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The key and value in registry location HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\UserPreferencesMask on the VDA might be overwritten by the wfshell.exe process each time a user logs into the session.

To prevent this, create the following registry key on the VDA (server side) and set the value to 1:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Citrix
Name: EnableVisualEffect
Type: REG_DWORD
Value: 1

Then after the session log on, UserPreferencesMask will not be modified .

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Problem Cause

It is expected behavior for wfshell.exe to overwrite this registry key to optimize and control functionality in an ICA session.

Users sometimes require particular Windows visual effects enabled for an ICA session for certain application functionality and features. Microsoft Office 2010 / 2013 Live Preview or slide open combo boxes would be some examples. This article explains how to configure the ICA session to not change the UserPreferencesMask for a session. Please note that using this setting might introduce unwanted side-effects or performance degradation as some of the Windows visual settings increase load on the affected resource considerably.