Citrix Virtual Apps & Desktop 7 2206

June 28, 2022
Thomas Poppelgaard
Citrix

Citrix have released a new version of Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktop 7 2206.

Release 7 2206 is now available for download, 28th June, 2022.

Citrix Virtual Apps & Desktop 7 2206 is a CR release. Read more about CR here

Citrix Virtual Apps (former name: XenApp) Citrix Virtual Desktop (former name: XenDesktop)

Citrix raises the bar of for user experience and new product release of following technologies:

Director 2206
Citrix Licensing 11.17.2 build 39000
Virtual Delivery Agents 2206 for ServerOS and ClientOS
Virtual Delivery Agent 2206 for Linux
Citrix Federated Authentication Service 2206
Citrix Provisioning 2206
Profile Management 2206
Workspace Environment Management 2206
Session Recording 2206
Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktop Service (June 2022)
Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktop Standard for Azure (June 2022)
Citrix Cloud Health Check
Workspace App 2206 for Windows
Workspace App 2206 for Linux
Workspace App 2206 for Chrome
Workspace App 2206 for Android
Workspace App 2206 for MacOS
Workspace App 2206 for HTML5
Workspace App 2206 for ChromeOS

What’s new in Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktop 7 2206

Install and upgrade: Microsoft Visual C++ prerequisite

When installing a Delivery Controller, VDA, or Universal Print Server, the Citrix installer automatically installs the Microsoft Visual C++ 2015–2019 Redistributable.

If the machine contains an earlier version of that runtime (such as 2015-2017), the Citrix installer upgrades it.
If the machine contains a version earlier than 2015, Citrix installs the newer version in parallel.

VDA install and upgrade: Rendezvous proxy configuration

In the full VDA installers, you can specify the additional component, Rendezvous Proxy Configuration, if you plan to use the Rendezvous protocol with the Citrix Gateway Service in your environment, and have a non-transparent proxy in your network for outbound connections. Only HTTP proxies are supported.

For installation information, see Install VDAs and Command line options for installing a VDA. For feature information, see Rendezvous protocol.

VDA install and upgrade: Features

The VDA installers now support two more items. In the graphical interface, both items are on the Features page.

Use session sharing. Opens ports in the Windows firewall that are required for session sharing. From the command line, use /enable_ss_ports.
Is the VDA installed on a VM in a cloud: Helps Citrix to correctly identify resource locations for on-premises and service (Citrix Cloud) VDA deployments for telemetry purposes. This feature has no impact on customer side utilization. From the command line, use xendesktopcloud.

For installation information, see Install VDAs and Command line options for installing a VDA.

Citrix Studio

Ability to search for a domain when creating a machine catalog

Enumerating a large number of domains can take a long time, especially when there are domains that cannot be reached. Starting with this release, you can search for a domain using an exact match in the following scenarios:

Create Active Directory accounts for machines when using MCS to create VMs.
Add OUs when creating Remote PC Access catalogs.
Add a device collection domain when using Citrix Provisioning to create VMs.

With the feature, you can quickly select the desired domain, thus reducing the wait time when browsing all domains. For more information, see Create machine catalogs.

Machine Creation Services (MCS)

Azure trusted launch support

Using a machine profile with Trusted Launch as Security Type is mandatory when you select an image that has trusted launch enabled. You can then enable or disable SecureBoot and vTPM by specifying their values in the Machine Profile.

Ability to identify Amazon Web Services (AWS) resources created by MCS

You can now identify all AWS resources created by MCS, such as Image, ID disk, OS disk, NIC, and VM that are associated with a ProvScheme using a tag called provschemeID. For more information, see Identify resources.

Ability to use machine profile property values in Azure environment

When you create an Azure catalog with a machine profile, the property values are now set from the ARM template spec or VM, whichever is used as a machine profile, if the values are not explicitly defined in the custom properties. The properties affected by this feature are:

Availability zone
Dedicated Host Group Id
Disk Encryption Set Id
OS type
License type
Service Offering
Storage type

If some of the properties are missing from the machine profile and not defined in the custom properties, then the default value of the properties takes place wherever applicable. For more information, see Create a machine catalog using an Azure Resource Manager image.

Support for Azure Stack HCI provisioning through SCVMM

MCS now supports Azure Stack HCI provisioning through Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM). You can manage the Azure stack HCI cluster with your existing tools including SCVMM. For more information, see Azure Stack HCI provisioning through SCVMM.

Support for updating MCS provisioned machines in Azure environments

Set-ProvScheme changes the template (provisioning scheme) and does not affect existing machines. Using the Request-ProvVMUpdate command, you can now apply the current provisioning scheme to an existing machine (or a set of machines). Currently, the property update supported by this feature is ServiceOffering. For more information, see Update provisioned machines to current provisioning scheme state.

Support for VMware Storage Profiles

When you create a catalog using a master image on a vSAN Datastore, you can now copy the storage policy such as the RAID-1 or RAID-5 information from the master image to the created target devices. For existing catalogs, the storage policy remains unchanged even if you update the catalog.

Support for restarting non-power managed machines after draining all sessions

You can now create restart schedules to restart machines that are not power managed after all sessions have been drained from them. Create a restart schedule for a delivery group that contains machines that are not power managed, as described in Create a restart schedule. Choose Restart all machines after draining all sessions as the restart duration.

Support for SCVMM 2022

Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops and Citrix DaaS now supports Microsoft’s System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) 2022. SCVMM provides a range of services to include maintaining the resources you need to deploy VMs. For more information about the new features supported in SCVMM 2022, see What’s new in System Center Virtual Machine Manager.

