The holiday season has arrived, and we come bearing gifts! Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops 2112 is here and available to Citrix customers worldwide. This current release expands upon what was introduced in the 2109 release with new features, enhancements, and capabilities that will transform employee experience and further empower you to deliver secure, hybrid work with Citrix.

This blog post will highlight some of the exciting updates and innovations announced across both the on-premises release and our Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service cloud offering. Let’s jump right in and unpack some of the key features you’ll find in 2112.

Now Available: Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops 2112 Current Release

The Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops 2112 Current Release (CR) introduces new capabilities and features that equip you with everything you’ll need to rapidly deliver the latest app and desktop delivery features to stay competitive while managing demanding business requirements.

This year has brought lots of change in desktop and server operating systems — don’t forget that Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops supports for Microsoft’s latest operating system, Windows 11! Available since the beginning of this quarter, this support ensures that your Citrix environment integrates seamlessly with Windows 11 so you can deliver a high-performance, secure, and reliable experience for your users. To learn more about how you can deploy Windows 11 in your Citrix virtual environment, check out this blog post.

Citrix HDX: Raising the Bar for User Experience

Additionally, we have made improvements to our industry-leading Citrix HDX user experience technology and ICA protocol to bring our users a high-definition VDI and DaaS experience. Here are a few highlights:

  • Adaptive Throughput 2.0: This update to Adaptive Throughput is optimized for higher throughput as compared to the original 1.0, resulting in an even better user experience. It includes additional intelligence to allow ICA to dynamically reduce or increase throughput where appropriate, making it truly adaptive. Now available for Windows, Mac, and Linux.
  • UDP support for adaptive audio: Previously, adaptive audio was handled with EDT using “reliable” UDP or TCP fallback. Now, we can support UDP adaptive audio in a separate stream outside of ICA so customers can do QoS. The separate UDP stream is better equipped to handle packet loss and use cases for telephony apps within the VDA, which is important for remote workers.
  • Significant HDX 3D Pro improvements: We have significantly increased frame rate delivery by 2x across the board to enhance 3D Pro workloads and make them more responsive. Additionally, we have drastically increased FPS in 4K workloads while decreasing bandwidth consumption.
  • HDX session screen sharing: This leverages HDX technology to enable users to share their screens securely with high visual quality and with multiple users over an HDX session. It works with both Windows and Linux VDAs and provides a simple, efficient way to collaborate with colleagues outside of any UC solution.

  • Microsoft Teams app sharing for HDX 3D Pro: This feature now offers the ability to screen share supported apps with others while in an HDX 3D Pro accelerated session using Microsoft Teams.
  • Microsoft Teams Give/Take Control: Optimize Microsoft Teams support for Give/Take Control so VDI users can request or give control of keyboard and mouse.
  • Microsoft Teams multi-window: Users can now use multiple windows for chat and meetings in Microsoft Teams (1.4.00.16771 or higher) when optimized by HDX in Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops.
  • Dynamic E911 emergency calling: Admins can configure and route emergency calls and notify security personnel based on the current location of the Citrix Workspace app clients, instead of the Teams client in the VDA.

Please note, the Microsoft Teams features above are dependent on our partner Microsoft for support. See this link for details.

More to Experience on Linux VDA

With every current release, we deliver enhancements to Linux VDA that help customers solve business challenges while giving users a great user experience that facilitates productivity. Let’s look at some of the features we’ve released in the last few months:

