[Windows Defender as primary AV?]

thats what i figured.....how would i do a repair if that is in the OS layer though?

[Single instance errors on reconnect in WEM 1912]

thanks for the help Nick!

[Windows Defender as primary AV?]

thats what i thought.....thanks Rob!  i THINK there are only monthly new definitions that come down via Windows Update so any issue w/ full use layer if one is released before we can get it updated in an OS layer revision?

 

i'd imagine the periodic scans we'd deal w/ via whatever management tool they offer for that product and try and be smart about timing to not cripple performance during the day hey?

[Windows Defender as primary AV?]

We currently use Cylance Protect in our environment and considering dropping and making a change to just use the built in Windows 10 Defender AV.   I had a couple of questions i was hoping someone could help with:

 

1.  any best practices for a citrix and/or app  layering perspective to be aware of and follow for this? (definition updates, periodic scans come to mind specifically how to handle)

2. any reason why this is a bad idea in this type of environment?

[Single instance errors on reconnect in WEM 1912]

did you ever figure this one out? i'm seeing the same now on 1909

[Microsoft Teams in a shared desktop environment]

would this apply to MCS non persistent windows 10 desktops that are showing "No Audio Device Output Installed" in the tray?  

 

[How to automate unattended VDA upgrade]

alright i figured this out with the help and advice from some smarter than I in case anyone else gets stuck,  just had to disable file security in the script (which would revert back to default after the script is done)

 

[How to automate unattended VDA upgrade]

so i ALMOST have this working fully automated but seems to get stuck at the beginning of the VDA install step where it prompts to run the exe.  how would we get around that?

 

[How to automate unattended VDA upgrade]

For those that have used this script,  if you run it from your own machine, is there any indication if it completed successfully since the log is written on the remote machine or just have to wait long enough and check the installed vda version (we use controlup so simple enough) but thought id ask if there are any other indications.  this is a life saver if it works! thanks for the help

[Acrobat DC Elastic (almost able to make it work)]

 

 

Alright so talking to an adobe tech they said this method is compliant if you use user based cloud licensing since even if you bake the pdf driver/printer into an image that EVERYONE has , even if some users dont have an Acrobat license the printer wont work since it prompts for an adobe login when they try.   Anyways  I created a .gif showing how i did it since that is easier than describing it all.   Essentially what you need to do is

1. copy the Xtras folder from any machine that has Acrobat installed to an accessible location (C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Acrobat <version>\Acrobat\Xtras\) since that is where the PDF printer drivers are.

2. In a layer that you'll include in your published image (not elastic since there are drivers involved), go into Print Management and manually add the Adobe PDF print driver, Adobe Port Monitor and Printer (follow steps in the gif included here) and finalize the layer/include in published image (Important note when you are adding the print driver, it will give you a bunch of identical options, you have to select the 6th one down the list for some reason)

 

Anyone that uses this image will see the Adobe PDF printer in their printer list but if anyone  w/out a license will get an adobe prompt rather than fully working and anyone that IS licensed and logged into Acrobat it will work as designed.   I'm not certain if this method will work for serialized installs or not but worth a shot

 

I'm sure you probably could add the print driver and port into the image/layer and exclude the printer and use some type of post login step (WEM ?) to add that printer based on an AD group or something but havent tried that. 

[Acrobat DC Elastic (almost able to make it work)]

i actually had a user message me on here asking so i created a .gif how i set it up so i can add it here in a min.   anyone else feel free to chime in if i am breaking any rules w/ my method or maybe an improvement to the process 

[Acrobat DC Elastic (almost able to make it work)]

thanks for the help Rob!  I think i have this all working now and it appears i have the pdf printer working too in the main image and can elastically assign either Reader or Acrobat and works fine as long as you are using the cloud licensing (for compliance reasons ).  

[Wireshark - which layer?]

hey guys sorry i just saw this now but yup im pretty sure it did work fine for us.    I think the catch is it has to be in the published image, not elastically (probably some boot level drivers or something  that dont work that way).   I dont currently have it in my image but can give it a shot and make sure 

[MCS Login speed slow only with dual monitors]

10 hours ago, Robert Moore1709159654 said:

I had a ticket with Citrix support re this. 

