Video calling using Microsoft Teams from a Citrix VDI environment – tricking Chrome

How I tricked the HdxBrowserCef.exe (Chrome Browser) process into presenting itself as an Edge Browser enabling the best of both worlds.

Available for download NOW! The complete book. Inside Citrix

Finally, it’s here! I decided not to publish the last 6 chapters (including 2 appendixes) separately. Instead, the book, as a whole, is now available as a PDF download. I have also included an interactive Table of Contents (ToC), making it easy to navigate from the ToC to a specific chapter and vice versa.

What happened with Citrix Printing throughout 2018?!

Citrix has had a very busy year. After the release of XenApp and XenDesktop 7.16 in November of 2017, four new versions were released throughout 2018 – XA/XD 7.17, 7.18, and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops 7 1808, and 1811. Wow! From delegated control to the Workspace App, numerous HDX and ICA improvements, LHC, Config Logging, and the list goes on. Release after release brought new and improved features and functionalities, awesome! But what about printing..?

IGEL en Citrix – al ruim 15 jaar uitstekend op elkaar ingespeeld

Al ruim 15 jaar werken IGEL en Citrix samen om het gebruik van VDI, DaaS, en hosted shared desktopoplossingen te vereenvoudigen. Ze doen dit voor bedrijven over de hele wereld, groot en klein, oud, nieuw, en branche onafhankelijk. Mede hierdoor breekt IGEL record na record als het gaat om haar innovatieve en software gedreven thin-client oplossingen en universeel endpoint-management platform.

Convert all your machines into (permanent or temporary) fully functional, fully managed thin client devices, in under three minutes!

If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is. Well, not in this case. The IGEL UDC3 software, which stands for Universal Desktop Converter, transforms any x86 based machine into a fully functional and managed thin client device, and does it fast.

Inside Citrix: The Prologue and first three chapters are online and available for download

A moment I’ve been looking forward to for the past couple of weeks! I’ve just published the Inside Citrix prologue and the first three chapters – just to get you started. Click the link the below or directly visit chapters page via the main menu. Throughout the coming months, I’ll try and publish at least one chapter per week, though I might skip a week here and there, so bear with me.

All chapters of Inside Citrix – The FlexCast Management Architecture published online!

Just over two years ago, around May the 16^thmy book became available on Amazon, the paperback version that is. Two months later, the Kindle version was finished as well. Today I’m announcing the (soon to be) online availability of all chapters here on basvankaam dot com. 

E2EVC (Epic edition) Amsterdam is a wrap – notes, announcements, video’s & photo’s

The E2EVC – Experts to Experts Virtualisation Congress (Epic edition) Amsterdam took place from Friday the 8^th till Sunday the 10^th. For those of you who are not familiar with the concept of E2EVC, go here– you’re missing out if you don’t. The following are a few notes from sessions I attended and people I spoke to. I’ve also included a few images here and there.

Synergy 2018: Per-user Outlook search indexing and OST caching options. What was announced? High level cheat sheet included.

During Citrix Synergy a ton of new and exciting announcements were made. I wasn’t there to witness it myself but luckily, I was able to enjoy the Keynote (amongst other sessions and announcements) from a sunny and warm terrace (cold beers included) since the weather here in the Netherlands was some of the best we’ve seen in a long time. Of course, the 9-hour time difference also helped.

Windows Server 2019, but no RDSH? A Multi-User version of Windows10? What’s going on?

Last week Microsoft announced a new version of their Server Operating a.k.a. Windows Server 2019. Since the announcement I’ve seen many comments going back and forth regarding its licensing structure, the use of RDSH (or not) and so on. Here’s a short list of thoughts and facts I was able to gather.

Focus on Citrix (or VMware, or Microsoft) – not printing!

I’ve always had a big interest in printing. It’s something I have written about and presented on extensively in the past. Throughout the years I have had my fair share of failure when it comes to printing in Citrix/RDSH/VDI based environments (who hasn’t?) so I decided to dig in a bit deeper. Not too long ago I got introduced to Tricerat, a very simple, yet effective and efficient solution when it comes to taking care of all things print related within Citrix environments, or any other type of environment, for that matter. Throughout this post I’d like to share with you how they simplify print management and let you, the IT Administrator, focus on Citrix – not printing!