  • Support for more Linux distributions: Citrix continues to support the latest Linux distributions to empower customer innovation. In the recent releases, Citrix has added support for:
    • SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP3
    • SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP2
    • Amazon Linux 2 (An experimental feature, this gives a new choice to customers who deploy workloads in the AWS cloud.)
  • Adaptive audio support: Feature parity with Windows VDA to enable adaptive audio support, improving performance and user experience through advanced capabilities such as variable bitrate (VBR), stereo, better robustness, and more.
  • HDX webcam video compressions support for SUSE 15.3, 15.2, and 12.5: Compared to general Universal USB redirection, the HDX webcam video compression enables improved webcam video performance, especially under poor network conditions. Now, this feature is extended to SUSE platform.
  • FAS + PBIS + MCS: If your Linux VDA joins to a Windows AD domain by using Power Broker Identity Services (PBIS), and you have integrated with the Federated Authentication Service (FAS), now the MCS provisioning feature covers this FAS and PBIS combination.
  • Session launches with different credentials: Previously, the Citrix Linux VDA provided SSO capabilities to log in to Linux desktops, but you may have opted to disable SSO and launch Linux desktop with a local account. Now, after logging on to the Citrix Workspace app, you can use different credentials to launch the virtual desktop.
  • Rendezvous proxy support over TCP: Get feature parity with Windows VDA to enable rendezvous proxy mode over TCP, for both transparent proxies and non-transparent HTTP proxies.

Experience Robust Monitoring with Session Recording

Citrix Session Recording continues to introduce new features that enhance security and monitoring and allow for faster troubleshooting. We’ve introduced new event triggers to start recording a session dynamically, such as local Windows User Account changes; application fault; program installation or uninstallation; and RDP access activity. Session Recording also now includes a new overlay that displays resource utilization stats, including ICA RTT, CPU, memory, and more when playing back recordings in the web player (see image below). This can help with troubleshooting sessions and user issues. Learn more about Session Recording and see it in action in the video below.

Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops Service Enhancements

Your business is changing. Developing a strategic workplace initiative that supports your IT digital transformation in this world of hybrid work is now more important than ever. With that in mind, we have been hard at work enhancing our Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service cloud offering for maximum flexibility in your cloud adoption journey, while bringing greater value to your organization.

More Ways to Stay Resilient with Service Continuity

Earlier this year, we debuted service continuity, which offers industry-leading cloud resiliency for our customers. Gone are the days of worrying about service disruptions and the availability of your cloud services. In the event of an outage, as long as users have networking connectivity between the endpoint and VDA, they can enjoy continued access to their virtual app and desktop resources.

Previously, we also announced the availability of service continuity on Windows, Mac, Linux, and Chrome and Edge browsers for Windows using a browser extension and Workspace 2109 or later. We are excited to announce service continuity can now be leveraged on Chrome and Edge browsers using a browser extension for both Citrix Workspace app for Mac and for Linux. Service continuity is also now in preview for CSP multi-tenant and Citrix Workspace app for Android and iOS. Sign up for the Android or iOS preview.

We’ve received an overwhelmingly positive response to this technology and are eager to hear from you. Help us shape the future of this service by sending your feedback to servicecontinuity@citrix.com!

Other new features you can immediately use in your Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service deployment include:

  • VDA Upgrade Service (Preview): This cloud-based service is designed to simplify the VDA upgrade process for admins, who can leverage it to update their existing base images easily without the need to perform a manual upgrade or reinstall the VDA. Sign up here for the preview.
  • Image Portability Service (Preview): Leverage the Image Portability Service to streamline how you create, update, and manage images across complex hybrid and multi-cloud deployments. All an IT admin needs to do is create a one-time, single base image. The service will automatically deconstruct and reconstruct the image in the locations they want to deploy it to. It’s that simple.
  • Web Studio Cloud Health Check Integration: With a new unified interface that integrates Cloud Health Check with Web Studio, you can automate or proactively run health checks for your VDAs, StoreFront servers, and Profile Management and troubleshoot issues quicker within your cloud deployment.

Expanded Support for App Protection

With the rise of hybrid and remote work, there has been an increase in BYO devices and access of corporate resources from unmanaged endpoints. This has brought a greater risk of attacks on sensitive corporate data. To help deliver a best-in-class employee experience that keeps data secure, you can use app protection to support a zero trust approach in protecting both managed and un-managed devices.

