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John Billekens | Notes from the field

RES ONE Workspace on Windows 10 lessons learned

··6 mins
Citrix ONE Workspace RES Uncategorized Windows XenDesktop RES RES ONE Workspace Start Menu Tile Windows 10
Author
John Billekens
Technical Consultant | End User Computing
Table of Contents

For a while now Windows 10 is supported with RES ONE Workspace 2015 and up. More and more companies are switching from their old versions (Yes, some of them are still using Windows XP) to Windows 10. I’ve done a couple of implementation now and thought to share some of the knowledge I found during these implementations.

Pinning tiles to the Start Menu
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There are several ways to accomplish this.

  • Use a initial Start Menu layout.
  • Use RES ONE Workspace to pin items to the Start Menu
  • GPO

The first two options can coexist with each-other and will be explained in detail within this post. The last one I would not recommend when using RES ONE Workspace and will not be discussed within this post.

Initial Start Menu Layout
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You can use a initial Start Menu layout to start with and let the users decide what to keep and what to add. This layout will be applied when the user first logs on. (When the user has no preexisting tile-file) When using multiple versions (RTM / 1511 / 1607) use the lowest version to create the initial start layout file! Using a file created on a newer version and then applying it to a lower version is just not supported. Start with logging on to a Windows 10 machine (can be a normal user account) and customize the layout as you like when finished simply logoff to save everything to your profile. 20160807_Windows10_01 Next go to your profile directory. E.g. “%HOMESHARE%\Personal Settings” and copy the layout file “res10tiles.xml” to a temporary directory. 20160807_Windows10_02 Rename the file to “DefaultTileLayout_Windows10.xml” and add the file to the root of Custom Resources. (Administration / Custom Resources) 20160807_Windows10_03 You can test the new file simply by removing the “res10tiles.xml” file from your profile. When no tile-file is found the initial layout file (when available) will be set. If all went well you have a custom Start Menu. NOTE: In some case it can happen you end up with an empty Start Menu even tough you had pinned items or have set an initial tile file. Please read my previous post for more info about this topic. The case of the empty Start Menu (Windows 10).

Pin items to the Start Menu with RES ONE Workspace
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Every application (shortcut) added to RES ONE Workspace can technically be pinned on the Start Menu. You have 3 options for pinning items.

  • Take no action: No tile will be created on the Start Menu.
  • Set voluntary tile: This option will create a tile on the Start Menu only once. The user can remove the tile and also add it again. The tile will be displayed at the end of the Start screen unless a Group name is specified.
  • Set mandatory tile: This option will recreate the tile on the Start screen each time the user starts a new session. The tile will be displayed at the end of the Start screen unless a Group name is specified. If you later change this setting to Take no action, the tile will be removed from the Start screen.

20160807_Windows10_04 The size can als be set, you have two sizes to choose from.

  • Medium: the tile is displayed as a medium sized square on the Start screen.
  • Small: the tile is displayed as a small sized square on the Start screen.

20160807_Windows10_05 Next you can set a Group Name. This name will be shown above the application(s) in the Start Menu. It’s a option to group applications together. If the group does not exist, it will be created. If no group is specified, the tile will be added to the end of the Start screen. 20160807_Windows10_06

No sub folders available in the Start Menu
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Take for example Windows XP, if you open the start menu you can have a structure like:

  • Programs
    • Accessorizes
    • Administrative Tools
      • System
    • Office
      • Office Tools

This isn’t possible anymore with Windows 10. This isn’t something RES can fix or change. This is by design with Windows 10. You can have only one sub folder any other sub folder (configured in RES ONE Workspace) will be merged with the first sub folder the Start Menu. To show you I configured some sub folders in RES ONE Workspace. 20160807_Windows10_08 And as you can see it’s all merged now in the Start Menu in the first (Microsoft Office 2016) sub folder. 20160807_Windows10_09

