Symptoms
Published applications don’t appear in the Citrix Management Console.
Cause
A published application is an executable that calls another executable and then terminates (for example, to publish the Citrix Management Console, you publish Ctxload.exe, but the executable that stays running is Javaw.exe) and the user already has a session open with another application that is used by only one executable (that is, Microsoft Word uses only Winword.exe).
The Citrix Management Console tracks the executable that is published, in this case, Ctxload.exe. Because Ctxload.exe calls Javaw.exe and then unloads itself from memory, the Citrix Management Console thinks that Ctxload.exe is no longer running and stops displaying that information.
Reproduction
1. Publish Notepad (\WINNT\notepad.exe).
2. Publish the Citrix Management Console on the same server (\Program Files\Citrix\Administration\ctxload.exe).
3. Open Notepad as a published application.
4. Open the Citrix Management Console as a published application.
Under Sessions you see only a session for Notepad, but under the executables you see Notepad.exe and Javaw.exe.
Resolution
This behavior was originally by design.
For MetaFrame XP, install Post Service Pack 3 Hotfix XE103W2K056 or its equivalent and apply the registry changes outlined below.
MetaFrame Presentation Server 3.0 and Presentation Server 4.0 includes the fixes introduced in MetaFrame XP Post Service Pack 3 Hotfix XE103W2K056, but the registry changes below must still be applied.
27. If a published application was a program that created a new process and then terminated itself, the published application appeared in the Citrix Management Console. However, in a seamless session the application was launched through session sharing, the application appeared in the Citrix Management Console but then disappeared.
By default, the thread that checks the process cares about only the first instance of the launched process. The thread regarded the published application as terminated when the first instance of the process was terminated even if that process created a separate process.
This fix provides a way to configure those published applications to use the JOB object so that additional processes created by the initial process are considered as published applications.
For this fix to work properly, you need to perform the following steps:
If the command line of the published application is [ApplicationPath], go to the following registry key and make changes as necessary:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Citrix\wfshell\TWI\StartInJobObject
Key Value: [ApplicationPath]
Type: DWORD
Value: 0
• For example, if the command like specified for the published application is c:\notepad.cmd, go to the following registry key and make changes as necessary:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Citrix\wfshell\TWI\StartInJobObject
Key Value: c:\notepad.cmd
Type: DWORD
Value: 0
For those applications whose command line is specified in the StartInJobObject key, the published application will not disappear from the Citrix Management Console until all of the processes created by the process are terminated.
[From Hotfix XE103W2K056][#63894]
Notes:
• If the path to the application contain spaces, then the string must be enclosed in double quotes (for example: “C:\Program Files\lotus\notes\notes.exe”) when defining the Key Value
• If the application needs extra parameters, then they must also be included as part of the Key Value (for example: “=w:\notes\data\notes.ini”)
For example:
The following screen shot shows the command line for an application that includes spaces and one parameter, as defined in Presentation Server:
The following screenshot shows how the exact same value for “Command Line” is used as the Key Value when defining the new StartInJobObject key in the registry:
See CTX107592 – Citrix Management Console Does Not Show Connected Users Under the Individual Server Node.
Wildcard Support
Wildcard support for this solution is included in Hotfix Rollup Pack 3 (#152972) for Presentation Server 4.0.
The enhancement is case sensitive, so be sure that the registry key value match exactly with the same part of the published application command line.
Prior to this, with a tree application (for example, appA, appB, and appC) you had to create the following tree registry key values:
Key Value: “c:\Windows\system32\wscript.exe C:\path\appA.vbs”
Key Value: “c:\Windows\system32\wscript.exe C:\path\appB.vbs”
Key Value: “c:\Windows\system32\wscript.exe C:\path\appC.vbs”
Now you need create only one:
Key Value: “c:\Windows\system32\wscript.exe*”
-Or-
Key Value: “c:\Windows\system32\wscript.exe C:\path\app*”
More Information
CTX110325 – The "Allow only one instance of application for each user" Option Does Not Work
