Disable EU Browser choice with Group Policy

Information from Microsoft KB976002 :

A Browser Choice application is available to users who are located in member countries of the European Economic Area. The application is available to download through Windows Update.

This application creates a shortcut on your desktop. This shortcut lets you visit a Web page in which you can select which Web browser you want to install. Additionally, the first time that you log on to the computer after you install the application, Windows Internet Explorer starts automatically and displays the Browser Choice Web page.

Notes :

• If your computer is running Windows 7, the Browser Choice application removes Internet Explorer from a pinned location on the Start menu and in the taskbar.
• If you do not set Internet Explorer as your default Web browser, the Browser Choice application does not make any changes to your computer.

How to remove with Group Policy :

1. Open Group Policy Management Console and edit or create a new Group Policy Object
2. Navigate to Computer Configuration – Preferences – Windows Settings – Registry
3. Right click Registry – New – Registry Item
4. Type is as shown below

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How To Backup and Restore Group Policy

By now you have probably Created a Central Store for Group Policy Administrative Templates and imported the Terminal Server & XenApp Tuning Group Policy, but what about backup? Did you know that Microsoft have created Group Policy Management Console (GPMC) scripting samples that makes it extremely fast and easy to backup Group Policy Objects (GPO). With these sample scripts you can backup all or single GPO’s, grant permissions, import, restore, list and more. Check out the script examples here.

Download and install the GPMC Scripting Samples and create a weekly scheduled task.

Command line example :

cscript "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Group Policy\GPMC Sample Scripts\BackupAllGPOs.wsf"
"%XA%\Group Policy\Backups" /Comment:"GPO Weekly Backup on %DATE%_%TIME%"
/Domain:ctxlab.local

If something should happen to your GPO it’s very easy to restore it, with a script or simply by selecting “Restore from Backup” within GPMC shown in the picture above.

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Why Internet Explorer will kill your memory – Part I

Most customers have delayed the upgrade to Internet Explorer 7 or 8 as long as possible. The reason is memory / CPU usage especially on Terminal Servers, but this applies to personal computers and VDI as well. Some of the biggest web pages in Norway have been promoting upgrades similar to YouTube and Twitter and now the Norwegian Center for Information Protection strongly recommend to upgrade. So Internet Explorer 6 is approaching its end of life and it’s time to move on.

A lot of projects these days are focusing on server consolidation leveraging virtualization to get more users on each hosts. Planning and Proof Of Concept is the essential to success. Don’t believe everything you hear about increasing user density / server by four times, avoiding purchase of additional hardware.

Okay, if you move your 3-5 year old Citrix environment to a hypervisor and stick to Citrix Presentation Server 4, Office 2000/2003 and Internet Explorer 6, maybe you will make it. What normally happens when you do projects like this, you upgrade to Citrix XenApp 5.0, Office 2007 SP2 and Internet Explorer 7 or 8 as well.

In this first post I will show you what happens with your memory usage when you upgrade Internet Explorer (IE). I have tested all the different versions of IE on 13 different web pages. The tests have been run on Windows 2003 SP2 and every IE version have been patched with the latest updates. IE have been open and closed after 1 minute and the memory usage have been recorded. The latest version of Adobe Flash / Shockwave and Sun Java have been installed with the Core Applications FrameWork.

Memory Usage :

Increase in Percentage :

Excel Spreadsheet :

From these numbers you can easily see that upgrading only Internet Explorer will have a huge impact on the maximum users per Terminal Server. In the next article in this blog series I will show you what you can do to reduce the memory usage with registry tuning and Citrix HDX Mediastream for Flash.

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How to update Citrix XenServer 5.5 Video Tutorial

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Save Time – Download prescripted Core Applications

Ever time I need to set up a new Citrix environment I have a set of Core Applications and helper tools that I always install. These are MSI and EXE based applications leveraging the ScriptFrameWork. I have written numerous blog posts about how to install these different applications unattended.

While working on my upcoming free eBook “Citrix XenApp 5.0 on Windows 2008 – A Hands-On Guide” I got the idea of creating a download including all of these Core Applications with How To instructions. This will save us time since we no longer have to search the blog and web for the different blog posts. The nice thing with the ScriptFrameWork are that they work perfectly on Windows XP/Vista/7 machines as well.

These applications and helper tools are prescripted in Core Applications available under the Downloads section of this blog :

• Adobe Flash Player
• Adobe ShockWave Player
• CutePDF Writer
• FoxIt Reader
• Mozilla FireFox
• Microsoft SilverLight
• Microsoft UPHClean
• Sun Java
• Citrix Printing Tool
• FTP995
• Putty
• XenApp Cloning Tool
• XenApp Policis Export Manager

While writing this list I came up with 3 more for the next release, 7Zip, NotePad++ and AutoView something 2D/3D Viewer. If you have any other free applications probably tested for Terminal Servers please submit a comment below.

Remember to sign up for RSS or Email Subscription to be the first to know when the eBook is freely available for download.

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How to Virtualize Citrix XenApp 5.0 on VMware vSphere 4

Many reports have showed that Citrix XenServer 5.5 scales better and optimizing for Citrix XenApp is done in a second. With VMware it has been, and still are more complex to tuning the guest OS. VMware claims 30% improved performance for Citrix XenApp hosted on vSphere 4. Feedback from customers and the new “Virtual Reality Check – VRC VSI and Clocks Reviewed 1.0.3” states the same.