Page file setting during image preparation in Azure environments

You can now avoid potential confusion with page file location because MCS now determines the location at ProvScheme creation during image preparation. This calculation is based on certain rules. The features like ephemeral OS disk (EOS) and MCSIO have their own expected page file location and are exclusive to each other. Also, if image preparation is decoupled from the provisioning scheme creation, MCS correctly determines the page file location. For more information, see Page file location.

Support for updating page file setting in Azure environments

When you create a catalog in the Azure environment, you can now specify the page file setting, including the location and size, using the  PoSH command. This action overrides the value determined by MCS. You can update the page file setting by running the New-ProvScheme command and including the following custom properties:

PageFileDiskDriveLetterOverride: Page file location disk drive letter
InitialPageFileSizeInMB: Initial page file size in MB
MaxPageFileSizeInMB: Maximum page file size in MB

For more information, see Update page file setting.

Support for updating the folder ID of a machine catalog in VMware

In VMware virtualization environments, you can now update the folder ID of an MCS machine catalog using the custom property FolderID in Set-ProvScheme. The VMs created after updating the folder ID are created under this new folder ID. If this property is not specified in CustomProperties, then VMs are created under the folder where the master image is located. For more information on updating the folder ID, see Update the folder ID of a machine catalog.

Citrix Director

Citrix Licensing 11.17.2 build 39000

Apache version update

Apache/2.4.53

OpenSSL version update

OpenSSL 1.1.1n

Libxml2 version update

zlib- 1.2.12

Virtual Delivery Agents (VDAs) 7 2206 for Windows Desktop/Server OS.

Removed the dependency of multimedia conferencing on Windows Media redirection

Previously, the Multimedia conferencing setting was enabled only when Windows Media redirection was set to Allowed. Starting with this release, to allow or prevent the use of optimized webcam redirection technology, you can enable or disable the Multimedia conferencing setting. There is no dependency on the Windows Media redirection setting.

Custom protocol redirection from VDA to client

Bidirectional content redirection supports redirecting custom protocols from the Citrix VDA to the client. Protocols other than HTTP and HTTPS are supported. For more information, see Custom protocol redirection from VDA to Client.

Wildcard redirection from Citrix VDA session to the client endpoint

Bidirectional content redirection supports the use of wildcards when defining the URLs to be redirected. For more information, see Wildcard redirection from Citrix VDA to client.

Support for Canadian Multilingual Standard Unicode keyboard layouts

With the keyboard feature enhancement on Windows VDA, using a CWA HMTL5 client connected to Windows VDA, users can type using the Canadian Multilingual Standard keyboard layout. The client keyboard layout and VDA keyboard layout must be set to FRA CMS.

Virtual display layout per monitor

Multi-monitor support enhances the virtual display configuration utility and allows independent virtual display layouts on each session monitor. A new preview functionality is added along with UI changes for an improved user experience.

Multi-session VDA timer settings

New user settings are available for configuring session, idle, and disconnected timers for multi-session machines.

Virtual channel allow list

You can now use wildcards in the process path when adding virtual channels to the allow list. For more information, see Virtual channel security documentation.

More options for configuring session watermark

More customization options are added to the Watermark custom text policy, allowing you to further customize session watermarks. For more information, see Watermark custom text section.

Virtual Delivery Agents (VDAs) 7 2206 for Linux

Support for Debian 11.3

We have added Debian 11.3 as a supported distribution. For more information, see System requirements.

Support for user authentication with Azure AD credentials

The Linux VDA can now integrate with Azure Active Directory (AD) to provide user authentication. With this feature, users can log on to non-domain-joined Linux desktops using their Azure AD credentials. For more information, see Authentication with Azure Active Directory.

Client battery status display

The Linux VDA can now redirect and display the battery status of client devices in virtual desktops. This feature is enabled by default. For more information, see Client battery status display.

Multi-monitor enhancements for Remote PC Access VDAs using non-vGPU graphics cards

This release addresses the following issues that occur when users access Remote PC Access sessions:

The monitor of the remote PC cannot be blacked out. Showing session content can pose a security risk.
Monitors can display artifacts when multiple monitors are used to access Remote PC Access sessions.

For more information, see Non-vGPU graphics cards.

Custom backgrounds and banner messages on session logon screens

You can now customize session logon screens with custom backgrounds and banner messages. For more information, see Custom backgrounds and banner messages on session logon screens.

Automatic DPI scaling

The Linux VDA now supports automatic DPI scaling. When a user opens a virtual desktop or application session, the DPI value in the session automatically changes to match the DPI setting on the client side. For more information, see Automatic DPI scaling.

Faster LDAP queries

In addition to querying each LDAP server in polling mode, the Linux VDA can now query LDAP servers in a multi-domain forest concurrently. To enable the faster LDAP queries, enable Global Catalog on a domain controller and specify the relevant LDAP port number as 3268. For information about how to specify LDAP servers and LDAP ports, see the CTX_XDL_LDAP_LIST variable description in the Linux VDA installation article based on your distribution.

Custom FAS port

Previously, the Linux VDA was hardcoded to communicate with FAS servers over port 80. Starting with this release, you can customize the FAS port on the Linux VDA side through CTX_XDL_FAS_LIST in the ctxsetup.sh. For more information, see the Linux VDA installation article based on your distribution.

Citrix Federated Authentication Service 2206

This release of Federated Authentication Service (FAS) includes the following new features:

Registration for FAS Servers. Updated the Citrix Cloud registration flow for Federated Authentication Service (FAS) servers to provide a consistent user experience, and improve the security posture of FAS servers.The new registration service for FAS removes the need to open a new browser on the server. The registration service provides a consistent on-premises user experience with other Citrix on-premises products, improves the security posture of FAS servers, and reduces the administrator configuration on FAS servers. For more information, see Connect to Citrix Cloud.
Event log improvements. Added new FAS event logs. For details of these event logs, see FAS event logs.

