Bidirectional content redirection

The bidirectional content redirection policy allows you to enable or disable client to host and host to client URL redirection. Server policies are set in Studio, and client policies are set from the Citrix Workspace app Group Policy Object administration template.

Citrix offers host to client redirection and Local App Access for client to URL redirection. However, we recommend that you use bidirectional content redirection for domain-joined Windows clients.

You can enable bidirectional content redirection using one of the following methods:

1. Group Policy Object (GPO) administrative template
2. Registry editor

Note:

• Bidirectional content redirection does not work on the session where Local App Access is enabled.
• Bidirectional content redirection must be enabled both on the server and the client. When it is disabled either on the server or the client, the functionality is disabled.
• When you include URLs, you can specify one URL or a semi-colon delimited list of URLs. You can use an asterisk (*) as a wildcard.

To enable bidirectional content redirection using the GPO administrative template:

Use Group Policy Object administrative template configuration only for a first-time installation of Citrix Workspace app for Windows.

1. Open the Citrix Workspace app Group Policy Object administrative template by running gpedit.msc.
2. Under the User Configuration node, go to Administrative Templates > Classic Administrative Templates (ADM) > Citrix Components > Citrix Workspace > User experience.
3. Select the Bidirectional Content Redirection policy.

1. In the Published Application or Desktop name field, provide the name of the resource used to launch the redirected URL.

   Note:

   When you include URLs, specify a single URL or a semi-colon delimited list of URLs. You can use an asterisk (*) as a wildcard.

2. From the Above Name is for Published Type, select Application or Desktop of the resource as appropriate.
3. In the Allowed URLs to be redirected to VDA field, enter the URL that must be redirected. Separate the list with a semicolon.
4. Select the Enable URL-specific published application for desktop overrides? option to override a URL.

5. Click Show to display a list where the value name must match any of the URLs listed in the Allowed URLs to be redirected to the VDA field. The value must match a published application name.

   

6. In the Allowed URLs to be redirected to Client: field, enter the URL that must be redirected from the server to the client. Separate the list with a semicolon.

   Note:

   When you include URLs, specify a single URL or a semi-colon delimited list of URLs. You can use an asterisk (*) as a wildcard.

7. Click Apply and OK.
8. From the command line, run the gpupdate /force command.

To enable bidirectional content redirection using the registry:

To enable bidirectional content redirection, run the redirector.exe /RegIE command on the Citrix Workspace app client and from the Citrix Workspace app installation folder C:\Program Files (x86)\Citrix\ICA Client).

Important:

• Ensure that the redirection rule does not result in a looping configuration. A looping configuration results if VDA rules are set so that, for example, a URL, https://www.my\_company.com is configured to be redirected to the client, and the VDA.
• URL redirection supports only explicit URLs: URLs appearing in the address bar of the browser or found using the in-browser navigation, depending on the browser).
• If two applications with same display name use multiple StoreFront accounts, the display name in the primary StoreFront account is used for launching the application or a desktop session.
• New browser window opens only when a URL is redirected to the client. When a URL is redirected to VDA, if the browser is already open, then the redirected URL opens in the new tab.
• Embedded links in files like documents, emails, PDF is supported.
• Ensure that only one of the server file type associations exist and the host content redirection policies are set to Enabled on the same machine. Citrix recommends that you disable either the server file type association or the Host Content (URL) Redirection feature to confirm that URL redirection works properly.
• In Internet Explorer, click Settings > Internet options > Advanced, and select Enable third-party browser extensions check box under Browsing section.

Limitation:

No fallback mechanism is present if the redirection fails due to session launch issues.

Bi-directional URL support with Chromium-based browsers

Bidirectional content redirection allows you to configure URLs to redirect from client to server and from server to client using policies on the server and the client.

Server policies are set on the Delivery Controller and client policies on Citrix Workspace app. The policies are set using the Group Policy Object (GPO) administrative template.

Starting with Version 2106, bidirectional URL redirection support has been added for Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge.

Prerequisites:

• Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops Version 2106 or later.
• Browser redirection extension version 5.0.

To register Google Chrome browser to bidirectional URL redirection, run the following command from the Citrix Workspace app installation folder:

%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Citrix\ICA Client\redirector.exe /regChrome /verbose

Note:

When using these commands on Chrome browsers, the bidirectional content redirection extension installs automatically from the Chrome Web Store.

To unregister Google Chrome browser from bidirectional URL redirection, run the following command from the Citrix Workspace app installation folder:

%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Citrix\ICA Client\redirector.exe /unregChrome /verbose

Note:

If you get the following error when accessing the Browser Extensions page, ignore the message:

Websocket connection to wss://... failed.

For information on configuring URL redirection on Citrix Workspace app, see Bidirectional content redirection.

For more information about browser content redirection, see Browser content redirection in the Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops documentation.

To prevent the desktop viewer window from dimming:

If you have multiple Desktop Viewer windows, by default the desktops that are not active are dimmed. If users want to view multiple desktops simultaneously, information on them might be unreadable. You can disable the default behavior and prevent the Desktop Viewer window from dimming by editing the Registry editor.

Caution

Editing the registry 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 the Registry Editor can be solved. Use the Registry Editor at your own risk. Be sure to back up the registry before you edit it

• On the user device, create a REG_DWORD entry called DisableDimming in one of the following keys, depending on whether you want to prevent dimming for the current user of the device or the device itself. An entry exists if the Desktop Viewer has been used on the device:

  • HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Citrix\XenDesktop\DesktopViewer
  • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Citrix\XenDesktop\DesktopViewer

Optionally, instead of controlling dimming, you can define a local policy by creating the same REG_WORD entry in one of the following keys:

• HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Citrix\XenDesktop\DesktopViewer
• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\Citrix\XenDesktop\DesktopViewer

Before using these keys, check whether the Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops and Citrix DaaS administrator has set a policy for this feature.

Set the entry to any non-zero value such as 1 or true.

If no entries are specified or the entry is set to 0, the Desktop Viewer window is dimmed. If multiple entries are specified, the following precedence is used. The first entry in this list and its value determine whether the window is dimmed:

1. HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Citrix\…
2. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\Citrix\…
3. HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Citrix\…
4. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Citrix\…