Its almost end of the year and time for Christmas. What a year its been but hopefully you all been busy 😉 Citrix have released a new version of Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktop 7 2012. So its time to upgrade your environment before X-mas or between X-mas and New Year 😉 and have a fresh start for 2021.

Release is now available for download, December, 2020.

Citrix Virtual Apps & Desktop 7 2012 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 2012
• Virtual Delivery Agents 2012 for ServerOS and ClientOS
• Virtual Delivery Agent 2012 for Linux
• Citrix Federated Authentication Service 2012
• Provisioning 2012
• Profile Management 2012
• Workspace Environment Management 2012
• Session Recording 2012
• Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktop Service
• Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktop Standard for Azure
• Citrix Cloud Health Check
• Workspace App 2012 for Windows
• Workspace App 2012 for Windows (Store)
• Workspace App 2012 for Linux
• Workspace App 2012 for Chrome
• Workspace App 2012 for Android
• Workspace App 2012 for MacOS
• Workspace App 2012 for HTML5
• Workspace App 2012 for ChromeOS

What’s new in Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktop 7 2012

Install and upgrade VDAs: Include a Workspace Environment Management agent

When installing a VDA, you can now include a Workspace Environment Management agent. For details, see Install VDAs and Install using the command line.

Upgrade: Removing unsupported items

If your current deployment uses PvDs or AppDisks, or has connections to host types that are no longer supported, you can upgrade to this version only after removing items that use those technologies.

For VDAs, the installation or earlier upgrades might have included PvD and AppDisks components, even if you never used it.

For details, see Remove PvD, AppDisks, and unsupported hosts.

Citrix Director 7 2012

Operating system name changes

Operating system names on the Director pages have changed:

• Multi-session OS (formerly Server OS)
• Single session OS (formerly Desktop OS)

Virtual Delivery Agents (VDAs) 7 2012 for Windows Desktop/Server OS.

Version 2012 of the Windows single-session OS and multi-session OS VDAs includes the following enhancements. These items are in addition to the VDA installation and upgrade items listed earlier in this article.

Rendezvous proxy support

The VDA now supports the use of transparent and non-transparent proxies with Rendezvous. For more information, see Rendezvous proxy configuration.

Enhancements to webcam redirection on Microsoft Surface Pro 4

This release addresses webcam redirection issues on Microsoft Surface Pro 4 devices. When you start a remote session and choose a webcam from a supported video conferencing application, the server now selects the format type for high-definition rendering.

Drag and then drop files between a Citrix session and a local endpoint

Dragging and then dropping files between a Citrix session and a local endpoint is available. You can drag and then drop files, groups of files, directories, groups of directories, or a combination of files and directories to and from the same client on the session. This ability applies to a desktop session or a seamless app. This includes the desktop, Explorer window, and some applications. This feature does not support all apps. For example, you can drag a file out of a compressed (zipped) folder, but not into one.

IMPORTANT:

The feature requires a minimum of Citrix Workspace app 2002 for Windows.

This feature is enabled by default.

Some known limitations:

• You cannot drag a file from a client desktop into a Firefox or Internet Explorer browser window inside a desktop session.
• You cannot drag and then drop into a zipped folder, into an application shortcut, a message from a seamless application to a client desktop, or into a seamless Outlook message if dragged quickly from a client.

Windows Image Acquisition scanner redirection

This Citrix solution allows support for the Windows Image Acquisition (WIA) framework for image acquisition devices that utilize it. WIA exposes a framework that enables scanning/imaging applications access to a variety of features from the scanning device itself. The WIA API gives access to various functionality of image acquisition devices, such as enumeration of all available devices, connections to multiple devices, querying various properties of devices, acquiring device data, and providing notifications of device events using event handlers.

Virtual Delivery Agents (VDAs) 7 2012 for Linux

Version 2012 of the Linux VDA includes the following new features and enhancements:

Enlightened Data Transport (EDT) MTU discovery

EDT automatically determines the Maximum Transmission Unit (MTU) when establishing a session. Doing so prevents EDT packet fragmentation that might result in performance degradation or failure to establish a session. For more information, see EDT MTU discovery.

