After launched an ICA session, customer found in Citrix Director "Activity Manager" panel, neither Applications nor Processes tab is able to display but withe error message "Cannot retrieve the data". Meanwhile, Citrix Director Service will log Event ID 5, indicating 'Failed to execute broker synchronous command=GetRunningApplications'.

In further troubleshooting, CDF trace indicates the issue was triggered by a Microsoft DCOM exception, "The server process could not be started because the configured identity is incorrect. Check the username and password. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x8000401A)"​.

Problem Cause

1. Retrieving application or process list of an ICA session depends on Citrix DirectorComServer.exe running inside VDA.
2. However, in this case, a Non-Citrix process running in the affected VDA cleaned entries under HKLM\SOFTWARE\Citrix\ICA\Session\CTXSessions after ICA session establishment
3. As the entry representing current ICA session got deleted, Windows DCOM server process launcher failed to run DirectorComServer.exe as "This interactive user" with DCOM Exception 0x8000401A.