Citrix Application Streaming: Adobe Acrobat X

I have been struggeling to successfully stream the Adobe Acrobat 9 via Citrix Application Streaming into Pooled Standard Mode XenDesktop Machines.

The Adobe FlexNET Licensing Service was very uncooperative to say the least, so after countless tries I gave up on streaming Adobe Acrobat 9 and gave the newer Adobe Acrobat X a shot - with success! With Adobe Acrobat X there is no FlexNET Licensing Service anymore and the Licensing is handled somehow internally and not via a special service.

Prerequisites:

Create a Transforms File (.mst) for Adobe Acrobat X:

  • Customize your Adobe Acrobat X Installation via the Adobe Customization Wizard X.
    • Disable Update Functionality
    • Disable Registration and EULA Prompts
    • Disable Acrobat.com Functions
    • ...

Save your Customizations as a Transforms (.mst) file and place it in the folder where the  AcroStan.msi is located. In the following Screenshots you can see the Steps and Customizations I choose to create the .mst file. I choose to name the Transforms file Streaming.mst.

Click "Read more" for the rest of the Blogpost

Create the Adobe Acrobat X Profile Package:

All the following Screenshots are taken from a German Streaming Profiler although all Menu Items should be the same in the English Version of the Streaming Profiler. If you have questions or problems understanding the Screenshots, feel free to leave a comment.

  • Now it's time to fire up your Streaming Profiler on your Profiling Machine and choose a Name for the Profile.
  • Don't select "User Updates" (or whatever it's called in the English Streaming Profiler Version).
  • Select "Advanced Installation" and click "Next".
  •  Now select "Run install program or command line script" and click "Next" again.
  • At the "Choose Installer" dialog, click "Browse" and locate the AcroStan.msi in the Adobe Acrobat X Installation Folder. In the "Command line parameters (optional)" field put TRANSFORMS=Streaming.mst /qn and then click "Next".

Note: If you named and/or placed your .mst file other than Streaming.mst (and next to the AcroStan.msi) you have to adjust the command line parameter accordingly.

  • Click "Run Installer" and wait for the completion of the installation (check the Task Manager for running msiexec.exe processes). After completion click "Next".
  • At the "Select Next Step" dialog, select "Perform additional Installations", and then click "Next".
  • Now select "Edit Registry" and continue with "Next".
  • Click "Start Windows Registry Editor" and the Registry Editor should open up.
  • Now browse to "HKLM\Software\Adobe\Acrobat Distiller\10.0\PrinterName" and change the existing Default Key from "Adobe PDF" to "Microsoft XPS Document Writer". 

Note: You have to choose a Printer Name that exists on your Target Device(s) (every Printer will work - doesn't matter what Driver/Printer it is) where you want to stream the Adobe Acrobat X to. If there is no Printer with the exact same Name (like in the Default Key) on the Target Device the Adobe Acrobat Distiller will fail when trying to convert Microsoft Office Documents into PDF Files. I choose the XPS Document Writer because it is installed on every XenDesktop I wanted to stream the Acrobat X to. You can find more Infos in an offical Citrix Blogpost here.

  • When finished close the Registry Editor and click "Next".
  • At the "Select Next Step" dialog, select "Finish Installations", and then click "Next".
  • At the "Run Application" dialog, do not run any Application and just continue with "Next".
  •  Click "Next" through the remaining dialogs (unless additional settings are required for your environment), and then click "Finish" on the "Build Profile" screen.

Save and publish your finished Profile.

DPI Settings in an RDP/ICA Session on Windows Server 2008 R2 andWindows 7

In quite a few XenApp 6/6.5 Projects the Customer complained that the Users were not able to change the DPI Size when connected to a XenDesktop running Windows 7 or a XenApp Desktop hosted on Windows Server 2008 R2. This was due to a limitation in the Remote Desktop Services Stack from Microsoft.

There were some Workarounds with importing/injecting Values into the Registry for those Users to change the DPI Size but they were far from perfect.

Microsoft just recently released an Hotfix to enable the Adjustment of the DPI Size over Remote Desktop Protocol Sessions like RDP and ICA. You can find and download the Hotfix here:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2726399/en-us

And this is how the new DPI Menu looks (on a German Windows Server 2008 R2):

PVS and KMS Licensing - Unexpected MAPI Error

Just a very quick Post regarding the often encountered Error Message "An unexpected MAPI Error occurred" when promoting a vDisk from private Mode to Standard Mode while having the Microsoft Licensing Option set to KMS.

Solution:

Add the User account that runs the SOAP Service into the Local Admin Group on your Provisioning Server(s). Afterwards you should restart your SOAP and Stream Service.

I don't know if this Solution is applicable if you run your PVS SOAP and Stream Service under the Network Service (and therefor not under an Domain Account). Feel free to let me know via the Comments.

Citrix Clipboard Redirection causes Session Disconnect

This week I had to troubleshoot a Problem where a lot of Copy and Pasting in a published Desktop caused the XenApp Session to freeze or disconnect.

The Customer reported a Problem where some of his Users were getting disconnected as soon as they ran a specific Excel Macro. At first I suspected that the Macro used some kind of Screen Refresh or something similar which would cause the ICA/HDX Session to disconnect or frezze but the Macro only involved copy and pasting a lot of information in quick succession. That led me to focus on the Clipboard Redirection because everytime I copied a large amount of Data my Session frozze up.

Solution: We finally fixed the Session Disconnects by disabling the Clipboard Redirection via Citrix Policies because the Customer solely relies on published Desktops and therefore he doesnt need to copy and paste things between the XenApp Systems and the Endpoints.

If you need the Clipboard Redirection to be enabled and want to avoid the Session Disconnects/Freezes you should try the new Citrix Receiver 3.1 Cumulative Update 1 or downgrade to the Online Plug-in 12.x.

Note: This Problem should also apply to XenDesktop as long as you use the Receiver 3.0 or 3.1 which seems to be affected with this "Clipboard Redirection Bug".

Update: This should be fixed in the Receiver 3.2 aka Online Plug-in 13.1.200.x or later.

EdgeSight and the Payload Error

During a Performance Troubleshooting I noticed that some EdgeSight Agents weren't uploading their Performance Data to the EdgeSight Server.

Under the "Configure" > "Company Configuration" > "Agents" > "Run Worker" Tab some of the EdgeSight Agents indeed showed the following Error:

Error: -2147209300 SendPayload error: Invalid data returned from server

In the Windows Event Viewer under the Applications Tab were also many Warnings with the Event Source: ASP.NET 2.0.50727.0 and the Event ID: 1309. 

After some research it all came down to the MS11-100 Security Patch (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2661403) from Microsoft regarding an ASP.NET Vulnerability.

There is also a Citrix Support Article regarding this Problem: http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX132116 and a fairly large Thread in the Citrix Support Forums here: http://forums.citrix.com/thread.jspa?threadID=300165

Solution: My "quick and dirty" Solution was to remove the Security Patch from the EdgeSight Server and after rebooting the Server all the EdgeSight Agents were able to upload their Performance Data successfully. I guess the better Solution is to play around with the "MaxHttpCollectionKeys" Value in IIS (as described in the MS and Citrix Article) and to not remove the Security Patch.