The new Receiver for Windows 4.10 release is live and there are numerous surprises in store for Citrix customers. Improved DPI support, support for .H265 video encoder mode, improved protocol driver error messages, improvements to advanced preferences, enhanced adaptive transport, improved self-service plugin performance, support for workspace configurations and most importantly a whole new Receiver for Windows at the Microsoft Store. WHOA! That’s a lot of goodness. Now is this an “ending the year with a bang” or “ending the year with a splat”? Let’s find out.
Receiver for Windows Store
If I had to vote for the the best feature of this release it would be this. The all new Receiver for Windows for the Microsoft Store. Built on Microsoft’s “Desktop Bridge” platform, you can now experience almost all the cool features of the native Receiver for Windows through the store on your Windows tablet or desktop. Citrix Receiver for Windows Store makes it even easier to safely and securely connect to your existing Windows, Linux, Web and SaaS apps from any Windows device. The best part, my Windows 10 S devices which could not be used for work can now be using the Store app and bonus, I never need to worry about updates hereafter. I recommend you try it right away. Receiver for Windows for the Microsoft Store
Note: Windows 10 S Version 1709 (Fall Creators Update) is the minimum build version supported.
Improved handling of high dots per inch
The next cool feature of this release is the enhancements made to the way Receiver handles high DPI during sessions. I have two high-DPI monitors at my desk with two different DPI settings and when I use the new 4.10 Receiver, applications and desktop sessions are automatically scaled to the monitor DPI settings. If I do not like it, I can simply switch back to the native resolution setting. “Display DPI scaling configuration with Receiver for Windows” is the go-to article if you face any issues.
Note: In 4.10 version, this feature is enabled by default. In the 4.10.1 version, this feature is disabled by default.
Improved Protocol Driver Messages
Protocol driver errors have always been difficult to understand. It has been our constant endeavor to improve and help you and administrators diagnose and troubleshoot an error easily. You can also learn more by using the nethelpmsg <errorcode> in the command prompt or you can refer Microsoft’s error code library.
Performance improvement on the Self-Service Plugin
Self-Service Plugin (SSP) is the component that is responsible for managing resources (desktops and applications). It communicates with the aggregation tier (StoreFront or Web Interface services) to obtain details about what resources are available for the you, and it can facilitate launching those resources. By default, SSP activities are driven by user interaction. Improvements have been made to this plugin in Receiver 4.10. Now, SelfService plugin runs in the background even if you close Receiver so that when you open Receiver the next time the store and it’s contents show up real quick. Santosh, who is an architect in the Receiver team, has voted that this is his favorite feature!
Customisable Advanced Preference Wizard
If you are administrator, here is something cool for you! The advanced preference sheet is now customisable. You can now hide the advanced preference wizard from users altogether or you can provide only a few options in the list of settings inside the advance preference wizard.
Support for High Efficiency Video Coding (H.265)
In comparison to AVC, HEVC offers about double the data compression ratio at the same level of video quality, or substantially improved video quality at the same bit rate. It supports resolutions up to 8192×4320, including 8K UHD. Receiver 4.10 now supports H.265. To enjoy brilliant hardware acceleration of remote graphics and videos ensure you have the latest VDA 7.16 or greater. Also, enable the “Optimize for 3D graphics workload “and “Use hardware encoding for video codec “on the VDA. If the GPU on the endpoint does not support H.265 decoding using the DXVA interface, the H265 Decoding for graphics policy settings is ignored and the session falls back to using the H.264 video codec. Remember that H.265 encoding is supported only on the NVIDIA GPU and this feature is set to Disabled by default.
Improvements over how the Enlightened Data Protocol (EDT) is used: Adaptive Transport
The ICA protocol is our favourite protocol, and I bet it’s yours too! Receiver previously supported added enhancements to the ICA protocol, which we call Enlightened Data Protocol (EDT). The new Receiver 4.10 now uses Adaptive Transport. When you had set “HDXoverUDP” policy to Preferred, data transport over EDT was used when possible, with fallback to TCP. But now, with Adaptive Transport, both EDT and TCP are attempted in parallel. This saves time by reducing the connection time when EDT is set as preferred but UDP is unavailable or restricted and only TCP can be used. After fallback to TCP, the Adaptive Transport tries connecting through EDT once every 5 minutes. If you are interested on knowing what EDT is please refer this blog post.
Note: Is EDT the same as Adaptive Transport? Almost! Adaptive Transport = EDT (UDP) + TCP (Fallback).
Configure Citrix Workspace
Citrix Workspace is a cloud-based service that helps deliver an adaptive unified workspace for secure delivery of ALL apps and data and not just Citrix resources. This service support not only the Citrix Cloud-hosted services, but on-premises XenApp and XenDesktop deployments, as well as the Azure based XenApp and XenDesktop Essentials offerings. If you are a subscriber, with Receiver 4.10 you can configure workspaces.
In Citrix Receiver for Windows:
- From the Windows system tray, right-click the Citrix Receiver icon, and click Advanced Preferences > Reset Receiver.
- Open Citrix Receiver for Windows, then select Accounts > Add, and enter the workspace address, for example, https://example.cloud.com.
You can also use a browser to enter the workspace URL and sign in. Then, activate Citrix Receiver from Settings > Account Settings >Activate Citrix Receiver. Activating Citrix Receiver downloads a .CR file that adds the workspace to your local Citrix Receiver app.
Configure NetScaler Gateway using the command line interface
Last but not the least, you can configure the NetScaler Gateway store URL using the command line interface.
That’s all folks!
I am sure, you would agree with me that this releases is, “ending the year with a bang!”