For information about bug fixes, see Fixed issues.

Citrix Provisioning 2206

Support for Windows Server 2022

Citrix Provisioning now supports Windows Server 2022.

Support for GCP

Citrix Provisioning now allows you to move your Citrix Provisioning workloads to the Google Cloud Platform (GCP). You can install Citrix Provisioning in your Google project in the same way as you install it in an on-premises provisioning farm. For more information, see Citrix Provisioning on Google Cloud Platform.

Support for SCVMM 2022

Citrix Provisioning now supports provisioning of VMs on operating systems hosted on SCVMM 2022.

Support for availability zones in Citrix Provisioning on Azure

Citrix Provisioning on Azure now supports creating provisioning targets in specific availability zones. To deploy the target devices, you can either run the Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops Setup Wizard or use the Provisioning API. For more information, see Citrix Provisioning on Microsoft Azure.

Support for Azure server-side encryption with customer-managed key

Citrix Provisioning on Azure now supports customer-managed encryption keys to encrypt all managed disks associated with each target device. With this support, you can manage your organizational and compliance requirements by encrypting managed disks of your machine catalog using your own encryption key. For more information, see Citrix Provisioning on Microsoft Azure.

Citrix Profile Management 2206

Enhancement to profile streaming in concurrent session scenarios

A new policy, Enable profile streaming for pending area, is now available as an enhancement to the profile streaming feature. This enhancement ensures optimal logon experience in concurrent session scenarios. For more information, see Stream user profiles.

Concurrent session support for Outlook search data roaming

A new policy, Enable Concurrent session support for Outlook search data roaming, is now available as an enhancement to the Search index roaming for Outlook policy. With the two policies enabled, Citrix Profile Management can provide a native Outlook search experience in concurrent sessions. For more information, see Enable native Outlook search experience.

Enable asynchronous processing for user Group Policy on logon

Windows provides both synchronous and asynchronous processing modes for user Group Policy. Windows uses a registry value to determine the processing mode for the next user logon. If the registry value doesn’t exist, synchronous mode is applied.

With a new policy, Enable asynchronous processing for user Group Policy on logon, the registry value can now roam with users. As a result, the actual processing mode is applied each time users log on. For more information, see Enable asynchronous processing for user Group Policy on logon.

Support for roaming OneDrive folders (preview)

With a new policy, Enable OneDrive container, OneDrive folders can now roam with users. A user’s OneDrive folders are stored in a VHDX file (called OneDrive container). The VHDX file is attached on user logon and detached on user logoff. For more information, see Enable the OneDrive container.

Starting with this release, the profile container for the entire profile now supports roaming OneDrive folders by default.

Citrix Workspace Environment Management 206

Process hierarchy control

This release introduces the process hierarchy control feature. The feature lets you control whether certain child processes can be started through their parent processes. You create a rule by defining parent processes and then designating an allow list or a block list for their child processes. You then assign the rule on a per user or per user group basis. The following rule types are available:

Path. Applies the rule to an executable according to the executable file path.
Publisher. Applies the rule according to publisher information.
Hash. Applies the rule to identical executables as specified.

For the feature to work, you need to use the AppInfoViewer tool on each agent machine to enable the feature. Every time you use the tool to enable or disable the feature, a machine restart is required. For more information, see Process Hierarchy Control.

Enhancements to memory management

This release includes enhancements to the memory management feature. The feature now provides you with two extra options to perform memory management:

Do Not Optimize When Total Available Memory Exceeds (MB). This option lets you specify a threshold below which WEM optimizes memory usage for idle applications.
Enable Memory Usage Limit for Specific Processes. This option lets you limit the memory usage of processes by setting upper limits for the memory they can consume.

For more information, see Memory Management.

Administration console

The user interface of the administration console has changed:

A new node, Process Hierarchy Control, is now available in Security. The node contains a tab that lets you control whether certain child processes can be started through their parent processes.
An option, Do Not Optimize When Total Available Memory Exceeds, is now available in System Optimization > Memory Management > Memory Management. The option lets you specify a threshold limit below which Workspace Environment Management optimizes memory usage for idle applications.
A new tab, Memory Usage Limit, is now available in System Optimization > Memory Management. The tab lets you configure memory usage limits for specific processes.

Citrix Session Recording 2206

Regular session recording storage reports

You can now schedule reports through Session Recording Server Properties to receive emailed session recording storage reports on a daily or weekly basis. A session recording storage report provides weekly statistics on screen recordings. For more information, see Session recording storage reports.

Support for additional event response actions

In addition to email alerts and dynamic screen recording, you can now specify the following actions in response to logged events in recorded sessions:

Lock session
Log off session
Disconnect session

For more information, see Configure event response policies.

Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service

June 2022

New and enhanced features

Restart schedule support for single-session OS machines. Previously, the restart schedule feature was available only for multi-session OS machines. It’s now also available for single-session OS machines. You can now create restart schedules for delivery groups containing single-session OS machines. For more information, see Create and manage restart schedules for machines in a delivery group.

Option to perform user name pre-checks. An option, Check name, is now available when you enter domain credentials. With the option, you can check whether the user name is valid or unique. The option is useful, for example, when:

The same user name exists in multiple domains. You are prompted to select the desired user.
You can’t remember the domain name. You can enter the user name without specifying the domain name. If the check passes, the domain name populates automatically.

For more information, see Domain credentials.

Ability to change the network setting for an existing provisioning scheme. You can now change the network setting for an existing provisioning scheme so that the new VMs are created on the new subnetwork. Use the parameter -NetworkMapping in the Set-ProvScheme command to change the network setting. Only the newly provisioned VMs from the scheme will have the new subnetwork settings. You must also make sure that the subnetworks are under the same hosting unit. For more information, see Change the network setting for an existing provisioning scheme.