Support for LDAP channel binding

Previously, the Linux VDA was not able to register with a Delivery Controller when channel binding is enabled in Active Directory. This release of the Linux VDA supports channel binding to increase the security of communications with the Active Directory domain controllers. Make sure to create a Python3 virtual environment before enabling channel binding on the Linux VDA. For more information, see Create a Python3 virtual environment and Configure LDAPS.

XDPing integrated with the Linux VDA

The Linux XDPing tool is a command-line based application that automates the process of checking for common configuration issues with a Linux VDA environment. Previously, you had to download XDPing from the CTX202015 page and install the tool separately from the Linux VDA. Starting with this release, XDPing is integrated with the Linux VDA and can be installed automatically when you install the Linux VDA. For more information, see XDPing.

Support for RHEL 7.9, RHEL 8.3

We have added RHEL 7.9 and RHEL 8.3 as supported distributions. For more information, see System requirements and Install Linux Virtual Delivery Agent for RHEL/CentOS.

Support for Ubuntu 20.04

Previously available as an experimental feature, Ubuntu 20.04 is fully supported in this release. For more information, see System requirements and Install Linux Virtual Delivery Agent for Ubuntu.

Support for the Rendezvous protocol

The Linux VDA now supports the Rendezvous protocol. In environments that use the Citrix Gateway service, the Rendezvous protocol allows HDX sessions to bypass the Citrix Cloud Connector and connect directly and securely to the Citrix Gateway service. For more information, see Rendezvous protocol.

Support for Machine Creation Services (MCS) on Google Cloud Platform (GCP)

You can now use MCS to create Linux VMs on GCP. For more information, see Use MCS to create Linux VMs on GCP.

Wake on LAN available for Linux machines

The integrated Wake on LAN functionality is now available for Linux machines. For more information, see Remote PC Access.

Citrix Federated Authentication Service 7 2012

There are no new features in Federated Authentication Service 2012. For information about bug fixes, see Fixed issues.

Citrix Provisioning 7 2012

This release of Citrix Provisioning includes numerous fixes and no new features.

See issues that we’ve identified.

Citrix Profile Management 7 2012

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

Citrix Workspace Environment Management 7 2012

Workspace Environment Management 2012 includes the following new features. For information about bug fixes, see Fixed issues.

WEM agent integration with the Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops product software

The WEM agent is integrated with the Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops product software, letting you include the WEM agent when installing a Virtual Delivery Agent (VDA). This integration is reflected in the Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops 2012 product software and later. For more information, see Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops 7 2012.

If you enable the Citrix Workspace Environment Management check box on the Additional Components page, the WEM Agent page appears. That page is titled Citrix Cloud Connectors used by WEM Agent. Enter a comma-separated list of Cloud Connector FQDNs or IP addresses. Then click Add. The WEM agent on the VDA communicates with those Cloud Connectors.

Optimized WEM agent startup

Previously, the WEM agent startup workflow had the following issues:

• The agent did not refresh the Citrix Cloud Connector settings after startup. As a result, the Cloud Connector settings deployed to the agent through group policies did not work as expected.
• In a non-persistent environment, when the agent cache file resided in the base image, the agent could experience cache synchronization issues. As a result, WEM settings might not be applied properly.

Starting with this release, the agent refreshes Cloud Connector settings after startup, just like it refreshes other settings. To ensure that the agent cache is up to date, the agent automatically recreates the cache in non-persistent environments. For more information, see Agent startup behaviors.

For information about how to make the WEM agent work optimally, see Prerequisites and recommendations.

New agent cache utility options

This release adds the following agent cache utility options:

• -RefreshSettings or -S: Refreshes agent host settings.
• -Reinitialize or -I: Reinitializes the agent cache when used together with the -RefreshCache option.

For more information, see Agent cache utility options.

Citrix optimizer

Citrix optimizer now provides you with an additional option that enables WEM to automatically select templates for your OSs:

• Automatically Select Templates to Use. If you are unsure which template to use, use this option to let WEM select the best match for each OS. You can also apply this option to custom templates with different name formats by using the Enable Automatic Selection of Templates Starting with Prefixes option.

For more information, see Citrix optimizer.