To date, we have offered support for app protection for customers with on-premises Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service with Citrix StoreFront. We are happy to announce that app protection is now available for Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service with Citrix Workspace. This ensures that your virtual resources in the cloud have the same level of protection as on-prem resources. Using app protection, you can protect app data from keyloggers and screen capture in sessions initiated through Citrix Workspace. See our product documentation for system requirements and steps for configuring this feature.

New Citrix Capabilities on Azure

With Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops 2112, we’ve released several new features and capabilities that demonstrate how Citrix and Microsoft solutions continue to be “better together.”

We are pleased to announce that we are bringing our flagship provisioning technology, Citrix Provisioning Services (PVS), to Azure. Leveraging our PVS provision-on-demand technology, you can now rapidly provision and stream Azure-hosted VMs in a matter of minutes. This long-awaited offering allows you to accelerate your time-to-value without sacrificing scalability and performance.

We have also made the following enhancements for Citrix on Azure:

  • Azure AD group-based administration: This feature enables you to assign and manage administrative access to Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service based on Azure AD group membership, without the need for separate management in Citrix Cloud.
  • Scale up to 5,000 VMs in two regions under a single subscription: Our recent update allows you to now deploy 2,500 persistent and non-persistent machines to two different regions within a single Azure subscription.
  • Support for Azure Stack HCI: Azure Stack hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) 20H2 is now a Citrix Ready validated solution on Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service that delivers an enterprise-scale, affordable hybrid HCI solution.
  • MCS Azure support for Machine Profile: As an admin, you can now capture machine profiles from Azure VMs and copy the machine properties to new VMs in a machine catalog through Citrix Studio.

Workspace Environment Management (WEM) Enhancements

Citrix is dedicated to furthering our Workspace Environment Management (WEM) offering for greater control, security, scalability, and performance within Citrix workloads. As we wrap up this quarter, WEM is ready with on-premises support for elevated apps and processes. In addition, users can now request executable and script elevation through a simple right-click context menu.

  • On-premises support for elevated apps and processes: Released previously in Citrix Cloud, this feature allows admins to define which standard users can run applications, control panel items, and processes in an elevated context and how, including user group definition and scheduling.
  • Self-elevation of executables and scripts: Save precious time and effort as an IT admin by allowing users to request elevation of executables and common scripts that usually require administrative privileges to run as part of a pre-defined “allow” list or that aren’t on a pre-defined “deny” list.

Looking Ahead: Preparing for the Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops LTSR

Expected in the first quarter of 2022, the next Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops Long Term Service Release (LTSR) will bring together more than two years of feature innovations, fixes, and performance enhancements since the 1912 LTSR. Our Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops LTSR program offers a predictable cadence for releases and upgrades and long-term support to assist you in delivering reliable experiences for both users and admins.

If you are currently leveraging XenApp and XenDesktop 7.15 LTSR, please note that it will reach end of life in August 2022. In the meantime, whether you are looking to upgrade or build a new site, we encourage you to test the 2112 CR in your pre-production environments to best prepare for the upcoming LTSR. Your Citrix sales engineer or account team would love to hear any feedback you may have. Stay tuned to the Citrix blog for more information and updates in the next Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops LTSR.

Learn More

As you are wrapping up your annual planning, we hope you’re as excited as we are for this current release and the upcoming LTSR. With these updates, we have accelerated improvements that will equip your employees with a unified, secure, and simplified work experience.

If you’re ready to get started, Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops is available for download here, or you can connect with Citrix sales to discover how you can experience even more value by using Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service. Visit the Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops product documentation page for more information and system requirements.

From all of us here at Citrix, we want to wish you and yours a happy and healthy holiday season. Here’s to dreaming big for 2022, and stay tuned for more updates to come!

Disclaimer: The development, release and timing of any features or functionality described for our products remains at our sole discretion and are subject to change without notice or consultation. The information provided is for informational purposes only and is not a commitment, promise or legal obligation to deliver any material, code or functionality and should not be relied upon in making purchasing decisions or incorporated into any contract.