Retrieve region name information for Azure VMs, managed disks, snapshots, Azure VHD, and ARM template. You can now display the region name information for an Azure VM, managed disks, snapshots, Azure VHD, and ARM template. This information is displayed for the resources on the master image when a machine catalog is assigned. For more information, see Retrieve region name information for Azure VMs, managed disks, snapshots, Azure VHD, and ARM template.

Ability to use machine profile property values in Azure environment. While creating an Azure catalog with a machine profile, you can now set the property values from the ARM template spec or VM, whichever is used as a machine profile, if the values are not explicitly defined in the custom properties. The properties affected by this feature are:

Availability zone
Dedicated Host Group Id
Disk Encryption Set Id
OS type
License type
Service Offering
Storage type

Extended support for VDA upgrade. Using the Full Configuration interface, you can now upgrade MCS-provisioned persistent machines. You can upgrade them on a per-catalog or a per-machine basis. For more information, see Upgrade VDAs using the Full Configuration interface.

Citrix Probe Agent in Citrix Cloud Japan and Citrix Cloud Government Control Planes.Citrix Probe Agent now supports sites hosted on Citrix Cloud Japan and Citrix Cloud Government Control Planes. To use the probing agent in these planes, set the registry value in the path, “\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Citrix\ProbeAgent\AGENT\region” to 2 for Japan and 3 for the Government region. Citrix Probe Agent automates the process of checking the health of virtual apps and desktops that are published in a site. For more information, see Application Probing and Desktop Probing.

Customize the port used for communication between VDAs and Cloud Connectors. You can now customize the port that the VDA uses to communicate with Cloud Connectors based on your specific security requirements. This feature is useful if your security team doesn’t allow the default port (port 80) to be open or if the default port is already in use. For more information, see Customize the port for communicating with Cloud Connectors.

Support for organizing machine catalogs using folders. You can now create nested folders to organize machine catalogs for easy access. For more information, see Organize catalogs using folders.

Support for SCVMM 2022. Citrix DaaS now supports Microsoft’s System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) 2022. SCVMM provides a range of services to include maintaining the resources you need to deploy VMs. For more information about the new features supported in SCVMM 2022, see What’s new in System Center Virtual Machine Manager.

Support for configuring maximum concurrent provisioning operations parameter on AWS. Citrix DaaS now supports MaximumConcurrentProvisioningOperations as a configurable custom property for MCS on AWS. MaximumConcurrentProvisioningOperations is the property that determines the number of VMs you can create or delete simultaneously. While MCS supports 100 maximum concurrent provisioning operations by default, you can now enter PowerShell commands to customize this value. You can enter a range from 1-1000. Setting this property to your preferred value allows you to control the number of parallel tasks you can perform when creating or deleting VMs. For details about configuring the maximum concurrent provisioning operations, see Host Connection Default Values.

May 2022

New and enhanced features

Enhanced Session launch diagnostics. Citrix DaaS now supports detailed session launch failure diagnostics. You can now view the components involved in the session launch sequence. The components which failed with last generated error codes are highlighted. This helps identify the exact reason for a session launch failure and take the recommended action.

The Transaction page is extended with the Transaction Details panel that contains a list of components indicating the error occurrence. Clicking on the component name displays the Component Details and the Last Known Failure Details. The Failure Reason and Error Code are displayed. Clicking the Learn more link leads to the specific code on Error codescontaining a detailed description and recommended action. For more information, see Session Diagnostics.

Support for using Set-ProvServiceConfigurationData in Remote PowerShell SDK. You can now run Set-ProvServiceConfigurationData using Remote PowerShell SDK to do the settings on all applicable parameters. You can also skip enabling DHCP during image preparation using this command. Following is the list of settings that is supported with Set-ProvServiceConfigurationData:

Change Image Preparation Timeout: Set-ProvServiceConfigurationData -Name "ImageManagementPrep_PreparationTimeout" -value 60
Skip Enable DHCP: Set-ProvServiceConfigurationData -Name ImageManagementPrep_Excluded_Steps -Value EnableDHCP
Skip Microsoft Windows KMS Rearm: Set-ProvServiceConfigurationData -Name ImageManagementPrep_Excluded_Steps -Value OsRearm
Skip Microsoft Office KMS Rearm: Set-ProvServiceConfigurationData -Name ImageManagementPrep_Excluded_Steps -Value OfficeRearm
Disable preparation VM auto shutdown: Set-ProvServiceConfigurationData –Name ImageManagementPrep_NoAutoShutdown –Value true
Disable domain injection: Set-ProvServiceConfigurationData –Name DisableDomainInjection –Value true

Ability to set the Linux license type when creating Linux machine catalogs using PowerShell commands. Using PowerShell commands, you can set the Linux license type when creating Linux machine catalogs. You have two choices for bring-your-own Linux licenses: RHEL_BYOS and SLES_BYOS. The setting defaults to Azure Linux licensing. For more information, see Create a machine catalog using an Azure Resource Manager image.

Support for identifying all Azure resources created by MCS. You can now identify all Azure resources created by MCS such as Image, ID disk, OS disk, NIC, VM, and so on that are associated with a ProvScheme using a tag called provschemeID. For more information on the tags that MCS adds to the resources, see Identify resources created by MCS.

Support for Azure Stack HCI provisioning through SCVMM. MCS now supports Azure Stack HCI provisioning through Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM). You can manage the Azure stack HCI cluster with your existing tools including SCVMM. For more information, see Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager virtualization environments.

Support for adding non-Active Directory users manually. Using the Full Configuration management interface, you can now enter a semicolon-separated list of user names when adding non-Active Directory users for a catalog. Consider the format when adding users that reside in different directories. For example, if the users are in Active Directory, enter the names directly. If not, enter the names in this format: <identity provider>:<user name>. Example: AzureAD:username. For more information, see Create machine catalog.