Support for the Windows 10 2004 template

WEM adds support for the Windows 10 2004 template introduced in Citrix optimizer. You can now use WEM to perform template-based system optimizations for Windows 10 2004 machines. For information about using Citrix optimizer, see Citrix optimizer.

Support for editing Group Policy settings

Previously, you could change only the name and description for a GPO after importing your GPO settings. You can now edit registry operations associated with a GPO. You can also add new registry operations to a GPO if needed. Currently, WEM supports adding and editing only Group Policy settings that are associated with the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE and the HKEY_CURRENT_USER registry hives.

When editing Group Policy settings, you have the following actions: Set value, Delete value, Create key, Delete key, and Delete all values. For more information, see Edit Group Policy settings.

Multiple selection support for action groups

Previously, when adding actions to an action group, you moved each action present in the Available pane to the Configured pane one by one. You can now move multiple actions in a single step. For more information about action groups, see Action Groups.

WEM agent (advanced notice)

Microsoft Sync Framework 2.1 will reach End of Life on January 12, 2021. WEM will retire the associated legacy agent cache sync service and switch to using the latest agent cache sync service to keep the agent cache in sync with the infrastructure services. The latest agent cache sync service relies on Dotmim.Sync, an open-source sync framework. How does this change impact you?

• If you use Workspace Environment Management 1912 or later, this change does not require action on your part.
• If you use Workspace Environment Management 1909 or earlier, upgrade to Workspace Environment Management 1912 or later.

This change is scheduled to be rolled out in March 2021.

Citrix Session Recording 7 2012

This release includes the following new features and enhancements:

Support for deploying the Database on Azure SQL database services

You can now deploy the Session Recording Database on Azure SQL Managed Instance and SQL Server on Azure Virtual Machines (VMs). On Azure SQL Managed Instance, you can deploy the Session Recording Database only by using the SessionRecordingAdministrationx64.msi package. On SQL Server on Azure VMs, you can deploy the Session Recording Database both by using the msi package and the Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops installer. For more information, see Install, upgrade, and uninstall.

Support for blocking sensitive information

To protect sensitive information, you can skip certain periods when recording the screen. Sensitive information in the skipped periods is blocked during session playback. To use this feature, customize event logging through the Session Recording Event API (IUserApi COM interface). For more information, see Sensitive information blocking.

Support for logging of clipboard activities

Session Recording can log copy operations of text, images, and files. For more information, see Event logging policies and Log events.

Enhanced email alert policies

Previously, email alerts were sent only when a session start is detected. This release enhances the feature to trigger email alerts when specified events that are logged according to the active event logging policy are detected. The system-defined email alert policy is Do not alert. You can create your own custom email alert policies. For more information, see Email alert policies.

Original Administrator Logging webpage no longer accessible from the Microsoft Windows Start menu

The original Administrator Logging webpage, http(s)://servername/SessionRecordingLoggingWebApplication/, is no longer accessible from the Microsoft Windows Start menu. When you start the Administrator Logging program from the Start menu on the Session Recording Server, you are now redirected to the Administrator Logging webpage integrated with the web player. You can also access the Administrator Logging webpage through http(s)://servername/WebPlayer/#/logging/config and http(s)://servername/WebPlayer/#/logging/record on other machines. The servername parameter is the name of the machine hosting your Session Recording Server.

Citrix Workspace app version check can be skipped

A check on the Citrix Workspace app version is conducted before the Session Recording Player plays back a recording file. If the Player does not support the version of the Citrix Workspace app that has the file recorded, an error is returned. Previously, you must edit the SsRecPlayer.exe.config file to eliminate the error. Starting with this release, an option is now provided for you to skip the Citrix Workspace app version check and eliminate the error.

Support for dropping H.264 packages to reduce recording file sizes

Session Recording can drop H.264 packages while recording sessions that have videos running and thus reduce the recording file sizes. To use this functionality, set HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Citrix\SmartAuditor\Agent\DropH264Enabled to 1 on the Session Recording Agent and set the value of Use video codec for compression to For actively changing regions. For more information, see Why Session Recording scales well.

App monitoring enhancement

When you add a process to the App monitoring list, apps driven by the added process and its child processes are monitored. Starting with this release, child processes of a parent process that starts before Session Recording runs can also be captured. For more information, see Application starts and ends.

Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service

What is new (October update)

New and enhanced features

Dismiss multiple hypervisor alerts. Citrix Monitor now supports automatic dismissal of hypervisor alerts older than a day. For more information, see Hypervisor Alerts Monitoring.

Remove external IP address. An external IP address on a temporary virtual machine that is used to prepare a provisioned image in the Google Cloud Platform (GCP) is no longer required. This external IP address enables the temporary virtual machine to access the Google public API to complete the provisioning process. This feature is being rolled out in phases. It might not yet be activated for your account.

To prepare now: You can prepare in advance for this change by enabling Private Google Access to permit the VM to access the Google public API directly from the subnet. For more information, see Enable Google Private access.

New model addresses how machine identities are managed. Machine identities used in machine catalogs have been managed and maintained using Active Directory. All machines created by MCS will now be joining Active Directory. The new Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service model addresses how machine identities are managed. This model allows the creation of machine catalogs using workgroup, or, non-domain joined machines.

TIP:

This functionality supports a new identity service, FMA trust, added to Citrix Cloud for non-domain joined machines.

MCS communicates with the new FMA trust service for identity management. Identity information is stored in the identity disk as a pair of GUID and private key pairs, instead of the domain SID and machine account password paradigm used by Active Directory. VDAs using non-domain joined machines use this GUID and private key combination for broker registration. For more information, see Configure support for non-domain joined catalogs.

Use direct upload for Azure managed disks. This release allows you to use direct upload when creating managed disks in an Azure environment. This functionality reduces costs associated with extra storage accounts. You no longer have to stage the VHD into a storage account before converting it to a managed disk. Also, direct upload eliminates the need to attach an empty managed disk to a virtual machine. Directly uploading to an Azure managed disk simplifies the workflow by enabling you to copy an on-premises VHD directly for use as a managed disk. Supported managed disks include Standard HDD, Standard SSD, and Premium SSD.

For more information on this feature, see the Microsoft Azure blog.

For more information about Azure managed disks, see the documentation page.

Single Resource Group in Azure. You can now create and use a single Azure resource group for updating and creating catalogs in Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops. This enhancement applies for both the full scope and narrow scope service principals.

The previous limit of 240 VMs/800 managed disks per Azure Resource Group has been removed. There is no longer a limit on the number of virtual machines, managed disks, snapshots, and images per Azure Resource Group.

In this first release of the single resource group in Azure, Studio and PowerShell SDK let you choose multiple Azure Resource Groups for the narrow scope service principal, but MCS uses just one Azure Resource Group.

For more information, see Microsoft Azure Resource Manager virtualization environments.

Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops Standard for Azure

A goal of Citrix is to deliver new features and product updates to service customers when they are available. New releases provide more value, so there’s no reason to delay updates. To you, the customer administrator, this process is transparent.

October 2020 updates

• You can use the Monitor shadow feature to view or work on a user’s VM or session.
• Production support for Remote PC Access.
• Enhanced catalog creation option to use your Windows Virtual Desktop eligible license or Azure Hybrid Benefit.
• If a restart action on a machine is unsuccessful, you can use a force restart action.

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 7 2012 for Windows

Support for Italian language

Citrix Workspace app for Windows is now available in the Italian language.

Log collection

Log collection simplifies the process of collecting logs for Citrix Workspace app. The logs help Citrix to troubleshoot, and, in cases of complicated issues, facilitate support.

You can now collect logs using the Graphical user interface.

For more information, see Log collection.

Support for domain pass-through authentication on Citrix Workspace

This release introduces support for domain pass-through authentication on Citrix Workspace, along with the existing support for StoreFront.

Silent authentication for Citrix Workspace

Citrix Workspace app introduces a Group Policy Object (GPO) policy to enable silent authentication for Citrix Workspace. This policy enables Citrix Workspace app to log in to Citrix Workspace automatically at system startup. Use this policy only when domain pass through (single sign-on) is configured for Citrix Workspace on domain-joined devices.

For more information, see Silent Authentication.

Enhancement to app protection configuration

Previously, the authentication manager and the Self-Service plug-in dialogs were protected by default.