The ultimate cheat sheet page

Throughout the last couple of years, I have published multiple, so-called ultimate cheat sheets around the FMA, Citrix printing, and application layering. But also around IoT networking and IOPS in general, for example. Looking through my website statistics I can see that these articles or small e-books are by far the most popular, even the older ones. Because of this, and because I like to have them a bit more organized myself – they really come in handy from time to time – I decided to bundle them all into one page, for your convenience. The ultimate cheat sheet page, if you will. Next to this blogpost, you’ll also find it here (the page itself).

The application layering technology cheat sheet, version 4.0!

It has already been six months (a little over) since my last update, time for version 4.0 – a lot has happened in the meantime, as a result, you’ll see some noticeable changes. Not only from a feature/functionality perspective but from a vendor/company perspective as well. From now on I will be focusing on the big three: Citrix, with App Layering – former Unidesk, VMware App Volumes and Liquidware FlexApps.

The ultimate Citrix printing internals cheat sheet – version 2.0

When I was working on my ultimate Citrix XenDesktop internals cheat sheet just a couple of weeks ago I also got asked (thanks, Jamie) if I would consider updating my printing internals cheat sheet. After giving this some thought – which took me about a minute – I decided this was a great idea and got right to it. Although printing, especially on SBC environments is quite stable, in the sense that not a lot has changed throughout the last couple of years when it comes to the architecture, pathways, traffic flow and so on, I managed to rewrite a great deal (almost all) of the material published earlier and to include a bunch of new facts, figures and ‘nice to knows’ along the way. All this, together with the renewed look and feel, freshly created images and the addition of a Table of Contents will greatly enhance your reading experience, I’m sure. If you download a .PDF copy that is.

The ultimate Citrix XenDesktop 7.x internals cheat sheet – Version 2.0

About two and a half years ago I published the ultimate Citrix XenDesktop 7.x internals cheat sheet, version 1.0 and it turned out to be a big hit. In the meantime, it has been viewed over 80.000 times already. All the more reason to start working on version 2.0. Since I have been writing about Citrix technologies for the last couple of years I have built up a broad archive, which I can now partly (re) use and re-write to come up with an even more detailed edition, version 2.0 of the Citrix XenDesktop 7.x internals cheat sheet. I would strongly advice you to download a .PDF copy – If you like the blogpost, you’ll love the .PDF, trust me! It includes a full Table of Contents making it easier to navigate.

Heads up! Citrix Smart Check introduces diagnostics uploads and custom checks and alerts – deep dive (and video) included

Throughout the last couple of months, I have written multiple posts on Citrix Smart Tools, with a special interest in Smart Check. Have a look here and here. Not that long ago I had a short talk with Mathew Varghese, the Director of Product Management for Smart Tools and Insight Services, which also includes Scout. He told me about, and showed me some interesting features that are coming to Smart Check, not that long from now (Q4).

XenDesktop & XenApp 7.14 multi-type licensing – what it is, how it works and what to be aware of

Version 7.14 introduces a new licensing option known as ‘multi-type licensing’ allowing you to consume different types of XenDesktop & XenApp license models within the same Site on a per Delivery Group basis. This post is meant to answer one or two questions you might have around this new feature.

With XenDesktop & XenApp 7.14 comes Scout 3.0 – some big changes, read what’s new

Version 7.14 of XenDesktop & XenApp comes with an updated version of Scout, version 3.0 to be exact – up from 2.23 before that. As you will find out throughout this post there are a couple of substantial differences between the two. I’ll start by highlighting some of the main features/capabilities of Scout as part XenDesktop & XenApp 7.13 and earlier versions, followed by how this is now handled within version 3.0. I have included a couple of screenshots as well.

Citrix Synergy is approaching, fast. Here’s my schedule (I hope)

This weekend I will be traveling to Orlando, Florida, together with a whole bunch of other tech enthusiasts to attend yet another Citrix Synergy event. Though, of course for some it will be their first encounter. Every year Synergy promises to be even better than the year before and the 2017 edition is no exception.

The one-stop shop for Citrix Smart Check – sneak peak of upcoming version included

In the past I have written numerous times about Citrix Insight Services, or TaaS before that, which stands for Tools as a Service (don’t be confused, Insight Services was just another name change from TaaS). Smart Check builds upon these services and offers (at least) the same type of pro-active checks (equal to Insight Services) keeping your XenApp and/or XenDesktop Site healthy at all times. However, it is important to note that Smart Check is a completely new service on its own, part of the Smart Tools portfolio (formerly known as Citrix Lifecycle Management Services), which are a 100% Citrix cloud based, though they can be applied on-premises as well. This post is meant to provide you with all relevant information on Smart Check available today as well as any future developments going forward.