April 2022

New and enhanced features

Home page for the Full Configuration interface. Full Configuration now has a home page, which provides an overview of your Citrix DaaS deployment and workloads along with information that helps you get the most from your subscription. The page comprises the following parts:

Service overview. Provides an overview of your Citrix DaaS deployment and workloads.
Recommendations. Recommends features that are available with your subscription and collects your feedback.
What’s new. Shows the latest features.
Preview features. Shows features that are currently in preview.
Get started. Shows steps to guide you through the initial setup.

For more information, see Home page.

Show the progress of catalog creation and updates. Full Configuration now lets you stay up to date on catalog creation and updates. You can gain an overview of the creation and update process, view the history of steps performed, and monitor the progress and running time of the current step. For more information, see Start creating the catalog.

Display available hypervisors and cloud services based on the selected zone. In Full Configuration, when creating hosting connections, you’re required to select a zone before selecting a connection type. The Connection type drop-down list displays hypervisors and cloud services available with the zone. Previously, to ensure the Connection type list shows a required hypervisor or cloud service, you had to install its plug-in in every zone. With this new configuration sequence, you can now install the plug-in only in the required zone.

You can also use PowerShell command to get the list of hypervisor plug-in available with the selected zone. For more information, see Create a connection and resources.

Support for non-on-premises-AD-joined users in Full Configuration. A new field, Select identity type, is available in the interfaces where you assign users to provisioned desktops or apps, delivery groups, or application groups. With the field, you can now select user accounts from any of the following identity providers to which your Citrix Cloud is connected:

Active Directory
Azure Active Directory
Okta

Ability to reject invalid custom properties in Google Cloud Platform (GCP) and Azure environments. You can now avoid potential confusion if custom properties set at New-ProvScheme and Set-ProvScheme do not take effect. If you specify non-existing custom property or properties, you get an error message. For more information, see Important consideration about setting custom properties.

Support for creating Azure Active Directory joined machines. In Full Configuration, when you create a catalog, an Azure Active Directory joined identity type, is now available in Machine Identities. With that identity type, you can use MCS to create machines that are joined to Azure Active Directory. You also have an extra option, Enroll the machines in Microsoft Intune, to enroll the machines in Microsoft Intune for management.

For information about creating Azure Active Directory joined catalogs, see Create machine catalogs. For information about requirements and considerations related to Azure Active Directory join, see Azure Active Directory joined.

Support for creating hybrid Azure Active Directory joined machines. In Full Configuration, when you create a catalog, a Hybrid Azure Active Directory joinedidentity type, is now available in Machine Identities. With that identity type, you can use MCS to create hybrid Azure Active Directory joined machines. Those machines are owned by an organization and signed into with an Active Directory Domain Services account that belongs to that organization.

For information about creating hybrid Azure Active Directory joined catalogs, see Create machine catalogs. For information about requirements and considerations related to hybrid Azure Active Directory join, see Hybrid Azure Active Directory joined.

Azure trusted launch support for snapshots. In addition to images, Azure trusted launch is now available for snapshots as well. If you select a snapshot with trusted launch enabled, using a machine profile is mandatory. Also, you must select a machine profile with trusted launch enabled. For more information, see Microsoft Azure Resource Manager cloud environments.

Export machines. You can now export machines listed on the Machines page of the Machine Catalog Setup wizard to a CSV file, to be used as a template when adding machines to a catalog in bulk. For more information, see Export machines from a catalog.

Option to access Workspace Environment Management web console. An option, Environment Management (Web), is now available in the menu of the Manage tab. The option takes you to the new, web-based Workspace Environment Management console. To access the legacy console, use Environment Management. We are in the process of migrating the full set of functionalities from the legacy console to the web console. The web console generally responds faster than the legacy console. For more information, see Workspace Environment Management service.

Ability to manage ProvScheme parameters. When you use MCS to create a catalog, you will now get an error if you set the New-ProvScheme parameters in unsupported hypervisors during machine catalog creation or update Set-ProvScheme parameters after machine catalog is created. For more information, see Create machine catalogs.

Increased resource location limits. Resource location limits for single-session VDAs and multi-session VDAs are now increased to 10000 and 1000 respectively. For more information, see Limits.

Support for restarting non-power managed machines after draining all sessions. Citrix DaaS now allows you to create restart schedules for machines that are not power managed after all sessions are drained from the machines. In the Full Configuration interface, select Restart all machines after draining all sessions as the Restart duration. For more information, see Create a restart schedule.

Support for upgrading VDA machines (preview). Using the Full Configuration interface, you can now upgrade VDA machines for your Citrix DaaS deployment. You can upgrade them on a per-catalog or a per-machine basis. The feature applies to machines that are not created using MCS (for example, physical machines). For more information, see Upgrade VDAs using the Full Configuration interface.

Machines are not shut down during outages. Citrix DaaS now prevent virtual machines from being shut down by the broker when the zone that the machines are in experiences an outage. The machines automatically become available for connections when the outage ends. You don’t have to take any action to make the machines available after the outage.

Session launch diagnostics. Citrix DaaS now supports enhanced session launch failure diagnostics. Use the Citrix Workspace app-generated 32-digit (8-4-4-4-12) Transaction ID from inside Citrix Monitor (that is, Citrix Director service) to narrow down to the exact component and stage where the problem occurred and apply the recommended actions to resolve the issue. For more information, see Session launch diagnostics.

Option to access the Session Recording service. An option, Session Recording, is now available in the menu of the Manage tab. The introduction of the Session Recording service provides centralized management of policies, playback, and server configurations. It eases the burden on IT administrators by providing a unified entry point to manage and observe the distributed objects across your organization. For more information, see Session Recording service (preview).

