Multi-tab Browser Support

One of the limitations in the trial release of HDX MediaStream for Flash is that only one tab per browser process can be accelerated. This is a bigger issue in Internet Explorer 7 where all tabs run in the same process. In Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) some tabs run in different process.

But there is a way to force IE8 to run all tabs in separate processes. Follow this link to learn more about how to configure IE8 in such mode.

In the final release of HDX MediaStream for Flash, multiple tabs will be supported in both IE7 and IE8 out of the box.

Is HDX MediaStream for Flash running?

HDX MediaStream for Flash is so seamless that you may not even know it's running. Of course, that's by design. There are, however, a number of ways to know if it is running. My personal favorite is looking at a cyan block of color where the Flash player is shown. The cyan color shows for a little bit before the Flash player shows up.

We also created a diagnostic tool for HDX MediaStream for Flash. This tool can tell you if it is running correctly and if not, it can tell you what could be wrong. The information it collects can be easily sent to our support email alias to help our engineers assist you with your questions.

This tool is open source and can be downloaded here.

It's easy to see how HDX MediaStream for Flash makes it easier for IT to choose XenApp and XenDesktop for application management and desktop delivery while preserving the experience that users are accustomed to. Stay tuned for more in my "Did you know" series on HDX MediaStream for Flash.

More of my blog posts on HDX MediaStream for Flash:

HDX MediaStream for Flash Tech Preview
Window-less Mode support in HDX MediaStream for Flash
Volume Synchronization in HDX MediaStream for Flash
Windows Scaling Support in HDX MediaStream for Flash
Multiple Tab Support and Diagnostics with HDX MediaStream for Flash

Join me and my friends on twitter - Juan Rivera, Derek Thorslund, XenApp Team, XenDesktop Team

The Citrix Receiver desktop plug-in or Desktop Receiver (both used with XenDesktop) allow scaling the remote desktop to any viewable size. HDX MediaStream for Flash supports this scaled mode as well. The Flash content can be scaled to the appropriate size with minimal impact on performance. It even allows you to play videos in scaled mode without affecting the frames per second. Check this feature in action below:

It's easy to see how HDX MediaStream for Flash makes it easier for IT to choose XenApp and XenDesktop for application management and desktop delivery while preserving the experience that users are accustomed to. Stay tuned for more in my "Did you know" series on HDX MediaStream for Flash.

More of my blog posts on HDX MediaStream for Flash:

HDX MediaStream for Flash Tech Preview
Window-less Mode support in HDX MediaStream for Flash
Volume Synchronization in HDX MediaStream for Flash
Windows Scaling Support in HDX MediaStream for Flash
Multiple Tab Support and Diagnostics with HDX MediaStream for Flash

Join me and my friends on twitter - Juan Rivera, Derek Thorslund, XenApp Team, XenDesktop Team

With HDX MediaStream for Flash, the flash content is rendered on the client device while the player is rendered on the server side. This makes application management easy for administrators but poses some challenges for our engineers when it comes to preserving the "like-local" user experience. One such challenges is what happens when the user changes their volume locally.

We found a way to synchronize the volume of the Flash player on the client with the volume settings on the server. When the desktop is muted, the Flash player running on the client will be muted as well. HDX MediaStream for Flash even allows granular volume control by synchronizing the individual volume setting for each browser window with the Flash player instances on that particular browser. That means you can have a different volume setting for each browser running on the server and have the Flash players on the client respect each browser's volume setting.

It's easy to see how HDX MediaStream for Flash makes it easier for IT to choose XenApp and XenDesktop for application management and desktop delivery while preserving the experience that users are accustomed to. Stay tuned for more in my "Did you know" series on HDX MediaStream for Flash.

More of my blog posts on HDX MediaStream for Flash:

HDX MediaStream for Flash Tech Preview
Window-less Mode support in HDX MediaStream for Flash
Volume Synchronization in HDX MediaStream for Flash
Windows Scaling Support in HDX MediaStream for Flash
Multiple Tab Support and Diagnostics with HDX MediaStream for Flash

Join me and my friends on twitter - Juan Rivera, Derek Thorslund, XenApp Team, XenDesktop Team

We are pleased to announce the availability of the XenApp Beta and Technology Preview center on Citrix.com. It's a simple area that you can visit regularly to access the latest Beta and Technology Preview software available for Citrix XenApp.

