Published Desktop Session Sharing with applications on XenApp/XenDesktop 7.x and Storefront 2.5/Web Interface 5.4.2

[frabino112 | 10]

I have just tried with the new release of XenDesktop 7.5 and Storefront 2.5 and it's still not working.

Applications are launching a new session inside Publish Dekstop.

 

I have installed Web Interface 5.4.2 and created a Web Site and Service Site. PNAgent is now working with XD 7.5 but applications are still starting in a new session.

I tried to start the Publish Desktop from the Web Interface, so no more Storefront, but the problem is still there.

 

So, is the problem with XenDesktop/XenApp VDA ???

More than six months after, and 2 new releases, and the problem is still there.

 

This was correctly working until XenDesktop 7.x and the VDA.

We cannot work with that, more licenses are consumed, printers are mapped each time and show for each session in Printers and Devices....

 

This is a show stopper.

[dsarfat32 | 0]

I can confirm the same behavior in XenDesktop 7.1. This is almost a show-stopper for us as well.

 

I'm researching ways to launch the explorer shell as an application to emulate the published desktop, this is what was recommended in another thread.

 

I also have a case open with Citrix regarding this issue and have a feature request for this.

[dpisa943 | 9]

Hi All,

 

I don't know, but it sounds like a bug.

 

You need to manually edit the description of each application and change it from "Prefer" to "prefer". Yes, the difference is a lower case p instead of the capital one.

 

So the application description looks like "KEYWORDS=prefer=Application Name" 

 

If the application is just added to the Citrix Receiver you need to remove and re-add to let it work

 

cool, isn't it?

 

Cheers

David

[stalderm78 | 201]

Same issue here. My Citrix case has allready been closed because it seams to be by design. A product enhancment request has been created.

[SYBILLEJ | 32]

did you try ?  this http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX139264

[frabino112 | 10]

It's now working with KEYWORDS:prefer="Shortcut Name" mandatory

Tested on XenDesktop 7.5 with Storefront 2.5 and Receiver 4.1. Will try also with WI 5.4.2 and Receiver Enterprise 13.4

 

But this is not session sharing !!!!!

It's the same thing as publishing a shortcut with GPP. The good point is that we can create subfolder.

Every publish application needs to have a shotcut with a name in the All Users start menu.

 

Now, i just have to find why my Start menu is not populated with the applications.

 

I hope that the product enhancment request done by Marco will be validated.

[thorsten2202 | 75]

 

Now, i just have to find why my Start menu is not populated with the applications.

 

Did you find a solution?

I see that correct StartMenu Category set, if no Keyword is defined. But i need the Keyword because of session sharing...

[frabino112 | 10]

http://support.citrix.com/proddocs/topic/dws-storefront-21/dws-plan-optimize-ux.html

 

 

For Windows users, you can specify that the locally installed version of an application should be used in preference to the equivalent delivered instance if both are available. To do this, append the string KEYWORDS:prefer="application" to the application description, where application is either one or more complete words in the name of the local application as given by the shortcut file name, or the absolute path including the executable file name to the local application from the \Start Menu folder. When a user subscribes to an application with this keyword, Citrix Receiver searches for the specified name or path on the user's device to determine whether the application is already installed locally. If the application is found, Citrix Receiver subscribes the user to the delivered application, but does not create a shortcut. When the user starts the delivered application from Citrix Receiver, the locally installed instance runs instead.

 

 

I really don't understand why Citrix choose to make it works like that. It's like they want users to stop using Desktop and do only Publish Apps !!!!

 

I usually hide Programs from All users start menu for my users and show only to admin but with this, it's a nightmare to manage

 

For now 2-3 months, I am still waiting for a comment by Citrix on one of the topic eplaining why.

[dsarfat32 | 0]

If receiver matches a program installed on the desktop I think it is not published to the start menu by receiver because the user can use that existing application (this makes easier integration from user desktops).

I think this is done "by design", or overlooked by their development team. Don't forget, XenDesktop didn't support "Apps and Desktops" as a type of delivery group until XD7, when they added server operating system support to the supported list of operating systems.

 

I think this needs a tiny bit of a code change, or a work-around would be to let us know how we could execute the shell as an application, which would allow everybody to do session sharing the way it worked in all other versions of Metaframe / XenApp since 1.0

[acunnin672 | 0]

Unfortunately I think it might be more than just a few lines of code to reimplement this feature. I remember reading a Citrix blog post years ago (can't find it now) that explained how session sharing with the desktop worked. The process to launch the application was more complicated than you might expect and involved some interaction between the Online Plug-In and the IMA process on the server in order to work out that the application executable was accessible from within the user's desktop session & that the session was compatible before IMA would throw the executable path over to the Online Plugin to load it locally.

 

My guess is that this code vanished with IMA and re-implementing this functionality would require some reworking of both FMA and the Citrix Receiver code. I'm only guessing however.

 

I agree that it's a bit of a show stopper, without this functionality XenDesktop 7.5 feels like a glorified session broker in comparison with XenApp 6.5. How the importance of this functionality could have been overlooked throughout the product development phase is a bit of a mystery to me. 

[dchilloux | 0]

Same think here : No session sharing in published Desktop with XenDesktop 7.5 / StoreFront 2.5.

 

This article helped me for configuring the single sign-on : http://andrewmorgan.ie/2014/03/26/citrix-storefront-2-5-and-single-sign-on/

 

David.