Internet shortcuts not visible in the Start Menu
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When you like to add shortcuts to the start menu you can add a shortcut to Internet Explorer and add the site as parameter. 20160807_Windows10_10 20160807_Windows10_11 But as you soon find out, no shortcuts (or only one if you haven’t added Internet Explorer itself to the Start Menu) will be visible in the Start Menu. And when you investigate this issue you will find out the shortcuts are created in the “%AppData%\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs” directory. To make them visible in the Start Menu you need to add a registry value. It must be set before login in and before the service was started. It was a known solution for Windows 8(.1) but still valid for Windows 10.

x86: HKLM\Software\RES\Workspace Manager\EnableMultipleIE (REG_SZ) = Yes
x64: HKLM\Software\Wow6432Node\RES\Workspace Manager\EnableMultipleIE(REG_SZ) = Yes

Overlapping desktop icons
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This also is a know issue for windows 8(.1) in some cases it can happen that the desktop shortcuts could be placed on top of each other. This is not something you want. To change this behavior a registry value must be specified. It must be set before logging in and before the service was started.

x86: HKLM\Software\RES\Workspace Manager\DoNotAllowOverlappedDesktopItems (REG_SZ) = Yes
x64: HKLM\Software\Wow6432Node\RES\Workspace Manager\DoNotAllowOverlappedDesktopItems(REG_SZ) = Yes

Empty power menu in the Start Menu
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You might notice when you click on the power option in the Start Menu an empty menu and question your self, shouldn’t there be an option to logoff? 20160807_Windows10_12 You can change it by disabling the option “Disable Shutdown for all users on all computers” in the RES ONE Workspace console or when configured set the GPO “Remove and prevent access to the Shut Down, Restart, Sleep and Hibernate commands” to disabled or Not Configured. These two are the same. And thus leave you with an empty menu. 20160807_Windows10_13 When the two options aren’t configured you’ll get an filled power menu. I think that Microsoft should build in the option when the menu is empty, remove it from the start menu… 20160807_Windows10_14 When using VDI showing Shut down and/or Restart is not preferred. E.g. when using XenDesktop MCS the machine must be turned off to be cleaned up, when it reboots the machine isn’t reverted to it’s original state. Normally when using remote desktop to connect to a machine, in this menu you’ll find disconnect here. So why isn’t it showing in the power menu? I think it’s because of the combination of Windows 10 with Citrix XenDesktop, it looks like you have the console session not a remote session.   When I have more I will add it to this post… RES Website RES ONE Workspace Administration Guide

Related

The case of the empty Start Menu (Windows 10)

··5 mins
During a project I’m currently working on, with Windows 10, Citrix Xendesktop 7.9, XenServer 7.0 and RES ONE Workspace 2015 SR2 I stumbled upon a issue with RES ONE Workspace and the pinning of items in the Start Menu. I noticed that sometimes my Start Menu was empty, while I had items pinned when I logged off!? After some investigation with an engineer from RES Software, we managed to reproduce the issue in a closed test environment. At this point RES can try to fix the issue and at the time of writing no known solution is available. We still need to verify but as far as we know the issue is also still in the new version RES ONE Workspace 2016. We still needed a filled Start Menu for the time being, because currently there is no known date for the possible fix… So I created a PoSh script that will fill the Start Menu. (for the 2nd time, after the RES composer is finished) Yes I know not very pretty solution but it gets the job done and it’s a temporary fix. So here is the script I’ve made. (Building block is also available at the end for download)

OptimizeEndpoint

·1 min
I’ve been using my “Windows optimize script” for a while now. Most issues are resolved and it’s been tested thoroughly. So I thought why not give it back to the community, so here it is: OptimizeEndpoint. It can be used to optimize Windows 7, 8, 8.1 and 10. (It can also be used for Windows Server versions, but this is not tested) I used the script made by Ingmar Verheij, and made some changes. It contains most of the Citrix XenDesktop Best Practices. Please don’t run the script without reviewing the options, it can damage you master image if you’re not careful! At the top of the image there are some parameters that can be set. Read the comments. Run it on your own risk. If you have issues or questions let me know.