Searching the web for Best Practices for Citrix XenApp hosted on VMware I discovered some resources I would like to share with you :

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Create a Central Store for Group Policy Administrative Templates

In earlier versions of Windows, all the default Administrative Template files are added to the ADM folder of a Group Policy object (GPO) on a domain controller. The GPOs are stored in the SYSVOL folder. You can see this part in your own domain by navigating to \\FQDN\SYSVOL\FQDN\Policies. In that location, you’ll see a number of GUIDs, each that relates to a configured GPO. Drilling further into any particular GUID, you will find a series of files the contents of which instruct clients to process configured GPO settings.

The SYSVOL folder is automatically replicated to other domain controllers in the same domain. A policy file uses approximately 2 megabytes (MB) of hard disk space. Because each domain controller stores a distinct version of a policy, replication traffic is increased.

To overcome this problem a new feature called Group Policy Central Store was introduced with Windows Vista / Windows 2008. Rather than replicating template files into each GPO’s SYSVOL folder, a single folder is created to store them all. Group Policy Central Store are turned of by default, so to take advantage of the benefits of .admx files, you must create a Central Store in the SYSVOL folder on a domain controller. The Central Store is a file location that is checked by the Group Policy tools. The Group Policy tools use any .admx files that are in the Central Store. The files that are in the Central Store are later replicated to all domain controllers in the domain.

1. Log on as Domain Administrator on the Windows 2008 server you use for Group Policy Management
2. Copy the folder C:\Windows\PolicyDefinitions to \\FQDN\SYSVOL\FQDN\Policies
3. Open Group Policy Management Console
4. Edit a Group Policy Object and expand the Administrative Templates node
5. Verify that the Administrative Templates are loaded from Group Policy Central Store (see picture)

Resources :

If you like the articles posted on this blog, sign up for subscription to get future updates. The upcoming eBook “Citrix XenApp 5.0 on Windows 2008 – A Hands-On Guide” will be an exclusive offer to subscribers only.

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How To Fix problem with SAP Gui 710 and Citrix Universal Printer

I have been working on many Citrix / SAP implementation, but never printing via Citrix Universal Printer (CUP). If you use SAPLPD because your environment is not at the necessary patch level to use the recommended control printing the printer name has a limitation of 40 characters.

This becomes a problem with CUP because it creates a printer name like Citrix Universal Printer (from WI_YHQGGnzQQOp_7q5Hu) in session 3. It’s possible to modify default.ica to get the client name instead of the Web Interface generated unique name, but it will still be to long Citrix Universal Printer (from PC001) in session 3. So after some research on the web I stumbled upon a blog post from CitrixTools.net.

Create a CTXRename.vbs in your SAPGUI catalog. The default value “Const PrntNameSize = 8” will create a printer name like Citrix_U_%username%. I have change the value to “Const PrntNameSize = 24” to get a printer name like Citrix_Universal_Printer_%username% which is almost identical to what the users normally sees. To let the users run the scripts the easiest way is to add Domain Users to the local Power Users Group.

For further information on Best Practices for SAPGUI 7.10 on CPS check out CTX116576.

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Fastest way to update PVS Target Device Software With Hyper-V

The Citrix Provisioning Services 5.1 Service Pack 2 has been released and the most important fix would be Hotfix-9112: Client hangs when using XenServer 5.0 / XenServer 5.5 running a network intensive application.

Hyper-V Direct VHD Boot is my favorite when it comes to updating Citrix Provisioning Services Target Device Software. Below you’ll find the update route and a step-by-step picture guide for the update process.

1. Download and extract Citrix Provisioning Services 5.1 SP2
2. Download and install Free ISO Creator
3. Create a ISO image of the extracted PVS51SP2 folder and copy to external hard drive
4. Copy production vDisk to external hard drive
5. Connect external hard drive to your Microsoft Hyper-V Server
6. Create new Hyper-V VM, add Legacy Network Adapter and attach the PVS51SP2 ISO image
7. Start the virtual machine and uninstall Citrix Provisioning Services Target Device software
8. Install new Citrix Provisioning Services Target Device software from the mounted ISO image
9. Bind to your network card and shutdown
10. Copy the updated vDisk back to your PVS Server and follow normal procedures

I would also recommend you taking a look at previous post Citrix Provisioning Services for Citrix XenApp Best Practice and Prepare a Provisioning Services Private vDisk for Shared vDisk

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The Best of XenAppBlog 2009

Year 2009 is long gone and I am starting of this new year with a lot of excitement. I started seriously blogging 1 year ago and now the blog have 7000 unique visitors and growing 10% per month. The poll states that you guys like this blog and the content I write about. To further improve I would like some feedback from the audience. Let’s say we met up in a bar for 20 minutes, what would you like to talk about? Please post your comment below.

Based on your enthusiasm via comments, stats, links and retweets here’s the best XenAppBlog content of the year 2009. I thank you all for your continued support.

• Turn old PC into Thin Client for Free – Version 1.1
• How To Install XenServer 5.5 on an external USB drive
• Terminal Server & XenApp Tuning Tips Group Policy v1.1
• Download old Citrix ICA Clients for Free
• Upgrade to Citrix XenApp 5.0 Feature Pack 2 on W2K3

I have not been blogging too much lately, not because I’m lazy, but I’ve been working on a 50+ page eBook on how to setup a complete XenApp 5.0 for Windows 2008 environment. This book will be an exclusive offer to the RSS / Email subscribers, so sign up now to get notified when the book is released.

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