Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops

Desktop UI policy settings

The Desktop UI section includes policy settings that control visual effects such as desktop wallpaper, menu animations, and drag images. These policy settings help to manage the bandwidth used in client connections. You can improve application performance on a WAN by limiting bandwidth usage.

Important:

We do not support legacy graphics mode and Desktop Composition Redirection (DCR) in this release. This policy is included only for backward compatibility when using:

  • XenApp 7.15 LTSR
  • XenDesktop 7.15 LTSR
  • Previous VDA releases with Windows 7 and Windows 2008 R2.

Desktop Composition Redirection

This setting specifies whether to use the processing capabilities of the following for local DirectX graphics rendering to provide users with a more fluid Windows desktop experience:

  • Graphics processing unit (GPU) on the user device
  • Or,
  • Integrated graphics processor (IGP) on the user device

When enabled, Desktop Composition Redirection delivers a highly responsive Windows experience while maintaining high scalability on the server.

By default, Desktop Composition Redirection is disabled.

To deselect Desktop Composition Redirection and reduce the bandwidth required in user sessions, select Disabled when you add this setting to a policy.

Desktop Composition Redirection graphics quality

This setting specifies the quality of graphics used for Desktop Composition Redirection.

The default is High.

Choose from High, Medium, Low, or Lossless quality.

Desktop wallpaper

This setting allows or prevents wallpaper showing in user sessions.

By default, user sessions can show wallpaper.

To deselect desktop wallpaper and reduce the bandwidth required in user sessions, select Prohibited when adding this setting to a policy.

This setting allows or prevents menu animation in user sessions.

By default, menu animation is allowed.

Menu animation is a Microsoft personal preference setting for ease of access. When enabled, it causes a menu to appear after a short delay, either by scrolling or fading in. An arrow icon appears at the bottom of the menu. The menu appears when you point to that arrow.

Menu animation is enabled on a desktop if this policy setting is set to Allowed and the menu animation Microsoft personal preference setting is enabled.

Note:

Changes to the menu animation Microsoft personal preference setting affect the desktop. Consider that you set the desktop to discard changes when the session ends. In this case, a user, who has enabled menu animations, might not have menu animation in subsequent sessions. For users who require menu animation, enable the Microsoft setting in the main image for the desktop or ensure that the desktop retains user changes.

View window contents while dragging

This setting allows or prevents the display of window contents when dragging a window across the screen.

By default, viewing window contents is allowed.

When set to Allowed, the entire window appears to move when you drag it. When set to Prohibited, only the window outline appears to move until you drop it.

Desktop UI policy settings