Citrix Receiver 4.1 Prefer keyword examples

If an end user is working on a Citrix published Desktop and they start a published application from the Receiver, a new Citrix session is started. This isn’t desirable from a licensing perspective and it also slows down application start times. Using the Prefer keyword when publishing the application the Receiver checks if a the application is available locally and will start this application from the same machine as the Desktop session.

Here are some examples how to use this feature:

KEYWORDS:prefer=”Notepad”

KEYWORDS:prefer=”\\Programs\Accessories\Notepad”

KEYWORDS:prefer=”\Programs\Accessories\Notepad” Mandatory

KEYWORDS:Prefer=Wordpad Mandatory

The Mandatory keyword places the application as Favorite on the Receiver “desktop” and returns automatically if the users removes this applications from the Favorites list.

KEYWORDS:prefer=”\Programs\Accessories\Notepad”

KEYWORDS:prefer=”Notepad” Auto

The Auto keyword places the application as Favorite on the Receiver “desktop” and does not return automatically if the users removes this applications from the Favorites list.

Notes:

• Shortcuts (in my example Notepad) must be in the start menu
• If you change the prefer parameter the applications must be re-added to the Favorites list before the changes are applied. This can be done using the Auto or the Mandatory parameters.

If you are going to test the scenarios keep in mind that after every change to the prefer parameter the application has to be re-added to the Favorite list of the Receiver before it is applied!

This is how it looks like in XenDesktop / XenApp 7: