Browser content redirection
Browser content redirection prevents the rendering of webpages in the allow list on the VDA side. This feature uses Citrix Workspace app to instantiate a corresponding rendering engine on the client side, which fetches the HTTP and HTTPS content from the URL.
Browser content redirection supports the Google Chrome browser. Browser content redirection redirects the contents of a web browser to a client device, and creates a corresponding browser embedded within the Citrix Workspace app. This feature offloads network usage, page processing, and graphics appearing at the endpoint. Doing so improves the user experience when browsing demanding webpages, especially webpages that incorporate HTML5 or WebRTC video.
- Cookies are persistent across the sessions: When you exit and relaunch a browser, you aren’t prompted to reenter your credentials.
- Browsers now honor the language set on the local system.
For more information, see Browser content redirection.
Important:
- It is enabled by default for all Current Releases of Citrix Workspace app for Windows.
- Browser content redirection can be enabled for 2402 LTSR using command-line.
- Browser content redirection is not supported for Citrix Workspace app LTSR 1912 and 2203.1 versions.
To enable Browser Content Redirection on VDA, make sure the following policies on Citrix Web Studio are enabled:
- Browser Content Redirection
- Browser Content Redirection ACL Configuration
- Browser Content Redirection Authentication Sites
Configure path for Browser Content Redirection overlay Browser temp data storage
With the Citrix Workspace app 2303 version, you can configure the temp data storage path for the Chromium Embedded Framework (CEF) based browser. To configure the path, do the following:
- Open the registry editor.
- Navigate to the
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Citrix\HdxMediaStreamregistry path. -
Create a registry value with the following attributes:
- Registry key name:
BCRProfilePath - Registry value: string
<folder for CEF based BCRtmp files>
- Registry key name:
- Restart the Citrix Workspace app for the changes to take effect.
Note:
Starting with 2405.12 release, the version of the Chromium Embedded Framework (CEF) is upgraded to 128.0.6613.120. This version upgrade helps to resolve security vulnerabilities.
Limitations:
Browser Content Redirection has the following limitations:
- Doesn’t support Web Applications that require pop-up windows or session cookie persistence.
- Starting with Citrix Workspace app 2311.1 version, Microsoft Internet Explorer isn’t supported.
- Applications that depend on the Google authentication service (For example, Google meet) are currently blocked.
- Extension plug-in isn’t officially published on Microsoft Edge currently. However, there’s a workaround to it.
- HTML5 video redirection policy must be disabled when Browser Content Redirection is in use.
- Sometimes, end users might be disconnected from their sessions because of unreliable networks, highly variable network latency, or range limitations of wireless devices. Browser Content Redirection doesn’t have sufficient fallback or reporting mechanism for such scenarios.
- Files downloaded through the overlay are locally stored (on the end user’s client machine).
- The
BCRClient.msiinstaller is supported only on the same Citrix Workspace app version from where the installer file is taken. [HDX-66081]
Improved performance of BCR
Previously, BCR used client-side disk space cache and the cached information wasn’t deleted during an upgrade. This setting resulted in higher disk space usage over time and inconsistent behavior while a page is redirected using BCR.
Starting with 2311.1 release, to resolve this issue, BCR uses an in-memory cache. This enhancement helps to improve the performance of BCR.
This feature is disabled by default. To enable this feature set BCRStoreCEFCacheInMemory as follows:
-
Open the Registry Editor using
regediton the Run command. -
Navigate to
HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Citrix/HdxMediaStream. -
Create a
DWORDkey by the nameBCRStoreCEFCacheInMemoryand set the value of the key to 1.
If the value of BCRStoreCEFCacheInMemory is set to 0, BCR uses client disk space.
Limitation:
The in-memory cache size limit is set to 10MB.
Enhanced System Logs for browser content redirection
With the enhancements to the System Logs, starting with Citrix Workspace app for Windows version 2405 onwards browser content redirection allows admins to monitor the feature status. For more information, see Browser content redirection.