Environment

• Citrix DaaS or Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops (CVAD)
• Published Applications

Symptoms

The published application is closed by the user, however:

• The session remains active.
• Director reports the session state as Application not running.
• The session does not immediately log off.
• Reconnecting to the session reconnects the user to the existing session rather than creating a new one.

Determining Whether the Behavior Is Expected

Expected Behavior

• Additional applications remain open within the session.
• The user continues interacting with those applications.
• Active user processes are present.
• Session activity is legitimate and ongoing.
• Expected behavior  example: A user launched an additional application using the original published application, but then closed the original published application.
  • Example flow:
    1. Published command prompt is opened
    2. The user uses published command prompt to launch a separate notepad process
    3. The user then closed the published command prompt process.
    4. The separate notepad process continues running inside the session.
    5. This session will then be marked with session state as Application not running.

Unexpected Behavior

• The user has closed all intended applications.
• No user activity remains.
• The session should have logged off but remains active.
• Investigation identifies a background or helper process preventing session termination.

Caution! Using Registry Editor incorrectly can cause serious problems that might require you to reinstall your operating system. Citrix cannot guarantee that problems resulting from the incorrect use of Registry Editor can be solved. Use Registry Editor at your own risk. Be sure to back up the registry before you edit it.

Citrix determines whether a session should remain active by evaluating the processes running within the user session.

In some environments, an application or background process may continue running after the originally published application has been closed. As long as Citrix identifies active processes associated with the session, the session may remain active.

Common examples include:

• Helper processes launched by the published application
• Background applications started during the session
• Third-party software components
• User-launched applications that remain in use after the original published application exits

Identify the process or application preventing the session from logging off.

If the process is required and should not prevent session termination, configure the LogoffCheckSysModules setting to include the executable name so that Citrix treats the process as a system component during session logoff evaluation.

After updating the configuration and restarting the affected services or machines as appropriate, validate that sessions terminate normally when user applications are closed.

Troubleshooting Steps:

• Review running processes within the user session using task manager or similiar
• Determine whether the user launched additional applications after the original published application started.
• Verify whether any helper or background processes remain active.
• Compare expected running processes against those present in the session.
• Determine whether a process should be treated as a system process through the LogoffCheckSysModules configuration.
  • “LogoffCheckSysModules” in path “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Citrix\wfshell\TWI”
  • Review https://support.citrix.com/external/article/CTX692983 for further guidance on configuring LogoffCheckSysModules

Important consideration:

An Application not running session state is not necessarily indicative of an issue. If users continue working with other applications after closing the originally published application, the session may remain active by design.

Only when a session remains active because of an unintended background process preventing normal logoff should further investigation and potential LogoffCheckSysModules configuration be required.

After a user closes a published application, Citrix Director may show the session state as Application not running while the user session remains active.

Administrators may observe sessions remaining active longer than expected and assume the published application did not exit correctly.

https://support.citrix.com/external/article/CTX692983