Session experience

DPI scaling

Citrix Workspace app for HTML5 supports DPI scaling for app and desktop sessions on a single monitor.

Citrix Workspace app for HTML5 lets you set the VDA resolution on the monitors that have a high pixel ratio. The DPI scaling feature is disabled by default for app and desktop sessions.

For Citrix Workspace app 1908 for HTML5 and earlier, go to the session toolbar and then select Toolbar > More > Preferences > Display Resolution to set the resolution for app and desktop sessions. The correct resolution is set on the VDA.

For Citrix Workspace app 1909 for HTML5 and later, go to the session toolbar and then select Toolbar > More > Display Resolution > Device Pixel Ratio Scaling to set the resolution for app and desktop sessions. The correct resolution is set on the VDA.

When you set the resolution correctly on the VDA, the blurry text becomes crisper.

Limitations:

• The High DPI scaling feature is disabled on touch-screen devices.

Session reliability

The session reliability feature ensures that sessions remain active on the user’s screen even if there is a disruption in network connectivity. Users continue to see the application they’re using until network connectivity resumes.

When connectivity is lost, the session remains active on the server. To alert the user about the connectivity issue, the display becomes unresponsive and a reconnect overlay screen appears. Until connectivity resumes on the other side of the tunnel, session reliability reconnects users without reauthentication prompts.

Note:

The session reliability timeout policy setting has a default value of 180 seconds or three minutes. Though you can extend the time the session reliability keeps a session open, this feature is convenient to the user.

For more information about the feature, see Session reliability in the Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops documentation.

Important

With the session reliability feature enabled, the default ports for session communication are 2598 for non-SSL VDA and 443 for SSL VDA.

You can use session reliability with Gateway and SSL VDAs. When using a non-SSL VDA with Citrix Gateway, data encryption happens between the user device and Citrix Gateway. When using SSL VDA with Citrix Gateway, data encryption happens from the user device to VDA.

Using session reliability policies

• The session reliability connections policy setting allows or prevents session reliability.
• The session reliability timeout policy setting has a default value of 180 seconds or three minutes. Though you can extend the time the session reliability keeps a session open, this feature is convenient to the user. Therefore, it does not prompt the user to re-authenticate.

Tips

• Extending session reliability timeouts might cause a user to get distracted and walk away from the device, leaving the session accessible to unauthorized users. By default, incoming session reliability connections use port 2598, unless you change the port number in the session reliability port number policy setting. If you use session reliability, it closes, or disconnects, the user session after the amount of time you specify in the Session reliability timeout policy setting.
• Session reliability is enabled by default on the server. To disable this feature, configure the policy managed by the server.

Configuring session reliability from Citrix Studio

By default, session reliability is enabled.

To disable session reliability:

1. Launch Citrix Studio.
2. Open the Session Reliability connections policy.
3. Set the policy to Prohibited.

Configuring session reliability timeout

By default, the session reliability timeout is set to 180 seconds.

Note:

Session reliability timeout policy can be configured only with XenApp and XenDesktop 7.11 and later.

To modify session reliability timeout:

1. Launch Citrix Studio.
2. Open the Session reliability timeout policy.
3. Edit the timeout value.
4. Click OK.

Toolbar

By default, the enhanced toolbar feature is enabled.

To hide the toolbar:

1. While logged in as an administrator, access the configuration.js file in C:\ProgramFiles\Citrix\<actual path>\HTML5Client.
2. Search the configuration.js file to locate ‘menubar key.’
3. In the configuration.js file, set “menubar”:false.

You can also hide an individual icon to prevent it from showing up in the toolbar. For example, to hide the ctrl+alt+del button in the toolbar:

1. While logged in as an administrator, access the configuration.js file in C:\ProgramFiles\Citrix<actual path>\HTML5Client.
2. Search the configuration.js file to locate ‘lock.’
3. In the configuration.js file, set lock:false.

URL redirection

URL redirection allows you to control whether users access the URL by using:

• browser published on servers or
• browser that run on user devices

URL (Host to client) redirection is one type of content redirection. It’s supported only on Server OS VDAs (not Desktop OS VDAs).

When the URL redirection is enabled, the URLs are intercepted on the server VDA and sent to the user device. Citrix Workspace app for HTML5 displays a dialog prompting the user to select whether to open the URL within the session or on the local device. The dialog appears for every URL.

When the URL redirection is disabled, users open the URLs with web browsers or multimedia players on the server VDA. When the URL redirection is enabled, users can’t disable it.

URL redirection was previously known as server to client redirection or host to client redirection.

For more information, see General content redirection.

Battery status indicator

The battery status of the device now appears in the notification area within the virtual desktop session. Previously, the battery status indicator wasn’t visible in the session. This setting sometimes led to a loss of productivity when the laptop shuts down after the battery runs out.

The newly available battery status indicator feature is supported on Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge (Chromium) browsers. It’s supported only on VDA versions 7.18 and later.

Note:

With Microsoft Windows 10 VDA, the battery status indicator might take about 1 or 2 minutes to appear.

HDX adaptive throughput

Starting with the 2408 version, HDX adaptive throughput is supported. This feature intelligently fine-tunes the peak throughput of the ICA session by adjusting output buffers. The number of output buffers is initially set at a high value. This high value allows data to be transmitted to the client more quickly and efficiently, especially in high-latency networks.

This feature provides better interactivity, faster file transfers, smoother video playback, and a higher frame rate and resolution resulting in an enhanced user experience.

Session interactivity is constantly measured to determine whether any data streams within the ICA session adversely affect interactivity. If that occurs, the throughput is decreased to reduce the impact of the large data stream on the session and allow interactivity to recover.

Note:

This feature is enabled by default.