This blog post was co-authored by Paul Carley, Senior Product Marketing Manager, Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops.

It is always exciting to share what’s new and upcoming with the products our customers know and love. Last month, Paul Carley and I delivered a What’s New and What’s Next with Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops webinar. If you missed it and are looking to get the latest information (and a few bad jokes), you can watch the webinar now on demand!

With all the engagement and great questions we got, we wanted to follow up with answers to the most commonly asked questions we received. From on-premises environments to cloud and hybrid deployments, there is a ton to love about the latest updates. Let’s look at the top 10 most frequently asked questions from the webinar to give you more insight into what’s new and next in the world of Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops.


Can you explain service continuity, and how does it work?

Service continuity allows users to connect to their virtual apps and desktops during outages if the user device maintains a network connection to a resource location. Users can connect directly to the resource location or through the Citrix Gateway service. Service continuity is currently available when leveraging the Windows, Mac, Linux, or Workspace for web, thanks to a Chrome and Edge extension. Additionally, compatibility with Windows OS or Linux OS-based thin clients varies in support for service continuity. Check with your thin client vendor to ensure this capability is supported. Learn more about service continuity in our technical documentation.

For Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops customers who want to leverage desktop-as-a-service (DaaS) capabilities for a subset of users or a new/different use case, will they be able to pay monthly for that specific use case?

Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops cloud service customers now have access to deploy DaaS workloads directly from their management console via the Quick Deploy feature. When customers deploy DaaS workloads with Quick Deploy, they can leverage their own Azure subscription or they can leverage Citrix Managed Azure and be billed for any consumption used during the time those workloads are deployed. Details can be found in our product documentation. Customers looking for a simplified DaaS standalone solution to help meet project-based goals or who need a simplified desktop as a service solution can subscribe to Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops Standard for Azure, either on a monthly or term basis. For more information, visit our Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops Standard for Azure page.

Is app protection included with the Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service premium?

No. App protection is available as an add-on for existing Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops customers looking to mitigate key logging and screen capturing. App protection is an add-on feature for the Citrix Workspace app that provides enhanced security when using Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops published resources.

App protection consists of two policies that provide anti-keylogging and anti-screen-capturing capabilities for a Citrix HDX session. The policies, along with a minimum of Citrix Workspace app 1912 for Windows, Citrix Workspace app 2001 for Mac, or Citrix Workspace app 2108 for Linux, can help protect data from keyloggers and screen scrapers. For more information see Citrix app protection product documentation.

What recent updates have been made to the Citrix optimization for Microsoft Teams?

We introduced optimization for Microsoft Teams within a virtual environment two years ago, and since then we’ve seen dramatic increases in usage as more organizations make it central to their collaboration strategy. This year, we added multimonitor screensharing capabilities to enable screensharing on a specific monitor, and we introduced app sharing to selecting specific apps to share on calls. We also recently announced support for Microsoft Teams optimization on Chrome OS. With this announcement, we now have support for dual tone multi frequency (DTMF) across all Citrix Workspace app clients to enable Microsoft Phone System within Citrix sessions.

Will a published Chrome Browser have support for audio/video calls for the Microsoft Teams app?

A published Chrome browser can support web-based Microsoft Teams optimization if you are leveraging browser content redirection, and the entire website is redirected to the client in this scenario. The Microsoft Teams web client can also work in an unoptimized scenario using generic audio/video redirection. Additionally, the native Microsoft Teams app can be optimized with Citrix using the native Citrix Workspace app when connecting to a Windows VDA. In this case, only audio/video/screensharing are offloaded to the client. See the Microsoft Teams optimization support documentation to learn more.

What updates have been made to Citrix Remote PC Access, specifically the Remote PC disconnected session timer?

Remote PC Access has been a highly used feature for business continuity as it enables organizations to easily allow their employees to access corporate resources remotely in a secure manner. Over the past year, we have made enhancements to Wake on LAN by adding configuration via web Studio, and we have also added support for pooled Remote PC to help with shared lab scenarios. The new Remote PC Access disconnect timer policy enables or disables a timer that logs off a disconnected user session after the timer expires to free up that remote PC for other users. This is especially useful in pooled scenarios. Check out product documentation for more information on Remote PC Access.

How will Citrix Cloud customers migrate from Machine Creation Services (MCS) to Provisioning Services (PVS) on Azure?

You can build your PVS images from your golden MCS images. Citrix PVS on Azure will soon be available, and we recommend customers leverage the upcoming Citrix Image Portability Service to help make your golden image migration from MCS to PVS as seamless as possible.

Will web Citrix Studio be available for on-premises deployments?

No. Web Studio is a Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service enhancement only. With the continuous improvements and enhancements that are available within Web Studio, it is not possible to move at the same pace on premises.

Is the VDA Restore feature only available in the on-premises Current Releases (CR), or is it available in the Long Term Service Release (LTSR), as well?

The VDA restore feature was introduced with Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops 2106 CR, but we plan to make it available for future LTSRs. Check out this feature announcement blog to learn more.

When will Citrix release the next LTSR, and what new infrastructure components will it support?

We are excited to announce that the upcoming LTSR is scheduled to release in the first quarter of 2022! With support for Microsoft Server 2022 introduced in the Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops 2106 release and Windows 11 support introduced in the 2109 release, we are targeting support for both of those new operating systems in the upcoming LTSR. Check out the announcement blog for more information!


That’s a wrap on the top questions from our What’s New and What’s Next with Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops webinar! If you missed the webinar, you can view the on-demand recording for the latest information. Also, be on the lookout for our regular “What’s New” blog post on all things new with Citrix Workspace, including Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops.


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