This release introduces a Group Policy Object (GPO) policy that lets you configure the anti-keylogging and anti-screen-capturing functionalities separately for both the authentication manager and Self-Service plug-in interfaces.

NOTE:

This GPO policy is not applicable for ICA and SaaS sessions. ICA and SaaS sessions continue to be controlled using the Delivery Controller and Citrix Gateway Service.

For more information, see Enhancement to app protection configuration.

Microsoft Teams enhancements

• Peers can now see the presenter’s mouse pointer in a screen sharing session.
• The WebRTC media engine now honors the proxy server configured on the client device.

Citrix Workspace App 2012 for Windows (Store)

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

Citrix Workspace App 2012 for iOS

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

Citrix Workspace App 2012 for Linux

Client drive mapping (CDM) enhancement

Previously, your setting for file access through CDM was applied on all configured stores.

Starting with this release, Citrix Workspace app allows you to configure per-store CDM file access.

NOTE:

The file access setting isnt’ persistent across sessions when using workspace for web. It defaults to the Ask me each time option.

For more information, see Map client drives.

App protection experimental feature

NOTE:

• This feature is supported only when Citrix Workspace app is installed by using the tarball package. Also, x64 and armhf are the only two supported packages.
• This feature is supported only on on-premises deployments of Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops.

App protection is an add-on feature that provides enhanced security when you use Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops. The feature restricts the ability of clients to be compromised by keylogging and screen capturing malware. App protection prevents exfiltration of confidential information such as user credentials and sensitive information displayed on the screen. The feature prevents users and attackers from taking screenshots and from using keyloggers to glean and exploit sensitive information.

For information about how to configure app protection on Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops, see the App protection section in the Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops documentation.

For more information about app protection in Citrix Workspace app, see App protection.

Authentication enhancement experimental feature

We now present the authentication dialog inside Citrix Workspace app and show store details on the logon screen for a better user experience. We encrypt and store authentication tokens so that you don’t need to reenter credentials when your system or session restarts.

NOTE:

• This authentication enhancement is available only in cloud deployments.
• This authentication enhancement is not available on armhf platform.

Prerequisite:

You must install the libsecret library.

This feature is disabled by default.

For more information, see Authenticate.

Audio configuration enhancement

Starting with this release, the default value of the VdcamVersion4Support attribute in the module.ini file is set to True.

For more information, see Audio.

Citrix Workspace App 2012 for Android

Per-store microphone access

The client-selective trust feature allows Citrix Workspace app to trust access from a VDA session. You can grant access to local client drives and hardware devices like microphones and webcams.

Previously, your setting for microphone access was applied on all configured stores.

Starting with this release, Citrix Workspace app requires the user’s permission to access the microphone. The selected setting for microphone access is applied on a per-store basis.

You can configure the access levels from Settings > Store Settings.

Under the Set permissions for option, select the store from the drop-down menu. Enable Microphone.

Support for Android Enterprise

Starting with this release, Citrix Workspace app supports Android Enterprise.

For more information, see the Android Enterprise in the Citrix Endpoint Management documentation.

Enhanced feedback mechanism

Previously, you could provide feedback to Citrix using Citrix Workspace app only through email.

With this release, you can send us feedback about Workspace and report issues using the same interface. To send feedback:

Click Settings > Send feedback to Citrix.

The Report an issue dialog appears.

Using the Report an issue dialog, you can:

• Request help from Support
• Report an issue
• Send issue logs

Citrix Workspace App 2012 for Apple OSX

Apple silicon (M1 chip) support preview

Citrix Workspace app for Mac now supports Apple silicon devices (M1 chip) on a preview basis.

Screen sharing optimization with Microsoft Teams

Citrix Workspace app for Mac now supports screen sharing optimization with Microsoft Teams. For more information, see the following:

• Optimization for Microsoft Teams
• Microsoft Teams redirection

Performance improvements

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

Source

Citrix Virtual Apps & Desktop 7 2012

Other recommended blogpost about CVAD 7 2012
https://www.citrix.com/blogs/2020/12/14/whats-new-with-citrix-virtual-apps-and-desktops-december-2020/