Our environment is MCS, win10 , VDA1911 & no app layering. We could reproduce the same results doing multi monitor RDP logins. So Citrix have referred me to Microsoft. 

hmm thats interesting.   with my open ticket i'm trying hard to prevent them from passing the buck onto MS only because i proved the issue does not happen using RDP w/ the same desktop, setup , etc (dual monitor just as fast as single w/ rdp) so definitely something w/ ICA here (or a combo of ICA and 1903 Win10)

[Long Logon times Win10 1903 with dual monitors]

ok cool yup about the same boat here then.   now that i think about it, our persistent desktops see really fast logons but they are still 1803 so makes sense i guess!   and since RDP on 1903 and dual monitors is fast has to be something Windows / Citrix related on that 1903 and beyond update. hopefully one of our tickets can crack it soon.   i THINK i tried non optimized and saw the same thing but thatd be great if theres something in that as the culprit too

[Long Logon times Win10 1903 with dual monitors]

i saw another post where a user noticed that the cpu was pegged for an extended amount of time w/ dual monitors on the hypervisor end. not sure if thats the same as what we're seeing but something i wanted to check too.  I also tried enabling advanced diagnostics for logon which would show you what step its at during logon rather than just the welcome screen hoping to find something but it just seems like every step takes longer (which would make sense if the cpu is pegged)

[Long Logon times Win10 1903 with dual monitors]

are you using MCS non persistent for your tests or persistent?  i'd kill for even the 28-32 sec logons w/ 1 monitor right now! (we're non persistent/app layering and getting 35-40 for 1 monitor,  70-90 for 2). i'd be real curious how you got yours so low if you dont mind

 

as for progress, i have a ticket going too and it just got escalated so we'll see where it goes.   I told them as far as i know 1903 and 1909 are affected but not 100% which version it was good on before. i'll keep everyone posted on what i find in my ticket too

[Acrobat DC Elastic (almost able to make it work)]

alright this one may be on me it looks like with too many irons in the fire........i had 2 different versions of this Acrobat layer and looks like i may have mixed up my elastic assignments (couldnt notice it at first glance because they were the same app) so all on me.  BUT if theres anything to note here is that it looks like it IS possible to do this one elastically (even w/ the pdf print driver) if you're creative with the setup of it.  I worked with and Adobe engineer last week going through the through process and he agree'd that it does not violate any licensing since we'd be using the cloud authentication (which just means it will only work for those signed in anyways).   more or less just knowing how to embed the pdf print driver and ports/printer in the published image in one way (in our case in a printer driver layer)

 

good to know that we can mount and browse a layer though.....i thought i tried it once and it said it mounted but i couldnt find it in the file system anywhere

[Acrobat DC Elastic (almost able to make it work)]

no problem i'll get one started.   so crazy question......knowing that once i assign a layer to be elastic it copies a vhd of that app out to the share.  is there any way for me to mount that vhd on a server (non layered desktop obviously) to just browse the contents of that elastic layer? (similarly like i can do w/ a user layer on a server to browse just whats in there? ) . thought maybe i could see how that key is set at that point to isolate things more)

[Acrobat DC Elastic (almost able to make it work)]

i'd imagine if we did that it would be a one time setting since it SHOULD bake into the user layer then.    worth opening a ticket for ya think?

[Acrobat DC Elastic (almost able to make it work)]

i wish that was the case :)  given our battle wounds over the years i always make sure to try w/ both an existing and new user layer before bugging anyone haha

[Acrobat DC Elastic (almost able to make it work)]

28 minutes ago, Rob Zylowski1709158051 said:

Have you tried compatibility mode? 

Hey Rob, yup sorry I should have mentioned I did try that was well but same result

[Acrobat DC Elastic (almost able to make it work)]

Alright so i know this one has been asked and covered a few times here but i think i've made it past the usual sticking point (pdf print driver) and stuck in a new spot and wanted to see what everyone thought...

 

So the obvious show stopper for doing this one elastic is the print driver/printer and so far it looks like i found a way around that to make it work (can explain more if anyone is curious).

 

The problem i'm running into is using the User Based Licensing so that the login ties to the profile rather than machine name (https://www.adobe.com/devnet-docs/acrobatetk/tools/VirtualizationGuide/citrix.html).   I am setting the below keys to "1" like they need to be and if I go back and create a revision of the layer , its still set to 1 (so its finalizing fine) and if i include the layer in a published image, the key sticks at 1 like it should.   however if i assign elastically, those 2 keys are there but changing to "0" and i'm stumped.  

 

 

The only caveats of Acrobat elastically i've been able to find are based on the print driver (for obvious reasons) so nothing on what might be causing issues w/ this.    it feels really really close to be able to make this work which would be a big deal here since we may be switching back to Adobe and only 2/3 of our employees would have acrobat and the other acrobat reader so this would make it a lot easier to manage

[MCS Login speed slow only with dual monitors]

are you meaning doing that to test that grey screen behavior or the actual login speed issue? i have heard from others that arent using app laying w/ the same issue so i'd bet its not related but i will give it a try.   also it may not be the best test since its mcs non persistent EVERY login is going to be like the first one, creating a new user profile so its going to be extended no matter what

[MCS Pooled / AHV slow master image update]

Old thread here but i'm still working with support on this one....BUT messing around on my own i changed my Studio settings to below and it seems much faster now.  (basically the only thing i changed was the maximum new actions per minute from the default 10 up to 100)  When i say fast , after the image finishes copying (~2ish min), i start to see VDA's change to "pending update no" after about 3 -4 min now (before it was about 20 before we'd start to see Disk Image Update tasks in AHV and see this start.