Server to Client Content Redirection does not work if the published application on the XenApp server is Microsoft Internet Explorer. Server to Client Content Redirection for other applications (such as Microsoft Word) works.

For example, a user clicks a hyperlink inside an instance of published Microsoft Word when Server to Client Content Redirection is enabled. The published Microsoft Word looks in the registry to determine which application must be used to open the hyperlink using file type association. If Server to Client Content Redirection is enabled, the Citrix process iexplore.exe is called to open the hyperlink, thus invoking the redirection process.

This does not work, however, if the Published Application is Microsoft Internet Explorer.

Background

When a hyperlink is clicked inside the published Microsoft Internet Explorer application running on the XenApp server, the published Microsoft Internet Explorer can handle requests to open hyperlinks itself and therefore does not need to query the registry for the details of the file type association and instead opens the hyperlink itself.

When Server to Client Content Redirection is configured in a XenApp farm, if a hyperlink is clicked in a published application running on a XenApp Server the Content Redirection subsystem catches the request to open the link and redirects it to the ICA client where it is opened by a locally installed browser.

This is accomplished by modifying the file type associations in the registry of the XenApp server so that, instead of the servers Web browser being called when a hyperlink is clicked, a Citrix process iexplore.exe is called instead. This Citrix process is responsible for redirecting the request to open the hyperlink to the ICA client. 

This is a design limitation of Server to Client Content Redirection.