Accessing the software may require a MyCitrix login. Each technology preview may have different guidelines, support mechanisms, and documentation so be sure to visit each linked page for more information. Please let us know if this page is useful and how we can improve it.

Hear about XenApp Technology Preview Announcements via the following resources:

• XenApp product home page- http://citrix.com/xenapp
• XenApp Tech Preview center- http://citrix.com/xenapp/techpreviews
• XenApp in Twitter- http://twitter.com/xenappjunkie
• XenApp Blogs- http://citrix.com/xenapp/blogs

Thanks!

Sincerely,

The Citrix XenApp Product Team

It has been a few weeks since we released the trial for HDX MediaStream for Flash and I would like to share a few tips about this feature as well as highlight some of the capabilities in the trial release. First on the list is Window-less Mode.

Windowless mode allows web pages to overlay HTML content over the Flash player. This is important in certain scenarios like navigation menus that show on top of the flash player. Without windowless support, those sites would not be very usable. Here is an example of MSNBC.com with and without windowless support:

Flash content in windowed mode	Flash content in windowless mode

Notice how the Flash ad on the left side covers part of the navigation menu while the one in the right does not. Flash in windowless mode allows the browser to do this. HDX MediaStream for Flash supports this mode even though the Flash player is rendered on the client while the browser is rendered on the server. Logic would dictate that since Citrix HDX renders the flash on the client device, any flash would always show up on top of any content in the browser. But not so. Here at Citrix, we've figured out how to retain this functionality so that users get a seamless experience.

It's easy to see how HDX MediaStream for Flash makes it easier for IT to choose XenApp and XenDesktop for application management and desktop delivery while preserving the experience that users are accustomed to. Stay tuned for more in my "Did you know" series on HDX MediaStream for Flash.

More of my blog posts on HDX MediaStream for Flash:

HDX MediaStream for Flash Tech Preview
Window-less Mode support in HDX MediaStream for Flash
Volume Synchronization in HDX MediaStream for Flash
Windows Scaling Support in HDX MediaStream for Flash
Multiple Tab Support and Diagnostics with HDX MediaStream for Flash

Follow me and my friends on twitter - Juan Rivera, Derek Thorslund, XenApp Team, XenDesktop Team

A key component of Citrix XenApp and Citrix XenDesktop, HDX MediaStream technology ensures that users receive a smooth, seamless experience with multimedia content as part of their virtual desktop (VDI) or virtual applications. To accomplish this, HDX MediaStream determines when it is best to leverage the processing power of the endpoint device to render the multimedia content.
Flash is one of the most pervasive technologies on the web. It is used for interactive content, video streaming and rich internet applications. But delivering Flash-based applications and media via a virtual desktop or virtualized web browser leads to lower user density in the data center, higher bandwidth usage when compared to native flash streams and, in most cases, a degraded user experience.

That's why Citrix has developed HDX MediaStream for Flash. The goal of this technology is to address the density, bandwidth and user experience challenges associated with virtualizing Flash media and Flash-based applications. With HDX MediaStream for Flash, Citrix has solved this problem by moving the execution of Flash content to the client whenever possible. While the browser remains in the data center, Flash content is redirected to the client and executed using the resources at the users end point device. The server is no longer responsible for decoding and compressing HD videos, executing animations or fetching the media content from the web servers. All of which require processing power and distort media in some way.

Moving the Flash execution to the client also enables Flash applications to access local resources like webcams and audio devices to provide a local-like user experience for rich internet applications like web-based collaboration solutions. Even with this local execution, however, HDX MediaStream for Flash lets administrators centrally manage delivery while taking advantage of available processing power on the users device. Check out the demo of HDX MediaStream for Flash below.

How can you get the Trial Release?

