CTX-Blog

I recently stumbled uppon a really weired problem with 32bit icon support in XenApp. Under certain circumstances the AMC won’t show the option for 32bit icon support in the farm properties even if all prerequisites are perfectly met. We found out the reason for that behaviour only by accident.

The problem can be seen with all versions of Presentation Server 4.5 and XenApp 5.0 for w2k3 as well as for w2k8.

If the problem hits you, the farm properties won’t show the option for 32bit icon support, but there will only be a blank space

The reason for this odd behaviour can be found in the configuration of the farm-discovery. I sometimes use LOCALHOST as the hostname for discovery. This is helpful in situations where you have roaming profiles and IIS is not installed on the XenApp servers.

But if you configure discovery that way there will be no 32bit icon option in the AMC.

If you change the discovery option back to the local server

the missing option reappeares again.

You can toggle that behaviour as you like. Admittedly this is not a common problem but it is odd and if you happen to see it, you will be warned…

Regards
Ecki

I recently stumbled across this realy good article about restricting access to the RDP/ICA protocol on a Citrix or terminal server through WMI. You don’t have to be a programmer to understand the code, since it is realy easy to use and implement. With just one line of code it is possible to add/remove a user or group from the ICA/RDP protocol, thus allowing for better security for your servers.

If you have to setup or manage several terminal servers, this article can ease your life.

The article can be found here.

Regards
Ecki

If you have ever published a terminal server desktop, you have seen this happening almost for sure. Even if there is no Outlook Express icon in the All Users or Default Users folder, the icon appears in the start menu after a user logs on for the first time.

Why is this happening? And much more interesting, how can you avoid this?

To delete the icon from every users profile is not a viable option. So it’s best to look for the root cause of this problem. As often, the solution can be found in the registry.

Below the key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Active Setup\Installed Components\{44BBA840-CC51-11CF-AAFA-00AA00B6015C}\

you can find a REG_SZ entry with the name “StubPath“. If you delete this entry, the terminal server will never again create this icon at user logon. Existing icons however will not be deleted.

A post in the DCUG describes a similar procedure but simply renames the entry to “HideStubPath“. The effect is the same, but it is much easier to revert back.

Regards
Ecki