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Continued problems with black screen at session start with Windows 10


Kevin Miller

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Hello all. Looking for some advice. 

 

We have a problem when a user launches a XenDesktop (7.17) and Windows 10 (1607) session the Windows shell does not load and presents a black screen. You can interact with Explorer via the task manager. There doesn't appear to be anything in the UPM or Windows logs that indicate an issue.

 

Adding AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Caches to the UPM Directories to synchronize policy does not solve the problem. (https://docs.citrix.com/en-us/xenapp-and-xendesktop/current-release/whats-new/fixed-issues.html) #LC9215

 

I would appreciate any help you may have. So far Citrix support doesn't have an answer.

 

Below are the exclusions/synchronizations I have set.

 

Directories to syncronize:

 AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Caches

 

Exclusion files:

*thumb*.db, *icon*.db

 

Exclusion Directories:

$Recycle.Bin
OneDrive
Dropbox
ShareFile
AppData\Local\Assembly\dl3
AppData\Local\ATT Connect
AppData\Local\Comms
AppData\Local\Downloaded Installations
AppData\Local\Dropbox
AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Cache
AppData\Local\Microsoft\CLR-v4.0_32
AppData\Local\Microsoft\GameDVR
AppData\Local\Microsoft\Group Policy
AppData\Local\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Recovery
AppData\Local\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\DOMStore
AppData\Local\Microsoft\Media Player
AppData\Local\Microsoft\Messenger
AppData\Local\Microsoft\OneDrive
AppData\Local\Microsoft\OneNote
AppData\Local\Microsoft\Office\15.0\OfficeFileCache
AppData\Local\Microsoft\PlayReady
AppData\Local\Microsoft\Terminal Server Client
AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Mail
AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Burn
AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Live
AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Live Contacts
AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files
AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Themes
AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\INetCache
AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\WER
AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\WebCache.old
AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\PriCache
AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Application Shortcuts
AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\1033
AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer
AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\GameExplorer
AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Notifications
AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Ringtones
AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\RoamingTiles
AppData\Local\Packages
AppData\Local\Skype
AppData\Local\Sun
AppData\Local\Temp
AppData\LocalLow
AppData\Roaming\Citrix\PNAgent\AppCache
AppData\Roaming\Citrix\PNAgent\Icon Cache
AppData\Roaming\Citrix\PNAgent\ResourceCache
AppData\Roaming\com.adobe.formscentral.FormsCentralForAcrobat
AppData\Roaming\Dropbox
AppData\Roaming\ICAClient\Cache
AppData\Roaming\Macromedia\Flash Player\macromedia.com\support\flashplayer\sys
AppData\Roaming\Macromedia\Flash Player\#SharedObjects
AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Excel
AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\UserData
AppData\Roaming\Sharefile\Outlook
AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Powerpoint
AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates\LiveContent
AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Dropbox
AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Word
AppData\Roaming\Sun\Java\Deployment\cache
AppData\Roaming\Sun\Java\Deployment\log
AppData\Roaming\Sun\Java\Deployment\tmp
AppData\Roaming\Sun\Java\Deployment

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First, if you already have the VDA 7.15 CU2 installed, remove it with the VDA CleanUp utility. Then get the VDA 7.15 CU2 standalone installer (or use the XenDesktopVdaSetup.exe from the ISO) and install it with command line arguments. The relevant one is /exclude “Citrix User Profile Manager”. 

VDA command line switches: bit.ly/2KqnKtr 
After that, download UPM 7.15 standalone installer and install it.

I have no issues with black screen and blank startmenu anymore. 

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So after applying hotfix, users now experience a wait at "preparing windows" that lasts for 15-30 seconds that then transitions to a black screen that lasts 15 to 40 seconds, and are then finally presented with a desktop.

So it's improvement, in that eventually they are logged on, but the actual logon time is significantly longer than pre-hotfix and certainly pre-update to CU2/MS updates.

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Hello Etienne,

 

It is better to request the private hotfix via a Citrix Support ticket.  Then know this fix is realy needed, and after enough tests they will hopfully make this public or incorporate it in new CU.

But I can confirm with the private fix, and the latest Windows Updates the 7.15 LTSR CU2 is good.

 

greetings,

  chris

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We have had the hotfix on Citrix 7.15 LTSR CU2 running on Windows 2016 with the May updates and things have returned to normal.

We are using WEM 4.4 running on 2012 R2 as well, with logon times about 20 seconds, which is significantly down from the 55 seconds we were getting after the April updates and updating to CU2.

Also using CU2 profile management.

May never do another Citrix update, ever, but this seems to be stable now.

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For me either saying that a userint file is taking a long time to load according to the CDF traces. Which is Microsoft not Citrix they say. but I just not for sure what it is because it only happens after a fresh reboot. Once you login log out login it seems okay.

This is on a 718 vda as well

We did a proc mon and a performance monitor 48 hours ago.

 

 

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On 27.7.2018 at 11:36 PM, Ray Davis said:

Nobody else out there still fighting the black screen?

 

I fought the black screen the last weeks. I had the problem, that my Server2016 roaming-startmenu have had empty, weired icons (as described by Andy Stadtlander earlier in this thread). After I fixed this with the "ResetCache" registry hack the screen stayed black after logon for about 30 secs. My solution are some UPM GPO steps which took me a lot of work to find and combine.

 

1. Moved AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Caches from folders to synchronize to directory exclusion list.

2. Added Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\UFH\SFC to the registry exclusion list (i figured out, that the more entries are in this key, the longer the black screen shows up)

 

After that, the black screen nearly vanished and logon is pretty fast (~26 Secs on published desktop). That works with VDA 7.17 and 7.18. Currently I run VDA 7.17 because 7.18 is nearly unusable if you run published applications. It is laggy as hell.

 

I'll keep you updated ...

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Disabling the appreadiness service will cause blackscreen issues. Additionally it may also prevent the start menu from working properly and select windows updates from installing successfully. Despite what searching google and Citrix support may say, I strongly recommend to avoid disabling appreadiness.

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3 hours ago, Cory Zaner said:

Not sure if this is the same issues, but I see this now in 1802 and 7.18.  I tried to disable the appreadiness services, same issue and all the regkeys  keys are present, has anyone else still seen this?  i am not using UPM, but use an excluded group. 

I had similar issue. Installed the Hot Fix and Exported the Registry Appreadiness ,AppxAlluserstore from a Normal server . It fixed my issue .

 

https://support.citrix.com/article/CTX235100?recommended

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7 hours ago, Vrajesh Subrahari said:

I had similar issue. Installed the Hot Fix and Exported the Registry Appreadiness ,AppxAlluserstore from a Normal server . It fixed my issue .

 

https://support.citrix.com/article/CTX235100?recommended

We had to do the same.  Then before we upgraded to UPM 7.18+ we did these same steps to be sure the registry was correct.

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I gave up on this after having the blank screen issue on both 2012 R2 & 2016 VDA 1903. Smooth sailing after reverting back to version 5.8. 

 

1. Uninstalled UPM completely https://support.citrix.com/article/CTX235100?recommended&_ga=2.29336309.850684847.1555522146-2145097236.1554854512 

2. Installed Profile Management 5.8 https://www.citrix.com/downloads/citrix-virtual-apps-and-desktops/product-software/xenapp-and-xendesktop-714.html

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