To use the HDX MediaStream for Flash trial release with XenApp you'll need XenApp 5.0 for Windows 2003, XenApp 5.0 for Windows 2008 or Citrix Presentation Server 4.5 for Windows 2003 (You might want to consider using the XenApp Evaluation Virtual Appliance if you don't have a test environment of your own). To use HDX MediaStream for Flash trial release with XenDesktop, you'll need Citrix XenDesktop 3 running on Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Windows 7 (may include XenDesktop 3 Feature Pack 1). Both with XenApp and XenDesktop, Internet Explorer 7 or 8 and the Flash 10 plug-in for Internet Explorer are also required. The trial requires the 32-bit versions of the software but support for the 64-bit platform is planned for the version 1.0 release.

On the client side, HDX MediaStream for Flash trial requires the Citrix Receiver 1.0 for Windows and the Flash 10 plug-in for Internet Explorer.

Download the trial release today and let us know what you think. Need to learn more, check out the release notes. Still need more information? Check out the support forum or comment below for a response from me or my team. Stay tuned for another post within a week or two where I'll be asking for your feedback via a quick poll.

More of my blog posts on HDX MediaStream for Flash:

HDX MediaStream for Flash Tech Preview
Window-less Mode support in HDX MediaStream for Flash
Volume Synchronization in HDX MediaStream for Flash
Windows Scaling Support in HDX MediaStream for Flash
Multiple Tab Support and Diagnostics with HDX MediaStream for Flash

Juan
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Building your first workflow with Citrix Workflow Studio is incredibly easy. We include many templates with the Tech Preview that allow you to see how the product works quickly and easily.

First go download the product - http://www.citrix.com/wfsinsider (MyCitrix login required, but it is painless to get one.)

Once you download and install the product you will see the following the first time you launch it:

Just click the box where it says "Create a new workflow based on a Workflow Template" and you will see the following:

Provide a name for your new workflow and select one of the workflow templates that we included with the product. The easiest one to set up and understand for your first time is the one under "Windows Management" called "Start Stopped Services". Select that one from the list and click "OK". You should see the Workflow Studio Designer interface with the template loaded like this:

 You now have built your first workflow. Click "Start" to run the workflow and you should be presented with a list of the services that are currently in a stopped state on your machine. Much like the following:

If you select one or more services and click "OK" Workflow Studio will attempt to start those services.

Note: If the service is disabled Workflow Studio will not be able to start it and will return an error. Take a look at the workflow and see if you can modify it to exclude the services that are in a disabled state.

I would love to see comments on what people think about Workflow Studio and what they would like to use it for in their environment. I plan to post some more advanced workflow samples in coming weeks, so let me know what you would like to see.

In a previous series of articles I gave you look at the Partner Tech Preview of Citrix Workflow Studio, which was only available to Citrix Partners. I am very excited to announce that the release of the Community Tech Preview of Citrix Workflow Studio should be available everyone very soon! So while we wait for it to be released, I am going to highlight what has been added to the Citrix Workflow Studio Community Tech Preview that was not in the Partner Tech Preview. Also, I would like people to understand that a Tech Preview is a working product, but by no means is it the final product; it's the feedback from the community that will help make it a product we all will want it to be, which is why it is a preview and not a demo or a beta.


You can view the individual Citrix Workflow Studio Partner Tech Preview articles from the below links:

Citrix Workflow Studio - Preview Part 1
Citrix Workflow Studio - Preview Part 2
Citrix Workflow Studio - Preview Part 3
Citrix Workflow Studio - Preview Part 4
Citrix Workflow Studio - Preview Part 5
Citrix Workflow Studio - Preview Part 6


You can download the complete Citrix Workflow Studio Partner Tech Preview from the below link:


Introducing Citrix Workflow Studio - The Complete Introduction


You can download the Overview of the Citrix Workflow Studio 1.0 Community Tech Preview from the below link



Continue to Download: Citrix Workflow Studio 1.0 Community Tech Preview - A Quick Overview

I have taken all the posts in the series that I released on the Citrix Workflow Studio Partner Tech Preview, and have incorporated them into a single document.

After receiving many requests from people to make the entire series of articles available as a downloadable document, how could I not make one available.

So here it is by popular demand, enjoy!

Download: Introducing Citrix Workflow Studio - The Complete Introduction