Google Chrome Browser (Chrome 45 and upwards) Blocks GPU Acceleration with XenApp on Windows 2012 R2/2008 R2

Google Chrome Browser (Chrome 45 and upwards) Blocks GPU Acceleration with XenApp on Windows 2012 R2/2008 R2

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Article ID: CTX202276

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Updated On:

Description

By default, versions of Chrome browser (v45 and up) block GPU acceleration for WebGL and certain other content in remote sessions (RDS) on Windows Server operating systems. To determine what content Chrome is blocking, run Chrome in your XenApp remote session and enter the address chrome://gpu into the browser address bar. Under “Problems Detected”, you will see the message:  “GPU process was unable to boot: All GPU features are blacklisted”

Resolution

It is not the specific graphics card but general Windows Server operating system remote sessions that are blocked by chrome from using GPU acceleration. To prevent this “blacklisting” you need to run Chrome on XenApp with the following command line argument:

–ignore-gpu-blacklist

When configuring Chrome as a published application via Citrix Studio, this argument can be specified for all users in the application settings. On published desktops, the command line argument can be specified by modifying the shortcut used to run Chrome. Customers are advised to follow Google’s advice, documentation and best practice recommendations when using this option.

This issue only affects server operating systems(example - Win 2012 R2 and Win 2008 R2) and XenApp. It is believed there is no issue with Chrome and XenDesktop used with Workstation operating systems (Win 7, Win 8.x etc).

Additional Information

CTX202149 – Known Issues or Configuration Reasons: OpenGL/DirectX/GPU Acceleration Not Used

CTX202106 – How to Publish Chrome Browser for XenApp so that GPU Acceleration is Enabled

CTX202084 – Internet Explorer 9: Hardware Acceleration Does Not Work in Some Virtualization Environments (including vSphere/ESXi)

CTX202066 – GPU-accelerated OpenGL on Amazon Web Services (AWS G2 instances) with NVIDIA GRID K520/K340 No Longer Works

CTX202065 – Mozilla Firefox Blocks GPU Acceleration for WebGL with XenApp on Windows 2012 R2/2008 R2

CTX202010 – Internet Explorer is Not GPU-accelerated When Virtualized on XenServer 6.2