Categories
Citrix VMware VMware Horizon

Introducing BgAssist

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is Example-DisplayChange-2.gif

VDI is a tricky beast to tame with so many factors involved in deploying a successful service. More so, creating a successful service with an outstanding end-user experience is even more difficult. In a bureaucratic workplace with resource, time, and talent constraints, I often feel that the needs of a single user are secondary or forgotten about by the nature of the process. It’s easier to make broad strokes for the largest user communities over individuals with diverse and specific needs.

With these challenges in mind, I’ve created BgAssist as an open-source project to help VDI administrators create better end-user experiences. Even if not groundbreaking or revolutionary, it’s a step forward in pushing the capabilities of virtual desktop service delivery.

Categories
Citrix

Citrix “Cannot start app. Please contact your help desk.”

After standing up a new Citrix site from scratch, we found Citrix Receiver/Workspace apps configured on client workstations configured with SSO couldn’t launch applications.

After a few hours of checking event logs and enabling every Receiver/Workspace logging feature, I only found very generic errors. The most “relevant” error found in the Receiver/Workspace app log was:

Categories
Citrix

Citrix USB Error “Device appears to be in use and cannot be attached”

Device appears to be in use and cannot be attached. Do you want to force close the deivce and redirect.

If you’re attempting to redirect a USB device to Citrix and receive the error “Device appears to be in use and cannot be attached,” here’s how to suppress it. As the error indicates, the USB device that you’re attempting to redirect is in use on your local system and Receiver cannot redirect it without forcefully doing so. Depending on your particular scenario, this may or may not be a good idea. If you definitely want suppress this error, set the following Registry entry:

64 Bit:

  • [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Policies\Citrix\ICA Client\GenericUSB]
    “EnableUSBForceRedirection”=dword:00000001
  • [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Citrix\ICA Client\GenericUSB]
    “EnableForceRestartForHID”=dword:00000001

32 Bit:

  • [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Citrix\ICA Client\GenericUSB]
    “EnableUSBForceRedirection”=dword:00000001
  • [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Citrix\ICA Client\GenericUSB]
    “EnableForceRestartForHID”=dword:00000001