Rebranded Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service. Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service has been renamed to Citrix DaaS. Learn more about the name change at our announcement on our blog.

The following offerings of Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service have been renamed.

Citrix Virtual Apps service Advanced renamed to Citrix DaaS Advanced.
Citrix Virtual Apps service Premium renamed to Citrix DaaS Premium.
Citrix Virtual Desktops service renamed to Citrix DaaS Advanced Plus.
Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service Advanced renamed to Citrix DaaS Advanced Plus.
Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service Premium now available as Citrix DaaS Premium and Citrix DaaS Premium Plus.
Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops Standard for Azure renamed to Citrix DaaS Standard for Azure.
Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops Standard for Google Cloud renamed to Citrix DaaS Standard for Google Cloud.
Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops Premium for Google Cloud renamed to Citrix DaaS Premium for Google Cloud.

Implementing this transition in our products and their documentation is an ongoing process. Your patience during this transition is appreciated.

The product UI, in-product content, and the images and instructions in product documentation will be updated in the coming weeks.
It is possible that some items (such as commands and MSIs) might continue to retain their former names to prevent breaking existing customer scripts.
Related product documentation and other resources (such as videos and blog posts) that are linked from this product documentation might still contain former names.

NOTE:

The on-premises Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops product name remains the same.

Tenant support in Full Configuration. You can now create configuration partitions within a single Citrix DaaS instance. You achieve that by creating tenant scopes in Administrators > Scopes and associating related configuration objects, such as machine catalogs and delivery groups, with those tenants. As a result, administrators with access to a tenant can manage only objects that are associated with the tenant. This feature is useful, for example, if your organization:

Has different business silos (independent divisions or separate IT management teams) or
Has multiple on-premises sites and wants to maintain the same setup in a single Citrix DaaS instance.

Also, the Full Configuration interface lets you filter tenant customers by name. By default, the interface displays information about all tenants.

The feature is available for both Citrix Service Providers (CSPs) and non-CSPs. The interface in a CSP environment is essentially the same as that in a non-CSP environment except for the method used to create tenants.

CSPs onboard tenant customers to Citrix DaaS and then configure administrator access to Citrix DaaS. For more information, see Citrix DaaS for Citrix Service Providers.
Non-CSPs create tenant customers by first creating scopes and then configuring custom access for respective administrators. For more information, see Create and manage scopes.

Updates for Autoscale. We have updated Autoscale with a blade style to bring you a better user experience. The workflows for configuring your settings remain the same. Other updates to Autoscale include:

Renamed Restrict Autoscale to Autoscaling Tagged Machines to make it easy to understand.
Added a new option, Control when Autoscale starts powering on tagged machines. The option lets you control when Autoscale starts powering on tagged machines based on the usage of untagged machines.

For more information on autoscaling tagged machines, see Autoscale tagged machines.

License validity checks. The Full Configuration interface now automatically checks the validity of licenses in use by host connections. A host connection is placed into maintenance mode if its license is invalid. As a result, you cannot perform certain operations, such as editing the connection and turning off maintenance mode. A license becomes invalid, for example, when:

The license has expired. In this case, contact your Citrix sales representative to renew it or to purchase new licenses.
The license has been deleted from the License Server.

Blade style applied to the Machine Catalogs and Policies nodes. Blade styles are now applied to all nodes of Full Configuration.

Support for updating MCS provisioned machines in Azure environments. Set-ProvScheme changes the template (provisioning scheme) and does not affect existing machines. Using Request-ProvVMUpdate command, you can now apply the current provisioning scheme to an existing machine (or set of machines). Currently, the property update supported by this feature is ServiceOffering. For more information, see Update provisioned machines to current provisioning scheme state.

Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops Standard for Azure

May 2022

You can now create catalogs of machines joined to your Azure Active Directory. This feature is in preview. See Create catalogs.
Citrix Service Providers can now remove the Citrix DaaS for Azure service from customers. See Remove a Service.

April 2022

Host connection creation for Citrix Hypervisor, Microsoft SCVMM, VMware vSphere, Prism Central, and Nutanix AHV is now available. As such, you can now use on-premises hypervisors in addition to Azure.
Product name change from Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops Standard for Azure to Citrix DaaS Standard for Azure. For more information about the rebranding of all Citrix DaaS (formerly Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service) offerings, see What’s New in Citrix DaaS. Learn more about the name changes at our announcement on our blog.

Citrix Cloud Healthcheck

Cloud Health Check allows you to run checks that gauge the health and availability of the site and its components. You can run health checks for Virtual Delivery Agents (VDAs), StoreFront servers, and Profile Management. VDA health checks identify possible causes for common VDA registration, session launch, and time zone redirection issues.

If issues are present during the checks, Cloud Health Check provides a detailed report and the actions to fix the issues. Each time Cloud Health Check starts, it checks for the latest version of scripts on the Content Delivery Network (CDN) and automatically downloads the scripts if they do not exist on the local machine. Cloud Health Check always chooses the latest local version of scripts to run health checks.

Citrix Workspace App 2206 for Windows

Background blurring or effects for Microsoft Teams optimization with HDX [Technical Preview]

In Citrix Workspace app 2206 for Windows, Citrix is introducing a technical preview for background blurring and effects in Microsoft Teams optimization with HDX.

Now, you can either blur or replace the background with a custom image and avoid unexpected distractions by helping the conversation stay focused on the silhouette (body and face). The feature can be used with either P2P or conference calls.

NOTE:

In this technical preview, the feature can only be controlled via the registry keys and it isn’t integrated with the Microsoft Teams UI/buttons.

