configure a delivery group with delivery type = Desktop and Applications. Assign users to the delivery group and the applications (if visibility is limited).
9) In Studio, specify the App Category on the Delivery tab of each published application.
10) In Studio, assign the StoreFront object to the delivery group from which the desktop is published.
11) Configure your client devices to connect to the published desktop.
12) When users connect to the published desktop, Receiver will auto-launch and hopefully auto-login.
13) Users can then subscribe to applications in Receiver and the subscribed applications will appear on the Start Menu. Administrators can also auto-subscribe applications by adding KEYWORDS:Auto to the published application description.
14) Users can copy icons from the Start Menu to the desktop. Make sure the user Copies the icon and doesn’t Move it.
15) Users can then launch applications directly from Receiver, from the Start Menu, or from the desktop (if copied there by the user).
16) If the application is installed locally on the session host then the application should launch quickly. If the application is on a different delivery group then a second (double-hop) Citrix HDX/ICA connection will be established.

[dsarfat32 | 0]

Okay, I tried the suggestion as above, but the issue with this solution is that Receiver 4.1 doesn't actually display the start menu icons for which receiver matches an application.

 

I might set the permissions differently on the icons themselves, but this is a lot of work. I think I'm just going to have to wait for a newer version of Citrix before we deploy...

[Carl Stalhood | 12,805]

Or you can continue to use Receiver Enterprise 3.4 Cumulative Update 3.

[dsarfat32 | 0]

Thanks for your response Carl,

 

When working with Receiver Enterprise 3.4 CU3 and XD7.1 the published desktop session cannot share sessions with published applications. I'm really trying to make this work. :(

[matthewingram | 270]

Thanks for your response Carl,

 

When working with Receiver Enterprise 3.4 CU3 and XD7.1 the published desktop session cannot share sessions with published applications. I'm really trying to make this work. :(

 

What do you mean by this? Do you have one delivery group with both applications and desktop published or separate delivery groups for desktops and apps?

[dsarfat32 | 0]

Yes, we are using XenDesktop App edition. After upgrading my environment from XA 6.5 to XA7.x when a user launches an application from the pnagent start menu out launches as a second session. This is bad for licensing and makes connection management hard.

 

We have 1 group for apps and desktops.