Question

Need to change file associations for all users in citrix

Asked by: bankadmin

All servers 2003 sp1. Presentation server 4.0...
Most of our apps are installed on an app server and then I share the folder and then publish it out with citrix to the users who need it. We got Adobe Acrobat 9.0 and I tried to set it up that way but I would get licensing errors when trying to use it as a published app. I was on the phone yesterday for about 3.5 hours with adobe tech support (most of it I was on hold of course). After all of that I was disconnected and I decided to try and install it directly to a citrix server and publish from citrix from there. And it work!!! well kind of.
I have different issues. ( I only want a small handfull of users to have access to this)
1st issue is all users have acrobat in all programs when running a citrix desktop and they can launch it
2nd issue all users file associations for pdf's and other adobe extensions changed from reader to acrobat.
How can I remove it from all programs for all users and change the file associations for all users

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Asked On
2009-08-21 at 11:31:52ID24672258
Topic

Citrix

Participating Experts
2
Points
500
Comments
5

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Answers

 

by: MarkBlakerPosted on 2009-08-21 at 14:59:14ID: 25156239

When you publish the application, in Application user properties only add those user to whom you want to give access to.

And for file type association
Right click on Application ---> go to properties ---> go to advanced option and change file type association

 

by: MarkBlakerPosted on 2009-08-21 at 15:00:00ID: 25156248

In Advanced Option its under Content Redirection

 

by: ET0000Posted on 2009-08-22 at 17:46:18ID: 25160898

You can restrict who can run Acrobat by setting the file permissions on the Adobe directory to only those users who are licensed for it. If another user tries to launch it from any mechanism (file association, shortcut, toolbar/SentTo, etc.), they won't be able to. That solves the licensing issue.

The other issue is eliminating or reducing the situation unlicensed users have for trying to launch it. That is more difficult.
 (1) You can move the Start menu program group from All Users into each of the licensed users' area. You will have to re-do that if you upgrade or reinstall Acrobat in the future. Ugly but effective. Also remove it from the Default User profile so new users won't automatically get it.
 (2) You can modify the file associations for each unlicensed user to point back to Reader. There are multiple ways to do that, but they all end up adjusting the registry, so pick the one with which you are most comfortable.
 (3) Toolbar/SendTo/Printer links (e.g. "Print to PDF" in MS Office apps). These are the most annoying, because many programs installed in the future will detect Acrobat and set up new links, so you will have an ongoing task to keep things cleaned up. You basically have to deal with most of these on an individual application level - figuring out how they have the link configured and removing or hiding it; this may need to be done for each user for each app, so hopefully you don't have many users (or are good at things like deploying changes through GPO).
 (4) Adobe printer - You usually end up with an Adobe PDF printer after installing Acrobat, where something printed to that printer will generate a PDF. You can set the permissions on this printer so only the licensed users can access it.

Even if you think you have all the ways an unlicensed user might try to invoke Acrobat hidden or removed, you should still inform them that the app is there, but that they aren't allowed to use it because they aren't licensed. That way, if they find a link, they will understand the permissions error they will see when Acrobat can't launch due to the file permissions you applied back at the beginning.

Good luck - Adobe doesn't make it easy to configure Acrobat for a subset of your users under Citrix.

 

by: bankadminPosted on 2009-08-24 at 04:56:27ID: 25167404

I may not have discribed the issue as clearly as I should have.
Mark-- What you say is true but its not what Im having issues with. I want to change file associations for everyone at once not one at a time. I only have a few users that should have access acrobat from published application allready. What happend when I installed it is when a any user launches a citrix desktop they have acrobat in all programs and can open it.

ET-- I did find a "solution" on MS's website for file association hkey local machine\software\classes then find the extensions and remove the associations. I did that and it didnt work.. Still automatically opens acrobat for all users..

 

by: bankadminPosted on 2009-08-24 at 06:59:30ID: 25168358

I decided that I will not have acrobat installed on the citrix server I want it installed like all other apps. On friday I tried it once again (before I posted this question) and I got the same licensing error when trying to share the app from a different server. So I switched where it is launched from in citrix managment console, and I launched so I could get the error up and start the painfull process of calling Adobe and I didnt get any errors. WTF!!!  I didnt change anything it just seemed to start working.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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