The new background persists in all Microsoft Teams meetings and calls until you change it again via a registry key. For the change to take effect, you only must restart Microsoft Teams. This limitation is removed once the feature is GA, and for that it requires Multi-window support (VDA 2112 or higher). To activate or deactivate background blurring and effects, administrators or users must configure the following registry key on the client/endpoint:

Location: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Citrix\HDXMediaStream

Name: VideoBackgroundEffect
Type: DWORD
Value: 0 (disabled), 1 (enabled), 2 (background image replacement, which requires the VideoBackgroundImage key to be present as well)

The following key is required only if you want to replace the background image and not for blurring:

Name: VideoBackgroundImage
Type: REG_SZ
Value: my_image_name.jpeg

NOTE:

The file name, for example, my_image_name.jpg (or name you provide for the file) must be placed in the user’s device, Citrix Workspace app install directory, C:\Program Files (x86)\Citrix\ICA Client.

Improved graphics performance

Citrix Workspace app 2206 introduces significant performance improvements for Intel integrated GPUs:

Graphics GPU consumption has been reduced, improving overall performance.

The following issues are fixed:

Low frames per second after playing a video on the Intel 10th Generation GPU or higher.
Brightness difference in Build-To-Lossless or for Actively Changing Regions on Intel and AMD GPUs.

Enhancement to App Protection: Anti-code Injection [Technical Preview]

Citrix Workspace app now ensures that no unauthorized dynamic-link libraries (DLL) or untrusted modules get access to the session.

If any untrusted module gets injected during a session, the Citrix Workspace app detects such intervention and stops the module from loading.

Also, if any untrusted or malicious DLL is detected before the session launch, App Protection blocks the session launch and displays an error message. Closing the error message exits the virtual app and desktop session.

You can register for this technical preview by using this Podio form.

NOTE:

Technical previews are available for customers to test in their non-production or limited production environments, and to give customers an opportunity to share feedback. Citrix does not accept support cases for feature previews but welcomes feedback for improving them. Citrix might or might not act on feedback based on its severity, criticality, and importance. It is advised that Beta builds aren’t deployed in production environments.

App Protection enhancements for web and SaaS apps on Windows 11 [Technical Preview]

This App Protection enhancement optimizes the experience and security capabilities for web and SaaS app users on Windows 11. This enhancement is available via the Citrix Enterprise Browser for Secure Private Access customers. You can register for the Technical Preview via the Podio form. For more information, see App Protection.

NOTE:

Technical previews are available for customers to test in their non-production or limited production environments, and to give customers an opportunity to share feedback. Citrix does not accept support cases for feature previews but welcomes feedback for improving them. Citrix might or might not act on feedback based on its severity, criticality, and importance. It is advised that Beta builds aren’t deployed in production environments.

Improved auto-update experience [Technical Preview]

The auto-update feature automatically updates the Citrix Workspace app to the latest version without the need for any user intervention.

Citrix Workspace app periodically checks and downloads the latest available version of the app. Citrix Workspace app determines the best time to install based on user activity to not cause any disruptions.

When the installation is complete, the following notification appears:

If the Citrix Workspace app can’t find the right time to install the updates in the background, a notification prompt appears.

You can register for the Technical Preview via the Podio form.

NOTE:

Technical previews are available for customers to test in their non-production or limited production environments, and to give customers an opportunity to share feedback. Citrix does not accept support cases for feature previews but welcomes feedback for improving them. Citrix might or might not act on feedback based on its severity, criticality, and importance. It is advised that Beta builds aren’t deployed in production environments.

Enabling DPI matching

Starting with Citrix Workspace app 2206 for Windows, DPI matching is enabled by default. This means Citrix Workspace app attempts to match display resolution and DPI scale settings of the local Windows client to the Citrix session automatically. As part of this change, the High DPI option available under Advance Preferences in Citrix Workspace app is no longer available. For more information, see Citrix Knowledge Center article CTX460068.

Citrix Enterprise Browser

This release includes Citrix Enterprise Browser version 101.1.1.12, based on Chromium version 101. For features or bugs fixes in the Citrix Enterprise Browser, see What’s new in the Citrix Enterprise Browser documentation.

Citrix Workspace App 2206 for iOS

This release addresses a few issues that help to improve overall performance and stability.

Fixed issues

When you create an account using the manual setup process, selecting an edition is difficult under the Citrix Gateway option. The issue is that the options change in the sequence arbitrarily. [CVADHELP-20188]

Citrix Workspace App 2205 for Linux

Authentication enhancement for Storebrowse

NOTE:

This feature is generally available for Citrix Workspace app.

Starting with this release, the authentication dialog is present inside Citrix Workspace app and the store details are displayed on the logon screen. This feature provides a better user experience. The authentication tokens are encrypted and stored so that you don’t need to reenter credentials when your system or session restarts.

You can also toggle the authentication enhancement for Storebrowse feature off or on using the StorebrowseIPC key in the AuthmanConfig.xml file. By default, the toggle functionality is disabled.

The authentication enhancement supports storebrowse for the following operations:

Storebrowse -E: Lists the available resources.
Storebrowse -L: Launches a connection to a published resource.
Storebrowse -S: Lists the subscribed resources.
Storebrowse -T: Terminates all sessions of the specified store.
Storebrowse -Wr: Reconnects the disconnected yet active sessions of the specified store. The [r] option reconnects all the disconnected sessions.
storebrowse -WR: Reconnects the disconnected yet active sessions of the specified store. The [R] option reconnects all the active and disconnected sessions.
Storebrowse -s: Subscribes the specified resource from a given store.
Storebrowse -u: Unsubscribes the specified resource from a given store.
Storebrowse -q: Launches an application using the direct URL. This command works only for StoreFront stores.

NOTE:

You can continue to use the remaining storebrowse commands as used earlier (using AuthMangerDaemon).

The authentication enhancement is applicable for cloud deployments only.

With this enhancement, the persistent login feature is supported.

For more information, see the Authentication enhancement.

The Persistent login feature enables you to stay logged in for up to the duration (2–365 days) configured by your admin. When this feature is enabled, you need not provide login credentials for the Citrix Workspace App during the configured period.

With this functionality, the SSO to Citrix DaaS sessions is extended up to a period of 365 days. This extension is based on the lifetime of Long-Lived Tokens. Your credentials are cached by default for 4 days or Lifetime whichever is lower. And, then extended when you become active within these 4 days by connecting to the Citrix Workspace App.

NOTE:

Technical previews are available for customers to test in their non-production or limited production environments, and to give customers an opportunity to share feedback. Citrix does not accept support cases for feature previews but welcomes feedback for improving them. Citrix might or might not act on feedback based on its severity, criticality, and importance. It is advised that Beta builds aren’t deployed in production environments.

For more information, see Persistent login.

Email-based auto-discovery of store

NOTE:

This feature is generally available for Citrix Workspace app.

You can now provide your email address in Citrix Workspace app to automatically discover the store associated with the email address. If there are multiple stores associated with a domain, by default the first store returned by the Global App Configuration Service is added as the store of choice. Users can always switch to another store if necessary.

For more information, see the Email-based auto-discovery of store section at Adding store URL to Citrix Workspace app documentation.

Provision to disable LaunchDarkly service

Starting with this release, you can disable LaunchDarkly service on Citrix Workspace app.

For more information, see Feature flag management documentation.

Citrix Workspace App 2206 for Android

Authentication using certificates

End users can now handle certificate-based authentication where the certificates are saved onto the device Keystore. While signing in, Citrix Workspace app detects the list of certificates on your device, and you can choose a certificate for authentication.

IMPORTANT:

After you choose the certificate, the selection persists for the next Citrix Workspace app launch. To choose another certificate, you can either reset or reinstall Citrix Workspace app.

NOTE:

This feature supports on-premises deployments.

App switch Technical Preview

This feature enables the end user to switch between multiple published apps that are in the same session. When you tap the Switch icon, you can scroll to select an app and the app that is in focus is highlighted. You can view the app title, preview image, and window title.

When you open or close an app, the app count updates accordingly. If some apps are opened in another session, the app count includes all the opened ones.

Citrix Workspace App 2206.1 for Apple OSX

Uninstall app by dragging the Citrix Workspace app icon to the bin

You can now simply drag or move the Citrix Workspace app icon into the bin to completely uninstall the app.

Previously, dragging the Workspace app icon into the bin would remove the app but leave behind certain system files on your Mac. With this release, the Citrix Workspace app and all its associated files are removed from your device when you drag the icon to the bin.

To uninstall the Citrix Workspace app by dragging it to the bin, do the following:

Close the Citrix Workspace app, if it’s running.
Drag the Citrix Workspace app to the bin. Alternatively, you can right click on the Citrix Workspace app and select Options > Move to Bin.
Provide your system credentials when prompted.
Close all running apps (Citrix Workspace) and click Continue to confirm. The Citrix Workspace app and all its system files are deleted from your device.

Support for service continuity in the Safari browser

The Citrix Workspace service continuity feature is now supported for the Safari browser. Users must install Citrix Workspace app for Mac and the Citrix Workspace web extension. Service continuity removes (or minimizes) the dependency on the availability of the components involved in the connection process. It allows you to connect to your virtual apps and desktops regardless of the cloud services’ health status. For more information, about the service continuity feature, see the section Service continuity.

Improved audio echo cancellation support [Technical Preview]

Citrix Workspace app now supports echo cancellation in adaptive audio and legacy audio codecs. This feature is designed for real time audio use cases, and it improves the user experience. Citrix recommends using adaptive audio.

Citrix Workspace App 2206 for HTML5

Microsoft Teams optimization

Microsoft Teams optimization supports audio call, video call, and screen sharing functionalities on the Google Chrome browser only. The minimum Google Chrome version required is m97 and later.

For more information see, Microsoft Teams optimization in the configure section.

Logging enhancements

Previously, the client logs and console logs had to be collected separately. Starting with this release, the console logs are a part of the client logs.

Clipboard supports HTML format

Starting with this release, you can use HTML format for clipboard operations between the virtual desktop and the endpoint device. When you copy the HTML data, the source content format is copied, and when you paste the data, the destination content carries the formatting. In addition, HTML format provides a better look and feel.

For more information on how to set the policies, see Client clipboard write allowed formats in the Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops documentation.

Virtual Channel SDK support

With this release, the Citrix VC SDK supports writing server-side applications and client-side drivers using the ICA protocol. The server-side virtual channel applications are on the Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops server.

VC SDK supports writing new virtual channels and Citrix Workspace app for HTML5 can support up to 20 custom-virtual channels.

For more information see, Virtual Channel SDK support in the configure section.

Multi-monitor support [Technical Preview]

Previously, the multi-monitor display feature allowed you to create an extra browser tab of the desktop or app session that you were connected to. You could then drag the additional browser tab to the external monitor.

With this release, Citrix Workspace app supports multiple monitors with one click without manual intervention. If there are no external monitors attached to the device, the multi-monitor icon on the in-session toolbar isn’t visible. When you connect an external monitor with the required permissions, the multi-monitor icon is visible. After you click the icon, you can see the window span on all the connected monitors.

Citrix Workspace App 2206.5.2 for Chrome OS

For Microsoft Teams optimization, administrators can limit screen sharing of apps and desktops that are opened only through Citrix Workspace app on managed Chrome devices.

When administrators turn this feature on, the end users can’t share resources that aren’t opened from Citrix Workspace app.

Source

Citrix Virtual Apps & Desktop 7 2212